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zayaso

macrumors member
Sep 29, 2014
56
6
Thank you Larry-K!
Placed my order this morning, hope to receive them before the New Year!
 

Larry-K

macrumors 68000
Jun 28, 2011
1,908
2,363
Thank you Larry-K!
Placed my order this morning, hope to receive them before the New Year!

Just go through the threads on how to do it, there's a lot of practical experience, and you can learn from the mistakes of others.
 

Avenida

macrumors member
Dec 31, 2016
31
23
Well, I got to the party a little bit late. Thanks so much for putting this thread together, it really helped me and i just boosted my old Early 2009 MAC PRO quad core with some hex core juice that I just bought from EBAY for $150 Canadian, and I can't say it is day and night performance wise yet (as it was not bad before) but I can certainly feel that the OS is running smoother than before.
I am waiting for some RAM that I ordered from OWC for just 40 dollars, so I will bump it up to 16GB 1333 (now 12GB 1033) so I am sure that will help to get things moving too.

Reading this thread gave me the courage to put my hands to work, and to my surprise this was easier than what it looked! Thank you for this thread and for taking the time of taking great pics to go with it. The process was smooth.

I can report as per ISTAT my CPU temperature is steady at 29 degrees, not sure what it was before.

I bought this computer back in 2010, and 7 years later ( as of tomorrow ) is still running solidly. I can't regret this purchase one bit. And mine was a refurbished model by apple, cost me $2500 at the time.

A bit of math, less than $400 per year in computer equipment and I am planning on running this for at least 3 more years.

This mac pros are incredible machines! what a beast!

Thanks again,
Cheers and happy new year.
From Canada

PS/ I am running a SSD raid for my OS, and so far that has been the greatest upgrade. For those still running these machines on regular HD, please do yourself a favor and get a SSD for the OS.
 

Jay_S_CT

macrumors newbie
Aug 15, 2016
9
1
Well, I got to the party a little bit late. Thanks so much for putting this thread together, it really helped me and i just boosted my old Early 2009 MAC PRO quad core with some hex core juice that I just bought from EBAY for $150 Canadian, and I can't say it is day and night performance wise yet (as it was not bad before) but I can certainly feel that the OS is running smoother than before.
I am waiting for some RAM that I ordered from OWC for just 40 dollars, so I will bump it up to 16GB 1333 (now 12GB 1033) so I am sure that will help to get things moving too.

Reading this thread gave me the courage to put my hands to work, and to my surprise this was easier than what it looked! Thank you for this thread and for taking the time of taking great pics to go with it. The process was smooth.

I can report as per ISTAT my CPU temperature is steady at 29 degrees, not sure what it was before.

I bought this computer back in 2010, and 7 years later ( as of tomorrow ) is still running solidly. I can't regret this purchase one bit. And mine was a refurbished model by apple, cost me $2500 at the time.

A bit of math, less than $400 per year in computer equipment and I am planning on running this for at least 3 more years.

This mac pros are incredible machines! what a beast!

Thanks again,
Cheers and happy new year.
From Canada

PS/ I am running a SSD raid for my OS, and so far that has been the greatest upgrade. For those still running these machines on regular HD, please do yourself a favor and get a SSD for the OS.
[doublepost=1483380485][/doublepost]Likewise.. Upgraded my dual quad 2.4 2010 Mac Pro to dual hex 3.33 Intel ($200 matched pair from a system pull). In that case I saw a huge bump.. As for really improving the boot and access times also agree with booting from SSD. I picked up the Acceselsior S PCI-E card from OWC and a 6G Extreme SSD from them.. Gets full 6G speed vs 3G through bay connection.. Last update to machine was also a Sapphire Mac Edition 9750 Video card.. Editing 4K now without a hiccup..

Yeah, a sub $700 set of upgrades to a great machine... Added a USB 3.0 PCI card to help on that end..

https://eshop.macsales.com/item/Other World Computing/SSDACL6G.S/?utm_source=google&utm_medium=shoppingengine&utm_campaign=googlebase&gclid=CjwKEAiAkajDBRCRq8Czmdj-yFgSJADikZggmTD0uMfyPBZ48qNWlD2z5Lkwq6xiEETbjpK9vmgY9BoCNuXw_wcB
 
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Jon-PDX

macrumors regular
Oct 20, 2011
148
15
Pacific NW - USA
Jay,

Thanks for posting the info about the Acceseisior card. I did not even know we could get something like that for our Mac Pro's. I did install an SSD boot drive awhile back and it really improved the performance even when installed in one of the drive bays. At that price I may have to give that card a try after get around to swapping out my 2.4 for a 3.33

Jon...
 

zayaso

macrumors member
Sep 29, 2014
56
6
Just finished upgrading my dual 2.4 quad processors to dual 3.6 hex processors and the difference was very visible on boot. I followed instructions at beginning of this thread and had no issues at all.
 

