I have a Mac Pro Dual 2.66 Xeon (woodcrest 5100), can i upgrade cpus?

Posted:
in Current Mac Hardware edited January 2014
I bought this in early 2007, it's 2 CPUS (2cores each) making it a quadcore machine... i was wondering if i could upgrade the CPUs. woodcrest made 3.0ghz processors, but unsure if they are still just 2cores or 4 cores each

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 6
    benroethigbenroethig Posts: 2,782member
    Yes and no. The sockets are standard 771s, but the fan controller is programed for the specific chip. I don't know if there's some kind of third party update tool floating around.
  • Reply 2 of 6
    macxpressmacxpress Posts: 5,808member
    Delete me.....
  • Reply 3 of 6
    rezwitsrezwits Posts: 879member
    I have seen guys upgrade them to 2.66 Quad x 2, and sell them on eBay, like 3 or 4 times. When I was looking that is. So I think you just get clovertown 2.66, but I have no idea the technical skill that you may need, I have done building PCs and upgraded zifs but not Apple Intels.



    Laters...
  • Reply 4 of 6
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by BenRoethig View Post


    Yes and no. The sockets are standard 771s, but the fan controller is programed for the specific chip. I don't know if there's some kind of third party update tool floating around.



    Does this mean that it wouldn't startup at all, or that the existing cooling may be inadequate for the newer processor?



    Quote:
    Originally Posted by domerdel2 View Post


    I bought this in early 2007, it's 2 CPUS (2cores each) making it a quadcore machine... i was wondering if i could upgrade the CPUs. woodcrest made 3.0ghz processors, but unsure if they are still just 2cores or 4 cores each



    Have you seen the prices on these processors? You are looking at spending nearly a grand for what would probably be a negligible speed increase.
  • Reply 5 of 6
    futurepastnowfuturepastnow Posts: 1,772member
    People have done it and it works. It doesn't make any economic sense, though, compared to just reselling the old machine and buying a new one. The absurd resale prices on Macs work in your favor here.
  • Reply 6 of 6
    seek3rseek3r Posts: 179member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by BenRoethig View Post


    Yes and no. The sockets are standard 771s, but the fan controller is programed for the specific chip. I don't know if there's some kind of third party update tool floating around.



    AFAIK the fan controller is programmed to spin the fans as necessary based on heat generation, not keyed to a specific chip. As long as the chips are within the heat envelope of the *hottest* chips apple marketed on that model you should be golden, and even if they ran slightly hotter I wouldn't worry about it....
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