Upgrading your 'old school' mac pro.

[Neil Parfitt]

I'm sure this is old news to most.. but I thought I'd put this out there again as if brings an insane amount of life back to your machine if you're hitting the limits.

 

The machine in Question is the original Mac Pro 2.66 Dual Core with FB-DIMM 667 memory.

 

I've successfully upgrade the CPU's on this tower to:

 

Jan 2009 - 2 x 2.66 Quadcores = 2.66Ghz Octa

-Scored 8909 on Geekbench

-paid $650 for the *PAIR*

 

Oct 2009 - 2 x 3.00 Quadcores = 3Ghz Octa

-Scored 11006 on Geekbench

-paid $600 for the *PAIR*

 

The chips to look for are the Xeon X5355 (2.66) and the Xeon X5365 (3Ghz)

 

If you've put together a PC before, then the switch is a breeze. Takes about 10 minutes at the most. All you need is patience, a *long* screwdriver for the heatsink screws and some new thermal paste ($10)

 

This of course voids warranty - but mine with applecare was up a year ago so who cares. If you've never done a CPU swap or disassembled your mac beyond the side panel, then DONT without help from someone who has.

 

This $600 DOUBLES your power. So that's $600 well spent.. and you don't have to re-install anything. A few plugins using the CPU type for activation ID's need to be re-authorized. Total downtime for double the power (or more!) ... 20 minutes tops..

 

It's a great way to extend the life of you machine by a few years at minimum.

 

Cheers!

 

Finding those CPU's at that price are not easy - but is possible!

[tcroper]

Newegg apparently doesn't stock either of those processors anymore. Anyone know if they have been discontinued? Are there any other models that fit the Mac Pro logic board?