late 2006 MacPro upgrade - pointless or not?

[goMac]

I didn't say 10.7 won't, I said IF 10.7 won't support it. None of us knows does it so it's just guessing.

Not going to happen. There is no technical reason why they'd do that.

32 bit processors will likely get dropped, though.

 

[gigapower]

I've got a 1,1 at 2.66 Ghz with 32GB of RAM and I just cannot see a reason right now to upgrade, no way could I afford to buy a new machine with that much RAM. I plan to add an SSD boot drive this year. Will start saving after that for the eventual Sandy Bridge based Mac Pro.

 

[Hellhammer]

Not going to happen. There is no technical reason why they'd do that.

32 bit processors will likely get dropped, though.

There is. Money. That's the only thing Apple cares about, push old users to buy new systems because of dropped support. I wouldn't be surprised if Apple did that plus it would be fully 64-bit then, meaning that all drivers could be 64-bit instead of mixed bag of 32-bit and 64-bit. I'm not hoping for it to happen but Apple is Apple, we know that

 

[jamwerks]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; U; Intel Mac OS X 10_6_4; it-it) AppleWebKit/533.17.8 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.1 Safari/533.17.8)

Just to chime in as a MP 1,1 owner who took the aforementioned upgrade route.... I had the same machine as the original OP. I took out the 5150's and replaced them with a pair of x5365 I bought on ebay for $500 each. I also replaced my original nvidia 7300GT video card for a flashed ATI 4870. Did this several months ago. Not had a single problem yet, and it has much improved performance for intense 3D work and 4k film editing. I'm very happy with the upgrade and fine to keep using this machine until something truly special finally comes along. I don't think the new mac pros are it IMO.

Hi, I read that you did the upgrade that I'm thinking about doing. May I ask who you got the X5365's from? Were they new? Did you consider X5355's? Also, what kind of toolkit do you need to change out the processors?

Thanks in advance

 

[mozilla77]

I am wondering the same thing. Is it easy to change the CPUs in MP 1,1?

I already upgraded the ssd, ram, and flashed 4890. The last option will be the processors.

Thanks for your input.

 

[Macinposh]

I am wondering the same thing. Is it easy to change the CPUs in MP 1,1?

I already upgraded the ssd, ram, and flashed 4890. The last option will be the processors.

Thanks for your input.

Use search. There is a lot of threads about the processor replacement around here.

 

[jeanlain]

Discontinuing support for 32-bit EFI Macs will not affect Mac Pros 1.1 only, but 2 generation of iMacs (I think), MacBook Pros and Mac Minis. I believe the first generation of Core 2 duo Macs have 32-bit EFI. Obviously, Core duo (and solo) Macs are 32-bit. I don't think Apple will drop support for so many intel Macs as soon as 10.7, given that the reason is not obvious.

 

[chych]

I also upgraded my Mac Pro 1.1 a bunch (RAM, SSD, flashed ATI 4870).

Is the upgrade to 5160 from 5150 worth it? It's not too expensive at least, under $100, but only for a 10-15% improvement. I suspect none of that would go into gaming performance as that may be more bus/memory/gpu bound. Going to dual X5355 wouldn't do anything at all for single (or less than 5) threaded apps compared to dual 5150s, and would be $600.

 

[Thermonuclear]

I've got a MacPro 1,1 with 16 GB RAM and I expect it to be in service for at least three more years. The drive set has been upgraded and Bluetooth was added, but other than installing even more RAM I don't see making any more upgrades.

My thought is that processor upgrades aren't cost effective and the money is better spent on other items (RAM, disks, better monitor, better chair for my butt, etc.).

My ten year old PowerMac G4, heavily upgraded, is still in service and is used regularly for back-ups and compatibility testing.

----

Apple will almost certainly drop support for 32 bit machines in 10.7; it will be Intel 64 bit only and all Intel 64 bit Macs will be supported.

Apple will continue to push owners to newer hardware. OS/X 10.8 may continue this by dropping support for systems without discrete video just as years ago support was dropped for machines without FireWire.