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snarfquest

macrumors regular
Original poster
Jun 7, 2013
210
4
My primary thing that actually uses the CPU is games. The rest isn't cpu intensive.

MP 5,1 - 6 core 3.33 ghz
or
MP 5,1 - 12 core 2.4ghz
or
MP 4,1 - 12 core 2.93ghz
 

mcnallym

macrumors 65816
Oct 28, 2008
1,181
911
MP 5.1 6 Core 3.33Ghz

Won't make use of the extra cores and this gives you the quickest cpu speed
 

brand

macrumors 601
Oct 3, 2006
4,390
456
127.0.0.1
The Mac Pro MP 5,1 6 core 3.33 ghz would be the fastest for single threaded applications.

In your signature you list that you are running the following drives in your Mac Pro 3,1:

1 x 1TB SAS Flash/10k hybrid drive
2 x 1.5TB SAS 10k

What RAID controller are you using for the SAS drives?
 

derbothaus

macrumors 601
Jul 17, 2010
4,093
30
Hex. It is i7-980x when all is said and done. 2.4GHz will suck for games, maybe even HD You Tube lol. 2.93 8 would be good for a mix of ram intensive pro apps. But all around quickness and gaming, 3.33GHz 6-core.
 

snarfquest

macrumors regular
Original poster
Jun 7, 2013
210
4
My direction... and well... a bit about me and why...

First off... I'm a Sr. Unix admin for a large University. I used to have a nice Sun box for my home workstation. Then Oracle came along and destroyed Sun. So.. I bought a MacPro 3,1 and decked it out as much as possible. Basically, a rebellion against Oracle and also for the fact that when I'm home and have free time I enjoy some good gaming. Call it what it is, I've been playing Everquest since July of 1999 during the early pre-beta days and am still going strong in the best damn high end guild in game. I also enjoy Skyrim and a few others. Recently, my wife and I approved some new PC's. She's getting a new Macbook Pro and I well.. The 2012 hex. My current 2008 3,1 is going to replace my Freenas box and run OSX Server for Timemachine, DNS, DHCP, web, wiki, etc.

I realize the new Macpro is coming... For me however, the ability to upgrade the graphics card and anything else that might come up makes the 2012 a better buy. I hope before the next time I desire to upgrade and the budget nazi (wife) agrees that Apple returns to an upgradable machine. The trashcan while very nice at the get go will obviously become a throw away can after a few years. So basically, I'm going to put my nifty nice new ATI radeon 7970 in a brand new 2012 hex and hope and wait. My 2008 Macpro 3,1 will become my new NAS server either running Freenas or OSX server and the old Freenas will be retired.

So what I ordered was a brand new from Apple, 32gb ram, 512 SSD, 3.33 ghz 6-core, that I plan to add my 7970, 3gb DDR5 video card too as well as my 2x 1.5TB 10k sas drives too. Should be a good work box and gaming box for the next few years or at least until Apple pulls their collective heads our of their asses and makes a box that I can customize to my needs and upgrade reasonably for at least a few years. The new trashcan to me is a wicked nice Macpro that is a dead end as soon as the next great thing comes out. That to me obsolescence planned way too soon. I don't have unlimited funds and I want to be able to upgrade my PC as needed without a full drop and replace. So..... here's to hoping the Macpro 2012 HEX lasts me until such time as Apple rejoins the demand of the marketplace :)
 

velocityg4

macrumors 604
Dec 19, 2004
7,329
4,717
Georgia
It's your money. But it sounds to me like you'd be better off with getting a Mac Mini and a uber maxed out custom Windows gaming rig and use a KVM switch for the monitor, keyboard and mouse. You'd at least get a lot more gaming machine for your money and still have a Mac to use for the other stuff.
 

snarfquest

macrumors regular
Original poster
Jun 7, 2013
210
4
It's your money. But it sounds to me like you'd be better off with getting a Mac Mini and a uber maxed out custom Windows gaming rig and use a KVM switch for the monitor, keyboard and mouse. You'd at least get a lot more gaming machine for your money and still have a Mac to use for the other stuff.

I don't want and don't have room for multiple PC's. I like the Mac. I detest Windows. I'm a Unix guy. I use my "Mac" 99% of the time at the command line. :) That said, I've finally just this week got rid of the last windows PC in my house that my wife was using. My personal goal was that "in my house" I want Windows gone! I freaking hate Windows and all it's issues. After my long days at work I want to come home and just have things "work". Windows simply doesn't do that.

So ya, a Macpro 2008 is overkill for Freenas. I'm going to convert my current Freenas server to OS X server and fiddle around with OS X server. It seems kinda fun and something I haven't played with yet. Presently my Freenas box is my old gaming PC. A water cooled quad core Q6600 over-clocked to 3ghz. The "power consumption" issue doesn't bother me too much as with my solar panels on the roof I'm already running positive vs the utility company and that's with 90+ degree heat outside and running the AC all day.

And I already have a Mac mini Velcro'd to the back of my TV. It serves as the Netflix, Media streaming, Torrent, HBOGO, etc etc box. To me the Mac mini made for a much better Apple TV then the Apple TV from Apple! :)
 
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