Mac Pro old vs new

[supersonic]

[SixStringGeek]

To do the job, you pull the processor drawers, unscrew the heatsinks (use a long handled Allen wrench - I've got one, call me and I'll loan it to you), lift off the heatsinks, then unclamp the original CPUs. Clean the heatsink bases, clamp down the new CPUs, apply thermal paste, slide in Heatsink/CPU A assembly first, test, then B.
...
If you use Xeon x5690's, you brush up very close to the 6,1 12 core Mac Pro Geekbench score. x5680's get you almost as close. Either will leave your 2,1 so far behind the dust will already have settled.

Fab, I just pulled the trigger on one of these and attendant processor chip upgrades. Should arrive later in the week. Looking forward to the 3x speed increase.

[HCMarkus]

Fab, I just pulled the trigger on one of these and attendant processor chip upgrades. Should arrive later in the week. Looking forward to the 3x speed increase.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rQnYi3z56RE

[James Steele]

Anxious to hear how it works out for you! I'm live near you guys and I totally want to do this to my MacPro 4,1 soon as I can afford it.

[HCMarkus]

Used Xeon 3680s are running under $275 Buy It Now on Ebay these days James. 3690s about $340.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/INTEL-XEON-W368 ... 27e5f34884

I'm gonna' lend 6String my long handled hex wrench, but you can borrow it next!

You can flash you 4,1 to a 5,1 anytime for free:
http://forum.netkas.org/index.php/topic,852.0.html
You must register and log in to see the link to the firmware update at bottom of first post.

[James Steele]

Used Xeon 3680s are running under $275 Buy It Now on Ebay these days James. 3690s about $340.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/INTEL-XEON-W368 ... 27e5f34884

I'm gonna' lend 6String my long handled hex wrench, but you can borrow it next!

You can flash you 4,1 to a 5,1 anytime for free:
http://forum.netkas.org/index.php/topic,852.0.html
You must register and log in to see the link to the firmware update at bottom of first post.

Wow... thanks HC! That's definitely within reach. Gotta just make sure I have the September bills covered and then maybe I'll go for it. Right now I have so many different priorities. I've been spending on my live rig lately as well.

[HCMarkus]

Chatted with 6String yesterday… his 5,1 brain transplant was a success! He reports that, with only 8 gigs of RAM and running from mechanical HDs (more RAM and SSDs coming), the Geekbench score for his 12 core 3.33 (X5680) is in excess of 27k. All for $2,300 and a little (and I mean little) elbow grease. And it is super expandable. Now THAT is what I call computing value!

Congrats 6String… your geekyness is paying off!

[James Steele]

Oh man! So cool! I gotta take my 4,1 to a Hex soon but I may have more pressing issues. Problems with my OWC Accelsior which was small to start with at 120GB. Corruption issues. Failed Disc Utilities 3 times before fixed and with some damages files when it was. Need to go with one of those (Samsung?) SSDs that are larger.

[HCMarkus]

Oh man! So cool! I gotta take my 4,1 to a Hex soon but I may have more pressing issues. Problems with my OWC Accelsior which was small to start with at 120GB. Corruption issues. Failed Disc Utilities 3 times before fixed and with some damages files when it was. Need to go with one of those (Samsung?) SSDs that are larger.

Yes, the Samsung Evo drives are time-tested solid. Use that Accelsior to stream your most-used samples, so you can simply re-install the data if it fails.