Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

How long before 09 Mac Pro Quad core become obsolete?

xav8tor said:
If I've done my research, I don't mind being the first. I like it actually. Back about ten years ago I had a project I wanted to render in HD and all I had was a Sony Vaio desktop. I made calls to video outfits all over, mostly Hollywood. They all said I was crazy and it couldn't be done. I need a Sun Micro something or other at minimum. Well, long story short, I figured out a way to capture each of the 24 frames per second by hand, then placed them in sequence, by hand, on a timeline and hit the render button for a two minute animation. Three and a half days later, as the temp alarm went off blaring, the smell of electric smoke in the air, it finished as an uncompressed HUGE avi file. Took it to a local guy to transcode into something I could play to a then outrageously expensive HD plasma, it worked, the clients were blown away, I made a name for myself in that niche, and it was all because I dared to be first. My favorite expression was what one guy said: "You're trying to force an elephant though a straw."

PS - I still have that Vaio and it still works.
Click to expand...

That was a cool story.
 
CPU Change

xav8tor,

Sorry for all the trouble you've had. I hope you do get your money back or exhange plus.

I have personally installed the 4,1 to 5,1 upgrade with a CPU change out on 3 different Mac Pros. One 2010 and 2 2009 models. We used Xeon X5650 because they are the less expensive of all the six core Xeons. Since a dual processor board can be had for less than $500.00 each of these Macs could be upgraded to 12 core machines. In reality the '09 is the same as the '10 is the same as the '12. Apple just doesn't want you to know that.

I am also running a stock PC EVGA GTX 570 w/2.5GB VRAM on my personal Mac Pro. Open CL works fine in Final Cut Pro X as does CUDA in Adobe AE. I also have a Sonnet USB 3.0 PCi card for fast access to external devices. I believe that I have many more years left in my '09 Mac Pro.

Would I do it again? You bet, in a heart beat!

I have been doing mods on PCs, Apples, Video players of all sorts, Video monitors of all sorts for more than years than I really want to say. I am now 67 and as much a techie as I was back in 1965. I have had many successes and many failures, but it has been a great ride. I hope to live to at least 85 to see what technology will bring in the coming years.

Take care, I've got to get back to editing:) Please let us know your outcome.
 
BlueWaterVA said:
If your '09 is a quad it has only one processor. The single processor boards have a standard W35XX CPU. If you change CPUs you can't overtighten them. You can even replace them with a X56XX series after you do the '09 - '10 bios upgrade.

That's what I did and my system is awesome!
Click to expand...

I do have the Quad so that's good to know. I thought I read about someone upgrading one and smashing the CPU but maybe it was only the 2x CPU version.

Can you still find 6c chips for this model? (after 4,1 to 5,1 update)
 
BlueWaterVA said:
xav8tor,

Sorry for all the trouble you've had. I hope you do get your money back or exhange plus.

I have personally installed the 4,1 to 5,1 upgrade with a CPU change out on 3 different Mac Pros. One 2010 and 2 2009 models. We used Xeon X5650 because they are the less expensive of all the six core Xeons. Since a dual processor board can be had for less than $500.00 each of these Macs could be upgraded to 12 core machines. In reality the '09 is the same as the '10 is the same as the '12. Apple just doesn't want you to know that.

I am also running a stock PC EVGA GTX 570 w/2.5GB VRAM on my personal Mac Pro. Open CL works fine in Final Cut Pro X as does CUDA in Adobe AE. I also have a Sonnet USB 3.0 PCi card for fast access to external devices. I believe that I have many more years left in my '09 Mac Pro.

Would I do it again? You bet, in a heart beat!

I have been doing mods on PCs, Apples, Video players of all sorts, Video monitors of all sorts for more than years than I really want to say. I am now 67 and as much a techie as I was back in 1965. I have had many successes and many failures, but it has been a great ride. I hope to live to at least 85 to see what technology will bring in the coming years.

Take care, I've got to get back to editing:) Please let us know your outcome.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the kind words. The X5687 must have been either bad or just isn't compatible. I called the vendor, immediately got an RMA, a reduced price OEM new W3690 with Saturday delivery as a replacement, and credit for the price difference. If these guys come through and don't hit me with any hidden charges, I will have say they are a five star vendor and rate them accordingly.

Ref OpenCL, apparently the fix is different for a 670/680 than a 570. I challenge anyone on here to provide a coherent step by step guide on how to get it working on a 4 GB 670 under 10.8 with 4.1 to 5.1 update. I tried the hex edit along with the so-called "dirty download" lib file fix from a Russian site, and did the best I could to decipher the instructions on various forums, such as they are. It bricked my whole machine. Fortunately, I had cloned my OS drive first, then just swapped bays to get back up, reversed the clone, and was back up and running, but without OpenCL. I don't really need it anyway...yet. That was before I tried the X5687 install. Yesterday and last night were not fun. Hopefully, tomorrow with the W3690 will be a different story.
 
Last edited:
CPU Change

I think you will be very happy with the performance of the W3690. I would advise at least 12 GB of DDR3 1333 MHz, 24 Gig if you can afford it. Maybe tomorrow will be a better day. I'd really like to know who the vendor is that you bought your X5687 from. Sounds like they are very cooperative.

re 670/680, I really haven't read much about using it in 10.8. MacVid usually is right on top of the graphics news. I upgraded to 10.8 but when it killed my USB 3.0 I went back to 10.7.4. I think Sonnet has a work around now so I will be going back to 10.8 soon.

It's been a long day for me today, I've been editing since about 9:00 AM, so I'm going to retire and watch something on NetFlix.

I'll watch for your post on the W3690 tomorrow.
 
BlueWaterVA said:
I think you will be very happy with the performance of the W3690. I would advise at least 12 GB of DDR3 1333 MHz, 24 Gig if you can afford it. Maybe tomorrow will be a better day. I'd really like to know who the vendor is that you bought your X5687 from. Sounds like they are very cooperative.

re 670/680, I really haven't read much about using it in 10.8. MacVid usually is right on top of the graphics news. I upgraded to 10.8 but when it killed my USB 3.0 I went back to 10.7.4. I think Sonnet has a work around now so I will be going back to 10.8 soon.

It's been a long day for me today, I've been editing since about 9:00 AM, so I'm going to retire and watch something on NetFlix.

I'll watch for your post on the W3690 tomorrow.
Click to expand...

SUCCESS! W3690 @ 3.46 GHz, 6.4 GT/s, 12 GB RAM @ 1333, and GTX 670 SC 4 GB VRAM to dual monitors via DP and HDMI. Idle temps look good, now to test it with a few serious app challenges.

X5687 was either DOA or non-compatible. Vendor was IT Creations. As long as they don't hit me too hard with any RMA fees or blame me for the 5687 failing, I'll give them a lot of more of my biz if they have what I want. Sales/Support so far is outstanding, and then some. Great prices and they negotiate on top of that for items they want to move. Snagged the W3690 new OEM (last one they had) for 895 plus 60 bucks for coast to coast overnight Saturday Fedex. Not too shabby.

Ref USB 3 - The Caldigit card works in 10.8. I got one of those up and running too. External SSD dock running at 250 mbps transfer read/write. Gonna use it transfer files from the new Atomos Ninja 2 HDMI recorder.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back