Mac Pro 2006 Total Overhaul!

[SuperKerem]

Yesterday, I started a thread about a dual 2Ghz 2006 Mac Pro asking for opinions on pricing etc. I am leaning towards getting it now, and this is my plan:

Firstly, I plan to upgrade the processor from the measly 2x Dual 2Ghz Xeon 5150 to a 2x Quad 2.66Ghz Xeon 5355, meaning it will have 8 cores and a better processor. This will cost about £30-40.

Because I want to run Yosemite on it, by changing the boot.efi, I need to get a compatible graphics card, and preferably an official Apple one. Therefore the Apple ATI Radeon HD 5770 (1GB memory) seems like a good choice. This will cost hopefully £40? or so on Ebay. (not sure)

I also plan on buying a 120GB SSD, to really give it a speed boost. This will cost £50.

Finally, it will come with 6GB of RAM, which is fine for the time being.

Mac Pro itself (including Cinema Display, mouse + keyboard): £180
All upgrades mentioned above: £120-150

TOTAL: £300-330

Some of the more experienced people out there, please help me know if there are better parts I could buy which I haven't heard of yet, or let me know if any of the upgrades are unnecessary. I would really like it to be around £250 total tbh!

I am also wondering how capable this machine will be for gaming. I am a huge GTA 5 fan (lvl 280 online haha) and am wondering how this will handle it. Will it run better than the Xbox One I already have? Will it have a better gaming experience than my Retina MBP 15' with Iris Pro (current model)?

Thanks. (Sorry for the long post!)

 

[SimonUK5]

Its SUPER hard to find legit Apple 5770s in the UK on eBay, i've been searching for months to get one thats under 100 quid, but alas. nothing.

 

[IowaLynn]

Try to find a 2009, then you only need an SSD (XP941 or above), and later plenty of options for. GPUs. Seriously. Skip even if someone paid you to take their 1,1

 

[SuperKerem]

Try to find a 2009, then you only need an SSD (XP941 or above), and later plenty of options for. GPUs. Seriously. Skip even if someone paid you to take their 1,1

I could, but it would cost much more. The machine costs £180 and includes a 23' Apple Cinema Display. The upgrades would make that £210 not including the SSD and graphics card.

Let's say the display is worth £110 (actually worth £120-140 though), that's £100 after subtraction (210-110).

Finding a 2009 Mac Pro for £100 is impossible, and would provide no additional benefits compared to the 2006 with processor upgrade.

 

[mfmac]

Its SUPER hard to find legit Apple 5770s in the UK on eBay, i've been searching for months to get one thats under 100 quid, but alas. nothing.

Just sold mine on the Bay for £74.50

 

[IowaLynn]

I could, but it would cost much more. The machine costs £180 and includes a 23' Apple Cinema Display. The upgrades would make that £210 not including the SSD and graphics card.

Let's say the display is worth £110 (actually worth £120-140 though), that's £100 after subtraction (210-110).

Finding a 2009 Mac Pro for £100 is impossible, and would provide no additional benefits compared to the 2006 with processor upgrade.

? No benefits? PCIE 2.0 / Yisemite full support / better CPU and upgrade / comes with it easy to use PC GPU

I have 1,1 for 8+ years and nice but lacks some things.

And no need to invest in upgrades until you want

 

[SuperKerem]

? No benefits? PCIE 2.0 / Yisemite full support / better CPU and upgrade / comes with it easy to use PC GPU

I have 1,1 for 8+ years and nice but lacks some things.

And no need to invest in upgrades until you want

I have no PCI cards to install, Yosemite runs perfectly with a few tweaks, the CPU is the same after upgrading to 8 cores. I don't think this justifies an extra £200...

 

[krypticos]

This is amusing i just did this same thing in February. i bought a 2006 for 200. then upgraded the cpus to 5355 and got 32gb of ram and picked up a 250gb ssd and got a 7970 off craigslist and flashed it with efi.

So i have a fully working 2006. do i wish i got a 2009 mac pro yes i do. Am i happy with my mac pro. Yes so much, i had wanted one for so long, i just love using it. Honestly i would say get a 2009 model. biggest reasons are for me the cpus that come in the 2009 are based on the core i series and have hyperthreading. if you deal with multi thread this is very nice to have.

 

[nigelbb]

I have no PCI cards to install, Yosemite runs perfectly with a few tweaks, the CPU is the same after upgrading to 8 cores.

The Xeon 5355s will be a nice upgrade but there is no way they are the 'same' as later Mac Pros. Even compared to a base 2008 3,1 2.8GHz those 2.66Ghz Xeon 535 CPUs are only 75% of the performance

 

[IowaLynn]

I have no PCI cards to install, Yosemite runs perfectly with a few tweaks, the CPU is the same after upgrading to 8 cores. I don't think this justifies an extra £200...

Your GPU will be on PCIe 2.1 instead of 1.0

When (not if) you go for either XP941 PCIe-SSD (the ONLY real way to get SSD potential rung out of a 1,1) or SATA III (2nd best) the 2009 has PCIe 2.0 4x lanes along with two 16x