MP All Models The "I just ordered/bought/got my new/refurb Mac Pro" thread [Merged]

[mikas]

^Thank You very much for the links. Those will surely be of help.

I have allready searched for some opinions and advice, and second hand merchandize, eBay and such (E5-2687w v2, E5-2697 v2). This is for now my HTPC. I mean if there is such a thing anymore..? Let's see if this thing does stretch for work too. Comparing the dual cpu 2010 and this, the culprit would be the GPU (-> eGPU).

I'll get and proceed to appropriate threads now..

 

[wazgilbert]

Just Joined the cMP club, 8c 2.4Ghz, 32Gb ram & RX580. I plan to upgrade the processors and RAM shortly.
[edited to say, the upgrades are done. 3.46 x2 and 96Gb ram, later the GPU]

 

[sablackman]

First post. But not without spending an insane amount of time reading as much on this forum as my brain could hold.

CURRENT STATE

Have been using a 2012 i7 Mac Mini for several years now. Most of my use is around photo editing, music (Roon and other audiophile related stuff), occasional video editing (digitizing old tapes from my kids years ago) and just basic ‘computing’ Added an SSD as a second drive years ago and it certainly gave the Mini a bit of a new lease in life. But - still - it was limited.

I started reading more broadly about the capabilities of the 2009/2010 4,1 and 5,1‘s and got super intrigued. Long story longer, I just purchased a 2010 2x 2.4GHz 5,1 from MacOfAllTrades in Tampa. Comes with a 1TB 7200RPM spinning drive. 16GB of RAM and Radeon 5870 with High Sierra installed. Price was fair (not the cheapest, but fair - under $650 with free shipping). Plus it has a 90 day warranty and a 14 day return policy. So figured I didn’t have anything to lose. I already have 2 30” Cinema Displays (plus 20 and 23 Cinema display as well). So I’m excited to get it and start tweaking.

What I’d really be interested in is some feedback on ‘the order of events’ as it were on where to start first. I don’t expect this to be a screamer out of the box. Might not even be faster than the Mini, but I bet it will be.

I need/should to take my time and not got crazy on day 1 with updates. I’m not going to rush into doing all of this at once for fear that I could have issues here and there and the more I do at once, the greater the possibility that I might have trouble sorting things out. Keep in mind...I’m an old guy who loves to tinker, but is by no means an expert. Been a Mac guy since 1992 and have had a ridiculous number of Apple products, but am by no means an engineer

FUTURE STATE

So far.....(and this is without evening having the damn thing in hand yet)....

- Found a Asus Radeon RX 560 4GB EVO for a pretty cheap price locally - $70. Really have no clue if it will truly work. It should in theory, but I knew I needed a metal supported card to move to Mojave. So we’ll see if that works. If not I’ll pony up for a 580 or something in that category.

The really feedback I’d appreciate is around whether my approach for what to do in what order makes reasonable sense based on your experience:

1) Get the GPU installed, firmware updated, maybe (or maybe not) move to Mojave;
- Can I / should I flash the GPU? Can I get a Apple Boot screen? No idea.
2) Faster storage. Certainly SSD. Probably should be NVME, but may start with 2.5” SATA SSD;
3) A bit more RAM. 32? 48? Not sure but more than 16 seems wise;
4) USB 3.0/3.1 PCI card for sure.
5) Update he CPU’s (Westmere 5690 or 5680)
6) Next ?????

1-4 will happen relatively quickly. 5 in a month or two.

What am I missing? More storage will be helpful, but I do have a Synology NAS with 24TB of storage. So while by no means quick, I’m not lacking for a place to put stuff.

I fully acknowledge that this could go lost of different directions and this discussion/these questions have been asked in one way or another on many threads in the forum. But given that I’m just starting out, I thought I’d seek some thoughts and opinions.

Thanks in advance for your consideration.

 

[AudioWolf]

Ordered an 8 core Mac Pro with a 1TB SSD & Apple apps bundle for education (we use Logic Pro for audio at my school) yesterday. Should be here middle of next week... truly hope Big Sur doesn't get released today so that it comes with Catalina (legacy audio interface here, don't want hiccups!).

Super excited!?

