MP 6,1 Back in the Mac Pro family!

[DCBassman]

Just managed to snag myself a reasonable 6,1 for very reasonable money, over here at least.
E5-2697v2 12-core, 32GB RAM, 1TB SSD, D300 graphics, I'm assuming both are still installed.
I want to make this my daily driver eventually, and when that point is reached, I'll probably be running MX Linux on it. In the meantime, I'll leave it on Monterey until I've explored it a bit more. Previous Mac Pro was a 3,1, so quite a change!

 

[avro707]

Just managed to snag myself a reasonable 6,1 for very reasonable money, over here at least.
E5-2697v2 12-core, 32GB RAM, 1TB SSD, D300 graphics, I'm assuming both are still installed.
I want to make this my daily driver eventually, and when that point is reached, I'll probably be running MX Linux on it. In the meantime, I'll leave it on Monterey until I've explored it a bit more. Previous Mac Pro was a 3,1, so quite a change!

Should be a cheap upgrade to get it to 64GB RAM.

I suppose it will feel like a big leap over the 3,1. I still have my 6,1 and it still runs well but I don’t use it much.

It actually has a degree of portability too, I would sometimes take mine with me in a special bag designed for a camera lens (with lots of protective padding).

The one limitation it had versus my 5,1 machines was it lacked the upgraded wifi and Bluetooth those machines had and missed some convenience features.

 

[eldxmgw]

I have the same E5-2697v2 with 12 cores, 64GB RAM, 2x D700 and 1TB storage.
There is also a 34" 21:9 monitor, a CalDigit TS3 Plus, QNap TR-002 with SSDs, external MSI RX6900XT 16GB in a Razer Core X, Keychron K10 V2 and Logitech MX Master 3.
This is my workstation as I have been using it for 3 years under 12.7.6.
If the RAM or CPU fails at some point, I still have tons of suitable ECC RAM and CPUs from older, decommissioned hosts in my Homelab infrastructure.
I have been hoarding various software of interest to me on my local storage for years that still runs on 12.7.6, and I always keep it up to date as long as there are appropriate updates.
Because it's happening more and more that some hipster DevOPs decide to set the limit to at least Ventura.
If you then naively delete and redraw, you can end up without everything because older steppings are no longer available in the backlog or from another source.
At some point the day will come when everything will freeze to a level. I'm looking forward to that.
The nice thing about something like this is also having the peace of knowing that there will be no further updates for this 3rd party application or the OS, for example.
Everything becomes calmer, more predictable, and the constant, notorious nuisance of chasing after some supposed overlays or being coerced with narratives like “in the name of security” no longer applies.
As long as you have taken precautions and have a good basis, you can't care about anything and just concentrate on the practical benefits.
I've been using this strategy for decades and have never regretted it.

 

[DCBassman]

I have the same E5-2697v2 with 12 cores, 64GB RAM, 2x D700 and 1TB storage.
There is also a 34" 21:9 monitor, a CalDigit TS3 Plus, QNap TR-002 with SSDs, external MSI RX6900XT 16GB in a Razer Core X, Keychron K10 V2 and Logitech MX Master 3.
This is my workstation as I have been using it for 3 years under 12.7.6.
If the RAM or CPU fails at some point, I still have tons of suitable ECC RAM and CPUs from older, decommissioned hosts in my Homelab infrastructure.
I have been hoarding various software of interest to me on my local storage for years that still runs on 12.7.6, and I always keep it up to date as long as there are appropriate updates.
Because it's happening more and more that some hipster DevOPs decide to set the limit to at least Ventura.
If you then naively delete and redraw, you can end up without everything because older steppings are no longer available in the backlog or from another source.
At some point the day will come when everything will freeze to a level. I'm looking forward to that.
The nice thing about something like this is also having the peace of knowing that there will be no further updates for this 3rd party application or the OS, for example.
Everything becomes calmer, more predictable, and the constant, notorious nuisance of chasing after some supposed overlays or being coerced with narratives like “in the name of security” no longer applies.
As long as you have taken precautions and have a good basis, you can't care about anything and just concentrate on the practical benefits.
I've been using this strategy for decades and have never regretted it.

Sounds completely the right way to me. I have little to no need of such a strategy, because I'm just an old guy playing with toys, basically. But I learn from things like this, and I do have archives of stuff beginning to build up!

 

[TzunamiOSX]

I have the same E5-2697v2 with 12 cores, 64GB RAM, 2x D700 and 1TB storage.
There is also a 34" 21:9 monitor, a CalDigit TS3 Plus, QNap TR-002 with SSDs, external MSI RX6900XT 16GB in a Razer Core X…

Did you modify the RX6900XT to use it with the 6,1 (ROM)?

 

[eldxmgw]

Did you modify the RX6900XT to use it with the 6,1 (ROM)?

No. No flashing needed.
The MSI ist one of the best 6900XT designs out there. Board layout, fuses, thermal design, loudness stiffness etc.
There was a site which compared all available 6900XT cards in very deep detail. Can't recall it.
This is my card: https://www.msi.com/Graphics-Card/Radeon-RX-6900-XT-GAMING-Z-TRIO-16G

 

[avro707]

Did you modify the RX6900XT to use it with the 6,1 (ROM)?

Think it was only needed for the old 5,1 machines, the newer ones not an issue (at least with Monterey). I only tried this using RX580 in an eGPU enclosure but it didn't work all that reliably.

 

[eldxmgw]

I remember flashing the GPUs for my Dual PMG5 too. 😉
Apple tells here: https://support.apple.com/en-us/102363
"7. Only Radeon RX 6900XT models made or sold by AMD are supported (Device ID 0x73BF)."

This is what you need take care of cause there are RX6900XT which are labled as RX6900XT but with a slightly higher clock speed (XTXH). But the device ID won't match 0x73BF, so it would never show up as an eGPU in your system.
IMHO best Navi 2 GPU, a is MSI RX 6900 XT Gaming X Trio which has an XTX Die (so 0x73BF).

Check the specs on AMDs reference design here: https://www.techpowerup.com/gpu-specs/radeon-rx-6900-xt.c3481
And i strongly recommend to check the list of retail designs below.
But keep in mind XTX and XTXH die boards are mixed there.
I.e. MSI RX 6900 XT GAMING X TRIO is XTX (0x73BF) while MSI RX 6900 XT GAMING Z TRIO is XTXH !
But it is the best place to review the electronics used and thermal and electrical differences compared to AMDs reference design by pictures and data.
For example my recommended board can be seen here: https://www.techpowerup.com/gpu-specs/msi-rx-6900-xt-gaming-x-trio.b8682 and the in deep review here: https://www.techpowerup.com/review/msi-radeon-rx-6900-xt-gaming-x-trio/

And i strongly recommend to stay with Monterey, cause this is officially the last fully supported major release for 6,1.
OC adventures with newer major releases will set you on functional trouble.
And the practical steps you need to do after you bought your enclosure, TB cable and GPU is something straight forward. Kryptonite is doing its job as expected.
Back in the days i wrote this down here: https://egpu.io/forums/wip-builds/egpu-purchase-decision-guide-for-a-mac-pro-2013-trashcan/