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Pimp my Mac: MP 2009 Dual CPU upgrade experience

you can find the upgrade tool on netkas.org. Do a search there for firmware upgrade utility. You will need to register to be able to download the tool which can be found in the first entry of the thread.
 
deppest said:
you can find the upgrade tool on netkas.org. Do a search there for firmware upgrade utility. You will need to register to be able to download the tool which can be found in the first entry of the thread.
Click to expand...

Hi I recently upgraded my Mac Pro to 3.33 eight-core! Will this work with eight-core? or just quad core? Thanks
 
Even if I don't want to upgrade my CPU, will I get some improvements?
Is it worth it?

I have a Quad 2.66 with 16GB RAM and a EFI-flashed GTX 570 2.5GB.
 
I've just installed CPU A (2.93 where there was a 2.26) - and its working.

I'm not getting the 2nd cpu to populate CPU B until tomorrow.

I thought i'd power up the machine anyway. it works! The fans kick in full-throttle after a couple of minutes though - what am I doing wrong? or will it continue to stay mental until CPU B is in there?

My idle temps are 40/34/40/35 across the 4 cores - should I tighten the heatsink more? all the ram channels show up (remember, all the fans are going crazy so maybe that temp would be higher otherwise?)

for the moment, CPU B is not populated and the heat sink is not attached - if i connect it will things relax a bit?

526821_10151283876107135_1568103551_n.jpg
 
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It's normal that the vents rev up after a while when only CPU A is connected. I saw it happening when I did my upgrade and others have reported the same. No need to fiddle further with CPU A. Just drop in CPU B and things will be fine.
 
deppest said:
It's normal that the vents rev up after a while when only CPU A is connected. I saw it happening when I did my upgrade and others have reported the same. No need to fiddle further with CPU A. Just drop in CPU B and things will be fine.
Click to expand...

Is it also normal for Boost A to crank up?( I believe that's the heatsink fan itself).

edit: finished the install, everything settled down. Temperatures on CPU A are a bit higher than B, but I think that's because I went light on the thermal goo and was a bit light on the screws. As long as they dont go past 80c during my VEP sessions is that safe?
 
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deppest said:
I've been tempted for a while and after reading through most of the available info I finally found the courage to upgrade the CPUs of my slowly aging 2009 MP. Apple isn't exactly inspiring when it comes to announcing new MP models so I thought I might as well give it a go and build my own faster MP. Thankfully, a good friend with some PC build experience volunteered to help out. The model to be upgraded was a 2009 MP 4,1 2x2.26 Ghz. I went for the W5590 (4x3.33GHz) because they currently offer the most bang for buck in my view. Going higher for eg a 5690 (six core) would have been possible as well but in my opinion it's too costly for such an old rig.

There already is quite some information out there on this and similar upgrades, most importantly the pioneering work by by gugucom and anandtech. But I thought another experience report could still be useful. Anyway, let's go:

Material
2xW5590
Arctic Silver 5
Arctic cleaning liquid set (1+2)
optical tissues
3mm hex wench
10x10cm thermal pad, 2mm thickness

First, we started by taking out the heatsink and CPU B along with all the RAM modules in slots 5-8. One needs to be a little careful here as the CPU could stick to the HS as it did in our case and you don't want it to fall off on your mainboard (Fig 2 with old CPU still attached to the HS).
It's also a good idea at this stage to get a feeling for the pressure/strength needed to loosen the screws with the 3mm hex wench. This is important later on when putting everything back in. It took about 5-6 turns, one turn per screw at a time in a cross-like way to make sure the whole thing comes off evenly.

We then put the CPU tray back in to the MP to check if the MP would still startup with just CPU A (still the old one) and its HS. It started up as expected and after about 30-60sec the MP fan would go into overdrive making quite some noise. Again, this has been mentioned before, so no worries. After shuting down the MP we removed CPU A, HS and all remaining RAM modules.

Preparation of Heatsinks
We cleaned the copper contact area of the HS with the Arctiv Cleaner products and applied a thin layer of Arctic Silver 5 with an old credit card. Please see the Arctic Silver website for all details about using their products. On one side of the HS there is a narrow strip (pink, sorry no picture) of thermal pad which we removed and replaced with a thicker one of 2 mm.

The W5590 CPUs are lidded with an IHS whereas the original ones used by Apple are lidless making the W5590 about 1.7mm thicker (see again gugucom thread). A 2 mm thermal pad which can be compressed to 1 mm felt like the right choice to replace the original thinner one.

Preparation of CPUs
We cleaned CPU A and carefully placed it in the socket. Thankfully, there's only one way to put it in the socket.

