MP 1,1-5,1 To delid or not to delid

[Power_Mac_Fanatic]

Hey I have a 5,1 mac pro or a 2009 flashed to 5,1 I was wondering do you really need to delid a pair of x5690s or can you just get away with keeping the IHS? There seems to be little information on not deliding the CPUs. And if I need to delid on the x5690 are the IHSs soldered on?

 

[mikas]

CPU compatibility, first post:

• 4,1 dual-processor CPU trays made before May 2009 are problematic with 130W Xeons.
• 4,1 dual-processor Mac Pro uses a special, "lidless" CPUs (the single-processor models use normal CPUs). This has a different height than the normal CPUs, so if you upgrade a dual-processor 4,1 Mac Pro with different processors, you need to deal with the height difference. There are several ways to do this:
  • Buy CPUs that someone has already de-lidded.
  • Buy normal CPUs and de-lid them yourself. Here is thread about delidding yourself and here is a video. (And here is a post warning against delidding yourself.)
  • Buy normal CPUs and pay for de-lidding service.
  • Keep the lids on, but be extremely careful about not tightening down the heat sink too much. (If you don't remove the lids it is very easy to tighten down the heat sink screws too much on a CPU that's too large, resulting in damage to the socket, CPU, and/or board.)
  • Other people have kept the lids on, but added washer stacks (of equivalent height to the lid difference) to where the tightening screws go--this is intended to prevent the heat sink from overtightening and causing damage. Here is an informational washer stack thread, and here is a really good post with pictures and a step-by-step procedure.
  • If you keep the lids on, the existing heat pad won't reach the heat sink due to the extra height of the lids. You need to make up for this gap by replacing the heat pad with a thicker pad.

I would delid those myself if I were to install these. Please read the warning about x5690 too on some early 2009's.

 

[bax2023]

I would always delid other than risking damaging the CPU sockets. The procedure is not complicated, you just need to be extra careful about the SMD components on the CPU and slide the heat spreader in direction of the arrows.

I'v done this at least 6 times without issues.

 

[Fastsavage]

I fitted lidded X5690 to my old MacPro 4,1 dual processor machine about 8 years ago and it's still running perfectly. Just need to be careful how much you tighten them down. I used 2mm washers when I did mine. (I thinks)
Also you need to invest in Macs Fan Control https://crystalidea.com/macs-fan-control