G5 XServe in G5 Tower?

[rbbrchckn]

Is it possible to put XServe G5 processors in a G5 tower?

I have a G5 2.7 that needs the water-cooling rebuilt. I was hoping to pull the processors from an XServe 2.3, mount them on 2.0 heat sinks, thermal calibrate with an ASD disk and I assume it will work. I know I will have to keep it in the same G5 "family", but is there ANY reason this won't work?

 

[kbfr08]

If I remember correctly, the logic board is locked to processors of the same clock speed as the ones that came from the factory. I could be wrong though, it's been a long time since I've worked on a G5

 

[rbbrchckn]

not locked in- but "family"???

They aren't necessarily locked in to the processors, you do have to thermal calibrate with the ASD disc, but you can cross processors. I switched the 2.7 from a smushed case into a dual 2.0 with a bad power supply and after calibration it worked for a few years before the water-cooling crapped out. I "think" you have to keep the same family though: the first generation G5 had the 970 v2.2 processor, the next 3 generations had the 970fx; while the last generation had the 970mp processor (also PCI-e slots and 4200 RAM). All G5 XServe's had the 970fx processor so I assume as long as I switch out the heat sink and recalibrate it should work, maybe???

 

[Bug-Creator]

Well according to this it should atleast work.

Just have to wait for him to test recalibrating those noisy fans

 

[Intell]

G5 processors aren't all compatiable. All but two logicboards are locked to work with only the same speed CPU. While you can put in a non-compatiable CPU, the bus speed will be greatly reduced as well as the overall clock speed. I don't remember exactly which models, but the two fully compatiable logicboards are a 2.0Ghz and a 2.3Ghz single core model. Those two logicboards could swap CPUs without a problem. But if you put in a different speed other than 2.0Ghz or 2.3Ghz, it'd go into reduced mode.