Putting back the heatsinks
On the outer sides of both heatsinks there is a male plug which connects the temp regulation and fans to the mainboard (Fig 2&3 for HS male part of connector, Fig 1 for female counterpart on mainboard). According to some threads, the two parts of the connector may not properly reconnect once the heatsink is reinstalled due to the thicker CPU with IHS. As a result the fans would go crazy or not fire up at all. We therefore decided to take the connectors out of the small aluminium frame in the corner of the heatsink to facilitate the later reconnection (Fig 4). This was not a good idea...

When we tried to put the HS back, the loosened male connector (or the cables) would get into the way even when properly connected making it impossible to properly place the HS over the CPU socket. So it was all back with the HS connector into the original configuration (Fig 3). We then put back the HS on CPU A which still required some fiddling with the connector to help it find its place. A second pair of hands was really helpful at this stage. We also applied some downwards pressure on the connector from the outside of the HS with the help of a small screwdriver (Fig 5) to make sure it connects properly. This is best done when the HS is already tightened to the mainboard to avoid any movements of the HS, not like we did it.

We then tightened the 4 screws of the HS very carefully, one turn per screw at a time, about 4 turns per screw in total, again in a cross-like fashion. After putting back the CPU in the MP (with only the new CPU A and socket B empty) and starting up the MP...nothing, no chime, no joy...

The white LED of the power up button was blinking and nothing much else was happening. After overcoming a slight panic attack on my side we pulled the tray back out and after giving each screw another turn the MP started up!! Never been so happy to hear the startup chime before!

The number of turns required for reattaching the HS will probably vary from case to case so I think the best advice is to apply about as much pressure when tightening the screws as when loosening the screws at the beginning.

The second CPU went much easier and everything worked the 1st time round. The temperatures after some intitial stress testing seem ok, around 50-60°, similar to what it was before. The CPU fans, however, are working a bit harder, at around 1700-1800 RPM.

Cost of upgrade

2xW5590 (ebay) USD 565
Arctic Silver 5 cleaning liquid set (1+2) CHF 24
3mm hex wench CHF 3
10x10cm thermal pad, 2mm thickness: Euro 20
import duties Switzerland CHF 30

Total ca CHF 600 CHF

Benchmarks
Most important for me since I do a lot of rendering is Cinebench CPU which went from 8 to 11.7 which almost equals to a 50% performance increase. I got a similar increase with Geeekbench from 12390 to 17740. And even Cinebench OpenGL went from 24.3 to 32.1 (on a GTX 570) showing once again that it's not a very sensitive tool for measuring OpenGL performance.

It took as about 2 hours in total for the whole surgery. I guess that's a bit on the long side compared to other reports but we took it really really carefully and step by step. Anyway I'm now a proud and happy owner of an 3.33 Ghz MP 4,1 Octo!
Click to expand...


Just checking.
You did NOT use the washers?
 
toomasio said:
I was looking into upgrading to the paired X5570's for my 4,1 mac pro. Is there anything special I should know about? cpu size, firmware upgrades, etc.
Click to expand...
No doubt that the X5570 currently has a better price performance ratio than other processors for 2009 dual-processor upgrade, and no need to upgrade to 5,1 firmware unless you also want to take advantage of the 1333 MHz memory speed. The upgrade itself, however, is probably a more challenging task than most other upgrades due to the lidless processors being replaced by standard processors and all its related complications discussed in all relevant threads. This thread would remind you that there are still potential risks involved even though many people have done it successfully.
 
xcodeSyn said:
No doubt that the X5570 currently has a better price performance ratio than other processors for 2009 dual-processor upgrade, and no need to upgrade to 5,1 firmware unless you also want to take advantage of the 1333 MHz memory speed. The upgrade itself, however, is probably a more challenging task than most other upgrades due to the lidless processors being replaced by standard processors and all its related complications discussed in all relevant threads. This thread would remind you that there are still potential risks involved even though many people have done it successfully.
Click to expand...

hrmm...yeah im not comfortable with bricking my tower. These guys definitely know what they are talking about and they are even having a lot of issues.

I almost think it would just be easier building/upgrading a hackintosh instead...probably cheaper too (in the long run).
 
not seeing 1333mhz with my DRAM upgrade...

I followed the instructions as posted by the creator of this thread and successfully upgraded to dual W5590's bringing my Mac Pro 4,1 from dual E5520 2.26GHZ to dual W5590's @ 3.33GHZ. Before installing the upgrade I updated the firmware to 5,1 and it is confirmed in my system information report:

Early 2009
Model Name: Mac Pro
Model Identifier: MacPro5,1
Processor Name: Quad-Core Intel Xeon
Processor Speed: 3.33 GHz
Number of Processors: 2
Total Number of Cores: 8

I purchased (8) 8GB DDR3 ECC 1333Mhz DRAMs to upgrade to 64GB. However the system is only running them at 1066Mhz:

Your Mac contains 8 memory slots, each of which accepts
a 1066 MHz DDR3 ECC memory module.

