How to Upgrade a 2013 Mac Pro CPU and Reapply Thermal Paste?

Question

I own a 2013 Mac Pro and I intend to upgrade its CPU and do a thermal paste substitution procedure. Can you help me with how to do that?

Answer 1

Of course! If you want to upgrade the CPU in your older 2013 Mac Pro and reapply thermal paste, grab yourself a new CPU like the E5 2667 v2, get some precision tool kits, antistatic protection, alcohol wipes, some thermal paste (preferably Arctic MX6), and a silicon mat or a way to keep your screws tidy. Begin by binding the break down the machine, take out the RAM and after that commence work on the fan and heat sink followed by the logic board. Remove the old thermal paste from the GPUs and CPU using alcohol wipes, S -reapply fresh thermal paste and put the components back in. Always be sure to use static precautionary measures so as not to hurt the parts. And once all has been put back together, check the Mac Pro to make sure it runs and starts properly.

Comments

Just noticed an error... the GB5 test that is labelled as "6-core" is actually my old 12-core. Sorry, picked the wrong test from the list. The actual scores for the 6-core were 851 single and 4820 multi. So our upgrade gives us 5% more single-threaded performance, and 35% more multi-threaded performance in this test.

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Great job! I was quite nervous as well when upgrading a 4-core to a 12-core back in c.2017 when these macs were worth quite a bit more. I placed all the components and screws into numbered zip lock bags, and religiously followed a print-out of the iFixit guide. You made it look simple this time! Looking forward to more instalments of Trashcan Tales!

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I’ve done this — but with the help of a very techy friend who changed CPUs on much bigger computers, and thanked me for the unique experience of trying this one.  I couldn’t have bought the parts without his help.

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Thanks for the content. Bought the 12-core, D700, 64GB model on eBay. It was working fine from the start, but I could see the dust inside. Tore it all down as per your instructions, removed as much dust as possible and reapplied the thermal paste. I looking forward to many more years of use from this Mac Pro 6,1.

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just have upgraded another 2013 yesterday, it was the third time for me...works like a charm and have done it in about 1h including cleaning all the dried thermal paste.
which i really recommend to every 6,1 regardless of the manufacturing date. pretty happy with that machine which now have the 2690v2 with 10c/20t at 3.0 - 3.4ghz.

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I just did this upgrade yesterday. It is rather involved, but if one can follow directions it's not that bad. It took me about 90 minutes going slow and double checking my work. I also had to clean 11yrs of dust and crud out of it.

I didn't have a proper mat so I used a daily pill case to hold the screws as I disassembled the unit. Turns out there are exactly 7 different types/sets of screws so that worked out perfectly. I filled it up Sunday to Saturday. So when it was time to reassemble I went Saturday backwards to Sunday and it was dead simple.

OWC has a great step by step content that's very concise. It also shows what the thermal paste should look like on the CPU after applied!

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I did this on my 2013 Mac Pro after reading about the process a few years ago. It was daunting for me too because, like you said, the price of these things was very high at the time.

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Just did mine two weeks ago! Macpro6,1 temps dropped from 70c to 43c (intensive vacuuming applied too!) and macpro5,1 (which i’ve never done before) went down from 108c!!!!! to 50c  geez that screaming at me when i ran dante via in it to route dante for main mac  performance was greatly improved and no more kernel panics (it was really going too hot)… now i know :)

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i found out something not on cpu upgrades on you tube, i did the upgrade as you showed. it wouldnt power up and i was upset until i found there  the outer case lock that keeps the macpro from powering up unless outer case in and locked/after i did that it powered up fine

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Just did this for mine.

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the little stand-off that got stuck and came out while removing the CPU is normal,, not sure apple thought that part through with how they chose to only use blue loctite on a stand-off that would have something else torqued to hell. when I repasted mine they all stayed in place but on both of my GPUs I had more than one come out. had to use a a tiny wrench to get them unstuck but I made sure to tighten them down and then go back and make sure the CPU stand-offs where tightened down also. im currently debating on swapping out the GPUs thermal pads now

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Hi, i'm looking to do this upgrade, can you please link a source to get the cpu ?