Mac Pro 4,1 revival! E5520-->X5570 or not?

[Ommid]

Hi all!!

I have an 8-Core 2.26Ghz Mac Pro 4,1.

It is running:

Samsung SSD 830
Apple HD5770

I am looking at upgrading the processors (for no particular reason other than boredom).

I see a lot of people going from single quad to single hex but as I am running the 8 core I don't want to go down to one chip. So do you think the X5570 is a sensible choice? I can get a pair for under $400 so I think it makes more sense than a 5,1 flash and an X56** chip.

Would love to hear from you all!!

Thanks

Future updates will be SATA III, USB III, and some more ram!!!

 

[MacVidCards]

The hassle of dealing with heatsinks and 2mm washers, etc is the same no matter what chips you get.

For my money, I'd say do it once and do it with some six cores or at least something that enables 1333 RAM.

 

[PowerPCMacMan]

Hi,

if money is a concern and nothing changes where you would need hex core power, then by all means go ahead and go for it! $400x2 doesn't seem like a bad deal at all. The 2.26 is horridly slow and compared to what you will be upgrading, it will do your 4,1 Mac Pro a lot of good.

But, if money is not an issue and your work load changes, or you are doing very highly complex encoding, video editing, etc... then I would flash the 4,1 to 5,1 firmware and go hex core. Again, you will have to pay the higher price to get 2, YES, 2 x56xx series processors and they ain't cheap.

Also, the hardest part is finding LIDLESS x55xx chips. Good luck with that.. look up Nehalem Mac Pro 4,1 Anandtech and see what happened to that poor soul's mac pro processor board.

Again at the end of the day its up to you.. but those are my recommendations, otherwise GREAT DEAL!

Hi all!!

I have an 8-Core 2.26Ghz Mac Pro 4,1.

It is running:

Samsung SSD 830
Apple HD5770

I am looking at upgrading the processors (for no particular reason other than boredom).

I see a lot of people going from single quad to single hex but as I am running the 8 core I don't want to go down to one chip. So do you think the X5570 is a sensible choice? I can get a pair for under $400 so I think it makes more sense than a 5,1 flash and an X56** chip.

Would love to hear from you all!!

Thanks

Future updates will be SATA III, USB III, and some more ram!!!

 

[Ommid]

The hassle of dealing with heatsinks and 2mm washers, etc is the same no matter what chips you get.

For my money, I'd say do it once and do it with some six cores or at least something that enables 1333 RAM.

Thanks for the quick reply!! While you were typing that I popped over to Geekbench and found the following:

I will price up some 6 core chips now.

I found the list in this thread very useful for anyone looking:

CPU List

Also, you mention the quicker ram I can use (1333), can I ask, does that require the EFI update?

Thanks!

 

[PowerPCMacMan]

MUST have 5,1 firmware to recognize 1333. 2009's firmware lacked 1333.

Also, you mention the quicker ram I can use (1333), can I ask, does that require the EFI update?

Thanks![/QUOTE]

 

[Ommid]

Hi,

if money is a concern and nothing changes where you would need hex core power, then by all means go ahead and go for it! $400x2 doesn't seem like a bad deal at all. The 2.26 is horridly slow and compared to what you will be upgrading, it will do your 4,1 Mac Pro a lot of good.

But, if money is not an issue and your work load changes, or you are doing very highly complex encoding, video editing, etc... then I would flash the 4,1 to 5,1 firmware and go hex core. Again, you will have to pay the higher price to get 2, YES, 2 x56xx series processors and they ain't cheap.

Also, the hardest part is finding LIDLESS x55xx chips. Good luck with that.. look up Nehalem Mac Pro 4,1 Anandtech and see what happened to that poor soul's mac pro processor board.

Again at the end of the day its up to you.. but those are my recommendations, otherwise GREAT DEAL!

That doesn't scare me at all(!?) Haha

It is actually $400 for the pair!! I can't say that I have noticed that the 2.26Ghz is slow unless when used during Handbrake encoding. It will be interesting to see how much quicker it makes this task. I will keep my eye open for a pair of Hex's in the meantime. Not sure how painless the EFI Flash is, from memory quite painless!!

MUST have 5,1 firmware to recognize 1333. 2009's firmware lacked 1333.

Thanks PowerPCMacMan