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Does G5 single 1.8g MB can be modified to be dual

P

planck6023

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Hi everybody
I saw my G5 single 1.8g motherboard,
has a extra empty CPU slot preparative
region within so many solder point.
can i solder a G5 CPU slot over there,
then insert another 1.8g G5 CPU,
to be a dual CPU machine?
 
In theory, yes - in practice, nope.

Those boards are not intended for hand-soldering and the likelihood is that you will separate the track from the PCB. End result: broken computer.
 
Hi tersono
thank for your reply,
if I had owned very nice skill of solder,
do not damage any track on MB carefully.
the circuit and firmware of single CPU
motherboard can accept
extra CPU?
 
In another word,
does the only motherboard diffenence
between g5 1.8 single and g5 1.8 dual
are 1 slot vs 2 slot?
somebody tell me please.
 
I really don't care how good you are with hand-soldering. Those boards are dual-layer and designed for machine soldering only.

If you want a dual-CPU machine, the sensible approach is to sell your existing machine and replace it with a second-hand dual CPU box. Given the price of the G5/CPU package (which will cost you more than upgrading to a more powerful machine) and the fact that, even if you by some miracle don't break it, will need to drastically upgrade the cooling as well as the CPU.

It's not a sensible or financially viable proposition, whichever way you cut it.
 
Actually, I think they are probably 4 layer boards, at least. That's not the problem though. I haven't seen the G5 motherboard up close with a socket missing but I'm guessing they arent pins that are soldered straight through. It's probably a surface mount BGA. This means you can't hand solder this. This requires a very special way of soldering. Impossible by hand.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ball_grid_array

Not only that, but I do recall reading somewhere that the G5 boards are not only programmed specifically for how many CPU's but also what speed. So you can't even put a 2.0 G5 on a 1.8 G5 motherboard and have it work. I could be wrong, it's just what I remember reading.
 
Hi tobyg
thank for your reply.
yes,they are not pins
I know I can't put a 2.0 G5 on a 1.8 G5 motherboard,
but I did search specs of 1.8 single and dual,
finding both have same FSB 900MHz,same CPU ppc970.
so,I guess the difference between both are
firmware and slots. something else?
if none,maybe I can require our company's hardware
engineer to solder another slot.
 
Uh, seriously, you'd be much better off just swapping the G5 for something dual unless you're a billionaire with some bizarre attachment to that particular computer (in which case why would you mess with it?). I think it's been said that for all intents and purposes it is impossible to add another CPU. If you really need a G5 sell yours and get a dual G5 tower.
 
The last person that made a simple thread of trying a simple swap of one speed G5 CPU for another -- never got it working right.

And that was with the powermac just doing simple CPU swaps from one speed to another, adding in a new pad to the mix -- ouch.

---

In one of the old posts is the "expert" on G5s and his words of advice on how to accomplish the swap -- and it involved hooking up $10s of thousands of dollars in test equipment, capturing the traffic between it and the EEPROM, and hacking the service processor to find out what needs to be reprogrammed.

aka, cheaper to sell the machine and buy a NEW INTEL box than do it with an older G5.

The G5s are nasty and complex and have driven away some of the smartest tech people from even considering using the thing in their product.

Badandy said:
And this brings up:
Quote:
11.1.2 Power-On Reset SPU Hardware Considerations
It is assumed that 970FX systems will include a service processor (SPU) which generally consists of a low cost microcontroller. This microcontroller is responsible for hardware initialization of the 970FX and the North Bridge and can also be used to manage and supervise other system functions, like fans. At a minimum, the SPU needs to be able to assert HRESET_B and BYPASS_B on the 970FX and should also have either a dedicated I2C bus master to initialize the system, or general purpose I/O pins (GPIO) that can be used to implement an I2C bus master.
Click to expand...
Anybody thinking of "hacking" or "overclocking" this system should be sobered by the complexity of what is required to bring the system up and configure it out of reset. We will be waiting for the "Refer to the IBM PowerPC 970FX Power-On Reset Application Note for details." ... and the details look very detailed. Information from Momentum makes it clear that intializing the bus includes loading pin-pin bus skew parameters (which are PCB design dependent and frequency dependent). These are stated to take roughly a week of detailed testing for each new PCB design to establish (sheesh!).
Click to expand...

Edit: keep the same speed and add the 2nd socket, get the Apple service DVD to calibrate the CPU, and find another dual socket machine to see if the resistor pads and jumper pads are changed (and if they are copy that down -- and possible copy the service processor EEPROM, and/or possibly the machines boot EEPROM).
 
I am running Mac OS X 11.0.1 codenamed Raptor... it's top secret! It runz on my PPC604e 200 MHz!!!!!!!!!!!!! 288 MB RAM!!!!!!!!!!! WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
 
Just sell the dang thing and buy a dual 1.8 system or buy a Mini and get far more power than a dual 1.8 would ever have.
 
Lord Zedd said:
Just sell the dang thing and buy a dual 1.8 system or buy a Mini and get far more power than a dual 1.8 would ever have.
Click to expand...

Faster in some departments but not all, if he brought a powermac in the first place he obviously wanted the ability to upgrade or add a HD, Graphics card, PCI cards and more room for Ram, the mini doesn't offer most of these, and trying to replace the HD in a mini is a pain in the arse. If he's going to have a computer that is limited in what it can upgrade at least let it be one with a half decent graphics card i.e the imac
 
planck6023 said:
Hi everybody
I saw my G5 single 1.8g motherboard,
has a extra empty CPU slot preparative
region within so many solder point.
can i solder a G5 CPU slot over there,
then insert another 1.8g G5 CPU,
to be a dual CPU machine?
Click to expand...

2 words: DON'T BOTHER

Or, to simplify, only 1 word: IMPOSSIBLE
 
will you please just get out the soldering iron and start this project, already? it's the only way you will convince us that this is even possible, or a good idea.

Oh wait, you won't... so stop posting like you're actually gonna do it. By continuing this thread the only thing you're proving is your idiocy.
 
planck6023 said:
Hi eXan
if it were impossible,
why apple leave a lot solder point over there,
to entice me to solder a socket?
Click to expand...

You aren't even supposed to uncover the CPU placement area 🙄 Its not the user-serviceable part of PowerMac G5.

The single-CPU PowerMac G5 was just a minor and short-lived addition to the line so designing a special motherboard for it wasn't worth it.

aibo: +1
 
eXan said:
You aren't even supposed to uncover the CPU placement area 🙄 Its not the user-serviceable part of PowerMac G5.

The single-CPU PowerMac G5 was just a minor and short-lived addition to the line so designing a special motherboard for it wasn't worth it.

aibo: +1
Click to expand...

Actually they finally did design a "special board" for it using the iMac parts -- and it lasted on the market for 90days.

Talk about a waste of R&D. 😛
 
Sun Baked said:
Actually they finally did design a "special board" for it using the iMac parts -- and it lasted on the market for 90days.

Talk about a waste of R&D. 😛
Click to expand...

Oh ****! 😀 I was talking about rev.A G5s though... those with 800 or 900 MHz FSB (later singe-proc had 6xx MHz, like on iMacs at that time)

But this thread is obviously a joke anyway, so who cares? 😛
 
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