He’s talking about getting into a G5 Mac Pro, which is a beast of an enclosure.
Everything is very accessible as far as service items, but getting to the CPUs can be challenging, mainly because they weren’t intended to be removed or serviced by the end user. My Mac Pro (Intel) has upgraded processors that I installed, which took about 45 minutes to an hour to do for a full R&R. They require some unique tools to do easily, but other than that it’s not that difficult. This is definitely not a job like swapping processors on a regular PC or server, as there’s a lot to do to get to the heat sinks. The heat sinks are massive, and are anchored very well. As for monitoring temperatures and fan speeds, the SMC Fan Control app is great for older Macs and pre-Yosemite machines. There’s another app called “Macs Fan Control” that works well in Yosemite machines. Both of these allow manual control of cooling fans as well as automatic modes. Do note that in Mac Pros there are 18 different temperature sensors. Between these and four fans, it’s a balancing act to maintain cooling under any circumstances other than allowing the controller to do it. I have tinkered with mine on occasion and found that changing one fan speed can have some interesting effects on other areas of the machine…. Attaboy! MacDann > On Jan 17, 2015, at 5:56 PM, Greg Fiorentino via Mercedes > <mercedes@okiebenz.com> wrote: > > I have had excellent results by blowing into the air intake with a Giotto > Rocket intended for camera work. I'm sure disassembly is better, but a lot > more work. I have replaced cooling fans on ThinkPads (with the free and > comprehensive hardware manuals ThinkPads are a breeze to work on). > Sometimes the motors, bearings or lube is just gone. Parts are cheap. > > There are Win apps for temperature display (IDK about Apple) so you don't > need to guess about whether your cooling is adequate. > > Oh wait...I guess you must be talking about a desktop type machine. > Surprising it should be such a PITA to get into! > > Greg > > -----Original Message----- > From: Mercedes [mailto:mercedes-boun...@okiebenz.com] On Behalf Of Jim > Cathey via Mercedes > Sent: Saturday, January 17, 2015 1:41 PM > To: Mercedes Discussion List > Subject: [MBZ] OT: The sweet sound of success > > Jill's been complaining for awhile now that her G5 Quad Mac has been roaring > its fans at her. We've also experienced a few crashes that could possibly > be thermally induced. So today I bit the bullet. > > Googling for instructions I found how to remove the CPU assembly from the > computer. This is not easy, I didn't have the correct long Allen > screwdrivers. I managed to make do with some shorter ones, a long Torx > screwdriver, some SAE Allen bits, and a 1/4" socket wrench set. > That was a pain. Once I had the assembly out I looked it over and blew out > the dust bunnies. It looked pretty good, no sign of leaks. > It's got a second-generation Delphi/Cooligy cooling system. Not ideal, but > so far so good. > > That was the hard part. Turning the CPU unit over exposes 15 Allen screws > to remove the heat sink from a CPU card. The paste between the two looked > thin and dry, I wiped it off and replaced it with new. > Repeat times 2 for both CPU's. Reassembly was in the reverse order, the > most fiddly bit was getting the CPU assembly seated to the motherboard. > Once assembled far enough to function I powered it on (but with the disks > disconnected) long enough to hear the 'bong' that indicated functional > CPU's, then I powered off and finished the reassembly. I replaced it in > Jill's office and fired it up. > > It came up just fine, and the fans did ramp up a bit while working harder > during the boot, but then the got quiet again. That's new! > Time will tell whether or not this is fixed, but so far I believe it to have > been a, ahem, 'roaring' success! > > -- Jim > > > _______________________________________ > http://www.okiebenz.com > > To search list archives http://www.okiebenz.com/archive/ > > To Unsubscribe or change delivery options go to: > http://mail.okiebenz.com/mailman/listinfo/mercedes_okiebenz.com > > All posts are the result of individual contributors and as such, those > individuals are responsible for the content of the post. The list owner has > no control over the content of the messages of each contributor. > > > _______________________________________ > http://www.okiebenz.com > > To search list archives http://www.okiebenz.com/archive/ > > To Unsubscribe or change delivery options go to: > http://mail.okiebenz.com/mailman/listinfo/mercedes_okiebenz.com > > All posts are the result of individual contributors and as such, those > individuals are responsible for the content of the post. The list owner has > no control over the content of the messages of each contributor. _______________________________________ http://www.okiebenz.com To search list archives http://www.okiebenz.com/archive/ To Unsubscribe or change delivery options go to: http://mail.okiebenz.com/mailman/listinfo/mercedes_okiebenz.com All posts are the result of individual contributors and as such, those individuals are responsible for the content of the post. The list owner has no control over the content of the messages of each contributor.
