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Mac Pro 3.1 valuation

r6mile

r6mile

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Feb 3, 2010
1,004
505
London, UK
Hi guys,

I am in possession of the following machine, and wanted to check if you guys could give me a 'valuation' as to how much this machine would be worth for resale (I've included a couple of upgrades that I want to install on it).

Mac Pro 3.1 (2008):
CPU: 2x2.8 (eight-core)
RAM: 32GB (4x4GB 800Mhz, 4x4GB 677Mhz)
SDD: (new) 250GB Samsung 850 EVO, through Sonnet Tempo PCIe card
HDD: 500GB Seagate 7200rpm
GPU: ATI Radeon 5770 Mac
Optical drive: 2xSuperDrive (16x DL)
Network: Airport Extreme
Expansion cards: Inateck USB 3.0 card
OS: OSX El Capitan

I live in the UK if that helps. Thanks a lot.
 
Hope you don't mind me asking, from your previous thread you mentioned you got your Pro on eBay. There was one listed on there as having a firmware lock which seems to match the specs etc you mentioned in your original thread. I don't suppose this is the one you won on eBay?

If so you got a great deal!


r6mile said:
Hi guys,

I am in possession of the following machine, and wanted to check if you guys could give me a 'valuation' as to how much this machine would be worth for resale (I've included a couple of upgrades that I want to install on it).

Mac Pro 3.1 (2008):
CPU: 2x2.8 (eight-core)
RAM: 32GB (4x4GB 800Mhz, 4x4GB 677Mhz)
SDD: (new) 250GB Samsung 850 EVO, through Sonnet Tempo PCIe card
HDD: 500GB Seagate 7200rpm
GPU: ATI Radeon 5770 Mac
Optical drive: 2xSuperDrive (16x DL)
Network: Airport Extreme
Expansion cards: Inateck USB 3.0 card
OS: OSX El Capitan

I live in the UK if that helps. Thanks a lot.
Click to expand...
 
That's exactly the one! I managed to unlock the firmware (following some pretty simple internet instructions) as soon as I got back home from collecting it, and this morning I installed El Capitan on it. It's an even better deal than I thought as it's a dual-CPU (instead of single-CPU as the item description stated). Unfortunately I don't really have the space to keep it (nor the need for it, since I am not a pro user and I already have an MBA and an iMac), but I thought it might be fun to bring it back to shape, put a few upgrades in, and then sell it on.

raymanster said:
Hope you don't mind me asking, from your previous thread you mentioned you got your Pro on eBay. There was one listed on there as having a firmware lock which seems to match the specs etc you mentioned in your original thread. I don't suppose this is the one you won on eBay?

If so you got a great deal!
Click to expand...
 
Nice one! I put in a half-hearted bid myself as it looked in great condition not to mention boxed. So I thought worst case scenario I thought I would keep the PCIe SSD card, memory, case (assuming it's scratch free) and sell the rest for parts.

I think if if you want to sell it you'd be better just keeping it as is, and also slot in an SSD rather then doing any upgrades. I'm sure you will at minimum double your money from what you originally paid.
 
Judging from the similar configurations in the eBay Sold listings anywhere between £250 & £450.

Incidentally don't sellers of Mac Pros on eBay ever realise how much less they will get if they specify Collection Only?
 
nigelbb said:
Incidentally don't sellers of Mac Pros on eBay ever realise how much less they will get if they specify Collection Only?
Click to expand...

I'm intrigued by what you might mean here?

Is it as simple as restricting the size of your market - depending on where you live, or do you mean something else?
 
I think he means that by restricting the size of your market, you get fewer potential bidders, which depresses the potential price of your item. This is why on electronics I almost exclusively buy 'collection only' things because they will go for less.
 
Ah right that makes sense.

I guess the trade off is that you don't get to see the buyer and if they're a scammer, they're unlikely to even make the effort to travel. So collect only is 'safer' presumably.

Ive not sold on eBay before so other perspectives like these are useful.
 
r6mile said:
I think he means that by restricting the size of your market, you get fewer potential bidders, which depresses the potential price of your item. This is why on electronics I almost exclusively buy 'collection only' things because they will go for less.
Click to expand...
This is exactly what I meant. It's less of a problem if you live in a big city.

One issue with collection only on eBay is that as a buyer if you pay cash on collection then you have no PayPal buyer protection or comeback. As a seller if you accept PayPal rather than cash on collection then there is no PayPal seller protection as you didn't deliver to the registered PayPal address.

If you no longer have the Mac Pro shipping carton I can understand why people may see shipping as a problem not to mention the cost of shipping such a heavy item.
 
Keep in mind that RAM for the 3,1 is considerably more expensive than it is for a 4,1 or 5,1. In other words, you've got 32 GB's of quite expensive RAM.
 
howiest said:
Keep in mind that RAM for the 3,1 is considerably more expensive than it is for a 4,1 or 5,1. In other words, you've got 32 GB's of quite expensive RAM.
Click to expand...