 

[AudioWolf]

Mac Pro Rack comes in today! Frantically working on soldering cabling to hook it up... (Audio Workstation)

 

[steve217]

Mac Pro Rack comes in today! Frantically working on soldering cabling to hook it up... (Audio Workstation)

I'm curious why you chose the Mac Pro Rack.

Did Neil Parfitt's experiences influence you at all?

 

[AudioWolf]

I'm curious why you chose the Mac Pro Rack.

Did Neil Parfitt's experiences influence you at all?

Yes and no. Many of the reasons Neil chose a rack are the same as mine. Since we use it in a studio situation with other rack gear (antelope audio, API 500 series, and other rack gear) and because there's so much real estate taken up with our analog console (10 ft by 4 ft long!) and our tape machine, being able to condense its footprint within our current rack assembly is convenient. I can then hook it up to my audio converters all in the same rack, and save money on having to run longer cables (DB-25 audio cables are notoriously expensive).

 

[amajor]

First post. But not without spending an insane amount of time reading as much on this forum as my brain could hold.

CURRENT STATE

Have been using a 2012 i7 Mac Mini for several years now. Most of my use is around photo editing, music (Roon and other audiophile related stuff), occasional video editing (digitizing old tapes from my kids years ago) and just basic ‘computing’ Added an SSD as a second drive years ago and it certainly gave the Mini a bit of a new lease in life. But - still - it was limited.

I started reading more broadly about the capabilities of the 2009/2010 4,1 and 5,1‘s and got super intrigued. Long story longer, I just purchased a 2010 2x 2.4GHz 5,1 from MacOfAllTrades in Tampa. Comes with a 1TB 7200RPM spinning drive. 16GB of RAM and Radeon 5870 with High Sierra installed. Price was fair (not the cheapest, but fair - under $650 with free shipping). Plus it has a 90 day warranty and a 14 day return policy. So figured I didn’t have anything to lose. I already have 2 30” Cinema Displays (plus 20 and 23 Cinema display as well). So I’m excited to get it and start tweaking.

What I’d really be interested in is some feedback on ‘the order of events’ as it were on where to start first. I don’t expect this to be a screamer out of the box. Might not even be faster than the Mini, but I bet it will be.

I need/should to take my time and not got crazy on day 1 with updates. I’m not going to rush into doing all of this at once for fear that I could have issues here and there and the more I do at once, the greater the possibility that I might have trouble sorting things out. Keep in mind...I’m an old guy who loves to tinker, but is by no means an expert. Been a Mac guy since 1992 and have had a ridiculous number of Apple products, but am by no means an engineer

FUTURE STATE

So far.....(and this is without evening having the damn thing in hand yet)....

- Found a Asus Radeon RX 560 4GB EVO for a pretty cheap price locally - $70. Really have no clue if it will truly work. It should in theory, but I knew I needed a metal supported card to move to Mojave. So we’ll see if that works. If not I’ll pony up for a 580 or something in that category.

The really feedback I’d appreciate is around whether my approach for what to do in what order makes reasonable sense based on your experience:

1) Get the GPU installed, firmware updated, maybe (or maybe not) move to Mojave;
- Can I / should I flash the GPU? Can I get a Apple Boot screen? No idea.
2) Faster storage. Certainly SSD. Probably should be NVME, but may start with 2.5” SATA SSD;
3) A bit more RAM. 32? 48? Not sure but more than 16 seems wise;
4) USB 3.0/3.1 PCI card for sure.
5) Update he CPU’s (Westmere 5690 or 5680)
6) Next ?????

1-4 will happen relatively quickly. 5 in a month or two.

What am I missing? More storage will be helpful, but I do have a Synology NAS with 24TB of storage. So while by no means quick, I’m not lacking for a place to put stuff.

I fully acknowledge that this could go lost of different directions and this discussion/these questions have been asked in one way or another on many threads in the forum. But given that I’m just starting out, I thought I’d seek some thoughts and opinions.

Thanks in advance for your consideration.

