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Help! Upgrade my Mac Pro 4.1 to a 5.1

ok here is the thing:

If i screw CPU B really tight I get a Red LED Light constantly on behind the 4th CPU Slot ( look posts above to see the loaction)

If I lower the pressure, there is a red Light LED behind the CPU A at behind the last ram slot:

http://img5.fotos-hochladen.net/uploads/img4826jc2zx4fsb9.jpg

It says R1540 from where the light comes

http://img5.fotos-hochladen.net/uploads/img4831z7bnmxceod.jpg


Also Michael Bosshard, Im nofretit from ricardo.ch i bought an Airport Card from you. Maybe you can get me a new board?

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Also when both times when I turn them off I see the diagnostic LED being on at R1531 like on the posts above
 
Always best to get "A" working first, then move on to "B"

It will work with just "A", after a few minutes the fans ramp up but much easier to have 1 at a time.

Both myself and Anandtech damaged a tray, there was a clear diagonal pattern in the CPU tray pins bent down.

If none are bent, you may still be in luck.
 
Synchro3 said:
To the best of my knowledge: the Processor board has to be same revision as the Backplane board, means from Mac Pro 2009 (4,1).
Click to expand...

yep, that's correct. you can't mix because of the SMC's firmware not matching which leads to fans running at full blast.
 
GUYSSSS

IT WORKS NOW.... Only With CPU A


Well it boots up and is fine with CPU A only in, but the front fan is getting as loud as a monster truck....

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WORKS WITH BOTH CPUS NOW YEAA. I cant fix the front fan tho it gets as loud as a monster truck on full speed.
 
I actually know quit alot about processors etc. If you get a Mac Pro 4.1 and you dont want to upgrade it, I would recommend you to get the 8 Core (2x 4x 2.26 Ghz) one. I could max out every game with a GTX 770, 6GB DDR3 1066Mhz ram and with that 8 Core Processor. There is no bottlenecking.

If you get a single Processor Mac Pro and you want to upgrade it, the best thing you can get is a Intel Xeon W3680 3.33Ghz. They sell arround 250$ on ebay and they are better then the Dual Xeon X5650 when it comes to single threaded performance.

If you get a dual Processor Mac Pro and you want to upgrade it, the best thing you can get is a Intel Xeon X5690 3.46 Ghz but they are pretty expensive, arround 350 bucks. Intel Xeon X5670 2.93 Ghz should be cheapaer but the difference between the X5670 and X5650 is so little so I would go for the X5650 since it's only 100 bucks. Dont get a E5620, it performs like a E5520.


How I fixed my CPU Problem: I only used CPU A and booted, the front fan became a monstertruck but it worked. When putting the CPU B everything went fine, but the front fan was still a monstertruck. On 2nd Boot the fan started to work normally and I can use my beatiful X5650s :)

Thanks to everyone who helped me!
 
GameFreak348 said:
I actually know quit alot about processors etc. If you get a Mac Pro 4.1 and you dont want to upgrade it, I would recommend you to get the 8 Core (2x 4x 2.26 Ghz) one. I could max out every game with a GTX 770, 6GB DDR3 1066Mhz ram and with that 8 Core Processor. There is no bottlenecking.

If you get a single Processor Mac Pro and you want to upgrade it, the best thing you can get is a Intel Xeon W3680 3.33Ghz. They sell arround 250$ on ebay and they are better then the Dual Xeon X5650 when it comes to single threaded performance.

If you get a dual Processor Mac Pro and you want to upgrade it, the best thing you can get is a Intel Xeon X5690 3.46 Ghz but they are pretty expensive, arround 350 bucks. Intel Xeon X5670 2.93 Ghz should be cheapaer but the difference between the X5670 and X5650 is so little so I would go for the X5650 since it's only 100 bucks. Dont get a E5620, it performs like a E5520.


How I fixed my CPU Problem: I only used CPU A and booted, the front fan became a monstertruck but it worked. When putting the CPU B everything went fine, but the front fan was still a monstertruck. On 2nd Boot the fan started to work normally and I can use my beatiful X5650s :)

Thanks to everyone who helped me!
Click to expand...

Congrats! Glad to know everything worked out fine and enjoy your upgraded Mac Pro. Sometimes it's adjusting the heat sensor and a few turns. The 2009 4.1 are very capable machines as I've used both the 2009 and mid 2010 Mac Pros. :)
 
GameFreak348 said:
Ok i tried to upgrade my Mac Pro 4.1 to a 5.1 by using the firmware hack and CPU upgrade.

