A Geek Goes Flying

My old, dead, Mac Pro had a 6-core X5680 Xeon at 3.33 GHz. The “new” one came with dual 6-core X5650 2.66 GHz processors. Things have gotten so cheap, I picked up a pair of X5675s (3.06 GHz 6-core, the fastest processors Apple shipped in a dual processor Mac Pro 5,1 configuration) on eBay for $19 with free shipping. So now I had to install them. (I haven’t installed a processor since the days of the Socket 370 . (Edit: I’d only installed one processor, an i5-3570K in a Hackintosh I built in 2011. Forgot about that...)) (Also edit: I looked up the TDP for these processors; the X5675s are 95W, while the X5860s and higher are 130W, so 70W additional in a dual processor setup. Stuck with the 3.06s because I was worried about the additional heat. Stick with what Apple did stock...)   My exhaustive 5 minutes of Google searching found several videos that came close to being a full guide, but nothing comprehensive, so I figured I’d write out my experience here. The results were awesome, m...

About my Mac Pro My 3.33 GHz 6-core Mac Pro died after sitting for a month or so. I shut it down normally and when I went to turn it back on, nada.  I found and watched a couple of potential replacement units on eBay and Facebook Marketplace, and then kind of back-burnered the project. Then a seller sent me an eBay offer , which I accepted because they were relatively local (vs. $95 in shipping otherwise, and these things have a habit of getting bent TF in shipping), and because it was a nicely equipped machine for $200: 12-core (2x Intel® Xeon® X5650 CPUs @ 2.67GHz), 28 GB RAM, 500GB SSD, and a USB 3.0/eSATA card. (It’s still running the ATI Radeon HD 5770 1024 MB GPU, but I can transplant the RX 580 Sapphire easily enough.) Open Core Legacy Patcher Getting the Installer with an Unsupported High Sierra / Safari Setup First thing was to build an OpenCore Legacy Patcher-based installer on a USB flash drive. So I headed over to pick up the latest (1.0.1) OCLP app and ...  Huh. ...

I elected to go the cheaper, fast-enough-for-now route with my Big Sur volume in my mid-2010 Mac Pro. I mounted the 2.5" SSD to an  OWC Mount Pro Drive Sled ($15) instead of taking up my last free PCIe slot with another Accelsior S card . I may revisit that decision at some point, but for right now it’s not a priority. The fit and finish appear to be spot on, and the whole process was painless. In the box are the sled itself and four small screws to mount the SSD to the sled; the sled itself slides into place just like the OEM 3.5" units. Super easy, and I feel a lot better with the drive mounted, vs. hanging from the SATA connector (which worked very temporarily - SSDs are very light weight - but obviously wasn’t a durable solution).