Upgraded mac pro 2.66 Quad to 2.66 Octo. Questions.

[orbitalpunk]

Hi there,

I upgraded my quad 2.66 to a octo 2.66 mac pro and had a question for someone else you has done the same. My activity monitor now only shows 1 CPU meter. but the system profiler says 8 cores. anyone else only seeing 1 cpu meter in the activity monitor?

Thanks

[Eithanius]

I have a standard octo-3.0 and yes, it has only 1 CPU meter. The lower area of the Activity Monitor has an area way to small to accommodate 8 CPU meters, unlike the duals and quads. And when you try to load 4 cores, half the CPU meter will display load activities. The increment goes when you load more cores...

[sbb155]

how did you upgrade? are quad 2.6 processors out? was it easy?

[Lone Deranger]

Okay.. this won't do at all... You're going to elaborate on how exactly you pulled that one of. :confused:
I'd be very interested in going this route myself. Please spill the beans. :)

Hi there,

I upgraded my quad 2.66 to a octo 2.66 mac pro and had a question for someone else you has done the same. My activity monitor now only shows 1 CPU meter. but the system profiler says 8 cores. anyone else only seeing 1 cpu meter in the activity monitor?

Thanks

[orbitalpunk]

well your in luck, i took the whole process on video and will be posting it as my initial video on my website soon. its free, dont worry. give me a day to cut it up into a nice vid. ill post back here.

and yes, 2.66 quads have been out of a while. they just price dropped also. on price grabber you can find them for $800 a piece. i found mine on ebay for 710 a piece.


oh, theres only one other glitch, they show up as unknown under about this mac.

http://tinyurl.com/2vekr8

but system profiler is fine

http://tinyurl.com/2m58je

and this is me rendering a 3d scene in maya. cut my render times in half.

http://tinyurl.com/2vluzx

[Lone Deranger]

That's awesome Orbitalpunk! Using Maya here myself alongside modo, zBrush and XSI. Speaking of which, have you tried checking under bootcamp if all is well?

I shall look forward to seeing your vid. Thanks for doing this! :D

well your in luck, i took the whole process on video and will be posting it as my initial video on my website soon. its free, dont worry. give me a day to cut it up into a nice vid. ill post back here.

and yes, 2.66 quads have been out of a while. they just price dropped also. on price grabber you can find them for $800 a piece. i found mine on ebay for 710 a piece.

[cr2sh]

Rock on. This is fantastic news... can't wait to see the video, although right now.. the quad 2.66 FAR exceeds my needs.

[motoxpress]

Very interesting! So much for the warranty though :/

-mx

[macenforcer]

Very interesting! So much for the warranty though :/

-mx

He can just put the original cpu's back if there is a problem. Like apple would know the difference. Besides, I think the Mac Pro rarely has any problems requiring service. Not like it has liquid coolent leakage problems you know?

[slughead]

you can just buy clovertowns and toss them in a mac pro.

the tricky part is taking apart the case:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xOF435jCg8E

mind the german

[motoxpress]

He can just put the original cpu's back if there is a problem. Like apple would know the difference. Besides, I think the Mac Pro rarely has any problems requiring service. Not like it has liquid coolent leakage problems you know?

Yeah, if he holds on to those procs then he could be fine. Most will probably sell them though to try to recoup some of their investment.

-mx

[motoxpress]

you can just buy clovertowns and toss them in a mac pro.

the tricky part is taking apart the case:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xOF435jCg8E

mind the german

Not trivial but, reminds me a bit of the process of changing a HD in a MBP :)

-mx

[Lone Deranger]

So what type of quad proc specifically does one need to get hold of (other than 2.66 or 3.0GHz) to ensure it'll work? I had a quick browse for Xeon Clovertowns, but quickly got lost in the confusing array of numbers, names and technotalk.
Any good tips for reliable UK shops?

[Umbongo]

So what type of quad proc specifically does one need to get hold of (other than 2.66 or 3.0GHz) to ensure it'll work? I had a quick browse for Xeon Clovertowns, but quickly got lost in the confusing array of numbers, names and technotalk.
Any good tips for reliable UK shops?