Dual Xeon E5520 2.26 Ghz to Dual Xeon X5650 2.66 Ghz
6GB DDR3 1066Mhz
NVIDIA GT 120

i did everything this guy did:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YAdgT-hJuXU

Now. Everything is installed. I power the device on then I can see 1 red LED blinking for a extremely short time as soon as I power it on. The machine works but I dont hear a startup chime and im stuck with a blackscreen. This happens If I dont really turn the "screws" hard. If i turn it hard I can see a constant Red LED from the same spot its not blinking, it stays on and doesnt do anything and also the Fan gets on max speed

I searched so much and was so careful, please help me!
Click to expand...

Perhaps the Apple Technicians Guide for the Mac Pro 4.1/5.1 could help you locate and trouble shoot with future hardware upgrades? Congrats that every thing is now working. Cheers
 
GameFreak348 said:
If you get a single Processor Mac Pro and you want to upgrade it, the best thing you can get is a Intel Xeon W3680 3.33Ghz. They sell arround 250$ on ebay and they are better then the Dual Xeon X5650 when it comes to single threaded performance.
Click to expand...

No, best single processor is a Intel Xeon W3690 (3.46 GHZ 6 core), as i have.
 
Last edited:
ilikewhey said:
sorry i didn't want to hijack your thread so i made my own

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1813182/

but yeah it's a dual socket 4.1 with 11gb of ram.
Click to expand...

Mac Pro 4.1 with a Dual 2.26 Ghz is crushing every Mac out right now (exept the trashcan Pros) Dual 2.26 Ghz Mac Pro cant crush the i7 iMac but the 2.66Ghz is crushing it.


But does anyone have an idea what the problem was with my mac pro? it just got fixed by only running cpu A
 
BDM, you need to elevate Dual 2.66 MP few centimeters above i7 iMac and release it. It will crush the iMac certainly ;) :p
 
666sheep said:
bdm, you need to elevate dual 2.66 mp few centimeters above i7 imac and release it. It will crush the imac certainly ;) :p
Click to expand...

lol! :D

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Gav Mack said:
Imaginary :D Not even a 3.46Ghz W3690 or X5590 will hold a candle on single core vs any of the Sandy Bridge models onwards. Multicore, well that's a different story and barefeats have plenty of benchmarks..
Click to expand...

Let me check that website out! :cool:
 
Yep singlecore they get crushed but the single core performance is still pretty good, in multicore the mac pros crush the imacs
 
GameFreak348 said:
Yep singlecore they get crushed but the single core performance is still pretty good, in multicore the mac pros crush the imacs
Click to expand...

An iMac is not a proper professional Macintosh though, even with a 5k screen. They do look lovely but they do not like taking hard, long poundings. Having had to redo the thermal paste on many after the warranty has ran out, even the newer 2012 chassis on I certainly wouldn't want to own one if it was going to have to do hard, long tasks or even game.
 
Gav Mack said:
An iMac is not a proper professional Macintosh though, even with a 5k screen. They do look lovely but they do not like taking hard, long poundings. Having had to redo the thermal paste on many after the warranty has ran out, even the newer 2012 chassis on I certainly wouldn't want to own one if it was going to have to do hard, long tasks or even game.
Click to expand...

My mom has a early 2009 iMac with 2.66 Ghz Core 2 Duo, 4GB ram, NVIDIA 9400 and the overall OS is alot smoother then on my retina Macbook pro and Mac pro, She uses 10.6 tho and I use yosemite on both of my machines
 
GameFreak348 said:
My mom has a early 2009 iMac with 2.66 Ghz Core 2 Duo, 4GB ram, NVIDIA 9400 and the overall OS is alot smoother then on my retina Macbook pro and Mac pro, She uses 10.6 tho and I use yosemite on both of my machines
Click to expand...

10.6 is a lot slimmer Mac OS, but bear in mind it is out of date and vulnerable on the web and only clients I recommend stay on 10.6 are those using them offline for Rosetta/FCP7 work.
 
Synchro3 said:
No, best single processor is a Intel Xeon W3690 (3.46 GHZ 6 core), as i have.
Click to expand...

In fact, I will say that the best CPU for a single processor 4,1 is still the X5690. Even though it has almost exactly the same spec as the W3690, but it can address more RAM (e.g. 64G), which the W3690 can't boot more than 56G atm.
 
h9826790 said:
In fact, I will say that the best CPU for a single processor 4,1 is still the X5690. Even though it has almost exactly the same spec as the W3690, but it can address more RAM (e.g. 64G), which the W3690 can't boot more than 56G atm.
Click to expand...

Agreed. ;)
 
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