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Upgraded mac pro 2.66 Quad to 2.66 Octo. Questions.

orbitalpunk

orbitalpunk

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Aug 14, 2006
567
349
Hi there,

I upgraded my quad 2.66 to a octo 2.66 mac pro and had a question for someone else you has done the same. My activity monitor now only shows 1 CPU meter. but the system profiler says 8 cores. anyone else only seeing 1 cpu meter in the activity monitor?

Thanks
 
I have a standard octo-3.0 and yes, it has only 1 CPU meter. The lower area of the Activity Monitor has an area way to small to accommodate 8 CPU meters, unlike the duals and quads. And when you try to load 4 cores, half the CPU meter will display load activities. The increment goes when you load more cores...
 
Okay.. this won't do at all... You're going to elaborate on how exactly you pulled that one of. :confused:
I'd be very interested in going this route myself. Please spill the beans. :)

orbitalpunk said:
Hi there,

I upgraded my quad 2.66 to a octo 2.66 mac pro and had a question for someone else you has done the same. My activity monitor now only shows 1 CPU meter. but the system profiler says 8 cores. anyone else only seeing 1 cpu meter in the activity monitor?

Thanks
Click to expand...
 
well your in luck, i took the whole process on video and will be posting it as my initial video on my website soon. its free, dont worry. give me a day to cut it up into a nice vid. ill post back here.

and yes, 2.66 quads have been out of a while. they just price dropped also. on price grabber you can find them for $800 a piece. i found mine on ebay for 710 a piece.


oh, theres only one other glitch, they show up as unknown under about this mac.

[IMG]http://tinyurl.com/2vekr8[/IMG]

but system profiler is fine

[IMG]http://tinyurl.com/2m58je[/IMG]

and this is me rendering a 3d scene in maya. cut my render times in half.

[IMG]http://tinyurl.com/2vluzx[/IMG]
 
That's awesome Orbitalpunk! Using Maya here myself alongside modo, zBrush and XSI. Speaking of which, have you tried checking under bootcamp if all is well?

I shall look forward to seeing your vid. Thanks for doing this! :D

orbitalpunk said:
well your in luck, i took the whole process on video and will be posting it as my initial video on my website soon. its free, dont worry. give me a day to cut it up into a nice vid. ill post back here.

and yes, 2.66 quads have been out of a while. they just price dropped also. on price grabber you can find them for $800 a piece. i found mine on ebay for 710 a piece.
Click to expand...
 
Rock on. This is fantastic news... can't wait to see the video, although right now.. the quad 2.66 FAR exceeds my needs.
 
motoxpress said:
Very interesting! So much for the warranty though :/

-mx
Click to expand...

He can just put the original cpu's back if there is a problem. Like apple would know the difference. Besides, I think the Mac Pro rarely has any problems requiring service. Not like it has liquid coolent leakage problems you know?
 
macenforcer said:
He can just put the original cpu's back if there is a problem. Like apple would know the difference. Besides, I think the Mac Pro rarely has any problems requiring service. Not like it has liquid coolent leakage problems you know?
Click to expand...

Yeah, if he holds on to those procs then he could be fine. Most will probably sell them though to try to recoup some of their investment.

-mx
 
So what type of quad proc specifically does one need to get hold of (other than 2.66 or 3.0GHz) to ensure it'll work? I had a quick browse for Xeon Clovertowns, but quickly got lost in the confusing array of numbers, names and technotalk.
Any good tips for reliable UK shops?
 
Lone Deranger said:
So what type of quad proc specifically does one need to get hold of (other than 2.66 or 3.0GHz) to ensure it'll work? I had a quick browse for Xeon Clovertowns, but quickly got lost in the confusing array of numbers, names and technotalk.
Any good tips for reliable UK shops?
Click to expand...

Intel Xeon X5355 are the 2.66GHz clovertowns you'd probably want. Looks like they are selling for just under £500 at the moment here in the UK. I'd normally buy from scan.co.uk, but their pricing on this item is messed up at the moment. Wait a couple of weeks and see what the prices settle at using one of the pricing sites like pricegrabber, pricerunner or google's product search.
 
