[MArC4be]

Hello,

is there someone who has succesfully upgraded the CPU's from a MacPro Clovertown 2,66Mhz Dual Core,

• which type of cpu should i use ? the socket must be LGA 771 but the type ? Xeon Quad Core X5365 3.0Ghz 8m ???
• and can i then also put faster memory in the MacPro ? 1333 Mhz DDR3 SDRAM ???
• which video card is recommended ? for now i have ATI Radeon HD 5770

PS i can't play DVD's ... open GL problem ... by insirting a DVD comes the message "installation error" "no DVD player found" (-70017)
or could this be a problem with video card ...
i really need a wizzard here

thanks
MArC

[Mike Wuerthele]

The 5365, 5345, 5335, and 5320 are all confirmed to work. I did mine with the 5345.

And no. This changes nothing as far as memory speed or compatibility.

Accelerate Your Mac model Related Reviews, Mods, Guides, Upgrades and related Articles

[mduell]

This doesn't seem like a cost effective upgrade given the price of the chips and the old memory limitaitons (and price!).

[Mike Wuerthele]

Originally Posted by mduell 

This doesn't seem like a cost effective upgrade given the price of the chips and the old memory limitaitons (and price!).

Depends what you use it for. I got my pair of chips for about $45, plus 8GB of Mac Pro compatible RAM (which runs cooler than the Mac Pro FINS OF DOOM RAM) for about $20.

$65 to bring the machine nearly up to i7 iMac speed for a machine I got new in 2006? Yeah, I'll take that. That said, unless I do something funny to the firmware for 10.8, it stays on Lion forever.

[MArC4be]

Hi, thanks for the reply's,

But, do you (Esta) mean that i can't put better memory in the machine after i changed the cpu ???
i recently read an article that i found on google, he had changed the CPU an put in place of the 667mhs memory the 1066Mhz memory and it worked + he said that it would even work with 1333Mhz memory ...
he tested his Mac Pro with geekbench .. and it was 3 times faster ...

I mean if this is possible, than it would be a fast machine ... maybe put in a better video card also ???

according the artikels i found via google : there are many upgrades possible

On eBay 279$ for a matched pair of CPU's
and memory i found 16GB at 179$
a new Mac Pro ... u know the price ...

Many Thanks and waiting for response

MArC

[MArC4be]

Esta,

which type of CPU did you use, and what kind of memory ??

i need this machine for photoshop and illustrator purposes, but i work frequent with files at ± 600Mb (large format printing)

thanks for your support
MArC

[Mike Wuerthele]

I did mine with the 5345, a quad 2.33 per chip. Faster, cost effective. I use it as a home server, so I didn't need the quad 3.0 ghz chips. The quad 2.33 transcodes video nicely, thanks.

I can't even imagine how upgrading the processor would allow for faster memory- memory compatibility is a function of the motherboard, not the processor. Do you have a link to the article that speaks to the ability to put in the better memory with a different processor? That makes no sense to me.

Any fully buffered, ECC, DDR2-667 RAM works fine in a Mac Pro. I get chips with heat spreaders on them, just to be safe.

For instance (and not my auction)
16GB 8x 2GB PC2 5300F ECC Registered Fully Buffered DDR2 667 Server RAM | eBay

[P]

Originally Posted by EstaNightshift 

I can't even imagine how upgrading the processor would allow for faster memory- memory compatibility is a function of the motherboard, not the processor. Do you have a link to the article that speaks to the ability to put in the better memory with a different processor? That makes no sense to me.

For the generation of CPU that you have, the memory is controlled from the motherboard (the memory controller is in the so-called northbridge or MCH on the motherboard). For newer CPUs, "Nehalem" (Xeon 3500/5500 series) and later, the memory controller is in the CPU, so upgrading the CPU can lead to faster memory - e.g. most Nehalem chips use DDR3-1066 memory, while the top-end Nehalems and the newer Westmeres use DDR3-1333.

[Mike Wuerthele]

Originally Posted by P 

For the generation of CPU that you have, the memory is controlled from the motherboard (the memory controller is in the so-called northbridge or MCH on the motherboard). For newer CPUs, "Nehalem" (Xeon 3500/5500 series) and later, the memory controller is in the CPU, so upgrading the CPU can lead to faster memory - e.g. most Nehalem chips use DDR3-1066 memory, while the top-end Nehalems and the newer Westmeres use DDR3-1333.

Good to know- I've never recored a newer Mac Pro. This explains some of the info the OP brought to the table.

[MArC4be]

Thank you guys for your support,

and OK so i can't put higher memory, but if i go from my "2xDual core 2,66Mhz/4Mb" to a "2xQuad core 2,66Mhz/8Mb" ...
would i get a powerboost or not ... ??? (My video card ATI Radeon 5779/1024Mb and it is for Photoshop and Illustrator use)

i found Xeon Quad core x5355/2,66Mhz matched pair on eBay for 167$ tested, and 30days to send back
i will also instal a SSD disc OWC 240Gb at 179 euro's

PS: today i installed the Mac Pro at the office and run a geekbench test on the Mac Pro and the iMac 3,2Gz (2010)
The Mac pro scored 2,7 and the iMac 1,7 ... but i run a second test ... let Photoshop rasterise a large PDF doc on both computers and the iMac was almost two times faster ... please explain me this Esta ... ???
... must i understand now that a quad core with the same 2,66Mhz will bring me no more power (Photoshop in mind)

THX
MArC

[Mike Wuerthele]

Mileage is going to vary with real world speed over benchmarks. You'll get the most boost on things that use the multiprocessing capability of the machine the best with an eight-core machine.

My machine does video transcoding almost exclusively. With eight cores, it TEARS through anything I put on it.

[MArC4be]

how much cores can Photoshop use ? can it use the 8 cores ?

if not maybe i should put just the 3.0Ghz CPU's

MArC

[MArC4be]

i searched the adobe site and they advise multicore cpu's ...

MArC

[mduell]

Originally Posted by MArC4be 

i will also instal a SSD disc OWC 240Gb at 179 euro's

Don't waste your euros on OWC. Samsung 830/840 is the current winner.

[OreoCookie]

The current iMacs also feature four cores, just like your Mac Pro currently does, and each core in the iMac is significantly faster. Moreover, modern Intel CPUs have Turboboost, which means that the CPU overclocks to much higher speeds when you run workloads that do not need many cores. So it's not surprising the iMac is twice as fast in some of the benchmarks.

Photoshop cannot make very good use of many cores, but apps like Lightroom, Aperture and video editing apps do.

[MArC4be]

THX Oreo, so i better look for more Ghz instead of more cores ...

and THX mduell ... i searched www.samsung.com...solid state drives...search...830/840 ... and found nothing,
maybe u can send me a hotlink ...

THX Esta, P
MArC

[mduell]

https://www.google.com/search?q=sams...ient=firefox-a

[MArC4be]

just put a SSD 120Gb in the machine, ... installing Snow Leopard ... easy without changing something it became my startupdisk, now the processors, i think i'l go for Xeon 2,66Mhz Quad Core's

thank u all

PS for the moderator
this tread may be deleted.

[techahead]

Quad core is more than enough to run most of the photoshop and design related software like Maya and 3ds max

[Waragainstsleep]

I recently got to com[pare video conversion speeds between my old late '08 2.4GHz C2D MBP and a 2008 2x2.8GHz Xserve and the time it takes to convert a 50 minute 720p .x264 mkv to .h264 mp4 for iTunes using Handbrake goes from about 4 hours to approximately 15 minutes so for the right tasks, an 8 core upgrade is spectacularly good.