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Upgrading the 2009 2.66 GHz CPU
- Thread starter Thomaspin
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I'm in the same boat. Just received my base MP 4,1 and 24 GB of Ram today. The i7 980x is on its way home. Total cost was slightly above 1000€ (eBay and Amazon for the RAM) which is a good deal for Europe.
I will move my SSD from my old MP 1,1 and resell that one.
As a bonus i had the surprise of finding an unadvertised Apple RAID card in the MP 4,1. I think I won't keep it but sell it with the old CPU to further limit the upgrade expense.
Must admit this was the hardest part when I was doing mine, finding a w3680 for a good price. I just paid over £300 for one, not sure if I paid to much for it. Love the blog by the way really a nice read.
What application do you use to rip Blu-Rays?
117F is a low temperature for CPU load. At least in a Mac Pro. I'd love to have temps that low.
Do you raise the fan speeds at all with fan control software?
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£300 sounds to be the going price at the moment. W3680 is just under $600 in US.
makemkv--that is a Windows program. You are converting your blu-rays in Boot Camp?
Regarding the i7-980........did you get a new or used one for $330?
I've installed the MakeMkv application, and it is quite nice. Very quick conversion and the CPU temps stay fairly low. Didn't go much higher than the 117F you quoted.
Handbrake takes much longer and thrashes the CPU.
I recall that you raised the INTAKE and EXHAUST fanspeeds on your 8-core Mac Pro in order to lower the Northbridge temp. Did you not pursue this on your 4-core movie server mac pro?
MakeMKV is a nice app as I use this more often than Handbrake for blu-rays. Doesn't make the CPU heat up too much As an alternate, I also use Toast Titanium to save blu-rays to the HD. It creates a "virtual disc image" It's like you playing the actual disc in your Mac complete with all the interactive menus.