Intel Xeon X5355 are the 2.66GHz clovertowns you'd probably want. Looks like they are selling for just under £500 at the moment here in the UK. I'd normally buy from scan.co.uk, but their pricing on this item is messed up at the moment. Wait a couple of weeks and see what the prices settle at using one of the pricing sites like pricegrabber, pricerunner or google's product search.

[Eidorian]

you can just buy clovertowns and toss them in a mac pro.

the tricky part is taking apart the case:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xOF435jCg8E

mind the germanGreat video. :D

That might be me in a few years.

[Multimedia]

well your in luck, i took the whole process on video and will be posting it as my initial video on my website soon. its free, dont worry. give me a day to cut it up into a nice vid. ill post back here.

and yes, 2.66 quads have been out of a while. they just price dropped also. on price grabber you can find them for $800 a piece. i found mine on ebay for 710 a piece.That means it's cheaper to buy a refurbished 3GHz 8 core Mac Pro with warranty intact for only $1200 more than the refurbished 2.66GHz 4 core Mac Pro. So no point in doing this.

4 core 2.66GHz Mac Pro refurbished $2,199
8 core 3GHz Mac Pro refurbished $3,399

Only $1,200 more.

But still looking forward to your video. The german video is incomplete. Nothing about how they dealt with the goo on the processor before replacing the heat sinks. And I can't understand what size-type those screw drivers are either. Thank you for sharing.

[Wild-Bill]

Nothing about how they dealt with the goo on the processor before replacing the heat sinks. And I can't understand what size-type those screw drivers are either. Thank you for sharing.

Screws I believe are "torx" screws.

As far as the "goo" goes....... you would prep the mating surfaces (bottom of heat sink and top of processor) by cleaning it with some isopropyl alcohol and a lint-free cloth, making sure not to get your fingers on either because you will leave grease deposits. Before installing a heatsink to a processor you need to apply some thermal interface material (TIM). Best on the market right now is called "Arctic Silver 5". Apply a dab in the middle of the processor (the size of about a grain of rice), then install heatsink. Done.

[suneohair]

Very nice. :D

[Fearless Leader]

The screw type in the video is an allen wrench.

What happens if you put two different processors in there?

[Eidorian]

Screws I believe are "torx" screws.

As far as the "goo" goes....... you would prep the mating surfaces (bottom of heat sink and top of processor) by cleaning it with some isopropyl alcohol and a lint-free cloth, making sure not to get your fingers on either because you will leave grease deposits. Before installing a heatsink to a processor you need to apply some thermal interface material (TIM). Best on the market right now is called "Arctic Silver 5". Apply a dab in the middle of the processor (the size of about a grain of rice), then install heatsink. Done.I thought they were hex or torx.

Thermal paste isn't that complicated either. Well don't ask Apple about it...

[ziwi]

What would happen if one only upgraded one chip - is that possible? Essentially having a 6 core machine...that would be an interesting experiment...

[Umbongo]

What would happen if one only upgraded one chip - is that possible? Essentially having a 6 core machine...that would be an interesting experiment...

I don't think they will boot with two different processors in them.

[orbitalpunk]

That means it's cheaper to buy a refurbished 3GHz 8 core Mac Pro with warranty intact for only $1200 more than the refurbished 2.66GHz 4 core Mac Pro. So no point in doing this.

4 core 2.66GHz Mac Pro refurbished $2,199
8 core 3GHz Mac Pro refurbished $3,399

Only $1,200 more.

But still looking forward to your video. The german video is incomplete. Nothing about how they dealt with the goo on the processor before replacing the heat sinks. And I can't understand what size-type those screw drivers are either. Thank you for sharing.

but i sold my old cpus for $700. so i saved $500 when compared to your refurbished numbers. But I never buy refurbished. my 2.66 was brand new. it would have to be new which a 3ghz is $4,545.00. so comparing from selling my old 2.66 for say $2200 on ebay I would have to put $2345 more into a new 3ghz system. so only spending $700 more for a 2.66 octo cpu's for me sounds a lot better. so in my case i saved myself $1645. and you dont think thats worth it? hmm.....

and its a desktop so i am not worried about having a warranty like a am with my macbook pro. with the money i saved, i could buy a motherboard if that ever blew, which has never happened to me at least since my 486DX 33mhz packard bell w/turbo button waaaaaay back in the day.

oh and yes, i used the x5355 cpus.