HI,

1.) RX560 works very good in my 4,1 --> 5,1 (in my case is MSI version), boot screen from box.
Mojave (firmware updated - very easy process)
2.) My boot is from cheap SSD 2,5" and is good for now
3.) I put 6x16=96GB, butt speed is 1066. It was cheap RAM from some HP servers with more then 36 chips om module, 10600R (with X5675 it was suppose to work on 1333?). It is good, no crashing.
4.) probably a nice option
5.) X5675 paired, from ebay, just be carefull with quantity of thermal paste!
6.) For experimenting with Oracle VirtualBox (multiple linux-es) the only solution was install Sierra to different SSD, and put VirtualBox installation on this...for some reason any virtualization software couldn't work on Mojave (in my case), so now I have dual boot Sierra/Mojave. Two SSD-s in CDROM space.
7.) I will install High Sierra too for experimenting and comparing performances...just for fun
This old Mac work very good. Only problem I have is USB keyboard go to sleep (or just dont work) after some time of inactivity (mous connected on keboard usb port continue to work) - disconnect/connect solution for now

My next step will be some 4K screen or at least 2560*1440, maybe some ultrawide...

 

[steve217]

Yes and no. Many of the reasons Neil chose a rack are the same as mine. Since we use it in a studio situation with other rack gear (antelope audio, API 500 series, and other rack gear) and because there's so much real estate taken up with our analog console (10 ft by 4 ft long!) and our tape machine, being able to condense its footprint within our current rack assembly is convenient. I can then hook it up to my audio converters all in the same rack, and save money on having to run longer cables (DB-25 audio cables are notoriously expensive).

I was going to suggest you post a picture of your setup when you're done. But then I thought, "for sure, there's a 'Show off your Mac Pro' thread?".

Darned if I can find. Maybe you could start the ball rolling?

Some of these setups sound fascinating.

 

[AudioWolf]

I was going to suggest you post a picture of your setup when you're done. But then I thought, "for sure, there's a 'Show off your Mac Pro' thread?".

Darned if I can find. Maybe you could start the ball rolling?

Some of these setups sound fascinating.

I think people have used this thread as a posting rigs thread as well.

Here's our Mac Pro in a temporary rack along with other gear. We're not yet in a final location, so thing will move around A LOT between now and next summer. Pardon the mess on the producer's desk... we're still wiring up the console...

 

[steve217]

I think people have used this thread as a posting rigs thread as well.

Here's our Mac Pro in a temporary rack along with other gear. We're not yet in a final location, so thing will move around A LOT between now and next summer. Pardon the mess on the producer's desk... we're still wiring up the console...

View attachment 977736

Nice. Glad that's all temporary because your chair doesn't look very comfortable.

 

[AudioWolf]

Nice. Glad that's all temporary because your chair doesn't look very comfortable.

Haha it's not my real one, it's just there. It's actually a student chair; we'll upgrade everything once we get our new building.

 

[OkiRun]

I

Haha it's not my real one, it's just there. It's actually a student chair; we'll upgrade everything once we get our new building.

I was thinking, "Looks like a chair from school"

 

[sablackman]

Frankstein Conundrum: Bare with me while I try to explain this scenario - it's likely quite a 'one-off', but some of you might be able to help me resolve the challenge. My gut tells me it's a misunderstanding on my part on the overall requirements for including 30" Cinema Displays in a set up. I realize they're Dual Link DVI. I realize that need additional power from USB and/or an adapter to work in certain set ups. So I'm fully prepared to be corrected in my understanding. (and if this post belongs elsewhere, don't hesitate to correct me)

This is related to using my Mac Pro 5,1, my Dell 5570 laptop, 2x 30" Cinema Display, Dell WD19 Dock and an IOGEAR GCS1642 2-Port KVMP Switch. Given my indefinite work from home arrangement, my hope was this configuration would help me switch easily between work and home computing environments.

What's working: 5,1 + 2x 30" Displays (@2560x1600) + IOGEAR. Works flawlessly. 1 display connected directly to RX560 DVI-D port from the IOGEAR Port1, the other display connected via Mini DisplayPort to Dual-Link DVI Adapter with a Mini DisplayPort to DisplayPort adapter from the IOGEAR Port2.

What's NOT working: Dell 5570 + WD19 + IOGEAR + 2x 30" Cinema Displays (@2560x1600). Only 1 display works at full resolution. The other is defaulting to 1280x800.

