3.33GHz Xeon (Server CPU) Transplant in a 2009 Quad

[nanofrog]

I agree.. But someone has part of it figured it out.. This is why i emailed the author HERE @ coolbook.se last night

That's an application, not reverse engineering. It's the easier way to do it, but if the firmware is reverse engineered, it could allow access to other aspects of the system as well, such as Intel's built in RAID functions directly from the firmware. Not just the settings that could be used for Over Clocking (voltages, memory timings,...).

 

[handheldgames]

That's an application, not reverse engineering. It's the easier way to do it, but if the firmware is reverse engineered, it could allow access to other aspects of the system as well, such as Intel's built in RAID functions directly from the firmware. Not just the settings that could be used for Over Clocking (voltages, memory timings,...).

I guess we need to get this guy excited.. that people would pay for his application.... then perhaps motivation to bring it across would follow?

 

[thermodynamic]

I'm not sure I agree with that price. At what reputable place can you find the W3570 for $600-$700? The lowest price I could find from an online retailer was $818, otherwise the price is pretty much identical to the W3580. All the prices are coming in from around $1,000-$1,100 per CPU from places such as newegg.com, buy.com, etc.

Perhaps they are cheaper on eBay, but personally I'd have an issue buying a CPU on eBay. I'm just not comfortable with that. I'm comfortable selling things on eBay though! Isn't that a hoot.

Whoops! Please forgive me, for this is why I will never become an accountant... I transposed the W3570 with the W3550.

Still, 243MHz for $400 more... eep...

 

[AZREOSpecialist]

Whoops! Please forgive me, for this is why I will never become an accountant... I transposed the W3570 with the W3550.

Still, 243MHz for $400 more... eep...

Who can explain why we do these crazy things...

BTW, I left my computer idle today for a few minutes and came back to a kernel panic. Xeon arrives on Thursday... I'm counting the days.

 

[nanofrog]

I guess we need to get this guy excited.. that people would pay for his application.... then perhaps motivation to bring it across would follow?

Hopefully.

Maybe start a petition of MP owners that would be interested, and email it.

 

[handheldgames]

Whoops! Please forgive me, for this is why I will never become an accountant... I transposed the W3570 with the W3550.

Still, 243MHz for $400 more... eep...

Between EBAY and BUY.COM...

W3550 @3.0 $640
W3570 @3.2 $700
W3580 @3.3 $1063

the w3570 seems to be the Sweet spot in price/performance. If I had any problems pop up that were CPU related with my i7 975 i'd grab the 3.2 in a heartbeat.. That is a great buy...

 

[nanofrog]

W3570 @3.2 $700

Given there only seems to be a single source for it, I can't help but wonder what's going on.

The old "If it's too good to be true, it usually isn't" sort of the thing comes to mind.

 

[handheldgames]

Given there only seems to be a single source for it, I can't help but wonder what's going on.

The old "If it's too good to be true, it usually isn't" sort of the thing comes to mind.

I'm not selling anything... Just pointing out a good deal.. There were 3 at that vendor earlier today...

 

[nanofrog]

I'm not selling anything... Just pointing out a good deal.. There were 3 at that vendor earlier today...

NP. I didn't actually think you were the person selling them, just passing on what you had spotted. Definitely a nice thing to do.

The feedback is good, but the count is still lowish for such an item IMO (295 when I looked). It's the fact that Intel sells them for $999 per, in lots of 1k that makes me wonder why someone is willing to take such a loss on a part that's still in production.

On the outside, it could even be ES chips that have been placed up for sale, and being advertised as NIB. Or they could have been aquired at a business auction, and the seller got lucky. No idea.

 

[handheldgames]

NP. I didn't actually think you were the person selling them, just passing on what you had spotted. Definitely a nice thing to do.

The feedback is good, but the count is still lowish for such an item IMO (295 when I looked). It's the fact that Intel sells them for $999 per, in lots of 1k that makes me wonder why someone is willing to take such a loss on a part that's still in production.

On the outside, it could even be ES chips that have been placed up for sale, and being advertised as NIB. Or they could have been aquired at a business auction, and the seller got lucky. No idea.

The great thing about ebay/paypal is.... If you get something that is not what you purchased.... it's covered. Yeah there could be a hassle... but a lot of these people sell a lot of stuff... And these days... people can get great deals on ebay or craigslist.... Just the nature of the economy..

 

[nanofrog]

The great thing about ebay/paypal is.... If you get something that is not what you purchased.... it's covered. Yeah there could be a hassle... but a lot of these people sell a lot of stuff... And these days... people can get great deals on ebay or craigslist.... Just the nature of the economy..

You have to be careful even with eBay/PayPal, as they just pass information back and forth between the seller and buyer. You can get ripped off, and they won't help you out.

It's one of those things that the buyer should pay attention to all the details, including any "buyer protection" claims.

That said, yes, there are deals to be had. I just keep it small on most things, and if it's a large ticket item, take a lot of time to look at the seller first. That's me though.

 

[handheldgames]

Where do your temps sit at? Im writing in word... Have itunes open with a 128k internet radio stream and the visualizer turned on... Basically a lot of nothing and I'm parked at 59/60(c). For some reason that seems high...

