Mac pro 1.1 upgrade starting point

[chadfoy]

hey there! first welcome me to the dark side as after a pc builder and heavy user for 12 years i am now after 2 or 3 days a mac follower! so i got my self my first real mac (mac pro 1.1 4x 512mg ram, 2x 3.0 dual core xeons and 2x 500gb hard drives for £395 in perfect as new and boxed) now ive been building pcs for many years so im not a all round tit but with macs theres a lot of difference. iv already ordered 8gb of ram (8x 1gb) off ebay and its on its way! i plan to stick 2 ssd's in there (one for osx and one for photoshop scratch) also plan 2x 2tb hdds and a a new GPU AFTER THIS NEXT BIT....now i want to upgrade the CPUs to intel xeon X5355 quads! iv no worries about taking the thing apart and fitting them but i have no idea how to handle (kernel panics) and (firmware up dates) after if done it should i need to (not that i know what a kernel panic is). i have done a lot of reading and plan to stay with snow leopard as it seems to suit me better than all these extras that lion and so on have... what i need to know is where can i find the information to deal with the possible after affects of cpu upgrades that explain in easy blond understandable? or is there any one that is experienced to guide me through step by step! also should say after 2 or 3 days i plan to ditch the PC any help and advice welcomed

 

[mkokimoto]

what's wrong with the 5190's? you might notice a bit of a slow down in single thread apps unless you get the 5365's or there's some bsel mod for the 5355 that I'd love to hear about.

No KP's once you do the 1,1 to 2,1 upgrade from what I hear. My upgrade path after the ram and hdd's was the graphics card. Plug and play with a new ATI card to replace the x1900. as I am using an SSD for boot, I hardly get a chance to see a grey screen and use bootchamp.

 

[davidb367]

The x5355's work in a 1,1 without a firmware upgrade. They run a little hotter but have a higher TDP. I upgraded mine and they have been working great without any issues. They are also cheap. I bought 2 from eBay for 100.00.

I can also report that Lion works with the x5355's.

 

[chadfoy]

well i got 8 x 1gb of ram and it came today! and its in and running just fine.... cpu's next... then SSD then GPU......... just out of question! when i switch on the mac there is a half a second to a second noise that sounds a little like buzzing comming from the back of it! is this normal?

@davidb367 im on snow leopard... is there any pros to upgrading to lion?

 

[chadfoy]

The x5355's work in a 1,1 without a firmware upgrade. They run a little hotter but have a higher TDP. I upgraded mine and they have been working great without any issues. They are also cheap. I bought 2 from eBay for 100.00.

I can also report that Lion works with the x5355's.

what are the pros of upgrading to lion?

 

[Neodym]

The x5355's work in a 1,1 without a firmware upgrade.

Mileage varies for people. Though mine ran fine w/o the firmware update - perhaps because I had SLAEG's (G0 stepping, see below).

They run a little hotter

Got the right stepping?

 

[666sheep]

Got the right stepping?

There's no "right" or "wrong" stepping for 1,1
All 51xx and 53xx do work, however G0 may be considered "better".

 

[emmab2006]

Just to let you know hun upgrading to a 5770 or 5870 isnt an option , i have done the same and i get awful cinebench performance and gaming performance the pcie 1.0 bus is just to restricted , xx

 

[chadfoy]

Just to let you know hun upgrading to a 5770 or 5870 isnt an option , i have done the same and i get awful cinebench performance and gaming performance the pcie 1.0 bus is just to restricted , xx

cheers! I'm getting into photography so will be keeping my PC for gaming and any thing else not photoshop/aperture related... but i got this mac pro so cheep it would be rude not to upgrade it and not kick some more life into it. if i use it enough and start making more money out of my photography then i think i may sell this at the end of 2014 and go buy my self a brand new one

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Just to let you know hun upgrading to a 5770 or 5870 isnt an option , i have done the same and i get awful cinebench performance and gaming performance the pcie 1.0 bus is just to restricted , xx

when you up graded the CPU did you need to update the firmware or anything?

 

[Neodym]

when you up graded the CPU did you need to update the firmware or anything?

There have been varying reports on that issue. Some had to flash to firmware 2,1 (to be found over at netkas.org), others (like myself) were just fine with the default firmware. I never found out whether that was firmware related or connected to the stepping of the CPU's used (i used G0 / SLAEG).

 

[chadfoy]

There have been varying reports on that issue. Some had to flash to firmware 2,1 (to be found over at netkas.org), others (like myself) were just fine with the default firmware. I never found out whether that was firmware related or connected to the stepping of the CPU's used (i used G0 / SLAEG).

there the ones i want to order! (xeon 5355 SLAEG) but i cant find that stepping ver any where! what kinda work i need to do in order to make the SLAC4 work ok?

