Future upgrades for an octo pro

[wally21]

I am about ready to purchase a new octo mac pro and really need a fast machine for rendering purposes. Ideally, I would like the 2.93GHz unit but cost (meaning threats of physical harm from my wife if I should purchase anything "too expensive") is a real concern at the moment.

I know that some (tutor comes to mind) have upgraded the processors in their mac pros with success. I am wondering if system I get now will affect my upgrade path in the future. Basically, are the powersupply and heat sinks (and everything else except the processors) the same across all octo models such that I could upgrade to a faster processor at some point in the (hopefully) near future?

I saw that the Inquirer placed dual 3.33GHz processors in a unit with a 850 watt power supply and had no trouble (http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/review/1529284/dual-xeon-w5590 ), and I think I've read somewhere that apple uses a 1000+ watt power supply for the mac pro. So, I should be good there unless there are different power supplies in different mac pros.

Thanks!

 

[Umbongo]

There are no differences like you are enquiring about.

 

[MacFanUK]

Yep, the only system that differs is the Quad core which only has a single CPU socket.

 

[gugucom]

Mac Pro is designed for 130 W TDP. It is also known that they easily run 150 W. This includes the W5580, W5590 and the Gulftowns to come. So it looks pretty safe. The power bottle necks are more likely in PCIe where multiüple big graphic cards are challenging the system limits.

 

[Tallest Skil]

The power bottle necks are more likely in PCIe where multiüple big graphic cards are challenging the system limits.

No graphics card even comes close to the bandwidth of PCIe 2.0.

 

[Genghis Khan]

No graphics card even comes close to the bandwidth of PCIe 2.0.

I think he means power consumption wise?


@ wally21
The only thing that restricts you is that you can't put the dual socket daughterboard in a single socket Mac Pro