MP 1,1-5,1 Upgrade assistance for a cowardly Lion

[CharCat]

I have a cMP 1,1 flashed to 2,1. It has the Nvidia 7300GT GPU, dual Xeon 5150 CPUs and 16 GB 667 MHz DDR2 FB-DIMM. As I'm partial to AMD video, I'm leaning towards getting a Sapphire RX550 w/4GB for video (plus I'm cheap). I've looked over the thread at Forums > Macs > macOS > Older OS X Versions > OS X El Capitan (10.11) > 2820. I'm finally getting other projects finished and I'd now like to dive into upgrading my cheese grater. A couple questions before I go off the high dive.
1) Should I install different Xeon cpus before anything else?
2) Which is "easier" to use - Pikify or Netkas or other? (The Boss will strangulate me if I turn the Mac into a doorstop.)
3) In general, is the upgrade as simple, overall, to do as upgrading a windows box from win7 to w10?
4) Lastly, is El Capitan the limit? I ask because so many programs are purposely crippled on older yet fully functional macOS version.

Thank you very much. One observation about my cMP. It's so bloody quiet most of the time I can't tell it's even on. My windows box sounds like a bloody 737.
BTW - The thread title is a play on my current macOS and birth sign. Don't hurt yourselves laughing too hard.

 

[tsialex]

I have a cMP 1,1 flashed to 2,1. It has the Nvidia 7300GT GPU, dual Xeon 5150 CPUs and 16 GB 667 MHz DDR2 FB-DIMM. As I'm partial to AMD video, I'm leaning towards getting a Sapphire RX550 w/4GB for video (plus I'm cheap). I've looked over the thread at Forums > Macs > macOS > Older OS X Versions > OS X El Capitan (10.11) > 2820. I'm finally getting other projects finished and I'd now like to dive into upgrading my cheese grater. A couple questions before I go off the high dive.
1) Should I install different Xeon cpus before anything else?
2) Which is "easier" to use - Pikify or Netkas or other? (The Boss will strangulate me if I turn the Mac into a doorstop.)
3) In general, is the upgrade as simple, overall, to do as upgrading a windows box from win7 to w10?
4) Lastly, is El Capitan the limit? I ask because so many programs are purposely crippled on older yet fully functional macOS version.

Thank you very much. One observation about my cMP. It's so bloody quiet most of the time I can't tell it's even on. My windows box sounds like a bloody 737.
BTW - The thread title is a play on my current macOS and birth sign. Don't hurt yourselves laughing too hard.

Your idea is flawed from the start. RX 4xx/5xx/VEGA/VII/NAVI GPUs need macOS versions newer than a MP1,1/2,1 can run.

• RX 4xx/5xx - 10.12.6
• VEGA - 10.13.2
• VII - 10.14.5
• NAVI - 10.15.1

The best AMD GPU that you can install is HD 7950/HD 7970/R9 280/280x. Nothing newer.

For macOS support, you are limited to 10.11.6 with a MP1,1/2,1. Your Xeons processors don't have the required SSE4.1 that Sierra onwards needs and you can't use a newer Xeon that have SSE4.1, no motherboard support. Only MP3,1 motherboard can support a Xeon with SSE4.1 and it's a very difficult transplant, even the PSU needs to be changed.

A MP1,1/2,1 will die with 10.11.6 or become a Windows 10/Linux computer.

 

[hwojtek]

@tsialex - great informative post, however...

For macOS support, you are limited to 10.11.6 with a MP1,1/2,1. Your Xeons processors don't have the required SSE4.1 that El Capitan needs

10.11.6 is El Capitan, you obviously meant Sierra (and higher).

 

[tsialex]

@tsialex - great informative post, however...

10.11.6 is El Capitan, you obviously meant Sierra (and higher).

Yep, fever made me stupid

 

[CharCat]

Thank you, gang. I found a couple ways to upgrade - Hrutkay Mods, Piker, and dosdude1. So, I have a chicken or the egg question. I'm currently using Lion. To do an OS upgrade, should the GPU be upgraded first, say to a ATI 5770, or should the OS be upgraded first? I'm guessing the GPU.

 

[Dayo]

Only MP3,1 motherboard can support a Xeon with SSE4.1 and it's a very difficult transplant, even the PSU needs to be changed.

Interesting. Any info on how this is done?

 

[tsialex]

Interesting. Any info on how this is done?

There is a lengthy thread here, a user bought a new MP1,1 case and heavily modified it to fit a MP3,1 interior. I'm on iPhone now, I bet that you can find it easier than me.

 

[Dayo]

There is a lengthy thread here, a user bought a new MP1,1 case and heavily modified it to fit a MP3,1 interior. I'm on iPhone now, I bet that you can find it easier than me.

Got it. You mean someone upgraded older cMP to use 3,1 motherboard.

 

[tsialex]

Got it. You mean someone upgraded older cMP to use 3,1 motherboard.

Yes, MP1,1/2,1 case with MP3,1 motherboard, heatsinks, memory risers/cage and PSU.

While is certainly possible to be done, he did it, it's absurdly expensive to do so. No one in the right mind would do it with the current MP3,1 prices.

 

[CharCat]

Frankly I'd be happy to El Capitan installed and may swap CPUs, although I don't really see any need to. Getting Sierra or High Sierra to work would be nice, but I'm not going to hold my breath.