 

[paulrbeers]

there the ones i want to order! (xeon 5355 SLAEG) but i cant find that stepping ver any where! what kinda work i need to do in order to make the SLAC4 work ok?

Even eBay?

 

[chadfoy]

Even eBay?

thats where iv been scanning for days (EDITED)...............

scrap that i just found some! WOOP!


if i was to put a corsair 240GB SSD running 10.6.8 am i all set up with trim support automatically?

 

[Snowshiro]

I recently fixed my Mac Pro 1,1 and installed Lion on it after having it sitting on a shelf for almost a year. After a couple of weeks I also upgraded 4 things:

1. CPUs to quad core x5355
2. Graphics card to 5770HD (PC version)
3. Main boot and applications HD to SSD.
4. RAM from 4 Gig to 12 Gig.

Of all the upgrades, the most immediately noticeable was the SSD. Boot time shrank to a fraction of what it was previously, and applications opened so fast that there was barely a pause. Even Photoshop and other applications that normally take a while to go through their startup slash screen, were super quick.

The second most noticeable was RAM. Simply that I could have a lot more stuff open at the same time without any significant slowdown. I tend to do mainly flat 2D artwork as opposed to video or 3D, so I guess the files I work with aren't really all that large (250 MB would be a reasonably large file for me). But it meant I could have Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign all open and have a bunch of other stuff (iTunes, Safari etc.) without really running into the same issues I did with only 4 Gig.

The third most noticeable was processor. Primarily in video encoding which is more for personal use than for work. I often encode stuff for watching on my iPhone, or convert a ripped DVD to a better format for archiving on my home media server. It was noticeably quicker. Obviously synthetic benchmarks like Geekbench were way better, but they don't really have any real world value.

As for graphics card - well I was just happy that I could take an old PC card that was lying around and be able to just drop it in. I don't think it really changed all that much, because I have a dedicated PC for gaming, and don't do much visually intensive work that requires it. I did install World of Warcraft , just so that I could still play if my wife was using my gaming PC for something and it ran perfectly well. But that's about it.

The upgrades were all super simple. The only issues I had were finding a long enough 3mm hex wrench to remove the heat sinks from the CPUs, and the soft metal some of the screws were made of. I installed the 2,1 firmware update simply because it appeared to be an easy way to get the Mac to properly recognize the new processors and haven't had any problems since with kernel panics or anything else (although I didn't before either).

All that said and after all the upgrades, for a six year old machine, my old 1,1 doesn't really "feel" noticeably different to a modern 2012 Mac in most regards (apart from not running ML), so it's certainly prolonged its life by a few years at least, providing nothing breaks!

 

[AmanO]

Really?

As for graphics card - well I was just happy that I could take an old PC card that was lying around and be able to just drop it in. I don't think it really changed all that much, because I have a dedicated PC for gaming, and don't do much visually intensive work that requires it. I did install World of Warcraft , just so that I could still play if my wife was using my gaming PC for something and it ran perfectly well. But that's about it.
!

You do not have to flash a win GPU to run OS X? I have x1900s and Quadras laying around.

 

[chadfoy]

I recently fixed my Mac Pro 1,1 and installed Lion on it after having it sitting on a shelf for almost a year. After a couple of weeks I also upgraded 4 things:

1. Processor to x5355
2. Graphics card to 5770HD (PC version)
3. Main boot and applications HD to SSD.
4. RAM from 4 Gig to 12 Gig.

The upgrades were all super simple. The only issues I had were finding a long enough 3mm hex wrench to remove the heat sinks from the CPU, and the soft metal some of the screws were made of. I installed the 2,1 firmware update simply because it appeared to be an easy way to get the Mac to properly recognize the new processors and haven't had any problems since with kernel panics or anything else (although I didn't before either).

All that said and after all the upgrades, for a six year old machine, my old 1,1 doesn't really "feel" noticeably different to a modern 2012 Mac in most regards (apart from not running ML), so it's certainly prolonged its life by a few years at least, providing nothing breaks!

could you give me a detailed instructions on how to upgrade the firmware to the 2.1? im looking on the net but it all seems so bloody confusing!

i have a nvidia 9600GT.. would that would that work? how would i connect power as its the old 4 pin molex (if it would work)


http://www.overclock.co.uk/product/...-E-Retail-with-Low-Profile-Bracket_20603.html

 

[Neodym]

there the ones i want to order! (xeon 5355 SLAEG) but i cant find that stepping ver any where! what kinda work i need to do in order to make the SLAC4 work ok?