Refurb 8-Core 3GHz Mac Pros Are Only $1,200 More Than Refurb 4-Core 2.66GHz Model

orbitalpunk said:
well your in luck, i took the whole process on video and will be posting it as my initial video on my website soon. its free, dont worry. give me a day to cut it up into a nice vid. ill post back here.

and yes, 2.66 quads have been out of a while. they just price dropped also. on price grabber you can find them for $800 a piece. i found mine on ebay for 710 a piece.
Click to expand...
That means it's cheaper to buy a refurbished 3GHz 8 core Mac Pro with warranty intact for only $1200 more than the refurbished 2.66GHz 4 core Mac Pro. So no point in doing this.

4 core 2.66GHz Mac Pro refurbished $2,199
8 core 3GHz Mac Pro refurbished $3,399

Only $1,200 more.

But still looking forward to your video. The german video is incomplete. Nothing about how they dealt with the goo on the processor before replacing the heat sinks. And I can't understand what size-type those screw drivers are either. Thank you for sharing.
 
Multimedia said:
Nothing about how they dealt with the goo on the processor before replacing the heat sinks. And I can't understand what size-type those screw drivers are either. Thank you for sharing.
Click to expand...

Screws I believe are "torx" screws.

As far as the "goo" goes....... you would prep the mating surfaces (bottom of heat sink and top of processor) by cleaning it with some isopropyl alcohol and a lint-free cloth, making sure not to get your fingers on either because you will leave grease deposits. Before installing a heatsink to a processor you need to apply some thermal interface material (TIM). Best on the market right now is called "Arctic Silver 5". Apply a dab in the middle of the processor (the size of about a grain of rice), then install heatsink. Done.
 
Wild-Bill said:
Screws I believe are "torx" screws.

As far as the "goo" goes....... you would prep the mating surfaces (bottom of heat sink and top of processor) by cleaning it with some isopropyl alcohol and a lint-free cloth, making sure not to get your fingers on either because you will leave grease deposits. Before installing a heatsink to a processor you need to apply some thermal interface material (TIM). Best on the market right now is called "Arctic Silver 5". Apply a dab in the middle of the processor (the size of about a grain of rice), then install heatsink. Done.
Click to expand...
I thought they were hex or torx.

Thermal paste isn't that complicated either. Well don't ask Apple about it...
 
ziwi said:
What would happen if one only upgraded one chip - is that possible? Essentially having a 6 core machine...that would be an interesting experiment...
Click to expand...

I don't think they will boot with two different processors in them.
 
Multimedia said:
That means it's cheaper to buy a refurbished 3GHz 8 core Mac Pro with warranty intact for only $1200 more than the refurbished 2.66GHz 4 core Mac Pro. So no point in doing this.

4 core 2.66GHz Mac Pro refurbished $2,199
8 core 3GHz Mac Pro refurbished $3,399

Only $1,200 more.

But still looking forward to your video. The german video is incomplete. Nothing about how they dealt with the goo on the processor before replacing the heat sinks. And I can't understand what size-type those screw drivers are either. Thank you for sharing.
Click to expand...

but i sold my old cpus for $700. so i saved $500 when compared to your refurbished numbers. But I never buy refurbished. my 2.66 was brand new. it would have to be new which a 3ghz is $4,545.00. so comparing from selling my old 2.66 for say $2200 on ebay I would have to put $2345 more into a new 3ghz system. so only spending $700 more for a 2.66 octo cpu's for me sounds a lot better. so in my case i saved myself $1645. and you dont think thats worth it? hmm.....

and its a desktop so i am not worried about having a warranty like a am with my macbook pro. with the money i saved, i could buy a motherboard if that ever blew, which has never happened to me at least since my 486DX 33mhz packard bell w/turbo button waaaaaay back in the day.

oh and yes, i used the x5355 cpus.
 
Eidorian said:
I thought they were hex or torx.

Thermal paste isn't that complicated either. Well don't ask Apple about it...
Click to expand...

the heatsinks are 3mm or 1/8 hex. not torx. but oddly enough, on two of the screws the hex would not fit. really really strange. but a torx of similar size worked fine.

in my vid will talk about thermal paste and proper cleaning of the older past. so clean you can lick it. using a 2 stage process. and no strong chemicals either. its s citrus based cleaner.
 
I went to Intel to look at the quad-processors. I found the X5355. One thing that I didn't find was anything that matched the 3.00 GHz quad-processor in the 5000 series that matches Apple's offering. What does Apple use?
 
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