I bought a 2013 mac pro and i was wondering if i should break it down to put new thermal paste on the GPU and CPU. I bought off Ebay and all i know about it that it works and the guy upgraded the SSD to a 1TB. He blew dust out of the fan and heat sink. I never had one before so i don't know if they run hot or what. What i read online tells me to put new thermal paste on it but some site say not to because they are not fun to take apart and it is easy to break cables or other parts. Thanks for the help or input.
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Resolved Late 2013 mac pro trashcan question
- Thread starter gwb21471
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Yes, you should. But only if you are good with tools. It is quite involved to take apart and you could break things if you are not very careful. As parts are not easy to find it could get expensive to find replacements. BTW. the machine has 2 GPU cards in it so it is 3 chips that need repasting.
The machine also has a battery (BR2032) hidden deep inside of it. If you do break it into parts then you might want to replace that one too as it probably still is original and when it goes weak/bad the symptoms might make you mistakenly think something is actually broken when it is just the battery.
Watch youtube videos on how to dismantle it and work carefully and slow, do not force anything and you should be fine.
The machine also has a battery (BR2032) hidden deep inside of it. If you do break it into parts then you might want to replace that one too as it probably still is original and when it goes weak/bad the symptoms might make you mistakenly think something is actually broken when it is just the battery.
Watch youtube videos on how to dismantle it and work carefully and slow, do not force anything and you should be fine.
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I wasn't aware of this. Thanks for the heads up.
Why did Apple feel the need to make something so basic as the battery so inaccessible? It beggars belief.
Yes, they could have placed it in plain sight. But, nooo.... that would make things easy so no way that was done.
I recently saw a video on how to swap the battery but cannot find it now. It is on the I/O board and it is a bit of work to get there.
The battery is visible at step 21 on this guide: https://www.ifixit.com/Teardown/Mac+Pro+Late+2013+Teardown/20778
Yes, they could have placed it in plain sight. But, nooo.... that would make things easy so no way that was done.
You can just imagine someone opining during the design phase that the consumers have had it too easy with disassembly and that we need to return to the era of iBook complexity.
Nice one! I'll keep this at the ready for when/if the day comes that I have to strip down the TC.
Yes, only a year earlier the cMP battery was easily accessible and the swap was only a few minute job and no tools needed. With MP 6,1 you need hands of a surgeon and nerves of a special forces operator + tools you rarely need anywhere else.You can just imagine someone opining during the design phase that the consumers have had it too easy with disassembly and that we need to return to the era of iBook complexity.
No, not really - you just need to follow instructions and be gentle. 👍
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Well the temperature stay between 120 to 130 Fahrenheit. At idle it sits at 120 and at the most it will going up to 130 degrees when I running stuff. The fan runs very quiet. I haven’t put new thermal paste on yet. Hope it runs cooler after I do.
120-130°F is good. 👍
What CPU do you have? Different ones tend to run at different temps.
I have the 6-Core Intel Xeon E5 at 3.5GHZ. I just replace the thermal paste and now it running between 100 and 125 degrees. I have the and D500 video card and they run cooler too. Thanks to everyone on here for helping.
Yes, I had the same one (E5-1650 v2) before and it did run about the same temps. The 8-core E5-2667 v2 I have now seems to run a bit hotter even with new thermal paste.
I read somewhere that the 1650 has max operating temp of 70°C (158°F) so try to keep it below that.
It got up to 165F and it slowed down. That’s me trying to open Google Chrome. So I just uninstalled it. I know lot of people I watch on you tube upgrades the cpu to the 10 core that runs at 3.3GHZ. I just using mine for browsing the web and watching you tube videos and listening to music.
Is that by any chance the CPU temperature you guys are talking about? The part that is most prone to fail on these machines tends to be the GPU and that seems to be quite easy to cook if you go with default fan speeds.
Probably worth testing it with games for a bit to see if it is actually working properly. Rule of thumb with the trashcan: you get random system crashes and inconclusive crash logs, high chance it's the GPU.
I on the other hand hit the jackpot recently with what appears to be a borked DIMM slot so Apple graciously provided multiple points of failure for our convenience.
Probably worth testing it with games for a bit to see if it is actually working properly. Rule of thumb with the trashcan: you get random system crashes and inconclusive crash logs, high chance it's the GPU.
I on the other hand hit the jackpot recently with what appears to be a borked DIMM slot so Apple graciously provided multiple points of failure for our convenience.
The 6-core 3.5GHz is perfect for such general stuff. It is faster in single core stuff than most (all?) 10 or 12 core cpus.
I use the Brave Browser (Chromium based, like Chrome). It has an ad/popup/tracking blocker and makes browsing faster and also easier for the machine (less data to display and scripts to run). I have added the uBlock Origin -extension too. They both block partly different things so IMO they compliment each other.
Firefox with uBlock Origin is another good option.
You might want to try putting something under the Mac Pro so it lifts little off the table and thus gets easier airflow as the intake slots are in the part surrounding the bottom almost facing the table top.
I also installed the TG Pro temp display and fan controller and boosted the fan speeds to start ramping up earlier. Mine stays always under 70°C (158°F) no matter what I do. I usually use Mac Fans Controller but the MP 6,1 has so many temp sensors and IMO the TG Pro is a better mach due it's more granular fan control.
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This has been my default configuration for years. Much of the Web is unbearable without it.