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Mac Pro 1,1 (2006) CPU Upgrade ?'s

TheRealPorkchop

TheRealPorkchop

macrumors regular
Original poster
Mar 13, 2010
100
1
Whiteville, NC
I've searched the forum and I'm not finding any concrete threads about my question, so if it's already been ask/done, please overlook me and help point me into the right direction.

So what I want to do is upgrade my Mac Pro 1,1 which I believe is a 2006 model. I'm wanting to start with my processors. I know what I need to know about the RAM, so that's not an issue. My Mac has 2 - 2.66ghz dual core Xeon's and according to the Apple website they are the 5100 series processors. By using this forum, I believe them to be 5150 Woodcrest Xeon's according to the information found HERE.

I'm wanting to upgrade to dual quad core Xeon's. The ones I'm wondering about are Intel L5420 Xeon's which are socket LGA771 Harpertown's. Can anyone tell me if this is possible without changing anything other than dropping them and being done with it. I don't want to mod my Mac or do anything else to it other than upgrading the RAM, it's only got 2gb and I'd like more.

If those processors won't work, can anybody tell me which ones will that are quad cores. I'd appreciate any and all help/advice. Thanks!
 
You can put any of these CPU's in a Mac Pro 1,1


Intel Xeon X5345
Intel Xeon X5355
Intel Xeon X5365

5400 series will not work with the 2006/2007 model Mac Pro.

You can also use any 5100 series processor, but that is what you have now.

Useful thread here: https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/574781/
 
Last edited:
OK, so Clovertown's will work but not Harpertown's and of course any of the Woodcrest processors will work. But since I'm wanting to go up to quad cores per processor, I need Clovertown's?

And I assume they just drop in without anything else needing to be changed and they'll show up in "about this Mac" correctly?
 
How did you miss this thread (and many others)? https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/745426/

It's only 12 pages thread, read it please, all anwers are there.

Basically any 51xx (dual core) or 53xx (quad core) CPU will work OOTB.

TheRealPorkchop said:
And I assume they just drop in without anything else needing to be changed and they'll show up in "about this Mac" correctly?
Click to expand...

Yes, but if you'll upgrade EFI to MP 2,1 first (otherwise you'd need to edit one of your OS files). See forum.netkas.org for details.
 
Well to be honest, I searched and I think I did find that one but only read the beginning and it said nothing about Harpertown processors, so I figured it was a bust and I needed to ask to be sure before I spent money in something I couldn't use.

Maybe a typical noob mistake?
 
TheRealPorkchop said:
OK, so Clovertown's will work but not Harpertown's and of course any of the Woodcrest processors will work. But since I'm wanting to go up to quad cores per processor, I need Clovertown's?

And I assume they just drop in without anything else needing to be changed and they'll show up in "about this Mac" correctly?
Click to expand...

Yes they should just drop in and show up no problem. I am going to be upgrading my 1,1 soon to two X5355's.
 
666sheep said:
Without EFI update or .plist editing they will show as "2.66 unknown". However they will work properly.
Click to expand...

Are you certain of that, all of the CPU upgrade video's I've watched don't mention or show doing an EFI update or .plist edit and until you mentioned it today, I was unaware that it was mandatory to get the CPU to show up properly.
 
I'm just holding off on the cpu upgrade. Just upping the ram at the moment until I get a real itch to do it. And I'm picking up my 30" ACD tomorrow. :D
 
So

So I just did this a few weeks ago with 5355 and all is well can I run OSX 10.7 or 10.8?

THanks
 
I did this a couple of weeks back. I upgraded to 2 quad core 2.66 GHZ SLAEG stepped.

To get them to show up in About this Mac you need the Mac Pro 2006 - 2007 Firmware Tool. You can get this at Netkas.org. Register and then search for the tool. Once installed you need to startup twice to see both CPUs.

There are a lot of videos available but to me the best is :


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wmz7gPw31L0&feature=relmfu

He shows the most detail particularly in application of the thermal paste and his videos are much better produced than most.
 
Well I've been holding off doing it for several reasons, one of the most important being I can't find some reasonably priced replacement quad cores.

Also, changing the processors and even changing the firmware (I think) isn't going to allow you to upgrade to the newest OS release. For what I do with my 2006, I don't think that upgrading the processors will yield a noticeable improvement, I don't think. I went from about 2 gigs of RAM to 16 and I'll have to say that I have noticed a difference, not a huge one that makes you fall out your chair but a difference. Trying to install CS6 proved that the video card in this thing isn't up to the task, resulting in having to hunt down CS4, as that was all that was supported.