Jay_S_CT

macrumors newbie
Aug 15, 2016
9
1
Jay,

Thanks for posting the info about the Acceseisior card. I did not even know we could get something like that for our Mac Pro's. I did install an SSD boot drive awhile back and it really improved the performance even when installed in one of the drive bays. At that price I may have to give that card a try after get around to swapping out my 2.4 for a 3.33

Jon...

Jon,

No problem. The swap to 3.33s is amazingly different. Make sure to get good thermal paste and that the 3.33 is clear and clean when you get it. You'll need a special hex head wrench to reach down through the tower heatsinks. COUNT the number of rotations to loosen and only tighten back that many.. don't want to crank down on the CPUs.. You'll likely have to clean up a bit of old thermal paste all over... I did on both.. There are instructions you can google..

The Accelssior S card also really helps and if you have a good 6G SSD you're booting from and a slot, it's a no brainer to jump the boot drive from 3G to 6G speeds.. helps all the way around, even with the 2.4..
 

Avenida

macrumors member
Dec 31, 2016
31
23
do you know what is the maximum amount of RAM I can put into my 6 core (now 5.1 MAC PRO). Running 16GB but it is not enough and run out of memory rather quickly.

Just browsing through OWC, the have the new accelsior E2, that seems the way to go....Will certainly upgrade to one of those in the future once funds become more available, lol.
 
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JaySCT

macrumors newbie
Apr 14, 2009
16
3
do you know what is the maximum amount of RAM I can put into my 6 core (now 5.1 MAC PRO). Running 16GB but it is not enough and run out of memory rather quickly.

Just browsing through OWC, the have the new accelsior E2, that seems the way to go....Will certainly upgrade to one of those in the future once funds become more available, lol.

Avienda,

Not sure what apps you're running, but I'm running 32 GB 1333 MHz DDR3 ECC in my Mac Pro 5,1. I'm doing heavy video editing in Final Cut Pro X, Compressor, and work in photoshop and lightroom all concurrently.. I'd be curious to know what's taking out a lot of memory. Firefox (as a browser) can gobble up memory (one of its flaws). The reason I ask is that I also do similar work (not as heavy) on my 2013 Macbook Pro Retina with only 8GB (should have opt'ed for 16GB).. An alternative to the E2 is the Accelsior S I mentioned above. I have a 480 GB OWC Mercury Extreme as the boot drive in one of the PCI slots.. Made a huge difference. In fact, I'd suggest you start there and see if the 16GB of memory doesn't seem to be "better". :)
 

lazy4u

macrumors newbie
Oct 30, 2010
20
0
i have a W3690 im installing in a Mac Pro 5,1. Is there a way to overclock the W3690 in Windows 10 for gaming?
Specs=Mac Pro 5,1(W3565)-24gb ram(1333 running at 1066)-EVGA SC GTX 1080(came with Amd5870)
 

h9826790

macrumors P6
Apr 3, 2014
16,656
8,587
Hong Kong
i have a W3690 im installing in a Mac Pro 5,1. Is there a way to overclock the W3690 in Windows 10 for gaming?
Specs=Mac Pro 5,1(W3565)-24gb ram(1333 running at 1066)-EVGA SC GTX 1080(came with Amd5870)

AFAIK, NO, none of the software can really OC the CPU even in Windows.
 

thornslack

macrumors 6502
Nov 16, 2013
410
165
Actually these xeons are excellent overclockers. However without a bios to give the chip new instructions prior to boot there is no way to achieve this on a cMP.
 
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zephonic

macrumors 65816
Feb 7, 2011
1,314
709
greater L.A. area
Hmm, okay. I thought I read somewhere Xeons weren't meant to be overclocked (and i7's were). Never mind, then.