Memory 64 GB 1066 MHz DDR3 ECC

Any tips as to why this is happening, and what I can do to get it to recognize the faster speed this memory is rated at?

Thanks!
 
thanks that was the trick!

xcodeSyn said:
You need to do a PRAM reset as mentioned here.
Click to expand...

Now I have the correct speed on my memory, the PRAM reset did the trick!

Memory 64 GB 1333 MHz DDR3 ECC


And if anyone is interested I have my (2) E5520's listed on ebay for a bargain price! And my old memory too....

Thanks again!
 
Hi,

i've just upgraded from 2 x 2.26 to 3.33 Ghz with a pair of W5590 .

It took sometime to understand how much the hex screws of the heatsinks had to be tightened but it worked , temperatures are as before also under heavy stress.

The only problem i have is with RAM (4x 2 GB) : it seems that slot 2,3,4 aren't working anymore(leds lit) while 1 ,5,6,7,8 are ok(i swapped them in working slots to check ) , the RAM is the original one, all DIMM are tested and working , they are installed in slots 1,2 and 5,6 .

So the problem is with memory slots ... i've reset PRAM and SMC , nothing changed.

i should probably reinstall stock processors to check if the problem persists but if in the meantime somebody has any advice ...
 
limlo said:
The only problem i have is with RAM (4x 2 GB) : it seems that slot 2,3,4 aren't working anymore(leds lit) while 1 ,5,6,7,8 are ok(i swapped them in working slots to check ) , the RAM is the original one, all DIMM are tested and working , they are installed in slots 1,2 and 5,6 .

So the problem is with memory slots ... i've reset PRAM and SMC , nothing changed.

i should probably reinstall stock processors to check if the problem persists but if in the meantime somebody has any advice ...
Click to expand...
When it cannot recognize the full memory, chances are that either you have uneven pressure with the heatsink or the screws are not tightened enough. Try tightening each screw by another 1/2 turn until it recognizes all your memory.
 
Hi,

I have come a little late to the party here. I have done exactly as Deppest did and bought two 5590s. I installed them today, and it will not post.

I get all fans running and the HDD spins up, but the Mac never bongs.

I put my old CPUs back in and it all works fine so I know I didn't brick my MP (phew!)

There is a little red light next to slot 4 (the only one I can see) when it won't boot. A clue?

My system:

MP 4,1 (I am unable to flash using the netkas utility. It just doesn't work - no idea why - a clue?)
2x 2.26Ghz
16Gb 1066 (6x1066 sticks and 2x1333 - another clue?)
Nvidia GTX 570 (not flashed but works a treat under 10.7.5)
10.7.5

Many thanks in advance

jake
 
quadraspleen said:
I get all fans running and the HDD spins up, but the Mac never bongs.
Click to expand...
This is very likely due to the fact that the heatsink fan connectors are not properly connected (seated) to the processor board, and that's why no POST. You never mentioned if you used washers. Some people clipped the fan connectors so they could be properly seated when washers are used, others did not clip anything and still made them work depending on the thickness of washers used. See this thread for some reference.
 
xcodeSyn said:
You never mentioned if you used washers.
Click to expand...

Hi,

thanks for the speedy reply. No washers, but as per my post, both CPU fans are spinning so I'm guessing the connector is connected? Could it be that it's connected enough to make the fans spin but not post?

Should I remove the clips as per deppest' post? I'm loathe to actually "break" anything to make it work!

Thanks again

jake

EDIT: I read you rvery helful post linked to above. I'm going t try some testing tomorrow with washers. Am I right in assuming then, that I need to be at 5,1 for this to work at all, regardless of my RAM speed?
 
quadraspleen said:
Hi,

thanks for the speedy reply. No washers, but as per my post, both CPU fans are spinning so I'm guessing the connector is connected? Could it be that it's connected enough to make the fans spin but not post?

Should I remove the clips as per deppest' post? I'm loathe to actually "break" anything to make it work!

Thanks again

jake
Click to expand...

If you look at the board through the vertical slats in the heatsinks, you can usually see if the fan connector is actually connecting, or if its getting pushed out of the way.
 
Hi spoonie,

I'm guessing they are connected as the fans spin fine. Having read and re-read these threads, I think I am overtightening the heatsinks. I'm going to have another go tomorrow and see what I can do.

Do you know if I have to have 5,1 firmware to do this?

Thanks
 
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