[Halfloaf]

Hi All,

I've got a stock MacPro 2008 (3,1) which has served me very well for 3 years. I've just inherited an old Dell T7400 workstation from work which has been 'decomissioned'. I've checked and it seems the following components seem to be compatible with my Mac.

4GB Ram - DDR2 ECC FB-DIMS
2x 7.2k HD's
DVD Writer
nVidia Quadro card for Windows / Linux use only. I have a 8800GT standard card

Now, the CPU's seem to be quad core Xeons running at 3Ghz. This would be a nice boost over my 2.8Ghz chips. Are these pin compatible and would I need to do anything apart from swap them over? Will my PSU cope OK?

Jacques

[Waragainstsleep]

Chances are if the CPUs physically fit, they should work. PSU should be fine.

FWIW the MP chips don't actually have physical pins. Probably worth checking the exact model of the CPUs in the Dell.
The GPU will only work in Windows as I understand it.

[Halfloaf]

Thanks. I believe the 7400 has 2x 3Ghz E5472 quad core cpu's.

I'll see if I can dismantle the unit tonight but suspect I'll need a long reach torx screwdriver...

Jacques

[Halfloaf]

Well, the operation was a success. The 3Ghz chips were actually the X5472 version (120W vs 80W) and work a treat. They run slightly warmer, bt not by much, only about 3 degrees.

To minimise the heat gain I lapped the top of the chips with 1200grit paper before I cleaned and applied AS5 thermal paste.This is to smooth them out for optimum contact with the heatsink.

Mac sees the chips fine and reports them correctly, as I'd expect as these machine used to ship with these under the 3Ghz version.

Overall a 7% gain in multi-processor calcs, and 8% gain in OpenGL performance.

Overall took 30mins to upgrade...Not bad.

Next upgrade is a GFX card.

Jacques

Some photos here on Facebook.


http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?s...p;l=983be7de35