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s.m.t.

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Mar 7, 2010
285
22
Was just curious what the upgrade path (if one exists) is going from the single quad core to the 8 core cpu. Can you purchase that cpu daughter board to add the second socket and dimm slots?
 
Was just curious what the upgrade path (if one exists) is going from the single quad core to the 8 core cpu. Can you purchase that cpu daughter board to add the second socket and dimm slots?

Yes, that upgrade path should work. Dunno if anybody's tried it yet, though.

And you would have to buy two 55xx Xeons (dual-socket CPUs) as the CPU on the Quad is a 35xx Xeon (single-socket CPU).
 
Yes, that upgrade path should work. Dunno if anybody's tried it yet, though.

And you would have to buy two 55xx Xeons (dual-socket CPUs) as the CPU on the Quad is a 35xx Xeon (single-socket CPU).

I thought the motherboards were different (more ram slots etc on the octo). presumably it doesn't have a socket for a second CPU (or does it?).
 
Hello,

I'm pretty sure you can't, unless you're willing to shell out just about enough money to buy a new 8 core.

Selling your quad to buy an 8 would be a much easier way to go.

Loa
 
processor tray, additional CPU, more RAM. Enjoy the financial pain, too.

Don't forget the heatsinks, they are about $200 each IIRC. Someone posted a link to one of only sites selling these specific parts in another thread, and AFAIK the total cost of the process made it insensible.
 
I thought the motherboards were different (more ram slots etc on the octo). presumably it doesn't have a socket for a second CPU (or does it?).

The OP mentioned purchasing the octo's daughterboard

I'm pretty sure you can't, unless you're willing to shell out just about enough money to buy a new 8 core.

AFAIK the total cost of the process made it insensible.

These. Its nuts, especially with what everybody's charging for parts.. Maybe in the future (4 years or so) it'll be worth it, but now, not so much.
 
Ha, yeah... I defiantly don't plan to do it any time soon. But it is technically possible which is what I was wondering. I didn't see it as a non BTO purchase on apple's site, so I didn't know if those parts were even sold.

Thanks for answering that. :)
 
On the 09s it would probably be cheaper to sell the 4 and buy an 8. The situation was different with 08s where the MBs were more or less the same.
 
Won't the six core coming out fit in the 09 models? If so, swap it.

Big if. Word on the street is that there's going to have to be a microcode update to run that CPU which Apple probably won't provide. Might even require physical changes on the mother/daughterboard, making even firmware flashing impossible.

EDIT - inserted link. Though the post is long, Fugger does mention a mobo requiring a hard modification for a board to work, and all need a firmware update.
 
I have a 2 x 2.66 GHz Dual-Core Intel Xeon. Which quad cores would I have to purchase in order to make it an 8 core?

Also I heard if you upgrade the core you are stuck in 32 bit as opposed to 64 bit because of Apple firmware (and doubts they will ever update it). Any ideas??
 
I have a 2 x 2.66 GHz Dual-Core Intel Xeon. Which quad cores would I have to purchase in order to make it an 8 core?

Also I heard if you upgrade the core you are stuck in 32 bit as opposed to 64 bit because of Apple firmware (and doubts they will ever update it). Any ideas??
Your system is older (2006 model), but these are Quad Core 53xx parts that would work in your machine (8 core total).

Your firmware is stuck where it's at now. There will be no update, as it can force users to buy newer systems. So you either upgrade your existing system and live with it, or get a newer model that has EFI64 based firmware ('08 or newer).
 
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