[orbitalpunk]

I thought they were hex or torx.

Thermal paste isn't that complicated either. Well don't ask Apple about it...

the heatsinks are 3mm or 1/8 hex. not torx. but oddly enough, on two of the screws the hex would not fit. really really strange. but a torx of similar size worked fine.

in my vid will talk about thermal paste and proper cleaning of the older past. so clean you can lick it. using a 2 stage process. and no strong chemicals either. its s citrus based cleaner.

[mcc]

I went to Intel to look at the quad-processors. I found the X5355. One thing that I didn't find was anything that matched the 3.00 GHz quad-processor in the 5000 series that matches Apple's offering. What does Apple use?

[Eidorian]

I went to Intel to look at the quad-processors. I found the X5355. One thing that I didn't find was anything that matched the 3.00 GHz quad-processor in the 5000 series that matches Apple's offering. What does Apple use?Apple uses the X5365

[mcc]

I went to Intel to look at the quad-processors. I found the X5355. One thing that I didn't find was anything that matched the 3.00 GHz quad-processor in the 5000 series that matches Apple's offering. What does Apple use?

Oops! I didn't look far enough. It's the Intel X5365. Intel has announced in their road map that it is reducing the price on 12 August 2007 of the boxed version. There is no indication that there will be a reduction on the OEM pricing as there is for the Intel X5355.

Would it be too much to expect with the 36% price reduction of the X5355 that Apple would simply make this their standard offering?

[RichP]

I went to Intel to look at the quad-processors. I found the X5355. One thing that I didn't find was anything that matched the 3.00 GHz quad-processor in the 5000 series that matches Apple's offering. What does Apple use?

Apple gets a special one that isn't available to other OEMs or resellers. :D

Ive considered the DIY upgrade octo-upgrade path, but it would be more economical if you got a 2.0 macpro really cheap, then boosted up to an 8-core monster. I run maya (and alias/solidworks in XP) and would love to have 8 cores hacking away at a render!

[Umbongo]

Oops! I didn't look far enough. It's the Intel X5365. Intel has announced in their road map that it is reducing the price on 12 August 2007 of the boxed version. There is no indication that there will be a reduction on the OEM pricing as there is for the Intel X5355.

Would it be too much to expect with the 36% price reduction of the X5355 that Apple would simply make this their standard offering?

Not too much at all, it's the most logical thing to assume.

As RichP said, Apple are the only ones (AFAIK) to have the X5365, it's price on the road map is one of introduction.

[Lesser Evets]

you can just buy clovertowns and toss them in a mac pro.

the tricky part is taking apart the case:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xOF435jCg8E


Excellent video. I'll switch up in a couple years perhaps.

[THX1139]

What would happen if one only upgraded one chip - is that possible? Essentially having a 6 core machine...that would be an interesting experiment...

Hey you should try it! Be sure and let us know what happened to your computer after booting it. :D

[THX1139]

That means it's cheaper to buy a refurbished 3GHz 8 core Mac Pro with warranty intact for only $1200 more than the refurbished 2.66GHz 4 core Mac Pro. So no point in doing this....

I think you missed the point. It's about providing an upgrade path for those people who ALREADY own a Quad and want to go to Octo. Your seniaro assumes that a person is making a choice between buying a MP 2.66 Quad and then upgrading it to an Octo, instead of just buying an Octo. Of course it would be better to go with the Octo IF you don't already own a Quad.

[HumpYourWayUp]

I think you missed the point. It's about providing an upgrade path for those people who ALREADY own a Quad and want to go to Octo. Your seniaro assumes that a person is making a choice between buying a MP 2.66 Quad and then upgrading it to an Octo, instead of just buying an Octo. Of course it would be better to go with the Octo IF you don't already own a Quad.

Relax! That guy with the strange avatar always misses the point... :rolleyes:
There are other threads here were he is pestering in a strange tone against the 8-core too :confused:

[bakuna]

Hi Orbitalpunk ,

any chance linking me to your video ?


Bakuna