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Moving on up...

jbarley

jbarley

macrumors 601
Original poster
Jul 1, 2006
4,023
1,897
Vancouver Island
Just purchased a Mac Pro (2006) 3.0GHz 4-Core: 4GB RAM, 500GB HDD, SuperDrive, Bluetooth from OWC.
The price of $275 was as good as most "buy-it-now" prices on ebay and OWC's warranty helps assure me of a good unit, which as we all know buying from ebay can be a real "crap shoot". But what really cinched the deal for me was shipping cost. In the past I've paid anywhere from $65 for MDD's to as high as $150 shipping for my quad G5 from California, so when I saw OWC's shipping cost to Canada I couldn't resist pressing the "Buy" button.
As it says "PuroPost" is something new, I'm guessing to help encourage Cross-border sales.
Anyhow, works for me.
Now comes the waiting for delivery.:(
Looking forward to upgrading and bringing this machine forward into this decade of the 21'st century.

Screen Shot 2016-05-17 at 7.13.49 PM.png
 
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Sounds like a fun new toy. A lot more than I would pay for a 2006, but if nothing else, you can have some fun modding it.
 
jbarley said:
Just purchased a Mac Pro (2006) 3.0GHz 4-Core: 4GB RAM, 500GB HDD, SuperDrive, Bluetooth from OWC.
The price of $275 was as good as most "buy-it-now" prices on ebay and OWC's warranty helps assure me of a good unit, which as we all know buying from ebay can be a real "crap shoot". But what really cinched the deal for me was shipping cost. In the past I've paid anywhere from $65 for MDD's to as high as $150 shipping for my quad G5 from California, so when I saw OWC's shipping cost to Canada I couldn't resist pressing the "Buy" button.
As it says "PuroPost" is something new, I'm guessing to help encourage Cross-border sales.
Anyhow, works for me.
Now comes the waiting for delivery.:(
Looking forward to upgrading and bringing this machine forward into the 21'st century.

View attachment 631804
Click to expand...

Many users around here like @LightBulbFun and @Surrat can help that MP get on El Cap with ease. I think you need at least 8GB RAM, an upgraded GPU, and special Kext files to allow for El Cap to boot. The 500GB HDD and beastly Quad-Core CPUs should also help. Enjoy the modern world of Macs! Don't forget your roots here in PPClandia. You will be missed *waves handkerchief with tear rolling down face*.

In all seriousness though, congrats and I'm very envious. I'd love to have a Mac Pro of any kind since they still pack a powerful punch even today with the oldest being 10 years old.
 
jbarley said:
Just purchased a Mac Pro (2006) 3.0GHz 4-Core: 4GB RAM, 500GB HDD, SuperDrive, Bluetooth from OWC.
The price of $275 was as good as most "buy-it-now" prices on ebay and OWC's warranty helps assure me of a good unit, which as we all know buying from ebay can be a real "crap shoot". But what really cinched the deal for me was shipping cost. In the past I've paid anywhere from $65 for MDD's to as high as $150 shipping for my quad G5 from California, so when I saw OWC's shipping cost to Canada I couldn't resist pressing the "Buy" button.
As it says "PuroPost" is something new, I'm guessing to help encourage Cross-border sales.
Anyhow, works for me.
Now comes the waiting for delivery.:(
Looking forward to upgrading and bringing this machine forward into the 21'st century.

View attachment 631804
Click to expand...
Do you plan on upgrading the Mac further? I would definitely recommend throwing in Dual X5355s, which will get you to 8 cores. You could also flash the SMC for it to be recognized as a 2,1 Mac Pro, allowing the new processors to run at full speed. A new video card and a higher capacity of RAM would be ideal for running El Capitan (which I assume you would want to do. Otherwise, none of this would really be necessary)

One thing about that MP is the fact that the 3.0GHz option was BTO. Unless OWC upgraded it from the common 2.66GHz option.
 
