Daft question time

[arbroathsmokie]

I've managed to get my hands on a Mac Pro 5,1 from a police auction dirt cheap, but the case is a bit beat up. Are you able to just swap the logic board from a 5,1 into a 4,1?

I've tried searching if anyone else has done it but couldn't find anything.

Thanks in advance, and be kind with your responses

 

[goMac]

I've managed to get my hands on a Mac Pro 5,1 from a police auction dirt cheap, but the case is a bit beat up. Are you able to just swap the logic board from a 5,1 into a 4,1?

I've tried searching if anyone else has done it but couldn't find anything.

Thanks in advance, and be kind with your responses

Yes, they're actually the same machines. The 5,1 vs. 4,1 thing is just software, you can even update a 4,1 to a 5,1 with a software tool.

Because they are the same machine, if you have a working 4,1, I'd just move whatever parts you need over onto the 4,1 logic board instead of swapping. Flash it to a 5,1 before hand.

 

[arbroathsmokie]

I've got the 4,1 flashed already. So I'll inspect the connections one more time, before trying it out and I'll let you know if it works out.

 

[arbroathsmokie]

Well I popped the 5,1 logic board into my 4,1,
pressed the power button,
the chime went as usual,
fans went crazy, but booted up.

So in theory it did work, but the fans were maxed out by the sound of things.

Looks like I'll be striping down both machines and swapping the components over to one another, no biggie, my 4,1 needs a good cleaning out

 

[h9826790]

The noisy fan may indicate that you use a 4,1 CPU tray on the 5,1. Even though you flash the firmware to 5,1, the SMC software still for 4,1, that will cause the fan run at full speed.

I can't test to work around due to I don't have a real 5,1, but it seems possible to use some fan control software (e.g. SMCFanControl) to lower the fan speed manually.

 

[arbroathsmokie]

I'm planning (once I get the time) to swap out the inners of the beat up 5,1 into my near spotless 4,1 case.