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Upgrading the CPU of the 2009?

T

TheShaderDragon

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Aug 23, 2010
4
0
Recently I've been cursing over the CPU's bottlenecking everything I do. I'm stuck with the 2009 Mac pro, 2.26 8 Core.
For about a year I've been looking in to manually upgrading the processors.
I've been looking at the W5590's, which I think at some site they offer as a mac pro upgrade.
I've also been thinking about the X5680's, since I heard the 2010 Mac Pro Mobo is identical physically to the 2009, but i've been hesitant to go for those, as supposedly the microcode is different (And I don't know how to deal with that... Has anyone managed to find a way around that yet?)

I'm curious what steps to take, and what precautions to look for, and above all, which and what to go for. One site mentioned an issue caused by the Integrated heat spreader... Should I worry about that?
 
You can't use the Westmere Xeons without replacing your logic board, very expensive.

Not sure why you'd need to jump to Westmere. There isn't a huge difference between them and Nehalem.
 
Shoot, I've been amazed at everything my 2.26 8 core 2009 can do.

I think the only thing left to upgrade CPU wise is faster processor speed. The best way to upgrade is look into OWC CPU upgrade as they have 3.33 8 core. All you have to do is switch CPU trays. But of course very expensive.
 
There are W5590s for $1,200 a piece on eBay right now. A lot cheaper than OWC's price of $3,600 to upgrade.

You should also look at how much it would cost to sell your current system, buy a refurbished 8-core 2.4Ghz and two processors of your choice. Might not be a huge price difference.
 
Umbongo said:
There are W5590s for $1,200 a piece on eBay right now. A lot cheaper than OWC's price of $3,600 to upgrade.
Click to expand...
OWC aren't selling W5590's as upgrades, they're selling X5590s. Of course DIY is cheaper
Umbongo said:
You should also look at how much it would cost to sell your current system, buy a refurbished 8-core 2.4Ghz and two processors of your choice. Might not be a huge price difference.
Click to expand...
Or even get that refurbished 8-core and not worry about upgrading the CPU. Regardless of whether you DIY or not, upgrading the CPU is pretty expensive.
 
If I get the W5590's, will they pretty much be plug and play? Or will there be some sort of process to get them to work, like how we have to flash Graphics cards?

One site mentioned something about needing to remove the Integrated heat spreader, is this true?

I also see some for D0 Stepping for cheaper, is this compatible with the Mac Pro?

...Or would it potentially be cheaper and less risky to wait and build a i7 995 Hackintosh later on?
 
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I would check out this site to you before you go about it, http://www.anandtech.com/show/2800/10
he has done what you want to do with the same Mac Pro and has had success but mixed with a bit of failure on the first try.
It's still a very informative article.
 
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