Moving on up...

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.

 

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.

 

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.

 

Congratulations on the new Mac Pro. And by the look of this, you got quite a deal.


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:

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.

 

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 http://forums.macrumors.com/threads/2006-2007-mac-pro-1-1-2-1-and-os-x-el-capitan.1890435/ and this http://forums.macrumors.com/threads...out-nvidia-pc-non-efi-graphics-cards.1440150/ I hope this helps also if you plan on doing CPU upgrades http://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!

 

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?)

 

Would not be possible, the MDD case isn't large enough.

 

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).

 

I still have to get the Mavericks installer out to you! I'm making it now

 

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.

 

Congrats, I bought mine for $100, upgraded it from stock.

 

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?

 

Pick up a Mac 4870 and call it a day, 5xxx and 6xxx cards should work OoB too iirc

 

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

 

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