 |
 | Home | Contact Us | FAQ | Search & Site Map | Link to Us |
 | Sign In | Join | Other 45 Sites in Network |
Mac Forum / General / Hardware / November 2007Upgrading Xeons?
I have an original 2x dual-core Mac Pro. I've found that the only thing I can do to stress the cores is Handbrake encoding, in pretty much every other case the majority of cores are idled. I'd like to try to keep about the same performance, but lower my power use. I'm wondering if I can do this with the new Xeons, the Penryn series? The first question is obvious: are there drop-in replacements? I assume that due to the lower power and thermal loads, non-logical backplane support will not be an issue. I seem to recall that the Mac Pro can run with one CPU removed... but what are the performance differences inherent in 1 four-core CPU as opposed to 2 dual-core ones? If these differences are limited to certain workloads, this might be something I'd consider. So, any Xeon experts out there? Maury > I have an original 2x dual-core Mac Pro. I've found that the only > thing I can do to stress the cores is Handbrake encoding, in pretty [quoted text clipped - 16 lines] > > Maury Not a XEON expert myself, though I've had opportunities to "play" a bit with Pentium-II-XEON workstations and Pentium-III-XEON servers, I haven't owned my own (i.e., "since it's mine I can just plain screw with it until something dies"--my usual personal computer m.o. when I don't depend on it for my livelihood). On the other hand, Anand Lal Shimpi of Anandtech wrote this article, http://www.anandtech.com/mac/showdoc.aspx?i=2832 , which offers useful insight to DYI upgrading of a Mac Pro from its original configuration (one of the first) to running lots of RAM, more hard drives, and-oh, yes-a pair of Intel pre-production prototypes of the Quad-Core XEON. His step-by-step illustrated guide and written warnings in the text appear pretty useful info to anyone upgrading one of these beasties. Oh, by the way, Anand also includes info pertinent to some of your questions about performance... you may want to look at Anandtech's guides/reviews to/of Penryn CPU's and Intel's development path, too. Best wishes! > > I have an original 2x dual-core Mac Pro. I've found that the only > > thing I can do to stress the cores is Handbrake encoding, in pretty [quoted text clipped - 16 lines] > > > > Maury Don't know about Penryns, but the 4-Core chips will drop in, turning your Mac Prp into a 6 or 8 cormachine depending on how many you replace. -- |
Reply to this Message |
 Sign In
 Join
 My Latest Posts My Monitored Threads My Blog My Photo Gallery My Profile My Homepage Start New Thread Enable EMail Alerts Rate this Thread
|
©2009 Advenet LLC Privacy Policy - Terms of Use
This website includes both content owned or controlled by Advenet as well as content owned or controlled by third parties.