Xeon X5680s Now $45... October 2018

[HCMarkus]

I went from 8x2.26 to 8x3.3 a few years ago when anything more was cost prohibitive. 12x for under $400?!?! Guess it's time to upgrade again.

Are these chips you've seen lidless or do they need modification?

Lidded, so the work with 4,1 Single CPU or 5,1 Dual or Single CPU Macs. Those wishing to upgrade a 4.1 Dual CPU will either need to de-lid (on your own or via Delidding service - ebay $150 for two CPUs) or use great care when torquing down heatsinks.

4,1 owners will need to upgrade firmware to 5,1 to use hex CPUs… see first post in this thread.

[HCMarkus]

On eBay. You can find pairs for under 300 bucks. Kinda wish I'd waited... could have saved the price of a good dinner for two.

Jim, I paid $600 for one w3680, so I don't particularly want to hear about it!

Then again, I've enjoyed hex performance for almost three years already.

[Gravity Jim]

HC, I paid $380 for a pair of 5680s in January of this year. Now you might find a pair for 100 bucks less, but I don't regret it. Best update/upgrade money I've spent in 20 years.

[HCMarkus]

HC, I paid $380 for a pair of 5680s in January of this year. Now you might find a pair for 100 bucks less, but I don't regret it. Best update/upgrade money I've spent in 20 years.

I agree Jim, we BOTH got a great deal... Glad you are enjoying your newfound CPU horsepower!

[monkey man]

Pulled from the RAM thread…

The biggest inconvenience by far was unplugging all the USB and AudioWire gear and making notes on the order the cables were plugged in.

Y'all probably don't even need to do that if you just pull the processor tray… Regardless, it sounds like everything is well in Monkeydom. Yeah!

I have to disconnect everything every time I need to open the unit, unfortunately HC. It lives in the bottom of one of my racks; only the front and rear are accessible. It's a right PITA to physically remove and reposition; the cables are fun to do in comparison. I don't mind 'though 'cause it's a "safe" spot for my baby.

Just on the CPU-replacement thing, my lil' brother, who's a serious gamer running a massive tower with 5GHz (Intel?) CPUs, reckons that mine shouldn't have peaked beyond the 70ºC mark, as one did, when exposed only to a brief 58% load. I converted a short video recently and this is what happened. Largest CPU hit thus far since the changeover.

Whaddaya think? He was shocked, to say the least, when I described the Monkey-Madness process of CPU switching. He reckons I should clean it all up and do it again. The temp response seriously scared him. He quoted a bunch of temp figures to me that his system experiences under different loads, and they were way, waaay down on mine. Of course, I can't remember any of them. It was, after all, some ungodly hour (3AM roughly), and he spewed them forth at a rate of knots.

Again, whaddaya think, Sir Markus? I really, really don't want to have to do it all again, and summer's a good 6 months away, so for now at least, the room's gonna be cold. Real cold.

[HCMarkus]

I"d review this thread again MM:

http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=1868016

Guys are running 80c all day, one comment:

Actually you can run 85C for days no problem. The fans (without help of any software) kick in around the 80C mark and they speed up as needed.

I must leave this to you own judgment, but you could consider changing fan profile; it is my understanding the default MP fan speeds are low, to keep the machine quiet.

Ultimately, if you botched the paste job really badly, it should be re-done. One indicator could be wildly varying temps from core to core, but workload can also be unbalanced core to core, and will affect relative core temps.

[sndmarks]

Already did the 5.1 update when I did the last upgrade with many thanks to all of your great info here, HC.

My impression is that coupling the lidded CPUs with the 2009 Dual (ex-4.1) setup reduces/inhibits heat transfer or, at the very least, is less efficient.

Any thoughts? Are you guys generally bothering with delidding? And, if so, where does it fall on the easy-to-f-up scale?


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

[monkey man]

Well, I've kinda just proved anything's easy to f-up... for me. LOL
Sorry, I'll leave that one to HC and other experts.

Sir Markus, thank you for putting my mind at ease. Guess I needed to hear that. If she exceeds 85ºC decently for extended periods, if I'm reading this correctly, that'd be my cue to bring on the MonkeyLabs CPU Shuffle MkII™ procedure.

Again, and as always, thank you mate!
Nicky

[HCMarkus]

I may just get brave and do this, because it's a challenge and I'm overtly optimistic at times.
Apparently the big setback is that the Xeons have soldered on lids, some german guy posted this video!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JdPuneT30_o

At $400 it's worth it to me to buy these two chips plus a soldered on chip or two for $15-$25 to test this method on. I don't think I would be comfortable not replicating what Apple would do with the chips, IE leaving the caps on etc. and $600 puts it at a range where I'm starting to wince a bit.

It worked for Mike. Certainly look doable, and he describes his experience somewhere in this lengthy thread. edit: Page 5

Here's another option:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/2009-MacPro-4-1 ... 27fee35701

[Gravity Jim]

As long as you remain fearful that you might break something, you'll find that computer components are tougher than your fear says they are. Take your time, give the possibility of destruction the healthy respect you'd give, say, a circular saw, and you'll be fine.

[monkey man]

A-ha! So the answer is to live in fear.

Fantastic news! This describes my life to a T.

Thank you for the timely reminder, Jim... seriously.

[HCMarkus]

MM, you are so awesome.

To/With a "T" for Totally.

[monkey man]

Aw, shucks, Sir Markus.

You're far too kind, brother, and pretty damned T-ea-totalling awesome .

[toodamnhip]

I have to unfortunately let you all know of a potential problem with replacing one’s processor chips.
I updated mine from an 8 core, 2.61, to a 12 core 3.33.

All seemed well for about 3+ months and then I started having trouble starting the computer.

At 1st the start up issue was occasional, but it slowly turned to a constant issue. The comp would start but no Mac power on chime, no video monitor, just fan noise and other creaks and computer groans...etc. I tried a ton of fixes such a pram re set etc, and none worked. The computer does eventually start, but it takes like 12 attempts for it to start. I started just leaving it on 24-7, which often works but sometimes, the comp won;t come out of sleep and needs a re start, which can again take 11 attempts.


I took my comp to an authorized repair shop here in LA, a respected one. They found that when they put back my original chip, the start up problem went away. So, the 12 core chip is the culprit. Unfortunately, I have several productions using the full power of the 12 core chip so I had the repair shop put the 12 core chip BACK in and when I got it back to the studio, it turned on with one attempt. But I am assuming the problem will return.

I originally bought a NEW set of chips from Aventis systems on eBay, and it appears there might be a 1 yr warrantee. So, when I can get hold of the company via phone, I will see what they offer as far as a replacement. I cannot tell at present if I have a chip set that has failed or if the concept of replacing chips is problematic. I would guess that the chip went out a bit as I have head of no other issues here. The weird thing is, when the comp starts, the chips work fine....

Stay tuned.

[kgdrum]

I don't know if this will help but a basic setting I always go with is set sleep to NEVER.
Sleep seems to introduce problems from my experience,I'm curious if you turn off sleep if the problem goes away...........