The WD19 Dock - according to it's user guide - can support Dual displays using each of the DP1.4 ports or a MFDP Type-C + DP1.4 port at 2560x1440 @60Hz. So I should be able to adjust the resolutions on the displays to 2560x1440 via the Windows 10 Display settings. But only one will go to 2560x1440. The other continues to default to 1280x800.

The 'working' display is connect to the WD19 via another Mini DisplayPort to Dual-Link DVI adapter with a MiniDisplay to Thunderbolt adapter. For the other display I've tried using an VisionTek DisplayPort to Dual Link DVI-D Active Adapter. I've even taken the working DisplayPort connection for the 5,1 and connected it via the DisplayPort on the WD19 and it still defaults to 1280x800.

It's clearly a complicated and complex set up and there is just a crap-ton of cabling everywhere (which I can mostly hide behind the desk). But I've run out of solutions and wondering if anyone has thoughts on other 'adapter' solutions the could possible allow both the 30" displays to work on the Dell equipment at the stated 2560x1440 resolution.
Head-Scratcher to be sure.

 

[duatchicken]

I. believe that this is a thread for new people to the forum and community so bear with my noobie conversation ability.

I just bought a mac pro 3,1 with dual quad-core and 24Gb of ram for $310aud or £170.

I was just wondering what some good upgrades would be.

 

[dlopan]

I think people have used this thread as a posting rigs thread as well.

Here's our Mac Pro in a temporary rack along with other gear. We're not yet in a final location, so thing will move around A LOT between now and next summer. Pardon the mess on the producer's desk... we're still wiring up the console...

View attachment 977736

I've been looking for a used short rack for a long time.

 

[McTaste]

anybody order recently? are shipping estimates pretty accurate?

 

[ascender]

I need to do some router simulation work and for that, cores are king! So I've just gone back in time and ordered a 2008 Mac Pro (3,1); 2 * Quad Core CPUs; 32GB RAM; 2TB HDD and a Nvidia Quadro 4000.

No idea what version of OS its going to have on it, but I've ordered an SSD which I'd like to use for the main drive, so I guess I have a fair bit of reading to do on how that's going to happen!

 

[serpico007]

I need to get back to my 3,1 project too. I was running Pop OS on it but eventually the updates gave me issues and I have no time to troubleshoot linux. Tinkering was fun when I was younger. ?

Have fun with your new system @ascender

 

[ascender]

I need to get back to my 3,1 project too. I was running Pop OS on it but eventually the updates gave me issues and I have no time to troubleshoot linux. Tinkering was fun when I was younger. ?

Have fun with your new system @ascender

Things have escalated....

No matter what combination of virtualisation software I tried, I couldn't get my VMs to run. Unfortunately with the 3,1 I was limited in OS which in turn meant I was limited in virtualisation software. I managed to track down an older version of VMWare and VirtualBox, but none of them would run. Two days of my life I won't get back...

In the hunt for cores, I then picked up a refurb 2018, 6 core Mac Mini. 6 cores isn't great, but I figured I'd max out the RAM and would just have to go with 4 cores for my VMs and 2 for normal work (which would be find when I was using the VMs). After a few days, its a brilliant machine, but I could fry eggs on the case which is alarming having been using an M1 Mac for the last few months. Even with all the new-machine indexing over, its running way too hot and the fans are on far too much. So its going back.

4,1/5,1, 12 core systems on eBay are still starting at £500-£700 and upwards from there. And you have the OS limitation again. I also don't need lots of internal space or expansion cards, so as much as I love those machines, it started to make me think about just spending a little bit more...

So I've just picked up a 6,1 Trashcan Mac on eBay. I know, I know, I must be mad... But short of buying a Hackintosh or building my own Windows machine, neither of which I CBA with at the moment, I don't think its a bad deal. Prices are what they are and having made a spreadsheet, by the time you add-in the costs of a 1TB SSD, 32/64GB RAM and the 12 core CPU, you could pretty much buy any spec of D500 machine and end up at the same total figure.

