Educate me on mac pro 5,1 single to multi core upgrade

[iamnotme]

Sorry I meant CPU upgrade not core.... Brain fart

I have a 12 core 5,1 but my case is pretty banged up. I've come across a mint 2010 quad core I could grab for cheap and use it as a donor for mine to pretty it up. It's about the same price I'd pay for a replacement case. Can I just pull the CPU tray out and insert it into the other? Mine is a 2009 with FW upgrade to 2010.
That way I'll have some spares like PSU and other hardware because I'm on mission to keep mine alive for a long time. I love my beast....

 

[LightBulbFun]

well seeing as you have a 2009 Mac pro you cant put a 2009 tray into a 2010 or 2012 cMP due to the SMC miss match between the CPU tray and the back board (it will boot up just the fans will rev to max) but if you get a 2009 single CPU machine you can just slide in your 12 core tray assuming you have updated the 09 Pro to the 5,1 firmware first you can also buy the 2010 Mac pro and move everything into the better case (sine physically the 2009-2012 Mac pros are identical) I hope this helps