Mac Pro 1.1 still worthed?

[YaBe]

Hello everyone, I might be getting a decent deal for a Mac Pro 1.1 and wondering, is it worthed?? I mean I know it cannot run the latest OS, but with a hack it can both run El Capitan and Windows 10, but is it worthed?

I am asking if it is a good thing to get, if an ssd update would be worth the extra expense and what do you think this machine is good for.

Thanks

 

[keysofanxiety]

Absolutely not worth it IMO. The Intel Xeon 5150 has about half the performance of a mobile 3rd gen i3 (3110M). They are very very slow by today's standards.

Basically it'll be big, bulky, hot, chew through your energy bill, and not really offer anything other than module upgrading on bays/GPUs - which would be practically useless anyway due to its age and the hardware bottlenecks.

You'd get better performance buying a 13" 2012 MBP (very cheap on the used market, I'd wager around the same price as the Mac Pro you're looking at) and chucking an SSD/16GB RAM into that.

 

[YaBe]

Absolutely not worth it IMO. The Intel Xeon 5150 has about half the performance of a mobile 3rd gen i3 (3110M). They are very very slow by today's standards.

Basically it'll be big, bulky, hot, chew through your energy bill, and not really offer anything other than module upgrading on bays/GPUs - which would be practically useless anyway due to its age and the SATA bottlenecks.

You'd get better performance buying a 13" 2012 MBP (very cheap on the used market, I'd wager around the same price as the Mac Pro you're looking at) and chucking an SSD/16GB RAM into that.

Well this is the kinda response I am looking for, I mean having real world comparison with other HW is good .

Thanks

 

[MarkJames68]

You'd get better performance buying a 13" 2012 MBP (very cheap on the used market, I'd wager around the same price as the Mac Pro you're looking at) and chucking an SSD/16GB RAM into that.

Lots of MD101LL/A around selling at $500 or less. Last “really upgradeable” MacBook Pro.

Alternative is a 2012 quad core Mac mini, also upgradeable to 16GB and SSD. They are still holding their value though.

 

[keysofanxiety]

Lots of MD101LL/A around selling at $500 or less. Last “really upgradeable” MacBook Pro.

Alternative is a 2012 quad core Mac mini, also upgradeable to 16GB and SSD. They are still holding their value though.

Yep, 13" 2012s are dirt cheap and you get a lot for your money. Thank goodness for market saturation (having been sold for at least 4 years). I've seen 2011 13"s priced higher!

Agree about the Mac Mini; objectively a better choice but they're comparatively much too expensive.

Regardless: a 1,1 Mac Pro is a pretty bad purchase in 2017.

 

[Kuzbad]

I'm running a MacPro 1,1 with 16gb ram (upgraded), two SSDs (upgraded), and upgraded Nvidia graphics card with 4K monitor.

It runs great, and I don't see any reason to change now. Eventually I assume macOS will add some features that are missing in 10.10.5 (my current version) that I need, and that will be the end of the road, but for now I'm good.

Having said that, unless you were paying less than $100 USD or so, I would not recommend investing a ton in a MacPro 1,1! One power supply blowing, etc., is a pretty big deal at this point in terms of $$.
\

 

[MarkJames68]

I'm running a MacPro 1,1 with 16gb ram (upgraded), two SSDs (upgraded), and upgraded Nvidia graphics card with 4K monitor.

It runs great, and I don't see any reason to change now. Eventually I assume macOS will add some features that are missing in 10.10.5 (my current version) that I need, and that will be the end of the road, but for now I'm good.

Having said that, unless you were paying less than $100 USD or so, I would not recommend investing a ton in a MacPro 1,1! One power supply blowing, etc., is a pretty big deal at this point in terms of $$.
\

Plus the 100w it consumes at idle.

 

[orph]

id not buy one unless you want to rip the insides out and make a hackintosh with the correct case (thats my plan for my G5 if apple keeps making iphones).

for free might be fun to play with (or close to free) but not worth paying much for as it's so outdated

 

[vworks]

I would go for it.
You can easily change processors which I did to mine and I reach now 11000 score on geekbench 3.
I have an SSD , it boots in 2 secs and I run Lion. With a GPU like 4870 or 5770 or similr you can install EL Capitan, which I also tried on another partition of my SSD and in it s working perfectly.
The silence of this mac pro is stunning... I have also a Mac pro 4.1 and it is louder.

I would definitely go for it, but would not pay more than 150 USD.

 

[Kuzbad]

Plus the 100w it consumes at idle.

I'll have to check my UPS usage at some point, but IF my MP1,1 averages 100W 24/7:

100 watts x 24 hours = 2400 watt hours = 2.4 kWh

365 days x 2.4 kWh = 876kWh in a year.