Hrududu said:
Sounds like a fun new toy. A lot more than I would pay for a 2006, but if nothing else, you can have some fun modding it.
Click to expand...
As for the price, keep in mind it has been properly refurbished and comes with a warranty something you don't get when buying dirt cheap, but even so that's not my prime driving force.
Having worked all my life, raised 3 kids (all retired now) and saved for my retirement, you suddenly realize you're running out of time long before your going to run out of money.
 
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jbarley said:
Just purchased a Mac Pro (2006) 3.0GHz 4-Core: 4GB RAM, 500GB HDD, SuperDrive, Bluetooth from OWC.
The price of $275 was as good as most "buy-it-now" prices on ebay and OWC's warranty helps assure me of a good unit, which as we all know buying from ebay can be a real "crap shoot". But what really cinched the deal for me was shipping cost. In the past I've paid anywhere from $65 for MDD's to as high as $150 shipping for my quad G5 from California, so when I saw OWC's shipping cost to Canada I couldn't resist pressing the "Buy" button.
As it says "PuroPost" is something new, I'm guessing to help encourage Cross-border sales.
Anyhow, works for me.
Now comes the waiting for delivery.:(
Looking forward to upgrading and bringing this machine forward into this decade of the 21'st century.

View attachment 631804
Click to expand...
Congratulations on the new Mac Pro. And by the look of this, you got quite a deal.
Screen Shot 2016-05-17 at 9.08.08 PM.png


The 2006 Mac Pros are quite a step-up from a Power Mac G5, despite being only 1 year newer. Here are the specs of mine:
Mac Pro About This Mac-May 2016.png

It has an SSD boot drive and USB 3 PCIe card as well as what's shown here. Runs very nicely on Mavericks or El Capitan.
 
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redheeler said:
It has an SSD boot drive and USB 3 PCIe card as well as what's shown here. Runs very nicely on Mavericks or El Capitan.
Click to expand...
Today, as far as I'm concerned SSD's are a given, I have installed them in most of my units, from my G4 Cube to MDD's to My Quad G5 and my daily driver a 2012 mini.
 
welcome to the Mac Pro club :) I have a 2006 Mac Pro as my main machine. its very nice and fast (I have upgraded it to 2 Quad Core X5355 Xeons a 5770 Mac edition graphics card 16GB of ram and a 64GB Boot SSD) to run el cap on the Mac Pro you need to replace 2 boot.efi in the OS (if you already have a el cap install somewhere its dead simple) you also need 8GB+ RAM (anything under and el cap will KP for some reason) you also need a upgraded graphics card (the stock ones are not supported in el cap) I recommend you check out https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/2006-2007-mac-pro-1-1-2-1-and-os-x-el-capitan.1890435/ and this https://forums.macrumors.com/thread...out-nvidia-pc-non-efi-graphics-cards.1440150/ I hope this helps :) also if you plan on doing CPU upgrades https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/mac-pro-cpu-compatibility-list.1954766/
 
You honestly can't go wrong with a 1,1. A bunch of us who frequent the PPC forum have them-I use one as my main office computer comfortably running 10.9.5.

With an SSD, you won't believe it's 10 years old. I have dual 23 inch Al displays on mine, and frequently get complimented on it.
 
James, congrats on your purchase. I am typing this on a 2010 MacPro here at work running Yosemite.

Personally, I don't really care for the MPs for my own personal use. This Mac does the job here at work but I need a few workrounds to do some parts of my job (printing for instance).

I do love my MBP, but I don't think I will ever purchase a MacPro for home use unless that becomes my only real option at some point - or I inherit one. Personally I just don't feel it.

But, this thread is not about my personal feelings, it's about your new Mac. The MPs ARE good machines and I wish you well with yours.

Congratulations!
 
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I have a Mac Pro 3,1 with 20 GB RAM. It's a really nice machine, especially after adding an SSD and upgrading the GPU. Noting about it feels slow at all. I feel like I have no need for any newer Mac desktop.
 
