Mac Pro the terrible

[Tallest Skil]

Won't really know for another month or two, when the Dell equivalents ship, and benchmarks from others-than-Apple become available.

Of course, then the next question that will be asked is how easy can the CPUs be replaced on the dual CPU configuration...there will invariably be those who will want to buy the 2.27GHz with the intention of upgunning the chips once they drop in price...IIRC, that's how the first dual-quads got made.


-hh

Only thing is, I don't believe that you can replace 3500s with 5500s.

 

[nanofrog]

Won't really know for another month or two, when the Dell equivalents ship, and benchmarks from others-than-Apple become available.

Of course, then the next question that will be asked is how easy can the CPUs be replaced on the dual CPU configuration...there will invariably be those who will want to buy the 2.27GHz with the intention of upgunning the chips once they drop in price...IIRC, that's how the first dual-quads got made.


-hh

It's possible.

Only thing is, I don't believe that you can replace 3500s with 5500s.

Actually, you can. The 55xx part can disable the 2nd QPI.

 

[nanofrog]

Won't really know for another month or two, when the Dell equivalents ship, and benchmarks from others-than-Apple become available.

Of course, then the next question that will be asked is how easy can the CPUs be replaced on the dual CPU configuration...there will invariably be those who will want to buy the 2.27GHz with the intention of upgunning the chips once they drop in price...IIRC, that's how the first dual-quads got made.


-hh

Yes it's possible.

Only thing is, I don't believe that you can replace 3500s with 5500s.

Replacing 35xx parts with 55xx parts would actually work (SP board). The 55xx can disable the unused QPI.

It's the other way that might not be possible (35xx parts on a DP board). I'd like to find out more about how the QPI regulation works (enable/disable), particularly in regard to the chipset.

 

[Tesselator]

HP should stand for "HORSE POO." But still a little better than Bull *****.

LOL!!!! So MP is Mad Pu$$y and MBP is Moist Brown Pile? I'm NOT going near the MacMini!!!!

 

[-hh]

Yes it's possible.

That's what I was afraid the answer would be.

This has the potential to be a good news - bad news item, if it ends up being similar to the old Mac 7500-8500-9500 scenario: CPUs on daughterboards can allow for relatively cheap upgrades for consumers (good), but Apple ends up selling fewer systems, so future systems end up costing more (bad).

Replacing 35xx parts with 55xx parts would actually work (SP board). The 55xx can disable the unused QPI.

It's the other way that might not be possible (35xx parts on a DP board). I'd like to find out more about how the QPI regulation works (enable/disable), particularly in regard to the chipset.

Thanks for making this explicit. I should have more clearly said that the instance I was considering was to buy the slowest dual CPU Mac Pro "now" (dual 2.26GHz) and then 18-24 months from now, when the 2.93GHz CPUs have fallen to a more reasonable price, pull out the 2.26's and put in a pair of the 2.93's and reap the quick & cheap (vs buying "Mac Pro 2011") performance boost.

Of course, with the effective reintroduction of the daughterboard, its entirely likely that the 3rd party companies (Daystar, XLR8, Sonnet, etc) will come up with something at a reasonably competitive price.


-hh

 

[nanofrog]

Thanks for making this explicit. I should have more clearly said that the instance I was considering was to buy the slowest dual CPU Mac Pro "now" (dual 2.26GHz) and then 18-24 months from now, when the 2.93GHz CPUs have fallen to a more reasonable price, pull out the 2.26's and put in a pair of the 2.93's and reap the quick & cheap (vs buying "Mac Pro 2011") performance boost.

Of course, with the effective reintroduction of the daughterboard, its entirely likely that the 3rd party companies (Daystar, XLR8, Sonnet, etc) will come up with something at a reasonably competitive price.
-hh

Actually, the chip won't be soldered to the daughter board. It will use an LGA1366 socket, so pulling the existing CPU's and swapping can be done in this case.