Advice on purchasing Mac Pro 1,1 2.66ghz

[Photios]

I've been using an imac for a few years, and when I purchased it, I really wanted a mac pro but could not afford it at the time. I have always wanted the ability to have access to 2 or more hard drives at a time, plus the convenience of using the monitor of my choice. My processing needs are very minor: word processing, web surfing, email, web design, adobe indesign, and that's really the extent of it.

So, here's my question: I have the ability to purchase a Mac Pro 1,1 2.66ghz system with 4gb ram, and 1tb of storage, Nvidia 7300gt video card, with Applecare coverage until mid March 2010. The cost is $1400. Computer is in excellent condition.

Am I nuts to want to purchase this? Frankly, I think the prices of these old mac pros are ridiculous. It's amazing how well they have held their value. Even though the price is high, it's lower than anything else I can find. Anyway, it seems for me to purchase a new one is just plain overkill for what I will need.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

Photios

 

[Tesselator]

I have that machine. I bought it new though and almost immediately upgraded the CPUs to X5355 quads for a total of 8 cores. It's a nice machine, I like it. It still has 2 or 3 more years of life init too before I would consider it incapable or too slow. The 7300GT is kinda lame if you like playing games - though I do get a pretty decent frame-rate in QuakeLive.

I guess I would agree that a new mac pro for what you're doing isn't justified. Well actually I think the 2009 Mac Pro are not justified no matter what anyone is doing. You can get like, twice the machine for the same as the 2009's sell for. That's besides the point I guess. Anyway, I think you can find a 2008 low-end unit for just about the same as you're talking here ($1,400). The Mac Pro Quad 2.8GHz (2008) was $2,299 new and the Mac Pro 8-core 2.8GHz (2008) was $2,799 new. So I guess if you spend an hour a day looking for a Quad 2.8GHz for between $1200 and $1500 that you'll find one within a week or two. It's actually quite superior to the 2006 machine you're considering now. Faster RAM and busses, faster processor, better firmware, etc. And if you buy the quad 2.8 then later when you get an extra $400 in your pocket you can add the second processor and heat-sink in order to make it an 8-core. For what you're doing now and how applications (and OS X) currently work the number of cores really in not that important but just to let you know that it is an option. When upgraded to 8 cores performance is nearly identical and even a little better in some cases than the 2009 2.66 octad. I've not compared the 2008 quad results agains the 2009 quads yet though so I dunno - but I assume it's the same deal: It's meet or beat the 2009 2.66 quad at just about everything.

 

[gugucom]

I support Tesselator on the value of the 2008 model. I would add to his list that the machine has EFI64 which will enable it to boot every known Apple and MS operating system without problems. The 2006 MP will be left behind in some years due to the lack of that firmware.

Regarding the 2009 machine their main advantage is a huge jump in memory band width. Compared to the 2008 machine they have 270% more. Due to the OP's usage that is really not relevant. But power users with HTC profiles would appreciate the capability.

 

[Photios]

Thank you both for your replies!

The amazing thing is that 2.8ghz mac pros, from a search done today cannot be found for less than $2500. These are all 2x 2.8's. Still, this is amazing!!! People are selling used systems as if they were brand new. I've mostly looked on ebay, craigslist, and some other vendors, who sell used equipment.

I have a feeling I may be waiting a long, long time to find one reasonably priced.

Photios