If (today) you were going to upgrade your 2010 - 2012 Mac Pro 5,1 with new CPUs, new GPU, new NVME, etc. etc., what would you do different?

I’m at the very beginning of organizing how I’m going to upgrade my machine, and I would love to hear from you… What would you do different?

Many thanks for all your replies.

Would just have gone with:

- single CPU 6 core X5690 3.46ghz
- 64GB RAM (4x16GB)
- Pixlas mod
- thunderbolt card (Titan Ridge 2.0)
- AMD Radeon Pro W6800X 32GB (needs to be flashed)
- 2TB Samsung SSD (not NVME). The Samsung does need latest firmware.

The single CPU models run much quieter, the dual CPU ones always have a hotter running northbridge and they just make so much fan noise.

NVME are fast but they also need a PCI-E card to run them. With a big GPU installed and thunderbolt card you have precious extra room in the mac. I could manage with a normal SSD.

Note: Regarding W6800X in MP 5,1 - see here: https://forums.macrumors.com/thread...s.2262295/page-49?post=31328912#post-31328912

I DID do it all over again and got a new tray and a pair of de-lidded X5690s for my 4,1. I agree with avro707 that the single socket 5,1 is a good way to go. Currently running a W3690 for style.

jscipione said:

I DID do it all over again and got a new tray and a pair of de-lidded X5690s for my 4,1. I agree with avro707 that the single socket 5,1 is a good way to go. Currently running a W3690 for style.

Forgive my ignorance, but what does “de-lidded” mean? And if I find a seller of such CPUs, what question should I ask him to confirm that they are de-lidded?

Thanks very much for your time

Macsonic said:

De-lidded CPUs comes with the heat sinks removed.

Not quite. De-lidding refers to removal of the integrated heat spreader (IHS) of the CPU. The heat sink is separate. You definitely don't want to run your system with the heat sinks removed!

Soba said:

Not quite. De-lidding refers to removal of the integrated heat spreader (IHS) of the CPU. The heat sink is separate. You definitely don't want to run your system with the heat sinks removed!

Thanks for the clarification. I wasn’t sure if “heat sink” is the proper terminology, but I meant the heat spreader. It’s also the reason why in my previous post, I included a link on a de-lidded Xeon CPU on sale that was meant for the 2009 Mac Pro to to avoid any confusion. I also had the chance to upgrade a client’s 2009 Mac Pro dual CPU tray using De-lidded CPUs.

In addition to CPU and graphics card, NVME upgrade, I also recommend upgrading BT and WIFI, I have forgotten the details of the chip model, you can check the forum article, in addition, if you have the ability, we recommend contacting @tsialex to understand the upgrade process of SPI flash, it is related to its life.

ddhhddhh2 said:

In addition to CPU and graphics card, NVME upgrade, I also recommend upgrading BT and WIFI, I have forgotten the details of the chip model, you can check the forum article, in addition, if you have the ability, we recommend contacting @tsialex to understand the upgrade process of SPI flash, it is related to its life.

Sorry for my ignorance: “BT”?

I tried clearing the bootrom (using RomTool) - I disabled SIP before hand.… but received this error: “DirectHW.next could not be loaded”… what to do?

Diggi said:

Sorry for my ignorance: “BT”?

Abbreviation for Bluetooth.

Ah, so sorry.

I thought about upgrading my CPUs from a pair of six core 2.93 GHz Westmere to a pair of x5690s… But would only do it if I could actually see better performance while using the machine. Geek bench scores are interesting, but they don’t really tell me how the machine is going to feel while I’m using it. Know what I mean?

This machine is used only for audio recording (Logic pro X) and Internet is only connected when I absolutely, positively must download something. This the CPU upgrade would have noticeable results?

Macsonic said:

Thanks for the clarification. I wasn’t sure if “heat sink” is the proper terminology, but I meant the heat spreader. It’s also the reason why in my previous post, I included a link on a de-lidded Xeon CPU on sale that was meant for the 2009 Mac Pro to to avoid any confusion. I also had the chance to upgrade a client’s 2009 Mac Pro dual CPU tray using De-lidded CPUs.

Just to avoid confusions -- OP has a 5,1 so won't be using de-lidded CPUs. OP, if you decide to upgrade look for regular lidded CPUs.