Well, half of it is. The 800Mhz stuff is expensive as only Apple really used it. The 677 is available really cheaply.
 
There has been a little change to the RAM. Instead of 32GB, with half 800Mhz and half 667Mhz, it's 28GB - all 800Mhz (with 6/8 of the RAM modules having the big heatsinks).

Basically, the computer came with 22GB of 800Mhz RAM - 4x4GB, 2x2GB, 2x1GB. and I was planning on replacing the 2 and 1GB modules with 4x4GB of cheap 667Mhz RAM. However, I found an amazing deal on eBay on 2x4GB of Samsung 800Mhz RAM, which I have now bought to replace the 2x1GB modules.

P.S: I presume 28GB@800Mhz is better than 32GB@667Mhz or broadly the same?
 
Last edited:
r6mile said:
P.S: I presume 28GB@800Mhz is better than 32GB@667Mhz or broadly the same?
Click to expand...

Broadly the same, unless of course you go over the 28GB during use, then it's a lot worse. If you're looking to maximise profit on this machine then I would have parted it out without buying any upgrades. I don't think you're going to get your money back on the stuff you are adding.
 
The 2x4GB@800Mhz was badly sold on eBay and only cost me £8.50 (inc. delivery), and I can probably sell the original 2x1GB for at least that much, so that's at the very least cost neutral. The only other upgrade was the OWC Accelsior PCIe card + Samsung 850 EVO, which cost me just over £100 altogether. I decided against buying an USB 3.0 card.

I am about to sell the machine to a friend for just under twice of the cost of purchase + upgrades, so I think it's worked out pretty well. And it's been quite a fun little project!
 
The new RAM arrived!

Screen Shot 2016-02-01 at 18.33.42.png
Screen Shot 2016-02-01 at 18.33.56.png
 
Yes, I really did get lucky on the RAM. There's very little PC2-6400F RAM on eBay (other than under Buy it Now, where 2x4GB goes for around £100), but this was from an Austrian seller who had the description written in German so it took a little digging and luck.

As for the Mac Pro price, I had a look around on eBay, and £599 seemed a fair price considering most of the similar 3,1 Mac Pros in that price range had the stock GPU (not a 5700), fewer RAM, and if they had an SSD it was SATA and not through PCIe. I've also stuck in an extra 1TB hard drive as a sweetener. I had an offer from Gumtree but I'd rather it go to a mate.

Inutopia said:
Well that's a totally different thing, of course you'd be keen to do right by your friend :) Congrats on that RAM too, that's super cheap! I remember paying £110 for the same a few years back.
Click to expand...

P.S: It really is ridiculous how expensive 800Mhz FB-DIMM generally is though, especially compared with the DDR3 in later Mac Pros.

P.S2: Just out of curiosity - has anyone maxed out the Ram in their 3,1 to 64GB? Is there any point?
 
r6mile said:
I had an offer from Gumtree but I'd rather it go to a mate.
Click to expand...
I'd prefer to sell it to a stranger rather than "sell the machine to a friend for just under twice of the cost of purchase + upgrades". I wouldn't feel comfortable making so much profit out of a friend.
 
nigelbb said:
I'd prefer to sell it to a stranger rather than "sell the machine to a friend for just under twice of the cost of purchase + upgrades". I wouldn't feel comfortable making so much profit out of a friend.
Click to expand...

I kind of agree with that. If I was selling to a friend I'd probably lower the price a bit so I still made something but they got a deal too.

r6mile said:
Yes, I really did get lucky on the RAM. There's very little PC2-6400F RAM on eBay (other than under Buy it Now, where 2x4GB goes for around £100), but this was from an Austrian seller who had the description written in German so it took a little digging and luck.

As for the Mac Pro price, I had a look around on eBay, and £599 seemed a fair price considering most of the similar 3,1 Mac Pros in that price range had the stock GPU (not a 5700), fewer RAM, and if they had an SSD it was SATA and not through PCIe. I've also stuck in an extra 1TB hard drive as a sweetener. I had an offer from Gumtree but I'd rather it go to a mate.
Click to expand...

£600 seems really expensive, my mate just bought an 8 core 4,1 for that money. It came with some extras too. In my experience you don't get so much back on upgrades when you sell a machine, it's a bit like cars in that respect.

By all means sell it for that if you can, but for your mate I think that's not a good deal.
 
I've now stuck in an extra 1TB hard drive, will upgrade the RAM to 56GB, and probably put in a GTX 570 too. I'm also going to lower the price a little bit.

Inutopia said:
I kind of agree with that. If I was selling to a friend I'd probably lower the price a bit so I still made something but they got a deal too.

£600 seems really expensive, my mate just bought an 8 core 4,1 for that money. It came with some extras too. In my experience you don't get so much back on upgrades when you sell a machine, it's a bit like cars in that respect.

By all means sell it for that if you can, but for your mate I think that's not a good deal.
Click to expand...
 
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