Great videos, man. Love your stuff. Hacking these older macs is so much fun.

I had bought a 2009 Mac Pro 6 core Xeon processor with a 32 GB DDR3. Ram today from Ebay & was looking for some video to see how i could update it in 2021, glad i came across this video. Thank you for all the detailed information ℹ️

Great video! Always very interesting!

Just found one about an hour drive away with 16gb of ram, one 256gb SSD, and two 1tb data drives for $200!! Trying to secure the deal as I'm typing this!

Additional tip- if you're going this deep on upgrades you might as well repaste the northbridge chip (Did it on my 2008 idk if 2009's have one) and also replace the PRAM battery.

This is a really good Video, Sir. Thank you

this video is outstanding thanks man

Great video!

Great video! Please be careful next time when replacing the CPU in the socket, that accidental drop could have bent or broke some pins off. I have seen it happen to a friend and it was a pain to fix it let alone replace it....Keep up the videos though, have been enjoying them.

I did the firmware update (4,1 to 5,1) and the funny thing is that the latency in Pro Tools 11.3.7 went down considerably. I can now easily set the latency to 64 samples or even 32 samples in a large session instead of 512 at 48 KHz. 256 samples at 48 Khz usually works for a guitarist or drummer to record at but higher than that it's almost impossible. At the moment I use eleven-rack as the audio interface (USB 2). My Digi 003 rack+ has stopped working (fire wire 400) but I will fix it soon. Then I upgraded the dual quad core processors at 2.26 GHz to dual six core at 3.33 GHz. I'm surprised that the firmware did such a huge difference. I still use Yosemite because PT 11 could have issues with El Capitan or higher. I'm also keeping the ATI 4870. It's a DAW.

Thank you! Really awesome detailed video. I'm also planning on doing this. I heard if you don't delidd the CPU that the fans go crazy. Was that the case or do you know anything about that problem?

I have one 2009 Mac Pro & one 2010 Mac Pro!! It's very nice apple workstation. I install MacOS ventura 13.4 sucessfully on my 2010 Mac Pro by using OCLP

Really good video. Thanks😘

I'm pretty happy with my 3,1 .. still pimped it

use 3x16gb, it will perform better with just 3 slots used

The best Macintosh ever! Great video. Thanks 😊

Gotta love these machines, so under rated. They run Mojave amazing! Love OpenCore on them too. Will be tearing ours down to get a guide set up for it! Great video thanks! To add to it though I really would use a dual 6 pin to 8 pin even on the 480 the logic board can only run 75w trough each port and 75w from the PCIe slot. Really best to run the dual so you do not run the risk of trying to pull too much power through the Logic Board running the risk of blowing out a capacitor or something on the board. Good choice on the X5675 lower power less cost and on par with the X5680's or X5690's

If you're on Yosemite do the firmware update before updating to a later MacOS. Yosemite doesn't have SIP but El Capitan does. You will skip a hassle.

Peace & love brother . I have the same mac and I'm trying to do the same upgrades could you drop some links where I can get those same products ? Ram, grfx card , cpu . Thanks chief

tell me which adapter to buy to make RIDE 0 out of four 970EVO for Mac Pro 2009, flashed to 5.1. Mac os Mojave. I will always load OS from another Disk

I have the single core 2009 4,1. Upgraded to 5,1 installed a 6 core Xeon 3.33 ghz x5690, currently running 16gb ram but would like to upgrade that. Also put in a Gigabyte Aorus RX 580 4gb. Just installed OpenCore and have the boot screen without having to flash the GPU. Also installed is 18 tb of drives, and a m.2 NVME PCIE in slot 2 x16. Just upgraded to Catalina and everything works perfectly. Have not had a single issue. I mainly use this machine as a time machine backup and a Plex server. Eventually id like to get the dual cpu tray but having a difficult finding one for the right price. All these upgrades were very easy and I say that as a person that does not know a lot about terminal code.

You rock dude! I am nervous about this for unknown reasons, but I found a great looking dual cpu 2009 upgraded to 5,1 for just under 400 and free shipping.. will this really smoke my 2015 MacBook Pro after upgrading it?

👍 Wanting to get one and do the same. Thanks for the great vid

riddle me this I’m trying to upgrade my 2009(early)Mac Pro 4,1 to a 5,1. I did the EFI update and the firmware update when I restart it goes into a short flash mode and crashes then restarts back into El Capitan’s

How can I change firmware back to the original 4,1? I lost some things That I need to run.

I know this is old but do you have any idea where, now, that firmware update tool could be downloaded? The site you using in the video is now some sort of casino "thing"...or something....it's all in a foreign language. The domain obviously has changed owners. UPDATE: I finally found it, elsewhere.

How can I downgrade to original 2009 G5 Power Mac 4,1 original from a 5,1 firmware upgrade?

9:40 Not sure I understand what you mean, are you saying that the GPU (MSI or Sapphire) RX 470 gives duble the performance compared to the RX 580?

I took out i5 2400s from dead iMac 2011. The socket is 1155. I believe it should work is standard pc motherboard. I just want to double check if it is possible to put inside the pc.

I am sorry, do you know what this code may mean by any chance? 4sns/1/400000000: tn0d- 127.739 The mac at some point started to freeze then restart. :(

The only major pain is the SATA2 connectors, which is why you put the PCI-E drive bay.

Good video with help for many. A few points of correction. A CPU upgrade is not needed for High Sierra or Mojave but rather a metal capable GPU (for Mojave). Flashing to 5,1 is needed to support faster CPU and 1333 MHz RAM, but not 1600 MHz RAM. CPU upgrades for a 2009 should be delidded (plug and play) or you need to add heat sink washers. Delid is better as you’ll improve heat transfer.

Where can I find High Sierra ?

I have xfx RX 580 works fine in my Mac Pro 2010

I have 12 cores mid 2012 Mac Pro,I did change the CPU for 2X5690 and the tool I used was 3MM not 8MM hex wrench,are you sure 8MM ?

Them bus speed for ram on the 5.1 is 1333mhz

I have a 2009 mac pro flashed to 5,1 running high sierra. when I installed the sapphire rx580 with the right cord, my screen is black but the system is running. How do i proceed? Any help is nice.

Good video! How can I downgrade back to a 4,1 machine?

Can’t you put a amd rx5700?

I understood there is no reason for west mere cpu's to be matched, cause there are not different ;}

Is it possible to go to Catalina

he drop the cpu when istall this cpu.

To whom who thinks this is an easy walk in the park just remember that those machines are old and their components are brittle and have gone through hot and cold for years.This being said removing the heat sink might seems easy except that the nuts are affixed to the board and are prone to come off ( happened to me)...once off it will not secure the processing unit and the computer will not boot.Know what your are getting into.