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3.33 GHz Westmere 6 Core Xeon upgrade

Y

yelmarb

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Oct 27, 2009
5
0
I'm getting so bored of waiting for Apple to bring out a new Mac Pro. So I'm now thinking why it's not possible to upgrade the processors in my dual 2.66 quad core Intel Xeon Nehalem to the new Westmere 3.33 GHz 6 core Xeon processors.

They run the same voltage range so the existing power supply should be fine, have the same 1366 socket and can use the same RAM specs. Cooling should be fine as well.

However, will the motherboard in the dual Nehalem Mac's run Westmere processors? Does the BIOS need to be upgraded? Would a 3rd party motherboard run them instead?

I'm gathering no one has done this yet. Any thoughts would be appreciated.
 
Apple computers do not use BIOS but EFI. Most likely the EFI version has to be updated to support the newer processor IDs.

In other words, unless the current EFI version supports Westmere the 2009 Mac Pro will never get the support for it. Just like the 2006 Mac Pro never got support for either 64-bit or Harpertown.
 
yelmarb said:
I'm gathering no one has done this yet.
Click to expand...

Because no such thing exists yet.

If you want to upgrade to the dual-hexa 2.93ghz cpus, please, spend the $3000 and let us know how much faster it feels. Then you can spend another $3,430 to upgrade from the 2.93 to 3.33 when they are released.
 
300D said:
Because no such thing exists yet.

If you want to upgrade to the dual-hexa 2.93ghz cpus, please, spend the $3000 and let us know how much faster it feels. Then you can spend another $3,430 to upgrade from the 2.93 to 3.33 when they are released.
Click to expand...

The Hexa Core 3.33 i7 980x have been available for at least a month. The sever variation, Xeon E5680 are also available for shipping. If I had any disposable income I would have bought two already and would have attempted to do a drop in replacement.
 
300D said:
Because no such thing exists yet.
Click to expand...

Indeed they do......

Intel is planning to release 13 dual-socket, 32nm Xeon processors with six cores on March 16th, 2010. The flagship is a six-core, 12-thread Xeon X5680 processor. The chip has a frequency of 3.33GHz, 12MB cache, Intel Turbo Boost, Hyperthreading and a 130W TDP.

In addition to the Xeon X5680, the March 16 release list includes five more six-core chips, all with 12 threads and 12MB of cache -- the Xeon X5670 (2.93GHz, 95W), X5660 (2.80GHz, 95W), X5650 (2.66GHz, 95W), L5640 (2.26GHz, 60W) and W3680 (3.33GHz, 130W).
Click to expand...

Provantage has them here: Xeon 6-Core Goodness
 
yelmarb said:
I'm getting so bored of waiting for Apple to bring out a new Mac Pro. So I'm now thinking why it's not possible to upgrade the processors in my dual 2.66 quad core Intel Xeon Nehalem to the new Westmere 3.33 GHz 6 core Xeon processors.

They run the same voltage range so the existing power supply should be fine, have the same 1366 socket and can use the same RAM specs. Cooling should be fine as well.

However, will the motherboard in the dual Nehalem Mac's run Westmere processors? Does the BIOS need to be upgraded? Would a 3rd party motherboard run them instead?

I'm gathering no one has done this yet. Any thoughts would be appreciated.
Click to expand...

Actually this brings up an interesting question: what processors are supported in 4,1? So I took a very quick walk thru the 4,1 EFI; all processors that have a CPUID of 106A2, 106A4, and 106A5 should work as the microcode for those is present. As has been seen with people doing processor upgrades on the MP1,1 other processors with a close match might work but don't count on it. The new hex cores all have a CPUID of 206C2. These certainly won't work.
 
You would probably be better off building a hackintoch if your capable. Seen a few sites with folks running the 6 core on a gigabyte mobo with no problems. Given the price structure apple has now on the mac pro's, the 6 core will cost too much for most consumers.
 
Well then by flucking golly guys, since they exist I suggest you all spend the $3,430 to get an extra 4 cores.
 
300D said:
Well then by flucking golly guys, since they exist I suggest you all spend the $3,430 to get an extra 4 cores.
Click to expand...

If you're the kind of guy that throws the old 4 core 5550 XEON's in the garbage, then yes, you'd have to pay $3400 for the upgrade.

I'd rather suggest selling the 5550's.
 
Heatsinks

And to add, who is willing to pry the heatsinks off of the new procs. I certainly would not, and in fact, I think Anand did it and wrecked a chip. Supposedly the chipset should support it, but as Nano stated elsewhere, there is some issues with the voltage settings. If anyone does manage to pull this off, please post (with pics :) ) so we can all bask in the dual hexacore glory!

Peace,
Noushy
 
chill~~ son, what do you want to do srsly?

are you using your rig as web server or what? for all other purposes your current set up should be sufficient.

i always have to tell people you don't need that much computing power jeez.

if you want upgrade so bad, don't get mac, get pc LOLz
 
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