Just updated my 4,1 to a 5,1 and gonna put in the W3680 tomorrow. Good things!
 

zephonic

macrumors 65816
Feb 7, 2011
1,314
709
greater L.A. area
So I did the CPU upgrade, and it was as easy as OP stated. I now have a 6-core machine, but something went wrong with the RAM. I have 3x8GB 1333MHz installed, and with the old CPU it read as 24GB at 1066 (because the W3520 doesn't support 1333). With the new CPU (W3680), it only sees the modules in slot 2 and 3, and thinks slot 1 is empty. I tried reseating them, but no luck.
What gives? And why don't the other two modules show up as 1333?
[doublepost=1487710012][/doublepost]So this can't be good. I put the module from slot 1 in slot 4 and there it shows up (along with a warning from OSX saying I should put them in slot 1,2,3 rather than 2,3,4). Putting it back in slot 1, it still doesn't show up. Not to mention everything is still at 1066.

Could this mean I somehow messed slot 1? I never even touched it, I think. Any suggestions are welcome.

From:

mp%20hardware%20overview.png


To:

mp%20hardware%20overview%202.png



DIMM in slot 1 not detected:

memory%20profile.png
 
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h9826790

macrumors P6
Apr 3, 2014
16,656
8,587
Hong Kong
So I did the CPU upgrade, and it was as easy as OP stated. I now have a 6-core machine, but something went wrong with the RAM. I have 3x8GB 1333MHz installed, and with the old CPU it read as 24GB at 1066 (because the W3520 doesn't support 1333). With the new CPU (W3680), it only sees the modules in slot 2 and 3, and thinks slot 1 is empty. I tried reseating them, but no luck.
What gives? And why don't the other two modules show up as 1333?
[doublepost=1487710012][/doublepost]So this can't be good. I put the module from slot 1 in slot 4 and there it shows up (along with a warning from OSX saying I should put them in slot 1,2,3 rather than 2,3,4). Putting it back in slot 1, it still doesn't show up. Not to mention everything is still at 1066.

Could this mean I somehow messed slot 1? I never even touched it, I think. Any suggestions are welcome.

From:

mp%20hardware%20overview.png


To:

mp%20hardware%20overview%202.png



DIMM in slot 1 not detected:

memory%20profile.png

Not the slot, but the CPU or socket (those ultra small pins). If the CPU cannot contact with those pin properly, then you can missing a RAM slot. So, the good news is that most likely your slot and RAM are good. Bad news is that most likely you have to re-seat the CPU. And when you remove it, you better check if the socket is damaged as well.

For RAM speed, a simple PRAM reset 99% can help.
 

ActionableMango

macrumors G3
Sep 21, 2010
9,613
6,909
With the new CPU (W3680), it only sees the modules in slot 2 and 3, and thinks slot 1 is empty. I tried reseating them, but no luck.

I have seen this from time to time in the CPU upgrade threads when the CPU isn't seated correctly. The solutions are varied--from as subtle as slightly tightening or loosening one corner of the heatsink, to reseating the CPUs, and unfortunately all the way up to repairing bent pins in the socket.

But it's always a 2009 dual-CPU that is mentioned, which is much more prone to problems than the single CPU model like yours. In your case with a single CPU you've got the normal CPU socket with the bracket that comes down. Yours is the first time I've heard of a single CPU upgrade resulting in the loss of a working memory slot.

I'm not really sure what to suggest other than to try reseating the CPU. While you have the CPU out, check the socket for bent pins:

image-1.jpg


...just moving the DIMM from slot 1 to slot 4 is not a permanent solution?

That might fix the symptom, but it is ignoring the problem. Also your RAM will be slower. Memory slots 3 and 4 share a single memory controller, so both sticks in those two slots will be slower.
 
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h9826790

macrumors P6
Apr 3, 2014
16,656
8,587
Hong Kong
Fark...


...just moving the DIMM from slot 1 to slot 4 is not a permanent solution?

You can, however, RAM performance downgraded. Also, we have no idea if the RAM slot is the only item affected. How about if more than 1 pin not contact properly? And occasionally hang your Mac?

Since we highly suspect that the CPU is not seated properly in the socket. I will say better fix it rather then hopping only slot 1 is affected and run the RAM in degraded mode.

At least try to tighten the heatsink etc as ActionableMango suggested (if you don't want to re-do the whole job again).
 
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