I pay under 11 cents per kwh. 10.5 cents x 876 kWh = $91.98.

~$100 a year in electricity? I can deal with that. If I really cared I could turn my computer off at night and split that in half. What would a nMP net me over this? A savings of perhaps $50 a year (compared to the outlay for a new computer of thousands of dollars?

 

[orph]

well it's not a single thing it's more of the total of it just being old and any i3/i5/i7 for most things will just wipe the floor with it.
for single thread apps almost any i3 will crush it, for any app with only 1-4 threads an i5 will destroy it and an i7 will just blow it away.

my 5.1 is a first gen i7 and when i did my testes it was 1/3 faster with 2 less cores for multi cpu workloads & thats just a W3680 (which is a i7 980X equivalent ie a first gen i7) there's about a 10% speed up with each gen of i7 at lower power use and more optimizations on the CPU + better boosts.

it's not just power use but the heat that power produces which depending on where you live can be problematic.
also we are talking about a 10 year old computer, how long till the fans fail, the psu fail etc?

if it's for fun and you have realistic expectations from it then it's fine but dont expect it to be more than it is.

and also got to mention that not apps scale well with dual cpu's which can be a pain.

i still have my 3.1, been thinking of pulling it out as a room heater in winter to use instead of my laptop for playing films so not all bad if you live somewhere cold, if i need a heater why not make it do work at the same time

(also if it's cheep make a hacking tosh in it the case is so nice )

 

[ActionableMango]

I might be getting a decent deal for a Mac Pro 1.1 and wondering, is it worthed??

Hard to say unless you share what the price is.

What would a nMP net me over this? A savings of perhaps $50 a year (compared to the outlay for a new computer of thousands of dollars?

Well there would be the small side effect of having much faster, more capable, and currently-supported computer.

 

[keysofanxiety]

What would a nMP net me over this? A savings of perhaps $50 a year (compared to the outlay for a new computer of thousands of dollars?

But the point isn’t they can only get a new Mac Pro. Even a 13” 2012, which are dirt cheap and still supported until 2021, will significantly outperform it.

It’s just not worth it. The performance of a 2006 Mac Pro isn’t there any more.

 

[ssgbryan]

Well this is the kinda response I am looking for, I mean having real world comparison with other HW is good .

Thanks

Depends on what you want to do with it.

If your workflow can use a lot of cores and ram, it is certainly a good daily driver. Under no circumstances should you spend more than $800 TOTAL for a 1,1 (including all upgrades) - for that price you can get a base 8 core 4,1.


4 core low power CPUs (a pair of L5335 2.00GHz quad core, SLAEN stepping) can be had for under $20. X5355 pairs run about $30 a pair, but they are a bit more power-hungry (100 watts for the L5335 [pair] vs 240 watts for the X5355 [pair]). I feel the losing 600Mhz is worth the lower electric bill.

16Gb of ram (4x4 sticks), $20. Get 2 sets. You will see a real difference in performance when you go over 16Gb.

60 Gb SSD with El Capitan installed $40.

Video card will be the most expensive part. See threads in the forums for your options - I ran a 5770 and was pleased with the performance (but I didn't game heavily.)

 

[orph]

well you hit the problem of what it costs and what it's for.
if it's just light use then a mac min or macbook is better/faster.
if it's for work then it's slow.
but if it's just a for fun hobby project then it's fine, or if it's super cheep.

you also hit the problem that a used windows box will be cheaper/faster with the option of a hackingtosh on the table to, with used parts a hack in fairly cheep.

even used imac's tend to be cheep used and will be faster in most ways.

 

[vworks]

I am a photographer and use both digital and film photography.
For scanning and running raw converters like Phase one, the mac pro 1,1 handles it perfectly. I use Photoshop cs6 also, it is really fast also.
I have big files though. I do not do a lot of video but I use sometimes Final cut pro X and 7 - it also works without problems really fast with the 5770, the 5355 and the SSD Crucial I use for startup and storing pics.
Lately I installed EL Capitan to test it and it also works perfectly. Of course if you want Handoff etc, you need to upgrade more but for a Photography use and surfing on the web, small video tasks it is flawless. Also as I said very quiet.
My mac pro - 1,1 cost me 120 dollars
Upgrades - 350-400 dollars max.
I have a performing mac pro with a lot of space 5 bays for HDD's, PCIe cards etc for like 450 USD...

Of course I know my stuff and use macs since 2000 - clean the system, optimize etc. but a bit of reading on the web and it's done

 

[YaBe]

Thank you all for your precious inputs, I ended up following most people's advice and let it pass, It was only 120 $ but I figures , since I am a die hard PowerPC fan, I might as well spend those money and get a G5 .....

