2006 Mac Pro for $500, is it worth it?

You should at least get a 4.1 (2009) model. Yes it will be a bit more expensive but it will be easier to upgrade and compatibility with Yosemite will be available without any modification.
I recently bought a 4.1 dual Quad Mac Pro for $800 and I'm very satisfied with it.

Not worth it for that model. It's an ok price for a nicely configured 3,1 model (2008) which is the earliest model that c an run Mavericks or Yosemite.

nigelly said:

I'm considering buying a 2006 mac pro for $500 but I'm wondering if I should. Are those old mac towers fully upgradable?

Can I swap out the processor and graphics card easily?

Will it run OSX Yosemite or has Apple discontinued support? If it will run yosemite, do you think it will support many future versions of OSX?

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That Mac Pro ended at 10.7 Lion for support. I recommend a 2009 model or even a 2010 if you can afford it.

nigelly said:

great, thanks for the replies guys

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I hope you find a better one at around the same price!

Cannot comment on the price but I have a 2006 Mac Pro.

To answer your question, it is easy to upgrade. I have switched the processors to two quad core 2.66GHz, put in a new video card, ATI 5770, an SSD boot drive in the spare optical drive bay and have 4 hard drives in the other bays.

Officially you are limited to OS 10.7, but thanks to some very clever people that is not the case. I am running Mavericks Os 10.9.4 (thanks to the Tiamo fix). I am running all the latest pro apps i.e Aperture, Final Cut Pro X, Parallels 8 and Windows 7. Not sure if it will run Yosemite so time will tell if I stop at Mavericks.

As long as it keeps running I see no need to get rid of it.

nigelly said:

I'm considering buying a 2006 mac pro for $500 but I'm wondering if I should. Are those old mac towers fully upgradable?

Can I swap out the processor and graphics card easily?

Will it run OSX Yosemite or has Apple discontinued support? If it will run yosemite, do you think it will support many future versions of OSX?

Click to expand...

You're capped on OS X Lion (10.7) with that machine. If you want to run an old version of OS X Server or you want to turn it into a Linux box, maybe it makes sense. But otherwise, I'd say it's a poor buy. For that kind of money, you can get a more capable Mac mini.

No, and it is a bit too old for todays day and age.

thetechfixer said:

No, and it is a bit too old for todays day and age.

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As I write this message from an iBook G3...

I'd imagine you might be able to nab a 2011 model if you find the right buyer. Some people are tired of the GPU glitches and they might be mild enough that they don't bother you. But basically, you can get something much newer than the 06 model for $500.

If you can get a 3.1 2008 Mac Pro at around that price range would be a better option. It's a 64 bit EFI and most of today's GPUs are compatible with the 2008 model.

There is also the issue were RAM for the first generation Mac Pro is now very expensive. Couple that with a 8 year old machine, lack of viable upgrades, discontinued OS support, I don't think it's good value at all.

I would get a 2008 at the minimum

I picked up one for the same amount, and upgraded it to two X5365 processors giving me eight cores, 32 GB, 4 SSD's and a 7950 card. I also a gtx 660 in slot 4 to give me some CUDA cores to play with. Usin tiamo's mod, I am running mavericks in it quite succesfully.

It runs Final Cut Pro X without a hitch, and da vinci resolve runs ok at around 25fps Max.

However, considering the amount of money the upgrades cost me, I would have been better off to buy a better specced machine from the outset.

Bottom line, don't be fooled by these old macpros - there is a lot that can be squeezed out of them.

Saw one of those with a BIN of $275 + shipping the other day (with a 30 day warranty too); way better deals out there

No.

That's double what it is worth.