Mac Pro 1,1 CPU upgrade

SDD gives you the most noticeable boost. It will feel like a brand new machine. Upgrading to quad cores will really only make a difference in render heavy tasks. It cut my AE renders in half.

Xeon dual core 3ghz or Xeon Quad core (4mo cache an sfb 1333 mhz) 2.33 ghz, 2 66 ghz (65eur an ebay)& 3ghz (high price).

I just finished my install in my 1,1 of dual x5355 turning mine into a 8core 2,1 essiential I got my mine shipped for 99 bucks on ebay and am very pleased

ohh epic fail said:

considering what route i should take for my next upgrade. i have about $100 to spend and it's between used processors or a 120GB SSD.

two questions:
1. which should i worry about first?
2. will any CPU with the LGA771 socket work?

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What software you're using? Check if it will benefit more from higher core count or faster file access (and read/write speed). For $100 you can't have both of these.

With a bit of luck and deal hunting, you can do both for $100. I found my pair of E5345's on Ebay for $18 (including shipping). I've seen 120GB SSD's for <= $80. Might need to factor in a mounting kit into the cost, but I can't imagine it will be that much.

The E5345's aren't the fastest possible CPUs you can get for these machines, though.

The SSD will make a bigger difference in general usage, and will be much easier to install. Of course it depends on your workload, but the SSD would probably be the better upgrade. I actually don't have an SSD in my Mac Pro yet, but if a 120GB system drive was big enough for my needs, I would have done this long ago.

teameurox said:

I just finished my install in my 1,1 of dual x5355 turning mine into a 8core 2,1 essiential I got my mine shipped for 99 bucks on ebay and am very pleased

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Great Price! I recently paid $150 shipped. Very happy with results.

With that said, to the original poster, you *may* notice more improvement day to day, depending on what software you use, with a speedy SSD.

ohh epic fail said:

considering what route i should take for my next upgrade. i have about $100 to spend and it's between used processors or a 120GB SSD.

two questions:
1. which should i worry about first?
2. will any CPU with the LGA771 socket work?

Click to expand...

SSD unless you do a lot of encoding. SSD will allow you to boot up faster, load applications faster, write and read from the hard drive faster, etc. etc. etc. The processor bump will only help you in processor intensive tasks, so if you feel like your Mac Pro isn't processing stuff fast enough, then go CPU. Otherwise SSD. You'll also need some kind of mount for the SSD into the Mac Pro sleds. I went with an Icy Dock from amazon for about $15 for mine.

ohh epic fail said:

i ended up going with the ocz vertex 3 120 GB SSD and a cheap 2.5/3.5 adapter. i decided i'm gonna hold off til the x5365 come down in price a bit more or i can afford them, that way i can step up to 3GHz from the 2.66 i've got as well as going to 8 cores from 4. the CPU isn't necessary as i don't do any gaming or anything, but i do run logic pro 9 and when i get several plugins going it starts to bog down a bit but the SSD should help with it at least a little bit.

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Don't wait for 5365 price drop, not worth it.
Pair of 5355s ~$100, pair of 5365s ~$360.
Less than 30% performance difference for more than 300% cost.
When you'll get another $100 to spend, get yourself nice pair of 5355s.

High difference to Quad Core 2.66 ghz and Quad Core 3 ghz ? (120 eur vs 360 eur)....

SSD price had drop alot lately. I would go for it. Replacing a CPU is a bit of a hassle for me. I might mess up the CPU installation and screw up the whole system.

tousmic88 said:

High difference to Quad Core 2.66 ghz and Quad Core 3 ghz ? (120 eur vs 360 eur)....

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No, not really worth it. You can find a matched pair of X5355 SLAEG for less than $80 incl. shipping, whereas X5365 are always >$150 a piece. The difference is approximately 20-25% when paired.

It will take 5365s a few more years to become affordable.
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Just today I purchased a pair of E5345 SLAEJ for $27 and a pair of X5355 SLAEG for $59 and now I need to decide which ones will I keep and which ones will I let go. What I really like about 5345s is lower wattage, which means less heat and quieter fans, but on the other hand, 5355s are about 10% more powerful. Tempting...