Sure it is older, but I really dig this old computers, and it will go along very well with my G4 MDD!

 

[CapnDavey]

120 not a bad price but you would need a newer video card i.e. HD4870 or better more ram 8 or 16 gig a bigger hard drive and or SSD add at least 150 for all that. You might be better off looking for a 6 core 4,1 skip the G5 they have way to much overhead and sound like a jet airplane when surfing the internet hehe good luck

 

[Kuzbad]

But the point isn’t they can only get a new Mac Pro. Even a 13” 2012, which are dirt cheap and still supported until 2021, will significantly outperform it.

It’s just not worth it. The performance of a 2006 Mac Pro isn’t there any more.

I buy all the computers at my office (and we've been all SSD for at least 6-7 years as a BTO option). We have several of the most recent iMacs (and most other generations of iMacs), mac Minis, etc. My Mac Pro 1,1 hangs in just fine for my workflow. If I were doing video editing, etc., the processor would make a big difference, but truthfully, CPU speed increases just really aren't that important anymore, and even a literally 10-year-old Xeon can still hold its own for most tasks!

For every day usage, it pretty much trounces any recent mac without an SSD.

The lack of support is what's going to kill it.
[doublepost=1509463405][/doublepost]

I am a photographer and use both digital and film photography.
For scanning and running raw converters like Phase one, the mac pro 1,1 handles it perfectly. I use Photoshop cs6 also, it is really fast also.
I have big files though. I do not do a lot of video but I use sometimes Final cut pro X and 7 - it also works without problems really fast with the 5770, the 5355 and the SSD Crucial I use for startup and storing pics.
Lately I installed EL Capitan to test it and it also works perfectly. Of course if you want Handoff etc, you need to upgrade more but for a Photography use and surfing on the web, small video tasks it is flawless. Also as I said very quiet.
My mac pro - 1,1 cost me 120 dollars
Upgrades - 350-400 dollars max.
I have a performing mac pro with a lot of space 5 bays for HDD's, PCIe cards etc for like 450 USD...

Of course I know my stuff and use macs since 2000 - clean the system, optimize etc. but a bit of reading on the web and it's done

You said it perfectly! The Mac Pro 1,1 remains very viable for many workloads!
[doublepost=1509463513][/doublepost]

But the point isn’t they can only get a new Mac Pro. Even a 13” 2012, which are dirt cheap and still supported until 2021, will significantly outperform it.

It’s just not worth it. The performance of a 2006 Mac Pro isn’t there any more.

Baloney! I would love to see a 13" 2012 sitting next to my MP 1,1 in terms of really usage (not CPU benchmarks). Mine also has the advantage of powering a 4K screen and having 2TB of SSDs.

Still waiting for new NEW Mac Pro (modular!).

 

[nilk]

I loved my Mac Pro 1,1, and with SSDs in it, it had enough power for my use cases even now. Mine is now waiting for a friend to come pick it up who is going to give it a shot for music production. I'm giving it to my friend for free because I don't think it's worth enough to bother selling.

If you're paying more than $100 for it, it's likely not worth it (unless it comes with good 2.5" SSDs or some other non-obsolete gear that makes it worth the cost). It would make more sense to spend the money on getting a cheap/easy hackintosh machine like the HP 6300 or 8300, which can actually run High Sierra. The Mac Pro 1,1 will run El Capitan fairly well, but you're basically running an outdated Hackintosh at that point (though maybe easier to get working).

 

[keysofanxiety]

I buy all the computers at my office (and we've been all SSD for at least 6-7 years as a BTO option). We have several of the most recent iMacs (and most other generations of iMacs), mac Minis, etc. My Mac Pro 1,1 hangs in just fine for my workflow. If I were doing video editing, etc., the processor would make a big difference, but truthfully, CPU speed increases just really aren't that important anymore, and even a literally 10-year-old Xeon can still hold its own for most tasks!

For every day usage, it pretty much trounces any recent mac without an SSD.

The lack of support is what's going to kill it.
[doublepost=1509463405][/doublepost]

You said it perfectly! The Mac Pro 1,1 remains very viable for many workloads!
[doublepost=1509463513][/doublepost]

Baloney! I would love to see a 13" 2012 sitting next to my MP 1,1 in terms of really usage (not CPU benchmarks). Mine also has the advantage of powering a 4K screen and having 2TB of SSDs.

Still waiting for new NEW Mac Pro (modular!).

Look I know people love their modular machines - whoop, 4K, I can have loads of SSDs - but honestly you're hyping this machine for something it isn't and it's gonna confuse the OP. I'm not saying your 1,1 Mac Pro is a bag of crap and I'm pleased it works for you. But I think for what the OP needs it's much, much better for a 13" 2012.

