What is the fastest i7 I can throw in a Dual 2009 Mac Pro

[Transporteur]

If you are careful enough you can remove the IHS anyway

IMO this involves too much risk for processors that cost $1000 a piece.

The glue that holds the heatspreader in place is extremely solid and hard to cut, plus if your blade goes too close to the die, you might cut transistors that are located on the PCB.

A safer method is to grind the heatspreader till you reach the die. There is very little wiggle room, though.

The safest method is to simply leave the heatspreader alone and use appropriate means to ensure that the Pro's heat sink re-gains contact to the mosfets on the daughterboard.

 

[djulz]

The fact that you can't get CPUs without a heatspreader isn't really an issue.
2009 MP machines have been successfully upgraded with heatspreader CPUs before.

Upgraded to what? 35XX?

 

[nanofrog]

To be honest, I doubt that the 2009 will support Westmeres, no matter which version they run.

This is my suspicion as well.

 

[Transporteur]

Upgraded to what? 35XX?

3500 series is a SP version. You need 5500 series to upgrade the MP version.

 

[beto2k7]

Is there any way to dump the bootrom contents?

 

[Cindori]

Is there any way to dump the bootrom contents?

ofc not. this would have had a great attention.
you can extract it from updates though ofc.

 

[nanofrog]

Is there any way to dump the bootrom contents?

Generally speaking, there's 2 ways to do this:

1. Software, which no one's managed yet (i.e. modifiy the Flash Update utility to flash a 2009 with the 2010 ROM code on the Firmware Update disk <can download this from Apple's site>).

2. Hardware, which means removing the ROM chip from a 2010, hooking it up to universal programmer (examples), and getting a copy (put the 2010 ROM back). Then remove the ROM from a 2009, attach it to a programmer, and flash it with the copy you got from the 2010. This will will work, and has actually been done as I understand it. Unfortunately, it requires access to both systems as well as skills (SMD soldering skills for starters) and tools that most users don't posses or have access to.