Mac Pro, 06, 08, 10, iMac, or otherwise.

[Xiphos30]

Hey guys, started looking at this forum long ago when I bought my 09 Macbook Pro 13". Somewhere in between I lost my login info and so here I am again, starting new. But, I have always appreciated the advice.

Well, I'm graduating college in may, and going to grad school in the fall; but, for the most part, I work with a software program called Logos, looking at Greek, Latin, Hebrew, that sort of thing. My little computer final seems to be a little slower than I would like when running, 5.5. years later. I'm thinking of buying a Mac Pro. I wouldn't say I'm in the power-user category, but definitely work with some other heavy applications. And, I prefer sitting at a desk, so desktops work good for me. There are a couple in my area for sale, and I was wondering if you would throw in your advice.

I'm thinking of buying a used Mac Pro, my goal is to be well under 1,000. $600 or 700 would be ideal, but I can afford to go higher if it really will be worth it long term. Here are some options off craigslist...

A 2008 Pro 2x3.2 ghz quad core original hdd (500GB) and original ram (2GB) $700

A 2008 2x32 ghz (500gb) hdd, 32 gb ram kit $900

A 2006 Mac Pro 2.66 GHz Dual-Core 22gb of DDDr2 Intel Xeon. 1 X 250 GB, 2 X 1TB hard drives. 1 X 512 MB NVIDIA GeForce 880 GT $600

A 2006 Mac Pro, 2x2.66GHz Dual Core Intel Xeon, 2GB RAM, 250 Hard Drive. Comes with Apple 23" display monitor $475

My first concern is that the 06 ones don't run the latest updates, right? And, will the 08 ones get outdated too soon? A 2010 model might be better, but I'd have to buy from ebay then since there aren't any showing up on craigslist in my area. Honestly, there seems to be a scarce amount of computers on craigslist right now for my area, so I'm willing to buy on ebay, but the shipping cost usually negates some of the benefits to buying there. Also, I technically still would get academic pricing, would I be better off getting a newer iMac? I would probably have to sell my MBP to go much higher than $700 though. RAM is fairly cheap and easy to install, so I don't mind buying a computer with higher processor power and low RAM to install later.

So, there may be options I haven't considered, so please let me know what might be the best deal out there.

 

[Pakaku]

Any Mac Pro before the 2009 model will be considered outdated because they have DDR2 and PCI-e 2.0 connections. The RAM is expensive, too, and not even just because it's old RAM.

 

[h9826790]

The sweet spot for the cMP is the 2009 single processor model. Which is basically identical to the 2012 model after a firmware upgrade (a simple software can finish the hack).

It may cost less than $700 in ebay, sometimes may be less then $500.

And then you can upgrade the CPU up to X5690 (or W3680, X5677 for better cost to performance ratio)

Up to 64G DDR3 1333 RAM (depends on CPU). 1333 May not sounds very fast, however, the cMP has triple channel config. The overall memory bandwidth is actually more than the latest 5K iMac.

Official supported best GPU are GTX680 / HD7950 (both has Mac Edition card). For PC card, you can install a R9 280X / GTX980 on it (980 required Yosemite and NVidia Web driver).

Also, you can install USB3.0, eSATA, Wi-Fi AC, BT 4.0, nMP PCIe SSD (via adaptor, 1500MB/s read & write)... into the PCIe slots.

It is the most upgradable Mac at this moment. Of course, the upgrade can cost you more than the machine itself. However, it can also be the best cost to performance ratio Mac (depends on your upgrade).