The i5 in the 13" has literally double the per-core performance which does make a huge difference. The system also supports 16GB of 1600MHz RAM and has SATA III. It's portable and isn't energy hungry. You say a 10-year-old Xeon can hold its own but that really isn't true. The Xeon 5130 has the performance of a mobile Core 2 Duo.

Again, I am not saying you are wrong and I am not saying your machine is rubbish. However a used 13" MBP for under $500 with an SSD and maxed RAM will toast almost any 1,1 Mac Pros at that cost. To get the equivalent performance you'll need to spend a lot on the Mac Pro - a lot more than it's worth.

Once again: your machine is not worthless and it's great that your 1,1 works for you but IMO it's a bad recommendation for what the OP described they need.

 

[Kuzbad]

Look I know people love their modular machines - whoop, 4K, I can have loads of SSDs - but honestly you're hyping this machine for something it isn't and it's gonna confuse the OP. I'm not saying your 1,1 Mac Pro is a bag of crap and I'm pleased it works for you. But I think for what the OP needs it's much, much better for a 13" 2012.

I think you might be confused about something? My original post specifically said I would not pay more than $100 for this computer today, hardly a glowing recommendation. I'm bemused that you think 4K is a "whoop" upgrade as well. Besides my first SSD (12 years ago? can't remember exactly) the 4K monitor has far and away been the best upgrade of any I've made.

The i5 in the 13" has literally double the per-core performance which does make a huge difference. The system also supports 16GB of 1600MHz RAM and has SATA III. It's portable and isn't energy hungry. You say a 10-year-old Xeon can hold its own but that really isn't true. The Xeon 5130 has the performance of a mobile Core 2 Duo.

Such CPU benchmarks are pretty much irrelevant barring certain CPU heavy workloads. I literally have a ~2-3-year old iMac on my Desk as well and the performance is indistinguishable most of the time for actual usage. You're right that it has taken quite a while (7-8 years?) to double single core performance. This performance does not always translate into visible results.

Once again: your machine is not worthless and it's great that your 1,1 works for you but IMO it's a bad recommendation for what the OP described they need.

More reading comprehension issues? The OP never actually said what his workload. In fact he said he preferred a G4/G5...

 

[redheeler]

Thank you all for your precious inputs, I ended up following most people's advice and let it pass, It was only 120 $ but I figures , since I am a die hard PowerPC fan, I might as well spend those money and get a G5 .....

Sure it is older, but I really dig this old computers, and it will go along very well with my G4 MDD!

I too enjoy booting up the Power Mac G5 once in a while, but the 2006 Mac Pro really is superior in every way and will even run the old Tiger/Leopard better than the G5 (while also having a very similar case design to the G5) - the only downside is that TenFourFox and Leopard Webkit work best on PowerPC.

I have an '06 Mac Pro upgraded with a Radeon HD 5770 GPU, and when running El Capitan from an SSD it didn't feel at all like an 11-year-old Mac. @keysofanxiety looks eager to dismiss it merely based on benchmark scores and its age, but there is so much more to take into account. Especially since these Mac Pros have not been supported for a while, the price has come down quite a bit - a 2012 MacBook Pro could end up costing 3x more.

 

[YaBe]

I too enjoy booting up the Power Mac G5 once in a while, but the 2006 Mac Pro really is superior in every way and will even run the old Tiger/Leopard better than the G5 (while also having a very similar case design to the G5) - the only downside is that TenFourFox and Leopard Webkit work best on PowerPC.

I have an '06 Mac Pro upgraded with a Radeon HD 5770 GPU, and when running El Capitan from an SSD it didn't feel at all like an 11-year-old Mac. @keysofanxiety looks eager to dismiss it merely based on benchmark scores and its age, but there is so much more to take into account. Especially since these Mac Pros have not been supported for a while, the price has come down quite a bit - a 2012 MacBook Pro could end up costing 3x more.

Consider that apart from an iPad Pro 12.9 2nd gen....the MDD is my main computer!

 

[Michael MP2]

I don't get the replies advocating a mini or 13" MBP, they're *totally* different machines. I've got a two original Pros, main one upgraded to 2x quad core CPUs and 32GB memory, I can slide in 4+ hard disks no problem, put in USB 3.0 ports, and just ordered a 3GB Radeon 7950 to replace the 5770 (that'll go into my other pro. Only wish it had Thunderbolt. Cost me $390 secondhand, I just added an extra 16GB memory ($100), already had a second SSD and spinning HD, and the only expensive upgrade was the GPU at about $300 (Sapphire Mac edition.)