2009 Mac Pro Worth It For Today?

SIRmisterD · Jan 4, 2014

Hello,

I am thinking about finding a 2009 Mac Pro for myself but I am not sure how the machine will perform in day to day life. I can find benchmarks over and over again, however I cannot find something that tells me if it is slow or decent in todays age.

Since Mac Pro's specs vary on eBay, here is what I see a lot of:

2.66GHz Quad Core Xeon
8GB or 16GB Memory DDR3 (I would always have at least 8GB myself)
NVIDIA GT120 (I would replace this to something like a NVIDIA GTX 760, etc.)

Mainly the CPU is what I am looking at because I won't be replacing that. Is it usable in todays age of technology? I would be doing some gaming (Minecraft, etc. nothing huge), Editing both HD Photos and HD videos, and of course day to day web surfing.

Thanks for any help.

MacUser2525 · Jan 4, 2014

SIRmisterD said:
Hello,

I am thinking about finding a 2009 Mac Pro for myself but I am not sure how the machine will perform in day to day life. I can find benchmarks over and over again, however I cannot find something that tells me if it is slow or decent in todays age.

Since Mac Pro's specs vary on eBay, here is what I see a lot of:

2.66GHz Quad Core Xeon
8GB or 16GB Memory DDR3 (I would always have at least 8GB myself)
NVIDIA GT120 (I would replace this to something like a NVIDIA GTX 760, etc.)

Mainly the CPU is what I am looking at because I won't be replacing that. Is it usable in todays age of technology? I would be doing some gaming (Minecraft, etc. nothing huge), Editing both HD Photos and HD videos, and of course day to day web surfing.

Thanks for any help.

They run modern day programs with little to no problems the only problem would be something that needs massive cpu power to run. That is easily solved with IMHO a no brain upgrade of the cpu to a hex core model. Consisting of flashing firmware to the 2010 model then replacing the socketed cpu in the single core model a matter of losing five screws to remove heat sink then replacing the cpu in the socket tighten down heat sink and fire it up.

SIRmisterD · Jan 4, 2014

MacUser2525 said:
They run modern day programs with little to no problems the only problem would be something that needs massive cpu power to run. That is easily solved with IMHO a no brain upgrade of the cpu to a hex core model. Consisting of flashing firmware to the 2010 model then replacing the socketed cpu in the single core model a matter of losing five screws to remove heat sink then replacing the cpu in the socket tighten down heat sink and fire it up.

Awesome! I do know that editing is heavily CPU intensive, so how would you say the 2.66GHz CPU handles Final Cut Pro and Photoshop for example?

MacUser2525 · Jan 4, 2014

SIRmisterD said:
Awesome! I do know that editing is heavily CPU intensive, so how would you say the 2.66GHz CPU handles Final Cut Pro and Photoshop for example?

Really no clue I do not use them apps be best if someone else that does tells you how they would run. What I do know is there is still plenty of life left in them "old" machines. They are relatively easy to upgrade with cheap off the shelf parts. Room to get probably at least double the performance of the stock machine you mention. Hell the six core cpu upgrade alone will get you that on a Geekbench add in more ram and new video card ... all kinds of possibilities.

SIRmisterD · Jan 4, 2014

MacUser2525 said:
Really no clue I do not use them apps be best if someone else that does tells you how they would run. What I do know is there is still plenty of life left in them "old" machines. They are relatively easy to upgrade with cheap off the shelf parts. Room to get probably at least double the performance of the stock machine you mention. Hell the six core cpu upgrade alone will get you that on a Geekbench add in more ram and new video card ... all kinds of possibilities.

Alright, well now I do know that they do day to day processes well. Thank you for all your help. I will post another thread asking about FCP and PS. Thank you again!

MacUser2525 · Jan 4, 2014

SIRmisterD said:
Alright, well now I do know that they do day to day processes well. Thank you for all your help. I will post another thread asking about FCP and PS. Thank you again!

Your welcome day to day surfing web or anything like that a Mac Pro is massive overkill a mac mini does that with ease.

The Doctor11 · Jan 4, 2014

SIRmisterD said:
Hello,

I am thinking about finding a 2009 Mac Pro for myself but I am not sure how the machine will perform in day to day life. I can find benchmarks over and over again, however I cannot find something that tells me if it is slow or decent in todays age.

Since Mac Pro's specs vary on eBay, here is what I see a lot of:

2.66GHz Quad Core Xeon
8GB or 16GB Memory DDR3 (I would always have at least 8GB myself)
NVIDIA GT120 (I would replace this to something like a NVIDIA GTX 760, etc.)