Hmm, I bought a mac pro 1.1 about a month ago, it was a shade under (US)$150, it was 20 miles from me, so I picked it up, I plugged it in, removed mac cleaner (I hope) and sat it in the corner, just temporarily.
It's still there, next to the G5 I don't use (dual 2.0Ghz, PCIe mobo), while I write this on my G4 MDD.

I prefer the MDD case.
(has anyone swapped mac pro guts into a MDD case?)
 
ROFLOL, if only you knew!

Something is in the works just now, but it's not a Mac Pro re-case (or a G5 re-case either).
 
Not too excited,:rolleyes: Tracking says my Mac Pro is "out for delivery", and this is 2 days earlier then scheduled.:)
Sure hope the package is not all bashed up....:eek:
 
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bunnspecial said:
I still have to get the Mavericks installer out to you! I'm making it now
Click to expand...
Not to worry, it'll be some time before my video card arrives.
This so called free delivery puts new meaning to the old saying "slow boat to China", in as much as it's now "from China" but still just as slow.:rolleyes:
 
Hope you enjoy the 1,1, they are awesome! :) Snowy is a perfect partner for them if you don't mind being on something a little older, I'm not a big fan of the new look introduced from in 10.10 and Snowy still seems to be the fastest and most stable Intel OS X, plus there's no need for any hacks of course.
 
SSD is planned, I'll get some ram when I can afford it, and I'm keeping an eye out for a Gainward 8800 Ultra graphics card.
Does the 8800 work OK with Snowy? If not, what is the best SL compatible?
 
oi! said:
SSD is planned, I'll get some ram when I can afford it, and I'm keeping an eye out for a Gainward 8800 Ultra graphics card.
Does the 8800 work OK with Snowy? If not, what is the best SL compatible?
Click to expand...

Pick up a Mac 4870 and call it a day, 5xxx and 6xxx cards should work OoB too iirc
 
jbarley said:
Not too excited,:rolleyes: Tracking says my Mac Pro is "out for delivery", and this is 2 days earlier then scheduled.:)
Sure hope the package is not all bashed up....:eek:
Click to expand...
And the wait goes on...:(
If there's a way to screw things up I'm sure Canada Post is right on top of it.
This mornings tracking info claims at 08:42 "Attempted delivery. Notice card left indicating where item can be picked up",
which in reality means, the postman takes one look at the 50lb. box and sez, my union tells me I don't have to handle anything that large, and leaves it there for someone else to haul to the local postal sub-station for me to attend and pick up.
As of closing time to-day it still had not arrived at that sub-station.
Also this so-called "Notice card" only showed up in my mail slot at 12:20PM, a far cry from 08:42 attempted delivery.
Oh well, there's always tomorrow.:mad:
 
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I recently got a Mac Pro 1,1 (I flashed it to 2,2 for kicks) which was a 2.66 Dual Core, 9GB Ram, ~1.5TB, 7300GT, OSX 7.5 Lion for $100 on Craigslist about a month ago. I love it! I have since upgraded to an SSD for the OS and just have the 1TB mechanical drive to cut down on noise and heat. (or else there was ~1.5TB across 3 separate drives).

My next step is probably the wireless card to AC+BT 4.0 (I already have the mini-PCI adapter, I just need the broadcomm card). Also, more ram since it's so cheap, and then getting an updated video card, probably the 7950 and finally upgrade to Yosemite/El Capitan. The CPU upgrade can wait. lol
 
Johnny365 said:
I recently got a Mac Pro 1,1 (I flashed it to 2,2 for kicks)
Click to expand...

This is just me, but I don't see any real advantage to flashing it to a 2,1 unless you're upgrading the CPUs. The 2,1 firmware brings erratic fan behavior(unless you also did the SMC) with the only advantage in a 1,1 being the support for quad core processors.
 
Can't say I have had any fan issues with doing the firmware update. The system never ramps up the fans
 
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