G5 Processor

[Smileyguy]

Hey, as a reasonably experienced (okay, intermediate...) mac user this may seem like a dumb question, but is it possible to buy and fit a second G5 Proccessor into SP towers? And if so, how much?

 

[Veldek]

Apart from being economically impossible as there’s noone who sells it, I think it’s also technically impossible because there are some connectors missing on the mainboard. If they were there and you would get one, it might be possible but it would be a hell of a work, I bet.

 

[Smileyguy]

That difficult eh? I find that a little disappointing. I've got this giant G5 with all this upgade potential and none if it is any good to me.

Only really ever going to use 2 gigs of RAM or so.

No real need to upgrade a graphics card.

80Gb of HD space will last for a long, long time.

 

[varmit]

That difficult eh? I find that a little disappointing. I've got this giant G5 with all this upgade potential and none if it is any good to me.

Only really ever going to use 2 gigs of RAM or so.

No real need to upgrade a graphics card.

80Gb of HD space will last for a long, long time.

Sell it and buy a new one.

 

[caveman_uk]

Does anyone know how the G5's are connected to the logic board? Are they soldered directly on or are they on a daughter card? The old G4 MDD macs (like mine) put the processor(s) on a separate card which was the same size/connection whether it was SP or Dual so you could (within limits) swap them around. I don't have a G5 so don't know how the CPUs are connected.

 

[Mechcozmo]

The heatsinks on the G5s are huge. That might be an issue if you are dealing with a second processor-- the SP case/motherboard/etc may not leave enough room for that heatsink.

 

[Windowlicker]

Hey, as a reasonably experienced (okay, intermediate...) mac user this may seem like a dumb question, but is it possible to buy and fit a second G5 Proccessor into SP towers? And if so, how much?

At the moment, no it's not possible. The SP towers don't have the connections on the logic board for the 2nd processor. So even if you put another processor there it wouldn't work.

Also, even if it was possible, there remains a problem with the cooling, because the dual processor machines have two fans in front of the processors (above the RAM slots). The SP G5's have only one (correct me if I'm mistaken).

With DP PMs you can swap the processors.. That's what we do at work sometimes when there seems to be an issue with either one of the two processors. But you can't really do it yourself, because the processors need calibrating after the swap operation and the software for it is for repair services only.

So, sorry man, but you should sell your SP if you want more expandability.