Future processor upgradability of MP Octo

[amccallum1]

I'm sitting here with my beloved G4 Sawtooth, having leap-frogged G5's and am realizing that the time has probably come for a new workhorse.

The great joy of the G4 over the years, has been the ease with which I've been able to upgrade almost every part of it as my needs evolved.

A new MP Octo would be a less intimidating expenditure if I thought that in the years to come, I would be able to swap out **the processor**, particularly, for whatever wonders the future may hold -- something that (correct me if I'm wrong) was not easy on the G5.

Are the Octo processors swappable? Or if you buy an MP Octo, will you be locked into whatever processor it ships with for the life of the computer?

 

[CaptainChunk]

In theory, the CPUs are upgradable as long as the new CPU is compatible with logic board chipset. But at the moment, that means you're limited to Xeon 5500 series CPUs.

 

[bamf]

There have been a few posts on the forums here about the difficulty in switching the processors on the 2009 MP. The previous generations have been fairly easy to do, but the 2009's have something that makes it more difficult. You'd have to search to find the exact issue though...

 

[t0mat0]

LGA 1366 socket - aka Socket B for the Octocore - As Beckton is LGA 1567 I think, it would be either Gainestown updates for the Octocore, or Gulftown in Q4 2009-Q2 2010 ?

 

[Gonk42]

There have been a few posts on the forums here about the difficulty in switching the processors on the 2009 MP. The previous generations have been fairly easy to do, but the 2009's have something that makes it more difficult. You'd have to search to find the exact issue though...

It is in the "unboxing" thread. The issue is with the octos that they are uncased (ie bare chips) and if a replacement with a case is used then the heat sink is no longer in contact with the voltage regulator modules (MOSFETs?) so somesort of copper shim would have to be used. It is all do-able but much less easy than just replacing the processor.

The quads do have the normal cased processor so are more straight forward.

 

[nanofrog]

You should be able to, but you might need more than just the CPU's.

Take a look at this. Though it was aimed at those wanting to swap daughter boards, some of the details may be pertinent.

Hope this helps.

 

[amccallum1]

Wow.

More than I will be able to do with a screwdriver and 15 minutes....

Looks like, for practical purposes, the processor i get will be the processor I keep.

Thanks, all.

 

[Cynicalone]

I wonder if in time you would be able to swap out the processor tray on the 09 model? Still an expensive upgrade path but something to think about.

 

[nanofrog]

I wonder if in time you would be able to swap out the processor tray on the 09 model? Still an expensive upgrade path but something to think about.

Check out the link in post #6. Possible, but not that easy. Rather expensive I'd imagine.

 

[Cynicalone]

Check out the link in post #6. Possible, but not that easy. Rather expensive I'd imagine.

That was kinda the idea I was thinking about. Maybe in the future pull the memory and processor tray. Put in the new one and off you go, I'm sure it won't be cheap though.

 

[Umbongo]

That was kinda the idea I was thinking about. Maybe in the future pull the memory and processor tray. Put in the new one and off you go, I'm sure it won't be cheap though.

Probably looking at $800-$1000 just for the tray and two heatsinks. They may not even keep this design with the next iteration either. When concerning processor upgrades for the Mac Pro the only logical plan is selling and buying a different system. There may be other options but none that you can really count on.