Mac pro 4.1 to 5.1 questions

[mistasparkaru]

Sorry if this has been covered a 100 times before but I have a few questions that hopefully somebody might be able to help with.


1) Does anybody have a simple guide to doing the upgrade? I have flashed/updated loads of hardware before from PC motherboards to Cisco MDS's but i'm new to Macs and don't want to break my new MP.

2) If I do the firmware upgrade can I keep using my W3520 on 5.1 until I find a hex core?

3) I think this has been covered but can I use an X series xeon in a single cpu MP? (on 4.1 and 5.1)

4) If I do the firmware update do I need to use 1333mz ram? (I assume this is dependent on the CPU)

5) I want to do a clean install on my MP as its second hand can I download 10.8 copy it to a memory stick and do a clean install on both 4.1 and 5.1?

6) Does the serial number change during the update?

 

[Tesselator]

Sorry if this has been covered a 100 times before but I have a few questions that hopefully somebody might be able to help with.

1. Yes. Do a search - there's many.
2. Yes.
3. Yes. Like the X5698 for example.
4. No. But it's best to use the fastest you can - of course.
5. Yes.
6. No.

 

[Mac Hammer Fan]

I flashed my MacPro Nehalem 2009 4,1 to 5,1 and put a Hex core in it (W3680 @ $600) without a problem. I was lucky with the memory: although I bought it from OWC and the invoice mentioned 1066 Mhz, it indicated 1333 MHz after the Hex upgrade. It will however work with all 1066 Mhz memory.