06/28/2008, 4:10pm, EDT
Saturday, June 28th
ZDNet offers Mac Pro Overclocking software
ZDNet has announced what it says is the first tool for overclocking the Mac Pro. Windows options for overclocking are prevalent, but none have been available for the Mac Pro, according to ZDNet. It claims that the new software, called ZDNet Clock, is capable of speed increases of 15 to 20 percent, and most computers with 2.8GHz chips should be able to meet or exceed 3.2 GHz. The version 1.0 software supports Intel processors on a Mac Pro or Xserve and requires Max OS X 10.5; it is available for download now, free of charge.
The downloadable software self-detects the chips on launch and, using a slider tool, can increase clockspeed and frontside bus speed. ZDNet recommends jumps of 10MHz at a time in order to find highest stable speed, as each CPU will have have its own tolerances.
RAM chip quality can affect the overclocking process, according to the software developer: Hynix (the brand currently shipping in 2008 models), Kinsington and Transcend modules have worked well in testing.
ZDNet Clock comes with an error-tracking module to aid the user in checking stability, and gradually increasing speed until optimum stable speed for the chip is found.
Filed under: hacks
Other story tags: Mac Pro, Xserve, hack, overclocking
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Speeeeed
How do i overclock my first gen 2ghz Intel iMac?
I want to get it over 3.06ghz.
Hmmm
Can anyone try this and confirm if it really works? Im not rich enough to afford blowing a $3K machine in case it doesnt.
It works...
Overclocked my 2ghz mac pro to 2.340 without FSB errors. Tried higher but received alot of errors. Encoded video while making changes. My test was a 1.99gb mpeg file encoding to dv. 2.0 took 16:50, overclocked to 2.340 and completed in 15:00. Go for it folks. BTW, the temps do rise so crank up the fans.
Error downloading
I can't get this file to download properly. I get a .tar file that won't decompress without errors. Can anyone help?
hey macnn
Did anyone else notice the page doesn't display correctly in Safari.
Works here too!
Overclocked Mac Pro original 3.0 to 3.2 - no errors so far!
Much speedier!
I noticed as I slowly upped the MHz that the console log entries refresh increased from every 8-9 secs to eventually 2 seconds!
Works great
2008 MacPro Dual-Quad Xeon 3.2...was able to nudge it up to 3.46 gHz!
Just watched the logs and took it up to where it could run for hours with no errors.
I remember the old days with my Quadra 800 doing this with jumpers and clock crystals.....this is MUCH nicer!
question
what happens if you lock the machine up, how do you reset it so you can boot?