MP 1,1-5,1 2009 Mac Pro - PSU fan loud - bad PSU?

[Tordenver]

According to Intel :

The X58 has a Tcase Max temp = 100.0 degree C .

The 5520 has a Tcase max temp = 95.1 degree C .

So it looks like 95.1ºC is my maximum on my machine... thanks

 

[Snow Tiger]

So it looks like 95.1ºC is my maximum on my machine... thanks

Stay as far away from the maximum temp as possible .

It will allow your Mac a greater opportunity to remain online without mandatory servicing .

Not only because you are then required to replace thermal materials , but that a cooler running machine will reduce thermal fatigue of individual components . In this case , a controller chip . Once a part has failed from thermal fatigue , all the re-thermal pasting and re-thermal gapping in the world won't help . Because the component is dead .

Normally , this not an issue most users of electronics have to worry about . But our cMPs are running for a much longer time than anyone expected , so our rigs have special needs .

So , yeah . Stay away from the max temps of components as much as possible .

This can be done with higher quality thermal materials , scheduled replacement of thermal materials , appropriately installed thermal materials , fine adjustments to third party ( like MFC ) SMC controlled system fans , the use of sensor utilities and grabbing otherwise hard to access data from terminal (like GPU temps ) . Technicians and enthusiasts like myself have a few other tricks , should we need them ( Laser / IR temperature guns used on components that have no accessible sensors , custom thermocouples so small they can be placed under heatsinks , exotic materials like graphite TIM pads ) .

 

[Tordenver]

Stay as far away from the maximum temp as possible .

Yes always a good reminder... but it is also good to know the specs, so you can have a better idea what is the limit of the hardware.

This can be done with higher quality thermal materials , scheduled replacement of thermal materials , appropriately installed thermal materials , fine adjustments to third party ( like MFC ) SMC controlled system fans , the use of sensor utilities and grabbing otherwise hard to access data from terminal (like GPU temps ) . Technicians and enthusiasts like myself have a few other tricks , should we need them ( Laser / IR temperature guns used on components that have no accessible sensors , custom thermocouples so small they can be placed under heatsinks , exotic materials like graphite TIM pads ) .

All good advice. Based on the information I provided, do you have a theory why my northbridge is still hot when my computer is idle?

Right now I am leaning toward amedias' idea that I may have put too much thermal paste? I read somewhere it was a better idea to spread out the paste into a very thin layer onto the chip instead of putting a drop of paste and letting it spread out with the weight/pressure when attaching the heatsink on top of it? the argument was that you might get uneven cover on the chip, or that it could spilled over, around the chip.

What do you think? How do you like to do your thermal pasting?

Thanks.

 

[Snow Tiger]

Yes always a good reminder... but it is also good to know the specs, so you can have a better idea what is the limit of the hardware.



All good advice. Based on the information I provided, do you have a theory why my northbridge is still hot when my computer is idle?

Right now I am leaning toward amedias' idea that I may have put too much thermal paste? I read somewhere it was a better idea to spread out the paste into a very thin layer onto the chip instead of putting a drop of paste and letting it spread out with the weight/pressure when attaching the heatsink on top of it? the argument was that you might get uneven cover on the chip, or that it could spilled over, around the chip.

What do you think? How do you like to do your thermal pasting?

Thanks.

I just answered this question this morning for a MP6,1 user .

mp6,1 replacement thermal pads

Here's the method I use for LGA 771 to LGA 2011 based Xeon Systems . Prep the thermal area : Clean the thermal area of the chip ( and its corresponding heat sink ) of all factory paste . The tools used are wooden stick cotton swabs , the flat ends of antistatic black sticks and higher purity...

forums.macrumors.com

 

[Tordenver]

I just answered this question this morning for a MP6,1 user .

Thanks!

 

[77ohman]

Update on fixing my Mac Pro 2009:
. I took a part everything
. I took advantage for this project to cleanup/dust off the following:
- backplane board, processor board/tray
- drives
- PCIe cards (BMD 4K, Sonnet Tempo SSD, USB-C ports, GeForce Titan X GPU)

I also replaced the following:
- replaced 4-fans including PSU fan, PCIe fan, and front & rear processor cage fans
- I decided to replace the PSU itself even so it did not seem to be an issue. But since I own this machine (2009), I never replaced it, so I figured out it might be the right time... before it fails me

Because of the high temperature on the Northbridge and following the recommendation on this forum, I decided to check the NB, and redo the thermal pasting on the two CPU heatsink at the same time.

Surprisingly the pushpins/fasteners for the northbridge heatsink were still in good shape, not broken, and the nortbridge heatsink was not loose at all. I figured out then the problem could be the old thermal pasting (I have never redone it until now). So I took out the northbridge heatsink , replaced the pushpins with the one here recommended by Mikas (with the spring) and redid the thermal pasting using the MX-4 thermal compound (thanks Snow Tiger) (the old one indeed was all crackled)

Also I spend a fair amount of time cleaning up the processor board from the dust cake accumulated around the cpu heatsink.

Once I put back everything in place, I took a new reading from iStats... and I am a little disappointed about the results.
I fixed the PSU fan (thanks Amedias & MIKX) so that is good.

But for the northbridge diode temperature, I am just 3ºC below from what I was reading before... when my computer is idled!

One good news it seems, I made some improvement on the CPU A & B temperatures, more or less 10ºC less than before.

So I guess I am back to understand why the northbridge is so hot. I believe I did the thermal pasting correctly. Did I miss something else? As I moved along I took pictures of my steps. Attached a few of them.

Any ideas what could explain the heat from the northbridge? if I increase my fans speed to the "medium setting" from iStats, the northbridge temp diode goes to around 51ºC... but it is noisy!

Thanks for looking.

Tordenver

Do you have the specs/description for the bolts you used for attaching your Northridge to the tray? I'm looking for various techniques people have used to repair their CPU trays as I have (now) two trays that need Northridge bolts.
I like the look of your arrangement.