Xeon X5680s Now $45... October 2018

[James Steele]

Also, the listing says "fully tested", but that's obviously not completely true.

It's worth a shot. I'm sure he'll make good. Only thing that concerns me is that I saw a different seller of the same chips saying that the lids on some of these were SOLDERED on and not glued and that the razor blade de-lidding method wouldn't work! Hmmmm.

[BobK]

Also, the listing says "fully tested", but that's obviously not completely true.

It's worth a shot. I'm sure he'll make good. Only thing that concerns me is that I saw a different seller of the same chips saying that the lids on some of these were SOLDERED on and not glued and that the razor blade de-lidding method wouldn't work! Hmmmm.

Yes, mine were all soldered on.

Razor blades + iron should do it.

I just set the iron on the CPU - didn't even hold onto it - and the lid came off in under 30 seconds.

[James Steele]

Also, the listing says "fully tested", but that's obviously not completely true.

It's worth a shot. I'm sure he'll make good. Only thing that concerns me is that I saw a different seller of the same chips saying that the lids on some of these were SOLDERED on and not glued and that the razor blade de-lidding method wouldn't work! Hmmmm.

Yes, mine were all soldered on.

Razor blades + iron should do it.

I just set the iron on the CPU - didn't even hold onto it - and the lid came off in under 30 seconds.

Great! Makes sense that the iron would soften/melt the solder enough. Appreciate the info!

[HCMarkus]

In related news, the forthcoming High Sierra OS, now available in beta, provides (requires) an EFI update that, among other things, brings NVMe PCIe SSD support to 5,1 Mac Pros. Appears NVMe drives are not yet bootable, but work as data drives.

4,1 MPs that have been flashed to 5,1 also accept the update.

Although I have yet to do so (will likely try within the next few days on my backup MP), the EFI update can be installed without installing the High Sierra beta software by registering with Apple's Beta Software Program, downloading the High Sierra beta installer, proceeding thru the EFI upgrade steps, then cancelling the beta installation. Reports indicate upgraded MPs continue to function properly under Sierra and at least some earlier versions of macOS.

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/ap ... mp.2060505

[James Steele]

Trying not to barf. I think I may have ruined one of my hexcore CPUs. I was following some instructions that suggested wet sanding the die (chip) surface. I put blue painters tape around the die itself like shown in the instructions but I got overly zealous at one point and I sanded a bit of the edge of the board surrounding the chip. See the pics. I wanted to throw up when I realized what I had done. The de-lidding was easy, btw.

I'm hoping that I may be lucky and that my blunder won't affect anything as it's on the top part of that board and not the bottom that makes contact with the socket. I hope someone can tell me if I blew it here, or if I might get lucky.

I suppose I can try it, and if it doesn't work, order another processor, but it will mean my office computer will be down for however many days it takes to get here. I suppose I can swamp CPU trays from my studio computer to keep my office MacPro going.

Thoughts anyone. Are those top two "dots" that were affected crucial??? See pics below. In one of the pics I show "normal" processor for reference.

[James Steele]

I may have lucked out. I just received a piece of good news! I messaged the YouTuber who made the video asking him if I'd ruined it and he wrote me back the following:

"Hello James, From you images you provided, it looks as if you only removed the pcb insulator and didn't do much damage to the conductor plate . Since that portion of the pcb doesn't provide any point of contact with any electronics, I would definitely attempt to test them in your machine to see if it still works. I assume you have also upgraded your firmware first to 5,1? Worse case scenario is you toasted a single cpu and are out a hundred dollars and need to buy another one off ebay. Best of luck to you."

Bold emphasis is mine. I will be so glad if I dodge the bullet this time!

[BobK]

You have nothing to lose by testing it except a little time and thermal paste. I hope it's fine!

[James Steele]

You have nothing to lose by testing it except a little time and thermal paste. I hope it's fine!

Yep. And $72.50. Which sucks, but isn't going to ruin me.

[HCMarkus]

You have nothing to lose by testing it except a little time and thermal paste. I hope it's fine!

