Upgrade Time

[honeycombz]

Hey, I've got the Mac Pro 3.1 2.8ghz quad core x2 and had been holding off on upgrades for awhile in hopes of a more conservative mac pro uograde by Apple. Seeing how that's not the case, I have started maki some upgrades to my machine... bumped the RAM from 6 to 8 gb, replaced the stock card with the 5770 and I want to do more but thought I would check in first. I was wondering if you can buy the heatsinks for the ram separately so I could buy cheaper RAM and then just clip pn the heat sinks myself. Also, it seems manageable to upgrade the processors however I am unclear which ones to get. I am thinking if I could go to 3ghz instead of 3.2 that would be best seeing how from what I have found the extra .2 ghz is quite a leap in price. Is ebay the only place to get them and can I get one that says it was manufactured by dell if all the specs are the same? I am confused. Even though all my drive bays are full, I would like to add an SSD drive... I am thinking swapping put one of the two optical drives for and SSD seeing how I rarely use my optical let alone both of them. Then I would like to make use of those two unused sata ports, anyone recommend a good PCI Card for this? Any advice would be great seeing how I think I am committed to sticking with my 3.1 until Apple stops including it in updates and even then I will probably wait another year. Thanks!

 

[OS6-OSX]

The most important information missing from your post is how your 3,1 is use and with what apps.
The move from 6GB to 14GB or 16GB of ram would have been a better move. Again, this all depends on the apps. Not to mention the price of ram for the 3,1 is !
Depending on your setup, placing an SSD as the OS in the optical bay may be advantageous.
A little late but bypassing the 5770 to another card may have been a choice to consider. But this brings everything back to apps and the "system requirements" for them.

 

[honeycombz]

i would have liked to get the 5870 but found a really good deal on the 5770 on ebay to pass up and figured this would be good until I come across a better option down the road. I was in a situation where I needed to upgrade something pronto and the 256mb stock thing was not cutting it. It seemed like there were better options and flashed cards but It sounded like you lose the boot screen and i wasnt feeling very adventurous at the time. Certainly open to future plans. I mainly use my machine with Photoshop and some After Effects work, and then some web dev work and the occasional call of duty type game but I have been so busy these days gaming time has almost disappeared so...