"2006 Mac Pro (1,1) with two 2.66 Dual core CPUs, upgraded with two Xeon 5355 2.66GHz Quad Core CPUs. (Ref: Intel X5355 CPU info.)
Following a bunch of people's example, I swapped out my original Dual cores to a pair of Quad cores I purchased off of Ebay for $350. A couple of well documented YouTube videos were invaluable, as was some assitance from my kids and my wife. (She's a Neurosugical Physician's Assistant, doesn't hurt!)
(Links to videos and how-to articles on this upgrade linked in several reports in the past, including this one from July 2009)

I ran Geek Bench before and after, the score went from 5563 to 9397 on the first try, haven't had much time to do further testing. I use my Mac Pro mostly for Pro Tools audio work and this fall is crazy busy for some reason, but having 7 cores for plugins as opposed to 3 (we always leave one for the system to use) has made a huge difference and was WELL worth the $350. It's not an easy install, though, watch all the videos and take notes before you start.

This wasn't run multiple times and the memory could possibly be moved around to increase performance (and there's some run/run variation) but I gotta get back to work! Thanks for a great site and resource!
Best, Eli J."

Thank you
  

"About MacBook Pro SMC Firmware Update 1.5
This update resolves an issue where a MacBook Pro being used with a power adapter may unexpectedly shut down under heavy workload if the battery charge level is near empty.

Your computer's power cord must be connected and plugged into a working power source, or your battery must be at least 25% charged.

When your computer restarts a gray screen will appear with a status bar to indicate the progress of the update.

Your computer's fans will run at full speed during the update but will return to normal speed once the update completes.

Do not disturb or shut off the power on your computer during this update.

System Requirements:
Mac OS X 10.6.8, OS X 10.7.2"

The Apple article on EFI and SMC firmware updates for Intel-based Macs (by model/series/year) but was revised Nov. 11th to add this SMC 1.5 update to the Late 2011 MBP series. According to that page, the SMC version after the update is 1.68f98 for 13in model, 1.69f3 for 15in and 1.70f5 for 17in model.
  

"Time Capsule and AirPort Base Station (802.11n) Firmware 7.6
This update for all 802.11n AirPort Express, 802.11n AirPort Extreme and Time Capsule models provides fixes for the following:

• An issue with performance on overlapping wireless networks
• An issue with AirPlay audio streaming
• An issue with configuring multiple entries for DNS servers

For detailed information on Firmware Updates 7.6, including how to install the update, please visit: All about Time Capsule, AirPort Extreme, and AirPort Express base station firmware updates.

(Here's info on security fix in v7.6)

• Impact: An attacker in a privileged network position may be able to cause arbitrary command execution via malicious DHCP responses

  Description: dhclient allowed remote attackers to execute arbitrary commands via shell metacharacters in a hostname obtained from a DHCP message. This issue is addressed by stripping shell meta-characters in dhclient-script.

Installation note for Firmware version 7.6
Firmware version 7.6 is installed into Time Capsule or AirPort Base Station with 802.11n via AirPort Utility, provided with the device. It is recommended that AirPort Utility 5.5.3 or later be installed before upgrading to Firmware version 7.6."

I updated to 7.6 tonight and so far no ill effects seen here. (All settings retained.) As always YMMV. If anyone sees any other pros/cons from this update, let me know. Thanks.

  

"IM from Gabe (Valve)
Dear Steam Users and Steam Forum Users,
Our Steam forums were defaced on the evening of Sunday, November 6 (2011). We began investigating and found that the intrusion goes beyond the Steam forums.
We learned that intruders obtained access to a Steam database in addition to the forums. This database contained information including user names, hashed and salted passwords, game purchases, email addresses, billing addresses and encrypted credit card information. We do not have evidence that encrypted credit card numbers or personally identifying information were taken by the intruders, or that the protection on credit card numbers or passwords was cracked. We are still investigating.

We don't have evidence of credit card misuse at this time. Nonetheless you should watch your credit card activity and statements closely.

While we only know of a few forum accounts that have been compromised, all forum users will be required to change their passwords the next time they login. If you have used your Steam forum password on other accounts you should change those passwords as well.

We do not know of any compromised Steam accounts, so we are not planning to force a change of Steam account passwords (which are separate from forum passwords). However, it wouldn't be a bad idea to change that as well, especially if it is the same as your Steam forum account password.

We will reopen the forums as soon as we can.
I am truly sorry this happened, and I apologize for the inconvenience.
-Gabe"

• LaCie Little Big Disk (ThunderBolt) 240GB SSD Review (w/benchmarks vs Thunderbolt Promise Pegasus RAID)
• Former colleagues share memories of Steve Jobs
• Digital Camera RAW Compatibility Update 3.9 (for OS X Lion/Snow Leopard)
• iOS 5.0.1 Software Update

• About the security content of Time Capsule and AirPort Base Station (802.11n) Firmware 7.6
• About the security content of iOS 5.0.1 Software Update
• iOS: How to update your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch
• OS X Lion: Supported digital camera RAW formats
  (revised for Dig. Camera RAW Update 3.9)
• Mac OS X v10.6: Supported digital camera RAW formats
  (revised for Dig. Camera RAW Update 3.9)
• Lion Server: Allowing administrators to access all volumes and shared folders over SMB
• Lion Server: Users cannot view podcasts if server certificate is not trusted
• Spotlight: How to re-index folders or volumes
• Monitor and Display Adapter Table
• Mac OS X: How to recover a home folder (directory)
• Mac OS X 10.5: Security tips for using Time Machine over a network
• iTunes: Advanced iTunes Store troubleshooting
• iPhoto 6 and later: Rebuilding the iPhoto library
• About Location Services in OS X Lion and Safari 5.1 or later
• What happens to Back to My Mac after I move to iCloud?
• iCloud: Manually importing data from iCal to iCloud Calendar
• iCloud: Calendar Events, Reminders, To Dos, and Tasks behavior differs by application
• About integrated video on Intel-based Macs
• MacBook Pro (15in/17in, Mid 2010 and later): How to set graphics performance
• MacBook Pro (15-inch, Mid 2010, Early 2011, and Late 2011): Left and right speaker balance
• What you can do with Bluetooth wireless technology
• iTunes: Backing up, updating, and restoring iOS software
• iTunes: Synced photos without extensions do not appear on iPhone, iPad, iPod, or Apple TV
• Mac OS X 10.5: Chinese input method keyboard shortcuts
• iOS: Understanding Spotlight Search
• OS X Lion: About the "Automatically Illuminate Keyboard in Low Light" setting