2009 4.1 (4) Core Upgraded to a 5.1 (6) Core

[Barry Johns]

Originally Posted by lancemcv

You can't put an i7 3930k CPU in your mac pro only XEON 3600 for single cpu up to 6 cores and 5600 series for duel cpu up to 12 cores, those are folks talking about their Windows machines or Hackintosh.. the 3690 and 5690s are as fast as you can install in an 2009-2012 Mac Pro. Only the dual cpu 2009 mac pros were built with the delided cpus. Everyone here says its easy to delid them yourself. I chose not to. I have had know issues with keeping the caps on. over 30,000 mulit geekbench score, just a hair slower than the 2013 12 core mac pro that costs a fortune and has dated GPUs. It has never overheated even when its hot and humid. i7 are getting really fast but for me the 5680 was a nice upgrade, cheap and fast enough for all my mixing needs.
Check out www.barefeats.com for SSD upgrades, the new Samsung blades on a PCIE card are super fast.
http://barefeats.com/hard200.html
I have a flashed EVGA GTX 980 ti installed as well and it's been great.

Deliding is so insanely easy it's mind blowing. I can walk anyone through it, PM me if you want.

[Barry Johns]

Originally Posted by lancemcv

400 each is pricey unless they are brand new, 400 a pair is a good price, just search the Xeon 5690 prices on ebay to give you an idea of the average price.

$400 for a pair sounds pricy to me.

[Barry Johns]

Be carful with 5690 as they can overheat the CPU.

The increase in power between it and the 5680 is marginal and IMO a safer bet.

[LoZion]

Originally Posted by Barry Johns

Be carful with 5690 as they can overheat the CPU.

The increase in power between it and the 5680 is marginal and IMO a safer bet.

Ok I may have found a x5670 for about 100$..

[Barry Johns]

Originally Posted by LoZion

Ok I may have found a x5670 for about 100$..

If you can afford it I reccomend the 5680 for the extra power. You should be able to get a pair for around $250

[LoZion]

Ok, I'll try to find a x5680 instead..

[29CountsNY]

Hey Barry, just tried to PM you but it says you are not accepting PMs so thought I would reach out through this thread.
I got your message, ran into some major financial issues with my house so I never bought the processors. I should have some money in my pocket in a few weeks and will order them then. Is it alright if I give you a ring once I get them for the instructions?

Thanks again!!

[Fix]

I just saw this thread after updating a post I had and I'm now incredibly interested in doing this myself! Running HD Native now I am definitely seeing small problems with overloading the CPU in my 8 core 2.26 machine with heavy VI sessions. It makes me nervous to switch out the processors but after reading through it seems like a good option for me so I'm looking into the 5680s and more RAM. Just wanted to say thanks since I probably wouldn't have even thought about that as an option if I hadn't run into this thread.

[Peter Duemmler]

I installed two 5675 XEONs (got them already delidded) and 48GB 1333 RAM in my old 2.26 Nehalem. Procedure was easy (even for me) and it works like a charm and FAST. Recommended!

[LoZion]

A bit off topic but I wanted to report on my Samsung SM951 PCI-express SSD and Lycom DT-120 adapter card fitted to my 4,1. Its been awesome so far. I have partitioned it in 2 volumes with El Capitan residing on one and PT sessions on the other. I average 1300mb read & write which makes for fast boot up times but more importantly sessions load up super fast, disk cache fills up at an amazing rate and all drive duties (backup, import/export, etc.) are improved by the fast rate. I basically get trashcan performance disk-wise as the SM951 is essentially the SSD found in the nMac Pro (albeit with a different firmware).

Total cost: 250$ for a 256g drive and card. All in all highly recommended!