Mainly the CPU is what I am looking at because I won't be replacing that. Is it usable in todays age of technology? I would be doing some gaming (Minecraft, etc. nothing huge), Editing both HD Photos and HD videos, and of course day to day web surfing.

Thanks for any help.

Should work fine but how much will you be getting it for?

SIRmisterD · Jan 5, 2014

MacUser2525 said:
Your welcome day to day surfing web or anything like that a Mac Pro is massive overkill a mac mini does that with ease.

It does, I'm sure. I also want to play some minor games which I want at med to high FPS, and the mini doesn't have a GPU, only Integrated.

----------

The Doctor11 said:
Should work fine but how much will you be getting it for?

Well there is this one on eBay for $900 + $45 Shipping with 16GB of RAM, 1TB of storage, and the 2.66GHz Quad-Core

Wahlstrm · Jan 5, 2014

Why not the Mini?

The mini is cheaper, has a 35-50% faster CPU (single/multi-core), twice the speed of storage, is smaller, is less noisy and, for your needs, sufficient enough.

And you get a warrantee and a decent resell value in the mix.

SIRmisterD · Jan 5, 2014

Wahlstrm said:
The mini is cheaper, has a 35-50% faster CPU (single/multi-core), twice the speed of storage, is smaller, is less noisy and, for your needs, sufficient enough.

And you get a warrantee and a decent resell value in the mix.

Storage, I can add later, I'm not that fussed with it. The storage is still a Hard Drive, so it won't make a huge speed difference. Noise, doesn't really bother me much. I would have to upgrade the RAM from 4GB to 8GB at least. Also, like I said, I don't want integrated graphics. That's all I ever had on my computers and I want something that has dedicated graphics. For editing, the Xeon would be better when I am using the cores. Yes I agree with you that it would be better if I was only using a core or two.

Wahlstrm · Jan 5, 2014

SIRmisterD said:
For editing, the Xeon would be better when I am using the cores. Yes I agree with you that it would be better if I was only using a core or two.

When using 1 core, the mini is 35% faster and when using all 4 cores the mini is 50% faster than the Mac PRO.

The Mac Pro is really really slow.

rovitotv · Jan 5, 2014

Intel Graphics have improved a lot over the years...

The Intel graphics have improved a lot over the years. I have a MacBook Pro 13-inch, Mid 2012 (Not Retina) with the 2.9 GHZ Intel Core i7 that comes standard with Intel HD Graphics 4000 512 MB of RAM and it plays Minecraft very well at over 40 FPS. In fact most of the time I play the client and the server on this MacBook at the same time. I just wonder what the newer 13" Mac Book Retina with the Intel Iris Graphics or even a Air with (Intel HD Graphics 5000) would do. But then again $900 is still cheaper than $1,200 for the 13" Pro but you can get Airs in $999. Portability is nice.

But I am not a huge gamer so YMMV. Good luck.

GearHeadG5 · Jan 10, 2014

Don't go for the mini. I have this same Mac Pro, and It's been great. You can upgrade it to be whatever you want. I will want to upgrade the graphics card when I have the funds available though. The mini would have the same problem if you want to play anything more intensive than minecraft, but you couldn't upgrade the graphics card at all. Megamacs will have these for $560 ever so often (that's where I got mine).

Hopefully this helps!

compuwar · Jan 16, 2014

I don't do video, but I recently got a refurbished 2x quad core 2.8GHz processors Mac Pro for $500. I added an additional 8G of memory to the 4G it came with and it's great for Photoshop with 24.5M 16-bit image files. I'd probably add SSDs if I were doing video. It's a 3,1 system, so vintage 2008. I haven't benched it against my single-processor 4,1 yet.

Paul

weaverra · Jan 24, 2014

compuwar said:
I don't do video, but I recently got a refurbished 2x quad core 2.8GHz processors Mac Pro for $500. I added an additional 8G of memory to the 4G it came with and it's great for Photoshop with 24.5M 16-bit image files. I'd probably add SSDs if I were doing video. It's a 3,1 system, so vintage 2008. I haven't benched it against my single-processor 4,1 yet.

Paul

I'm thinking about a 3,1 quad 2.8 also. I have one lined up for $650. It has 8 GB of ram with 1TB HD. The guy just spent right around $300 for a new graphics card to run FCPX. I used to edit HD video on a 2.16 C2D 2006 MBP just fine. I wasn't adding a lot of effects and such. I would like to get a 4,1 but my budget just doesn't allow for one now.

alphaod · Jan 26, 2014

Depending on how much it is, possibly? My 2009 Mac Pro is still a monster, granted it has dual CPUs, 48GB of RAM, new 7950, and has 2TB in SSDs.

Anyways it's a terrible value for gaming.

You can build a much better computer these days for cheaper and better parts.

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