Mac Pro 1,1 Owners - CPU Power - OS X 10.5.2 vs 10.5.3 & later?

[jsurpless]

Hi everyone

I've got an original Mac Pro 1,1 (2.66) that I got way back in '06... having upgraded from a Quad G5, I was stunned at how cool it ran (90-100F at idle vs 130F or so at idle on the Quad)... was very pleased with that...

Then last May, I happened to be moving things around in the back and noticed that the exhaust air was *very* warm... thinking this was odd, I fired up Hardware Monitor and was stunned to discover the CPU cores idling around 125F...

Long story short - after much testing, cleaning and all that - I happened to stumble on the cause... well, the reason more than the cause... for me, running OS X 10.5.3 and later causes my CPUs to draw around 30W each at idle... this is what OS X 10.5.2 draws under load (vs 8-10W at idle)... 10.5.3 and beyond have only marginal differences between idle and in use for power (like 30W => 33W or so)

As I noted in my other thread Mac Pro 1,1 CPU Draws MORE Watts @ OS X >= 10.5.3 (http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=986544), it seems to be related to the AppleCPUPowerManagement extension... if I remove it, the issue goes away but alas this renders the MP unable to sleep without a KP...

I've posted screenshots of Hardware Monitor under both OS X 10.5.2 and OS X 10.6.4... I'd like to see what other Mac Pro 1,1 owners are experiencing? At least one other (Alfihar) posted screenshots of his system that ran low power... can others report as well?

Many thanks in advance

-Justin

[jsurpless]

There must be some Mac Pro 1,1 owners out there?

I really need to find out... am I just a fluke here OR are there others out there with the same issue?

[FrancoisC]

Did you contact apple about this?

[jsurpless]

Did you contact apple about this?

I did last summer/fall... while they acknowledged my concerns and the fact that I was observing warmer exhaust, they pretty much took the position that the readings obtained by Hardware Monitor were not sanctioned by Apple... as such, they didn't put much faith in them...

Engineering just came back and said there was nothing wrong... not sure how much they really did, though... as I recall, they just said - it's just the way it is... Hardware Test returns no errors => no issue... :-(

[Concorde Rules]

The performance drop you noted in the other thread would be of interest to them.

However personally if it bothers you i'd ditch the machine and upgrade, apple won't do anything about a 4 year old computer sadly.

Look how long it took for the MP2009 to be fixed!!! (A year!) and that was latest tech.

[jsurpless]

The performance drop you noted in the other thread would be of interest to them.

However personally if it bothers you i'd ditch the machine and upgrade, apple won't do anything about a 4 year old computer sadly.

Look how long it took for the MP2009 to be fixed!!! (A year!) and that was latest tech.

I had thought about that a bit... the problem is that my MP works just fine and it seems like spending another $3K just so it's not pumping heat out is a little silly...

That's part of why I'm asking other MP 1,1 owners to report in... I truly would like to know if I'm just an anomaly or if there's something else? After all - Alifher doesn't have the issue...

[jsurpless]

Aren't there any Mac Pro 1,1 users out there?

There seem to be a good number but is it that you all don't use Hardware Monitor?

[zorinlynx]

Hiya!

Nope, no hot CPUs on my own Mac Pro 1,1. (screenshot attached)

Heck my memory is running hotter than the CPUs! This is on an idle system. Are you seeing 125F under load or idle?

[jsurpless]

Hiya!

Nope, no hot CPUs on my own Mac Pro 1,1. (screenshot attached)

Heck my memory is running hotter than the CPUs! This is on an idle system. Are you seeing 125F under load or idle?

Thanks for the note - it's definitely under idle - if you check out my screenshots (the one on the right is 10.6.4), you can see low CPU usage and my CPUs drawing ~30W (vs your 10W)...

This happens on a fresh brand-new install with *nothing* connected to the Mac Pro...

[jsurpless]

Any more out there?

I'd like to get a few more samples of normal power usage so I can present to Apple...

[audio_inside]

I upgraded my Mac1,1 to 8 cores with dual 5355's (2.66GHz) and am running 10.6.4.

Temps from each core at "low load" (ie, typing this msg in Safari) read 113 to 125F. Lower numbered cores on each chip seem hotter than higher numbered cores.

The case fans in my rig are very quiet. The fans on the x1900 or 4870 cards drown them out by far.

-Steve

[jsurpless]

I upgraded my Mac1,1 to 8 cores with dual 5355's and am running 10.6.4.

Temps from each core at "low load" (ie, typing this msg in Safari) read 113 to 125F. Lower numbered cores on each chip seem hotter than higher numbered cores.

-Steve

Might you happen to know the power draw on the CPUs?

[Giuly]

Why don't you just replace AppleCPUPowerManagement with the Tiger-Version and enjoy your cold CPU?

[Thermonuclear]

I've got a MacPro 1,1. At near idle with 10.6.4, both CPUs register 99-100 degrees Fahrenheit.

[jsurpless]

Why don't you just replace AppleCPUPowerManagement with the Tiger-Version and enjoy your cold CPU?

I just tried replacing the extension in 10.6.4 with the one from 10.5.2...

I changed the ownership and permissions to root and wheel, using

chmod -R 755 KextName.kext

chown -R 0:0 KextName.kext

which I believe is correct?

Alas, the MP crashed just as if the extension was not there... so it would seem that it doesn't work - that is, unless I didn't install it properly?