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The Mac Pro First Generation is an Intel Xeon-based workstation computer manufactured by Apple Inc. The first generation model includes the machines from 2006 through 2008.

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Heatsink for 2nd processor

I just got a great deal on a used Mac Pro 2008 with a single Quad Core 2.8 processor. The seller provided a 2nd identical processor, which he had never got round to installing. No 2nd heatsink. Looking online, especially eBay, prices for the original heatsink are high, e.g. $80-90 and up.

There's a 2nd heatsink that many are selling and I was wondering if it works, has problems, etc. It's a Northbridge heatsink, described as being for the Mac Pro 2008. Prices are in the $20 range.

Would this Northbridge heatsink work? Are there known problems? Its design is somewhat different from the "usual" heatsinks advertised as for the 2008 Mac Pro, which are bigger.

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Hi Matt, the Northbridge heatsink is named for the Northbridge chip on the logic board:

"Northbridge is an Intel chipset that communicates with the computer processor and controls interaction with memory, the Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI) bus, Level 2 cache, and all Accelerated Graphics Port (AGP) activities. Northbridge communicates with the processor using the frontside bus (FSB)."

So the Northbridge heatsink only works with that chip, and not the main CPUs. I did some ebay searching myself and found a few CPU heatsinks in the $20-30 range. (http://www.ebay.com/itm/Mac-Pro-2006-200...)

Hope this helps, and good luck!

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Matt will be eternally grateful.
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