Compared to the Mac Mini, (6 cores, 512GB SSD, 64GB RAM), the Mac Pro (12 core, 1TB SSD, 64GB RAM) is going to cost £350 more and hopefully won't run as hot or loud and will give me more cores for my VMs. At least that's my way of justifying it to myself.

Other options I looked at were iMac Pros, but used ones are still 2-3 times the price of this project. And the cheapest refurb Mac Pro from Apple is about £7,000.

And that's how I've justified it to myself!

 

[snugja]

Just ordered mine. Base model mostly. Will upgrade over time. Super stoked. Last Mac Pro was the trash can Mac I’ve had for about 8 years! ??

 

[inkinx]

glad to join the cMP club here!
I've just got a 5.1 2.8 quad core, 4G ram and started the upgrade path trying to figure out what may work
Got a Sapphire HD 7970 and the OS/Bios from 12 to 14
Added a aliexpress used X5675 and 32G ram
Ableconn Nvme and 970 Evo plus 500G

All working like a charm
Just the Sapphire is 2.2 slots, so I have to find if with a Pci x16 riser cable I can use the second slot?
Or a different 2 slot cheap GPU to put there... I'm trying r9 280x but with issues

- To do a pci usb3 card and maybe a cd size usb front panel (any suggestion here?)

 

[Captain Trips]

Just bought a Mac Pro 2009 from a seller on eBay, should get it in about a week.

Here is what it is supposed to have:

• Upgraded CPU (now a MacPro 5,1 instead of 4,1): 6 core Xeon W3580 3.33 GHz. I only see this as a "standard" option on the 2010 Mac Pro (2009 has a quad core option).
• 24 GB of memory.
• One 500 GB SSD (boot drive), three 1 TB HDD
• Blu Ray drive added
• GPU: AMD Radeon R9 280X 3 GB (flashed to show boot screen)
• Looks clean in the pictures the seller posted
• The pictures the seller posted show Mac OS X 10.15 (Catalina) installed. I don't know if a patched OS was installed, or if the CPU & GPU somehow allowed a standard 10.15 install. I am guessing it is patched, but I have installed a patched 10.15 (DosDude) on three other Intel Macs with good results, so I am cool if that was done here.

The only upgrade I plan on doing in the short term is to get a PCIe USB 3.0 + 3.1 card, to get me some faster USB ports for when I want to transfer data back and forth with external drives. That is the biggest slow performance issue with my Mac mini 2014 (which this Mac Pro will replace).

 

[Macdctr]

Just bought a Mac Pro 2009 from a seller on eBay, should get it in about a week.

Here is what it is supposed to have:

• Upgraded CPU (now a MacPro 5,1 instead of 4,1): 6 core Xeon W3580 3.33 GHz. I only see this as a "standard" option on the 2010 Mac Pro (2009 has a quad core option).
• 24 GB of memory.
• One 500 GB SSD (boot drive), three 1 TB HDD
• Blu Ray drive added
• GPU: AMD Radeon R9 280X 3 GB (flashed to show boot screen)
• Looks clean in the pictures the seller posted
• The pictures the seller posted show Mac OS X 10.15 (Catalina) installed. I don't know if a patched OS was installed, or if the CPU & GPU somehow allowed a standard 10.15 install. I am guessing it is patched, but I have installed a patched 10.15 (DosDude) on three other Intel Macs with good results, so I am cool if that was done here.

The only upgrade I plan on doing in the short term is to get a PCIe USB 3.0 + 3.1 card, to get me some faster USB ports for when I want to transfer data back and forth with external drives. That is the biggest slow performance issue with my Mac mini 2014 (which this Mac Pro will replace).

This is still a great computer that can provide you years of use depending on what upgrades you add to it. You can even get a PCIe NVMe M.2 card and use M.2 blades to boot off of.

 

[Captain Trips]

This is still a great computer that can provide you years of use depending on what upgrades you add to it. You can even get a PCIe NVMe M.2 card and use M.2 blades to boot off of.

That is my plan (to get years of use out of it).

I will eventually want an Apple Silicon desktop, but we are early in the migration from Intel to Apple Silicon.

And I have a MBP 2020 M1, so that along with the new (to me) Mac Pro should mean I will have no problem being patient and seeing just what Apple has planned for the rest of the Apple Silicon rollout.