Post installation and dual Xeon support

[HiroThreading]

Hey guys

So after struggling to get the black screen issue in Sierra (despite having a Mac Pro 5,1 definition) upon boot, I decided to install El Capitan on my Hac Pro:

2 * Intel Xeon E5 2670
Intel S2600CP2J motherboard
8 * 8GB Hynix DDR3-1866 RAM
ATI Radeon R9 290X

First things first: it worked!! I was so incredibly relieved and happy to see it finally boot into the El Capitan home screen!

There are a couple issues though:
1. The system only seems to see 32GB of RAM of my total 64GB installed. It's possible that OS X is only reading 4 DIMM slots per CPU, or all 8 DIMM slots for only CPU1 or CPU2 (doubtful, as I assume this would cause all sorts of issues). If it's the former rather than the latter, then I'm unsure if the CPU and RAM are operating in quad channel mode. Most likely they're operating in dual channel mode, correct?

Any ideas to work around this issue so that all 16 DIMM slots are enabled? Or, just as good, allocate the 8 DIMM slots that OS X is reading to the 8 DIMM slots which actually have the RAM sticks installed so that the system can run in quad channel mode?

2. Any general advice on what to do from here? Is signing into iCloud a good idea? Also, if I want to make the move to Sierra eventually, should I try renaming my GPU from GFX0 to GFX1 as outlined in this guide here:
https://www.tonymacx86.com/threads/...-imac-15-or-imac-17-system-definition.183113/

3. Any advice on things like CPU C/low power states?

Many thanks once again!

 

[neilhart]

Hey guys

So after struggling to get the black screen issue in Sierra (despite having a Mac Pro 5,1 definition) upon boot, I decided to install El Capitan on my Hac Pro:

2 * Intel Xeon E5 2670
Intel S2600CP2J motherboard
8 * 8GB Hynix DDR3-1866 RAM
ATI Radeon R9 290X

First things first: it worked!! I was so incredibly relieved and happy to see it finally boot into the El Capitan home screen!

There are a couple issues though:
1. The system only seems to see 32GB of RAM of my total 64GB installed. It's possible that OS X is only reading 4 DIMM slots per CPU, or all 8 DIMM slots for only CPU1 or CPU2 (doubtful, as I assume this would cause all sorts of issues). If it's the former rather than the latter, then I'm unsure if the CPU and RAM are operating in quad channel mode. Most likely they're operating in dual channel mode, correct?

Any ideas to work around this issue so that all 16 DIMM slots are enabled? Or, just as good, allocate the 8 DIMM slots that OS X is reading to the 8 DIMM slots which actually have the RAM sticks installed so that the system can run in quad channel mode?

2. Any general advice on what to do from here? Is signing into iCloud a good idea? Also, if I want to make the move to Sierra eventually, should I try renaming my GPU from GFX0 to GFX1 as outlined in this guide here:
https://www.tonymacx86.com/threads/...-imac-15-or-imac-17-system-definition.183113/

3. Any advice on things like CPU C/low power states?

Many thanks once again!

I am very pleased to read about your progress and would like to learn more.

I am curious as to what the El Cap system is reporting as number of cores and number of threads?

Also have you run Geekbench and can share those numbers?

I was thinking that if I were bringing up your system I would try to install Windows 10 and LINUX just to see what there is to see. I generally use a number of small capacity hard drives and switch them in and out of the system where each drive is a complete boot environment example for that OS.

I have never done a dual CPU system and am toying with the idea of following along with a similar system to yours.

Good modding,
neil