New Mac Mini M1 from old mac pro 3,1

[Lengold]

Hello,
Advice please. I am looking to upgrade my old mac pro 3,1 to a mac mini M1 and this is raising a lot of potential connectivity problems.

1. Would it be possible to connect two old monitors with DV1 connections (hdmi to 2 x dvi splitter) to the single hdmi port on the mac (can't afford new monitors). Looked on the net but seeing different views. ie: would the monitors both show the same image or could they be used as normal dual monitors?

2. I want to use my old mac basically as a drive bay, it was suggested to me to boot the old mac in target mode and connect via firewire to usb (c or thunderbolt). Is this possible, would be handy if it is. (I have 2 x hdd + 3 x ssd in the old mac.)
Thanks for looking.

 

[Monotremata]

1. No a splitter does just that, it splits the same signal to two places. Each monitor needs its own connection to the Mac. Get a docking station that has dual outputs, or plenty of USB-C ports and you're good there.

2. Not sure if firewire even works anymore (MOTU dropped all their firewire interfaces in the Big Sur/M1 drivers). Its probably quicker and easier to use the Mac Pro as a file server over ethernet/Airport. Just turn on file sharing, then let it do its thing.

 

[Lengold]

1. No a splitter does just that, it splits the same signal to two places. Each monitor needs its own connection to the Mac. Get a docking station that has dual outputs, or plenty of USB-C ports and you're good there.

2. Not sure if firewire even works anymore (MOTU dropped all their firewire interfaces in the Big Sur/M1 drivers). Its probably quicker and easier to use the Mac Pro as a file server over ethernet/Airport. Just turn on file sharing, then let it do its thing.

Many thanks.
1. Thought so, actually Apple support suggested this as a possibility.
2. If I connect via ethernet will I still be able to connect the new mac to internet via ethernet? Would I need an ethernet hub of some sort?

 

[Fishrrman]

Make sure you get the FOUR PORT version of the Mini.
I'd suggest 16gb of RAM, also.

You'd be better off getting new enclosures for the existing drives you have, and connecting them via USB3.

The SSD's, in particular, would run FASTER in a USB3 2.5" "bay" that holds multiple drives (probably in a "JBOD" configuration either 2 drives or even all 4). Several vendors sell these. Check OWC and Oyen Digital.

For the 2 HDD's, either get separate enclosures, or perhaps a "dual bay" SATA/USB3 docking station would work. These are plentiful and cheap.

 

[Richdmoore]

I would recase the drives like others suggested, USB 3 is faster than firewire, not that it will really matter too much on an HDD. Actually, depending on the age of the drives, it might be a good idea to simply copy the info to new drives anyway, if the hdd are several years old and contain important information you would be upset losing in case of failure. (Of course, if it is important you probably already have backups of the info anyway.)

Myself, I wouldn't keep a mac pro running just to do file sharing, they do consume a fair amount of electricity, added fan noise, and take up a fair amount of room, but it is a possibility if you wish to.

I can't answer the screen questions, I have limited experience with DVI monitors. I will probably go from an intel iMac to an mac mini pro (if they every release one) in the future, so I am trying to educate myself about monitor options for my future purchases.

 

[wardie]

I wouldn’t use the MP3.1 as a file server (I have one, pimped up over the years) as it uses a ton of power to leave on 24x7. I used Mac Mini for file server, got a 2018 refurb one cheap.

 

[Chicago Keri]

I just went from a Mac Pro 5.1 to an M1 Mini, having previously went from the 3.1 to the 5.1

Some thoughts:

The M1 Mini in its current form supports only one monitor on the Thunderbolt 3 ports and one monitor on the HDMI port for a total of two. There are adaptors to convert from TB3 to DVI, and from HDMI to DVI. This "should" give you two useable monitors configurable from within MacOS.
If you are using the older DVI type Apple Cinema Displays, I have no idea how well this would work through an adaptor. It has been many years since I parted with my 23" ACD.

Of course any kind of splitter merely duplicates the exact same screen over different monitors.

People do seem to be having difficulties getting monitors to work correctly on the M1 Mini, especially multiple displays. In particular, displays on the Thunderbolt ports cannot be daisy-chained or even run on different TB ports at the same time.

I find the Apple LED Cinema Display worked pretty well on a TB3>DisplayPort adaptor and the Apple Thunderbolt Display works better with a TB3>TB2 adaptor as it has a built-in Ethernet, Firewire800 and USB hub that runs from the TB2 connection. I have not yet tested the FW800 port, I sure hope it still works.

added: The Thunderbolt Display works great on all ports and solved, oops, REDUCED the Pegasus sleep issue. The FW800 port works as expected.

Yes, you could possibly use a MP3.1 as a Target Disk over a TB3 - to - FW adaptor. Target Disk Mode has never worked on a USB port, but maybe the TB ports?
The power consumption would be ridiculous on a MP3.1, however.

Far better to get an external Thunderbolt drive enclosure like a Pegasus R4 and transfer your drives to it in JBOD mode. That seems to be working OK for me, though the Pegasus seems to shut down without ejecting drives when going asleep.
A USB drive enclosure(s) should also work and for rotating drives the speed difference shouldn't matter.

The M1 Mini does a significantly better job at Final Cut than the MP5.1 It should be a great deal better than the MP3.1.

 

[watakoola]

Lots of talk about power usage when moving from a Mac Pro to a mini, but...

When you try to emulate the storage and graphics capability of the Mac Pro you also need to add many electricity-using bits to the mini.

I had to add -
eGPU
JBOD enclosure
7-Port Hub

I can't measure it, but wonder how my setup compares in electricity usage to the 'all-in-one' Mac Pro?

 

[Chicago Keri]

Lots of talk about power usage when moving from a Mac Pro to a mini, but...

When you try to emulate the storage and graphics capability of the Mac Pro you also need to add many electricity-using bits to the mini.

I had to add -
eGPU
JBOD enclosure
7-Port Hub

I can't measure it, but wonder how my setup compares in electricity usage to the 'all-in-one' Mac Pro?

Well, the primary concern was using old monitors and accessing the drives, which should be possible.

But the cMP 3.1 was a gigantic power hog as well as being bulky and extremely heavy, about 20 kilo with one drive and one tiny video card.
The 3.1 could theoretically draw up to 1400 watts from the wall. I seem to recall mine drawing over 400w with an HD4780 video card and 4 drives. This is a truly staggering amount of power for a drive enclosure!
The cMP 5.1 was much better at managing power.
By comparison an M1 mini theoretical maximum is 150w but is usually well under 20w.
Measuring power draw is easy with a cheap plug-in watt meter.

 

[Lengold]

Many thanks for all the replies, appreciated. For some reason I didn't get notifications about them and only just seen. I ended up buying an OWC Thunderbolt 3 hub and am aiming to to have the cinema display coming out of hdmi on mac mini to DVI connector and the old dell monitor via mini display port on the OWC to DVI connector. I also bought a Terramaster 5 drive dock to connect to the OWC (bit worried about that as it was very cheap and might be too slow). I also had to buy a new Focusrite audio interface as my old one will not work with M1 chips (very annoying as it works perfectly and has done for a few years). Problem is that the mac mini isn't here yet, coming next thursday, so can't try anything out. Fingers crossed.