I don't know what the hell would I use the extra power for, though...

Mac Pro 1,1 CPU Upgrades for ProTools 11

I have been reading about CPU upgrades for the 2006 MacPro 1,1. The upgrades sound like they will work fine with 2,1 firmware update, but I have the following questions:

Will the CPU upgrades/updates run at 64-bit in the 2006 Macs?

Will they run 10.8.3 (Mountain Lion)?

Will these upgrades/updates allow running ProTools 11? I realize that these machines will not be supported by AVID but will they work?

the chips can run 64bit (iirc).

the EFI remains 32bit.

spoonie1972 said:

the chips can run 64bit (iirc).

the EFI remains 32bit.

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I assume that you are telling me that although the chips can run at 64bit, my old computer will only run at 34bit, which will prevent me from running OS10.8.3 (or ProTools 11 at 64bit)? Is this correct? Or is there a way to make this work . . . that is practical?

wdjudd said:

I assume that you are telling me that although the chips can run at 64bit, my old computer will only run at 34bit, which will prevent me from running OS10.8.3 (or ProTools 11 at 64bit)? Is this correct? Or is there a way to make this work . . . that is practical?

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Look into bootloaders, better yet google Mountain Lion on Mac Pro 1,1

The 5365's are starting to come down a bit. 200-225 can score you a matched pair on eBay. Paid 100 for my 5355's a few months back when the 5365's where still 400$. O well. Installing a SSD with mountain lion this week. MLPostFactor 0.3 should be out soon, looks like the best solution as of now?

I've gone with the E5340 CPU's. They're a lot harder to find as they're engineering samples, but they're A LOT cheaper than the X5365's

The reason I went this way is that they can be modded to run at 3.0ghz up from their standard 2.4ghz relatively easily. Though the downside to doing this is that cooling becomes a bit of an issue.

In the 1,1 dual core mac pro's the heatsink isn't as beefy as the 2,1 quad core mac pro's, so you either have to force the fan to run harder or swap out the heatsink.

I'm in the process of modding my mac pro for some better cooling. Will create a thread once I'm done. But in the end it won't end up being any cheaper than just getting the X5365's

So I'd say for bang for buck you can't go past the X5355's

wdjudd said:

I assume that you are telling me that although the chips can run at 64bit, my old computer will only run at 34bit, which will prevent me from running OS10.8.3 (or ProTools 11 at 64bit)? Is this correct? Or is there a way to make this work . . . that is practical?

Click to expand...

Software can still run in 64-bit mode. EFI affects what you plug into the PCI slots. If i'm wrong, i'm sure someone here will correct me.

With that said... if you're running PT11, and you plan on using HDX, those new cards probably call for new(er) hardware that use 64bit EFI. Best to check their requirements page.

spoonie1972 said:

Software can still run in 64-bit mode. EFI affects what you plug into the PCI slots. If i'm wrong, i'm sure someone here will correct me.

With that said... if you're running PT11, and you plan on using HDX, those new cards probably call for new(er) hardware that use 64bit EFI. Best to check their requirements page.

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EFI effects what kernal can be loaded therefore effects other things

Intel Xeon X5355

Hi Guys, I want to buy a pair of Intel Xeon X5355 processors to upgrade my Mac Pro 1.1 they must be matched? Or there is no problem if you buy them separately at different stores?

Macquero said:

Hi Guys, I want to buy a pair of Intel Xeon X5355 processors to upgrade my Mac Pro 1.1 they must be matched? Or there is no problem if you buy them separately at different stores?

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Look for matched pairs.

I'm about to upgrade CPU on my 2006 mac pro and come across this post. However, I'm not sure any one still have "Mac Pro 2006-2007 Firmware Tool" from netkas.org site to update the firmware from 1,1 to 2,1.

The site has been down for last couple days and don't know if ever gonna coming back.

Thanks.