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Question about Mac Pro 5,1 temperature

W

w8ing4intelmacs

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Feb 22, 2006
559
4
East Coast, US
I just upgraded my quad core 2.8 MP 5,1 to a hexcore 3.33 (W5680).
To be honest, I can't remember if the CPU fans would run from startup, but I notice that they run from startup after the upgrade. It creates a low hum that again, I don't remember if it did that before.

Here a listing of temperatures from Hardware Monitor. Are these temperatures normal? I'm especially concerned about the northbridge chip.
 

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Idle temps are not ideal, but not bad either.

What are your temperatures at full load? Try doing a Handbrake 1080p video file conversion for about 20 minutes and report back with temps. If they're over 90, I'd be worried.

Also, try reapplying the thermal paste but watch this video before doing so:

 
here are the temps after doing a 20min handbrake conversion. ambient temp is still 26C

ill try reapplying the thermal paste. i totally did the credit card method.
 

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w8ing4intelmacs said:
here are the temps after doing a 20min handbrake conversion. ambient temp is still 26C

ill try reapplying the thermal paste. i totally did the credit card method.
Click to expand...

I don't think you have much to worry about in regards to temperatures. You should be fine. Remember it takes a while for the thermal paste to set in, so your temps might change in the coming days/weeks.
 
w8ing4intelmacs said:
I just upgraded my quad core 2.8 MP 5,1 to a hexcore 3.33 (W5680).
To be honest, I can't remember if the CPU fans would run from startup, but I notice that they run from startup after the upgrade. It creates a low hum that again, I don't remember if it did that before.

Here a listing of temperatures from Hardware Monitor. Are these temperatures normal? I'm especially concerned about the northbridge chip.
Click to expand...
Your temps are perfectly normal.
The Intel processors used in Macs are designed to automatically shut down to prevent damage if they truly overheat. CPU Tjmax = 105C (221F), GPU Tjmax = 100C (212F) on i3, i5, i7 processors. (Source: Intel)
​
Unless there is a rare defect in a Mac, most temps are well within the normal operating range, considering the workload being put on it. Websites with Flash content, games and other multimedia apps will put higher demand on the CPU/GPU, generating more heat. This is normal. If you're constantly putting high demands on your system, such as gaming or other multimedia tasks, expect temps to rise and fans to spin up accordingly. It's just your Mac doing its job to maintain temps within the normal range.
​
 
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First you have an X5680 (the "W" Prefix was discontinued after the W55XX series. Second, I see no problem with your temperatures.

Lou
 
yes, sorry, it's an x5680. to be honest, i bought the chip about a month ago, but was scared to pull the trigger on the upgrade for fear of some disastrous mistake (like breaking the cpu board). the upgrade was incredibly easy that i'm kicking myself for not doing it sooner.

thanks everyone for the feedback. it helps a lot to have confirmation that things are normal.
 
The temperature is fine.

Regarding the noise, you better check the fan speed. That may be coming from the PCIe fan, not necessary from the CPU fan.
 
If that's the fan speed under full load, than the speed is good.

If that's during idle, than the Booster A should stay at 800 RPM, and Exhaust should be 500. You may try a SMC reset if you believe the fan speed is abnormal.

Anyway, your hearing is really good, that 56RPM difference shouldn't be that noticeable :eek:

Another possibility is because your intake and exhaust fan now running at very similar RPM, that low hum may be the resultant beat frequency.
 
My 4,1 is definitely louder than my 3,1 was at idle, it's annoying.

Having said that, the 4,1 doesn't ramp the fans up much during renders and other taxing workloads, so that's nice.
 
Here are temps and fan speeds when running at a full load (12 minutes into a handbrake mkv encoding).

I don't know if my hearing is all that good :) I'm just saying I notice a hum now. It may have been there before but I don't remember, and I'm not really wanting to reinstall the old CPU to find out :)

Screen Shot 2015-07-13 at 6.29.58 PM.jpg
Screen Shot 2015-07-13 at 6.30.07 PM.jpg
 
My 4,1 (flashed to 5,1 with a hex 3.46) is louder than my old 2008 8-core too - that was so quiet. My noise is definitely coming from the cpu fan, I'd tried so many things to reduce it, but I haven't purchased a new heat sink and fan unit as there's no guarantee that the new one wouldn't just be the same.

As I have a 'one room studio' (audio), the noise bothers me occasionally.

I sometimes turn the speed down using iStat - temps are still great for me.
 
Sharky II said:
My 4,1 (flashed to 5,1 with a hex 3.46) is louder than my old 2008 8-core too - that was so quiet. My noise is definitely coming from the cpu fan, I'd tried so many things to reduce it, but I haven't purchased a new heat sink and fan unit as there's no guarantee that the new one wouldn't just be the same.

As I have a 'one room studio' (audio), the noise bothers me occasionally.

I sometimes turn the speed down using iStat - temps are still great for me.
Click to expand...

I think it's the boost fans, they're little and whiney. I'm not sure why they're in there, the standard push-pull in the 2008 would have worked fine as far as I can see.
 
In my exp, once the Boosta > 900RPM, that will become noticeable. Even though the noise is very low, but still audible.

The interesting thing is that the Mac Pro usually will keep the noise to a lower level and let the temperature go a bit higher. You CPU is just 77C, which should not cause the fan to speed up (The stock fan setting should let it go up to around 85C). May I know which OS X version you are using now?
 
h9826790 said:
The interesting thing is that the Mac Pro usually will keep the noise to a lower level and let the temperature go a bit higher. You CPU is just 77C, which should not cause the fan to speed up (The stock fan setting should let it go up to around 85C). May I know which OS X version you are using now?
Click to expand...

Interesting... My CPUs diode reading generally sit at about 34-44 degrees at idle, yet the BOOST fans both spin at 1113 RPM, machine as in sig and latest version of OS X.
 
I am not sure if the dual CPU model is different. However, for my W3520 and W3690, without any fan control software, my booster will stay at 800RPM until the CPU hit 80C, and then they will spin up to keep it below 85C (usually stay at around 83C under full load).

The idle temperature is a function of ambient, and it's usually stay within the ambient + 10C range.

The heatsink usually 1-3 degree cooler than the diode during idle (normal idle with some background task running, not true idle), but the temperature difference will go up to around 16C when under full load.
 
My normal temps with 20c ambient are

CPU 38c
Northbridge 72c

Ambient temps 28c

CPU 45c
Norhbridge 79c

My fan speed is set 100rpm higher when weather is hot.
 
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