The doing is the same as with any other revision - except that you probably have to adjust fan speeds with e.g. smcFanControl and you _may_ need to update the firmware.

You do not have to flash a win GPU to run OS X? I have x1900s and Quadras laying around.

That depends on both your OSX and the graphic card. You need OSX 10.6.8 or higher and a more recent graphic card (like ATI/AMD 5770 or 6870 - the 7xxx series has no (good) driver support iirc - or some of the newer nVidia cards such as GTX 5xx or 6xx).

For older cards you still need to flash the firmware to Mac to make them run in a MP.

 

[Snowshiro]

You do not have to flash a win GPU to run OS X? I have x1900s and Quadras laying around.

I'm not an absolute expert, but I believe from a certain version of Snow Leopard onwards and then more so in Lion, Mac OS X started suddenly supporting some PC unflashed GPUs out of the box.

However, usually the boot screen doesn't work (it's just black until the login screen) and I've heard that sometimes certain ports don't work. That said, I only use 1 DVI out for my Cinema Display so I don't need more than one output.

But yes - it's absolutely possible to stick a whole range of windows cards into the Mac Pro these days and they will work pretty well. You may want to check specific models here though before buying something. But if you just have them lying around, hooking them up and just seeing what happens shouldn't do your Mac any harm. Older cards won't work though, so I'm not too confident about the ones you mentioned. If you want a cheap option, you can pick up a brand new PC 5770 for about $80 or perhaps even less, so it's pretty cheap compared to the official Apple model.

----------

[/COLOR]

could you give me a detailed instructions on how to upgrade the firmware to the 2.1? im looking on the net but it all seems so bloody confusing!

Sure. Couldn't be easier really.

Just download the file (MacPro2006-2007FirmwareTool.zip) linked at the end of the first post in this forum thread:

http://forum.netkas.org/index.php/topic,1094.0.html

I think you need to register for the forum before you can see the download file.

Unzip it, run it, and follow the instructions. Probably best to quit any other applications that are running before starting. Takes a couple of minutes tops. I forget, but I think the machine needs to reboot a couple of times during the process.

One thing you may notice - if you've installed the 2 upgraded quad core processors already, only one shows up on the first reboot. Then manually reboot the mac again and it recognizes both. Pretty much everyone has reported this, so don't panic.

One important thing. I believe this tool doesn't work if your Mac is currently running firmware MP11.005D.B00 - go into "About This Mac" and check the system report to make sure yours is ok. There is some additional step you need to take if yours is running this version of the firmware, although I'm not entirely sure about it, because mine wasn't so it was fine.

Obviously this is at your own risk. Probably best to read some of that thread and maybe google a bit or search this forum to check all the facts.

 

[chadfoy]

One important thing. I believe this tool doesn't work if your Mac is currently running firmware MP11.005D.B00 - go into "About This Mac" and check the system report to make sure yours is ok. There is some additional step you need to take if yours is running this version of the firmware, although I'm not entirely sure about it, because mine wasn't so it was fine.

AWWWW MATEY! YOUR AMAZING! thank you! my rom ver is MP11.005C.B08 so i should be ok! i have a nvidia 9600gt and a gtx 550ti...... im hoping one of these works as an upgrade..... saves me spending £150 on an ati then

 

[Snowshiro]

AWWWW MATEY! YOUR AMAZING! thank you! my rom ver is MP11.005C.B08 so i should be ok! i have a nvidia 9600gt and a gtx 550ti...... im hoping one of these works as an upgrade..... saves me spending £150 on an ati then

Bear in mind the firmware tool takes a little time (I think so anyway -only ran it once, so I can't remember for sure), so be sure not to try to interrupt it if it looks like the machine hangs or restarts several times. Give it plenty of time to finish the job.

For the 550ti I'd suggest reading this page:

http://nrsotw.blogspot.jp/2012/05/pc-nvidia-graphics-cards-in-mac-pro.html

There appear to be official nVidia drivers available for Lion 10.7.3 and 10.7.4 both linked from that page which enable the card to run in Mac OS X.

 

[chadfoy]

Bear in mind the firmware tool takes a little time (I think so anyway -only ran it once, so I can't remember for sure), so be sure not to try to interrupt it if it looks like the machine hangs or restarts several times. Give it plenty of time to finish the job.