If I find some quad's at a fair price (for my budget) then I might go ahead and upgrade my Mac... I don't know yet. I know it needs a better video card, though I can't say I've ran into anything yet that it wouldn't play or display correctly. And when the time comes that most of the software I use isn't supported anymore, then I'll have to pony up the cash a newer machine. I'll just break down and buy a brand new Mac if they're still making desktop Pro's by then, if not then I'll buy an iMac.
 
sackytar said:
So I just did this a few weeks ago with 5355 and all is well can I run OSX 10.7 or 10.8?
Click to expand...
10.7 is the last release officially supported on that machine by Apple. Running 10.8 requires to use a hackintosh approach (special boot loader etc.) with the MacPro being a very compatible hardware... :)
 
TheRealPorkchop said:
Trying to install CS6 proved that the video card in this thing isn't up to the task, resulting in having to hunt down CS4, as that was all that was supported.

If I find some quad's at a fair price (for my budget) then I might go ahead and upgrade my Mac... I don't know yet. I know it needs a better video card, though I can't say I've ran into anything yet that it wouldn't play or display correctly.
Click to expand...

CS4 won't benefit fro 16GB RAM you have. CS5 and higher will.
Pair of 5355s can be had for ~$80 (or less) on eBay.
CS6-compatible video card is in $50-100 price range, also on eBay.
 
666sheep said:
CS4 won't benefit fro 16GB RAM you have. CS5 and higher will.
Pair of 5355s can be had for ~$80 (or less) on eBay.
CS6-compatible video card is in $50-100 price range, also on eBay.
Click to expand...

Yes sir, I realize that. I installed CS4 after the fact of the RAM and only to piddle with some pictures poking fun of Tim Cook and the current jailbreak. I don't need (or use much for that matter) PhotoShop.

I've not found a matched pair of quad cores @ 3.0ghz for that price on eBay but I'll keep looking. And yea, I need a video card upgrade but just for the purposes of PS, not worth my time/effort/money right now.
 
TheRealPorkchop said:
Yes sir, I realize that. I installed CS4 after the fact of the RAM and only to piddle with some pictures poking fun of Tim Cook and the current jailbreak. I don't need (or use much for that matter) PhotoShop.

I've not found a matched pair of quad cores @ 3.0ghz for that price on eBay but I'll keep looking. And yea, I need a video card upgrade but just for the purposes of PS, not worth my time/effort/money right now.
Click to expand...

If you can be mildly patient I'll have some 5355's for sale next week most likely
 
Neodym said:
10.7 is the last release officially supported on that machine by Apple. Running 10.8 requires to use a hackintosh approach (special boot loader etc.) with the MacPro being a very compatible hardware... :)
Click to expand...

Point me the right direction for instructions!!!
 
sackytar said:
Thanks I'll look into it. Have you done it?
Click to expand...
Yes, as have many others. It's not the only approach, but currently the only exceptionally compatible one because it uses the stock Apple 64-bit OS X kernel. Unlike a Hackintosh, because it's a real Mac Pro, once installed it pretty much just works out-of-the-box without any hacks required including system updates. There are some minor configuration issues that stem from no access to the Mac Pro's NVRAM because it's booting from the emulated BIOS and not via EFI32. This means additional configuration to get iMessage working as it uses emulated file-based NVRAM like a Hackintosh does.

The Chameleon bootloader approach all started with MacEFIRom's Booting the 64-bit kernel on the 2006/2007 Mac Pro thread on netkas.org's forum. You'll find deep details of how it came about and all manner of variations within that thread, including different BIOS and even EFI32 bootloaders.

An interesting side effect of this approach is ability to use virtually any graphics card that can work in a Hackintosh that Chameleon's "GraphicsEnabler" supports, old or new. I use an old SAPPHIRE Radeon HD 4890 Vapor-X 2GB that performs better than a 5770 but not quite at the level of an 5780. This, however, is straight-up Hackintosh territory as this card also requires netkas' QE/CI ATI Radeon HD 48xx "exotic" card patch to work properly.

Another vastly different approach is to use MLPostFactor, described on hackerwayne's [GUIDE] Success! Install 10.8 on old unsupported Mac thread which if I understand correctly introduces components from the Mountain Lion developer preview 32-bit kernel. While I'm sure this works, it will lead to some inevitable compatibility issues as 32-bit kexts get deprecated over time.

It does look like there's a 64-bit version of MLPostFactor coming in version 0.2.2 X64, which will be more interesting. I am speculating, but perhaps it will use bits of an EFI32 bootloader to load the genuine Apple 64-bit OS X kernel?
 
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