Yep. And $72.50. Which sucks, but isn't going to ruin me.

Good luck! We'll be looking forward to the (hopefully happy) conclusion of this saga.

[James Steele]

You have nothing to lose by testing it except a little time and thermal paste. I hope it's fine!

Yep. And $72.50. Which sucks, but isn't going to ruin me.

Good luck! We'll be looking forward to the (hopefully happy) conclusion of this saga.

Hahaha... I know you'll be happy when it's concluded Mark! You probably saw I panicked and texted you first! That's what you get for being so smart!

[HCMarkus]

Hahaha... I know you'll be happy when it's concluded Mark! You probably saw I panicked and texted you first! That's what you get for being so smart!

I've been hanging with some friends from out of town the last couple of days, so missed your text... Sorry 'bout that. As far as my IQ in concerned, appearances can be misleading.

Let me know if I can assist in any way James. Meanwhile, I am keeping my eyes peeled for a bargain dual CPU 4,1 or 5,1. Although I must concede DP9's pre-rendering has allowed me to push my single-CPU studio Mac further than ever, if a great deal comes along (like you got), I'll be very tempted to jump on it!

[James Steele]

Hahaha... I know you'll be happy when it's concluded Mark! You probably saw I panicked and texted you first! That's what you get for being so smart!

I've been hanging with some friends from out of town the last couple of days, so missed your text... Sorry 'bout that. As far as my IQ in concerned, appearances can be misleading.

Let me know if I can assist in any way James. Meanwhile, I am keeping my eyes peeled for a bargain dual CPU 4,1 or 5,1. Although I must concede DP9's pre-rendering has allowed me to push my single-CPU studio Mac further than ever, if a great deal comes along (like you got), I'll be very tempted to jump on it!

Yep. I lucked out on that. Although I might have gone overkill with 64GB of RAM but oh well. I posted about what I was working on on my FB profile and became embroiled in a good natured skirmish with some Windows people. The usual stuff about Macs are too expensive and on Windows you don't need more than 12GB of RAM, etc. I broke down just how much I had invested in this 12-core project and that, for the money, I'm quite pleased. I honestly can't foresee me outgrowing this Mac for minimum 2-3 years... might even be longer so long as my audio interfaces don't die. But geez... by then I'll probably be able to replace my HD192 for a couple hundred bucks or whatever. (Only downside would be that I had the fan in the HD192 professionally upgraded. MOTU had a real issue with some of those units. One day mine sounded like a coffee grinder. A good friends 896 suffered from the same problem and got the fan upgrade done as well.)

Oh... and I'm glad you didn't text me back, bro.... I would hate to interrupt your time with visiting friends.

[James Steele]

Haste made waste. Installed the two hexcore chips and started my Mac up... power light came on and it just sat there. Ordered another 5680 for $73. Live and learn. I *hope* that was the problem!

[BobK]

Haste made waste. Installed the two hexcore chips and started my Mac up... power light came on and it just sat there. Ordered another 5680 for $73. Live and learn. I *hope* that was the problem!

Bummer, dude.

Are you sure you had the heat sink bolts tight enough?

If you haven't seen this: tightening the bolts solved two problems: First, the power light flashed but the computer didn't boot. Second, one of the RAM sticks wasn't recognized.

Cut to the chase: https://youtu.be/YAdgT-hJuXU?t=8m51s

[James Steele]

Are you sure you had the heat sink bolts tight enough?

Positive.

If you haven't seen this: tightening the bolts solved two problems: First, the power light flashed but the computer didn't boot. Second, one of the RAM sticks wasn't recognized.

Cut to the chase: https://youtu.be/YAdgT-hJuXU?t=8m51s

I'll take a look at that. I didn't have the power light flashing. It just came on solid (not flashing) but no boot chime and just stayed that way until it shut off by itself about a minute or two later. I've tried re-seating RAM, swapping RAM, trying processor tray in different 4,1 Mac, no dice.