New truth to 2009 mac pros - WE DO HAVE A CHOICE!

[Roman23]

After reading both about the desktop core i7 and xeon w35xx/e and x55xx.. it appears that Apple made the FATAL mistake of allowing non-xeons to be used in our mac pros.. It is therefore correct to say that if one were to replace the w3520(2.66 xeon) with the core i7-920(desktop equi), then it will work without a hinch.. Then the answer remains:

DO WE NEED ECC MEMORY?? DO WE NEED XEONS when in reality we can take out singles and duals from the stock processors up to the max.. for instance.. I ordered my w3580 to replace the w3520 which is the xeon 3.33 that apple uses and charges us a fortune to upgrade to... while the desktop equivalent is core i7-980..

If we replace the ECC memory with non-ecc memory and use desktop processors, then why bother with the xeon???

certainly we'd all like to save money here.

 

[Cindori]

only xeons can run dual processor mode. but yes, for the single cpu mac pro, it is kind of true. but xeons are not really that more expensive then desktop version, if you buy it separately (not form apple) so it's not really something incredible.

also not something new.

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/757863/

 

[Roman23]

What about this processor?

http://cgi.ebay.com/NEW-Classified-...5897?cmd=ViewItem&pt=CPUs&hash=item1e5cbe7a49

I asked the seller... he told me that the PC or mac doesn't need to be tweaked to run the processor, as its already done inside the chip.

I thought I would be saving money going with desktop i7-980 versus w3580 and also non-ecc ddr3 is a lot cheaper than ecc.

only xeons can run dual processor mode. but yes, for the single cpu mac pro, it is kind of true. but xeons are not really that more expensive then desktop version, if you buy it separately (not form apple) so it's not really something incredible.

also not something new.

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/757863/

 

[Cindori]

it requires a voltage well above the normal 920 standard, I don't know how voltage settings work on the Mac Pro but I am pretty sure no one is going to attempt this with the risk of frying both motherboard and cpu.

 

[Roman23]

Ah, got ya..

Ok.. so I guess the following will work then:

core-i7 920(2.66)-980(3.33); req non-ecc memory.
Xeon w3520(2.66) - max w3580(3.33); req ecc memory.

But really though... do I need the xeon?? If I would have known this, I'd of ordered a core i7-980 or 975 and bought non-ecc memory for a fraction of what it costs under xeon?? Do I REALLY need xeon?

it requires a voltage well above the normal 920 standard, I don't know how voltage settings work on the Mac Pro but I am pretty sure no one is going to attempt this with the risk of frying both motherboard and cpu.

 

[jons]

Ok.. so I guess the following will work then:

core-i7 920(2.66)-980(3.33); req non-ecc memory.
Xeon w3520(2.66) - max w3580(3.33); req ecc memory.

But really though... do I need the xeon?? If I would have known this, I'd of ordered a core i7-980 or 975 and bought non-ecc memory for a fraction of what it costs under xeon?? Do I REALLY need xeon?

I actually build out custom Mac Pros. We do about 5 a month.

I can tell you first hand that non-ECC ram will work in a Mac Pro with Xeons. You can also used ECC Buffered dimms, though slower are cheaper.

 

[VirtualRain]

I'm under the impression that equivalent desktop CPUs are not any cheaper than the single socket Xeons. So while you don't need a Xeon there's no real benefit to not using a Xeon is there?

 

[nanofrog]

core-i7 920(2.66)-980(3.33); req non-ecc memory.

Correct.

Xeon w3520(2.66) - max w3580(3.33); req ecc memory.

No.

It will work with non-ECC or ECC. What you cannot do however, is mix them.

But really though... do I need the xeon?? If I would have known this, I'd of ordered a core i7-980 or 975 and bought non-ecc memory for a fraction of what it costs under xeon?? Do I REALLY need xeon?

For what you're doing, No. You don't need ECC memory, so there's no need of a Xeon. The only reason for going with one in your case, is if you can find a better deal on a Xeon than the i7 equivalent (LGA1366 socket, Quad core, 45nm).

I'm under the impression that equivalent desktop CPUs are not any cheaper than the single socket Xeons. So while you don't need a Xeon there's no real benefit to not using a Xeon is there?

For quantity pricing published by Intel, there's no difference between the Quad core Xeon and i7 parts. But as Xeon's aren't as common, they tend to retail for more than their equivalent i7 counterparts as a result of supply and demand.

DP parts are another matter, as the additional QPI channel costs a fair penny compared to the SP equivalent (same clock speed).