Mac Pro 4.1 CPU GPU SSD upgrades on a budget

[pkmcneil]

Mac Pro 4.1 Dual Quad Core 2.26
16GB 1066 RAM
Radeon HD 4780
4x WD 2TB HD

Most items are second hand and upgrade has happened over a two year period. Apple GPU, boot SSD and OWC RAM were my big spends but added a lot of performance. Definitely best bang for buck has been the goal.

Firmware and CPU upgrade to 5.1 Dual Hex Core 2.8 (eBay US$350).
40GB 1066 RAM (OWC US$350).
Radeon HD 5870 1GB VRAM (2012 Apple US$500).
Nvidia Quadro 4000 2GB VRAM (2015 US$180 eBay) powered by SATA.
Samsung 1TB Boot Drive (US$450) via Velocity Solo x2 PCIe card (2015 product website US$100).
Intel 240GB SSD (2014 US$200) connected through the Velocity PCIe card.
Seagate Desktop 2TB SSHD (2015 retailer US$120).
4x USB 3.0 via Inateck PCIe card (2015 eBay US$10).

 

[pkmcneil]

GPU upgrade

GPUs has been one one the trickier decisions.

Slot availability and power consumption.
Not wanting to use an external PSU.

I was running the HD 5870 and GT 120 for my three monitors.
While the Quadro 4000 is old tech too, the CUDA boost, single and slot size was very appealing.

Because I'm only using one HD bay connecting the Quadro to two SATA power ports via a 6 pin splitter works fine.