 

[handheldgames]

Just found a new terminal command: sysctl

This is the MANUAL

usage: sysctl [-bn] variable ...
sysctl [-bn] -w variable=value ...
sysctl [-bn] -a
sysctl [-bn] -A
sysctl [-bn] -X

Now the Interesting Part......
MacPro: sysctl -a hw
hw.ncpu: 8
hw.byteorder: 1234
hw.memsize: 12884901888
hw.activecpu: 8
hw.physicalcpu: 4
hw.physicalcpu_max: 4
hw.logicalcpu: 8
hw.logicalcpu_max: 8
hw.cputype: 7
hw.cpusubtype: 4
hw.cpu64bit_capable: 1
hw.cpufamily: 1801080018
hw.cacheconfig: 8 2 2 8 0 0 0 0 0 0
hw.cachesize: 12884901888 32768 262144 8388608 0 0 0 0 0 0
hw.pagesize: 4096
hw.busfrequency: 6400000000
hw.busfrequency_min: 6400000000
hw.busfrequency_max: 6400000000
hw.cpufrequency: 3324000000
hw.cpufrequency_min: 3324000000
hw.cpufrequency_max: 3324000000
hw.cachelinesize: 64
hw.l1icachesize: 32768
hw.l1dcachesize: 32768
hw.l2cachesize: 262144
hw.l3cachesize: 8388608
hw.tbfrequency: 1000000000
hw.packages: 1
hw.optional.floatingpoint: 1
hw.optional.mmx: 1
hw.optional.sse: 1
hw.optional.sse2: 1
hw.optional.sse3: 1
hw.optional.supplementalsse3: 1
hw.optional.sse4_1: 1
hw.optional.sse4_2: 1
hw.optional.x86_64: 1
hw.cputhreadtype: 1
hw.machine = i386
hw.model = MacPro4,1
hw.ncpu = 8
hw.byteorder = 1234
hw.physmem = 2147483648
hw.usermem = 1403183104
hw.pagesize = 4096
hw.epoch = 0
hw.vectorunit = 1
hw.busfrequency = 4294967295
hw.cpufrequency = 3324000000
hw.cachelinesize = 64
hw.l1icachesize = 32768
hw.l1dcachesize = 32768
hw.l2settings = 1
hw.l2cachesize = 262144
hw.l3settings = 1
hw.l3cachesize = 8388608
hw.tbfrequency = 1000000000
hw.memsize = 12884901888
hw.availcpu = 8

 

[Tutor]

clean-up

Clean up

 

[Tutor]

clean-up

Clean up

 

[AZREOSpecialist]

So... anyone want to try this command to modify some parameters?

 

[Tutor]

clean-up

Clean up

 

[Tutor]

clean-up

Clean up

 

[Tutor]

clean-up

Clean up

 

[Tutor]

clean-up

Clean up

 

[handheldgames]

sysctl -w hw.busfrequency=6600000000
yields
sysctl: oid 'hw.busfrequency' is read only

sysctl -w hw.cpufrequency=3824000000
yields
sysctl: oid 'hw.cpufrequency' is read only

sysctl -w hw.busfrequency=5294967295
yields
sysctl: oid 'hw.busfrequency' is read only

We are getting closer... I ran into this last night by chance and it looked interesting.... researching more... over on insanelymac.com..

This is closer... but is in the right direction... will need to patch the kernel....
http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20090309054944734

 

[Tutor]

clean-up

Clean up

 

[Tutor]

clean-up

Clean up

 

[handheldgames]

Update Continued:
...
3) sysctl -A yields so may parameters to explore/test each one for read- and write-ability, ... so little time to explore/test each one that seems promising (but somebody has to do it) (Continued):

...
hw.ncpu: 16
hw.byteorder: 1234
hw.memsize: 34359738368
hw.activecpu: 16
hw.physicalcpu: 8
hw.physicalcpu_max: 8
hw.logicalcpu: 16
hw.logicalcpu_max: 16
hw.cputype: 7
hw.cpusubtype: 4
hw.cpu64bit_capable: 1
hw.cpufamily: 1801080018
hw.cacheconfig: 16 2 2 8 0 0 0 0 0 0
hw.cachesize: 34359738368 32768 262144 8388608 0 0 0 0 0 0
hw.pagesize: 4096
hw.busfrequency: 6400000000
hw.busfrequency_min: 6400000000
hw.busfrequency_max: 6400000000
hw.cpufrequency: 3191000000
hw.cpufrequency_min: 3191000000
hw.cpufrequency_max: 3191000000
hw.cachelinesize: 64
hw.l1icachesize: 32768
hw.l1dcachesize: 32768
hw.l2cachesize: 262144
hw.l3cachesize: 8388608
hw.tbfrequency: 1000000000
hw.packages: 2
hw.optional.floatingpoint: 1
hw.optional.mmx: 1
hw.optional.sse: 1
hw.optional.sse2: 1
hw.optional.sse3: 1
hw.optional.supplementalsse3: 1
hw.optional.sse4_1: 1
hw.optional.sse4_2: 1
hw.optional.x86_64: 1
hw.cputhreadtype: 1

I randomly checked the applicable ones and they came back as read only.

It really feels like, these numbers could only be modified with an application OR a ktext extension injected into the OS in a similar fashion that NETKAS is doing with the nVidia cards. NETKAS even has z CPU-Z style app I found that properly identifies the CPU in my MacPro.... (see attached image)

In theory... It should be easy to modify these values... The consequences could be an OS that won't boot But its a risk we could take....

 

[Tutor]

clean-up

Clean up