For the 550ti I'd suggest reading this page:

http://nrsotw.blogspot.jp/2012/05/pc-nvidia-graphics-cards-in-mac-pro.html

There appear to be official nVidia drivers available for Lion 10.7.3 and 10.7.4 both linked from that page which enable the card to run in Mac OS X.

OK so i got a zotac GTX 550ti 1024gb gddr5 up and running.. i had to upgrade to lion but now iv seen it i think its kinda funky!... i wondered tho? my mac is only showing this GPU to have 512mb of ddr which is only half! any ideas why or how to fix this? iv installed latest drivers and cuda drivers from Nvidia but no change

 

[kenetic]

I recently fixed my Mac Pro 1,1 and installed Lion on it after having it sitting on a shelf for almost a year. After a couple of weeks I also upgraded 4 things:

1. CPUs to quad core x5355
2. Graphics card to 5770HD (PC version)
3. Main boot and applications HD to SSD.
4. RAM from 4 Gig to 12 Gig.

Of all the upgrades, the most immediately noticeable was the SSD. Boot time shrank to a fraction of what it was previously, and applications opened so fast that there was barely a pause. Even Photoshop and other applications that normally take a while to go through their startup slash screen, were super quick.

The second most noticeable was RAM. Simply that I could have a lot more stuff open at the same time without any significant slowdown. I tend to do mainly flat 2D artwork as opposed to video or 3D, so I guess the files I work with aren't really all that large (250 MB would be a reasonably large file for me). But it meant I could have Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign all open and have a bunch of other stuff (iTunes, Safari etc.) without really running into the same issues I did with only 4 Gig.

The third most noticeable was processor. Primarily in video encoding which is more for personal use than for work. I often encode stuff for watching on my iPhone, or convert a ripped DVD to a better format for archiving on my home media server. It was noticeably quicker. Obviously synthetic benchmarks like Geekbench were way better, but they don't really have any real world value.

As for graphics card - well I was just happy that I could take an old PC card that was lying around and be able to just drop it in. I don't think it really changed all that much, because I have a dedicated PC for gaming, and don't do much visually intensive work that requires it. I did install World of Warcraft , just so that I could still play if my wife was using my gaming PC for something and it ran perfectly well. But that's about it.

The upgrades were all super simple. The only issues I had were finding a long enough 3mm hex wrench to remove the heat sinks from the CPUs, and the soft metal some of the screws were made of. I installed the 2,1 firmware update simply because it appeared to be an easy way to get the Mac to properly recognize the new processors and haven't had any problems since with kernel panics or anything else (although I didn't before either).

All that said and after all the upgrades, for a six year old machine, my old 1,1 doesn't really "feel" noticeably different to a modern 2012 Mac in most regards (apart from not running ML), so it's certainly prolonged its life by a few years at least, providing nothing breaks!

Overall, how much did all the part cost?

Thanks

 

[Snowshiro]

Overall, how much did all the part cost?

Thanks

Well, to be honest I live in Japan, so some of the prices may not be entirely relevant to you if you're in the States.

The x5355s I bought used for 10,000 yen for the pair (about US $120).

The SSD was about a year-old SATA-2 128 Gig one I removed from my PC and was a Japanese brand. Plenty fast enough for the Mac Pro though. You could find a good branded (e.g. Intel 520) SATA-3 120 Gig now for around $120.

I did, however, buy the memory from OWC and came in at about US$200 plus a bit extra for international shipping.

The hex wrench was kinda pricey since I couldn't find ANYWHERE in Japan that made one long enough. All the ones in hardware stores were too short. Eventually I tracked down a company, but it cost about 1,800 yen ($20ish). You could probably find one for way less.

The cpu paste was about $7. I bought the one with the highest rating I could find, and it was well worth it. My quad core CPUs actually run cooler than my old dual cores, probably through a combination of using newer paste and cleaning out a lot of dust when I opened the machine up.

 

[TheRealPorkchop]

Glad I decided to search before posting...

I just upgraded the RAM in my 1,1 also, from 2 gigs to 16 and all I can say is WOW. I expected a difference but not like what I've seen in the first 15 minutes of use, surprised to say the least. So now it's got me thinking more about swapping my processors also from 5150's to 5355's.

Is it really that much of an improvement to go from dual dual cores to dual quad cores at the same exact clock speed? Just average, everyday use... are the differences or improvements enough to merit the change or not?

I don't game with my Mac but I too have been wanting to swap video cards, the 7300GT is alright but I just want (WANT) more (and bigger). So I been thinking about an 8800GT or 5770... thoughts?

 

[bax2003]

So I been thinking about an 8800GT or 5770... thoughts?

Nothing to think about - 5770.