Let's say, in a year, I wanted to take out the board containing the quad CPU and put in a dual-CPU board and populate it with a couple processors. Does Apple (or anyone else) sell the bare boards?
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Single quad Mac pro (2009) - can a bare dual CPU board be ordered for it?
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Should be able to, but I don't think anyone has tried it yet to confirm it. I'd get a service manual to see what components you need exactly, but I believe you will at least need the following 3 items: logic board ($329), heatsink A ($119) and heatsink B ($249). So $700 plus the price of your Xeon 5500s and less whatever you sell the old components for, though there may not be much of a market for a used single socket board and heatsink.
edit: Might be worth considering the difference between refurb units is $650 ($2,149 vs $2,799) and the two 2.26Hz Xeons and 3GB extra memory have more value than the 2.66Ghz, board and heatsink of the single socket Mac Pro. Also you will probably be limited to the current Xeons, so it might be even better to buy what you need now and sell it and buy whatever is current when the time comes.
edit: Might be worth considering the difference between refurb units is $650 ($2,149 vs $2,799) and the two 2.26Hz Xeons and 3GB extra memory have more value than the 2.66Ghz, board and heatsink of the single socket Mac Pro. Also you will probably be limited to the current Xeons, so it might be even better to buy what you need now and sell it and buy whatever is current when the time comes.
Thx for the info.
Yeah, I thought it would be fun to play the upgrade game as such, but I might be as well off going for a 3.33GHz W3580 (if newegg gets more to sell) and unofficially ramp up my single quad, which is no slouch.