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Next best upgrade for Mac Pro 5,1

G

GMunroe

macrumors member
Original poster
Mar 24, 2012
49
1
I am in the process of upgrading my 3.2 Mac Pro to bring it a bit more up to date. I am curious what most owners have found to be best upgrades for this desktop.

I would like to upgrade the CPU but I searched a lot and haven't found anyone posting of upgrading the 3.2 model and the real world difference in results. Usually only the 2009 to hex or the 2010 2.8 model upgrade.

What I am considering is the

1. 3.33 w3680 cpu upgrade (saw similarly priced 3690's on eBay)
2. 680GTX upgrade
3. A faster SSD performance via the Accelsior or 2nd SSD in Raid0 with other PCI cards. I still do wish to have bootcamp so I think my choices are limited.

All of it looks like it would cost upwards of $1000+ CDN for the whole thing, so I am looking to piece it one at a time. Or sell it towards the 3.5 iMac at this point.

At the moment the Mac Pro is running 1.3 TB diy Fusion drive (stock 1TB hard drive with crucial M4), 5870 GPU, and 24 GB 1333 ECC ram (running at 1066)

Thanks for any advice
 
flowrider

flowrider

macrumors 604
Nov 23, 2012
7,228
2,952
GMunroe said:
I am in the process of upgrading my 3.2 Mac Pro to bring it a bit more up to date. I am curious what most owners have found to be best upgrades for this desktop.

I would like to upgrade the CPU but I searched a lot and haven't found anyone posting of upgrading the 3.2 model and the real world difference in results. Usually only the 2009 to hex or the 2010 2.8 model upgrade.

What I am considering is the

1. 3.33 w3680 cpu upgrade (saw similarly priced 3690's on eBay) - Certainly viable, and you'll gain a big boost from going from a quad core to a hex core. Some of the cost could be offset by selling your old W3565.
2. 680GTX upgrade - Why not go with a GTX780 or GTX770 from MacVidCards?
3. A faster SSD performance via the Accelsior or 2nd SSD in Raid0 with other PCI cards. I still do wish to have bootcamp so I think my choices are limited. I believe the Apricorn Velocity Solo x2 boots fine into Bootcamp on a 5,1.

All of it looks like it would cost upwards of $1000+ CDN for the whole thing, so I am looking to piece it one at a time. Or sell it towards the 3.5 iMac at this point.

At the moment the Mac Pro is running 1.3 TB diy Fusion drive (stock 1TB hard drive with crucial M4), 5870 GPU, and 24 GB 1333 ECC ram (running at 1066)

Thanks for any advice
Click to expand...

Lou
 
pastrychef

pastrychef

macrumors 601
Sep 15, 2006
4,753
1,450
New York City, NY
1. If you find that you are lacking processing power, go for the CPU upgrade.

2. If you're a gamer or use apps that can benefit from Cuda, go with the GTX 680. The performance difference between the GTX 680 and GTX 770 are very narrow and, personally, I would go with a GTX 680 rather than a GTX 770 because GTX 680s can be found with two 6-pin power connectors and I'm just more comfortable with that.

A GTX 780 would represent a larger jump in performance over a GTX 770 but also costs considerably more and, again, the 8-pin power connector makes me uncomfortable.

3. Faster/more storage is always desirable.
 
G

GMunroe

macrumors member
Original poster
Mar 24, 2012
49
1
pastrychef said:
1. If you find that you are lacking processing power, go for the CPU upgrade.
Click to expand...

I usually have a lot of things open at once, and the Mac struggles with large animation files in Flash Pro, so if I can alleviate some of the chug for work, it would be ideal. I'll go the most powerful I can install.


pastrychef said:
2. If you're a gamer or use apps that can benefit from Cuda, go with the GTX 680. The performance difference between the GTX 680 and GTX 770 are very narrow and, personally, I would go with a GTX 680 rather than a GTX 770 because GTX 680s can be found with two 6-pin power connectors and I'm just more comfortable with that.
Click to expand...

Which ever is best value.. I use bootcamp for some gaming.. like BF4 etc.


pastrychef said:
3. Faster/more storage is always desirable.
Click to expand...

Yes, I agree. Blackmagic gives me roughly @250Mb/s read/write at the moment. I'll try to order the Velocity x2. Price is right compared to the accelsior and I can use my own drive.
 
666sheep

666sheep

macrumors 68040
Dec 7, 2009
3,686
291
Poland
If you need comparison between 3.2 Quad and 3.33 Hex see attached screenshots. I've upgraded mine 4,1 first with W3570 next with W3680.
I'm using 1066 MHz RAM, so scores with 1333 MHz one will be a bit higher.

Regarding Apricorn Velocity Solo X2 it seems to have issues with Bootcamp: https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1506012/
 

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G

GMunroe

macrumors member
Original poster
Mar 24, 2012
49
1
Numbers look good. Looks like it increases performance by half. I think the new iMac is only rated a few points higher.
 
G

GMunroe

macrumors member
Original poster
Mar 24, 2012
49
1
flowrider said:
Certainly viable, and you'll gain a big boost from going from a quad core to a hex core. Some of the cost could be offset by selling your old W3565.
Click to expand...

Just ordered the W3680 for the Mac (and a antistatic strap). Looking forward to it arriving tomorrow. :D I hope I can get something for the 3565. Looks like they go for @$200 used.

Upgrade my SSD to a Apricorn Velocity X2 connection, and upgrade the video card and I will be finished.. for now. Unless things change drastically and this gen Mac Pro is no longer supported by current software.
 
carylee2002

carylee2002

macrumors regular
Jul 27, 2008
226
59
GMunroe said:
I am in the process of upgrading my 3.2 Mac Pro to bring it a bit more up to date. I am curious what most owners have found to be best upgrades for this desktop.

I would like to upgrade the CPU but I searched a lot and haven't found anyone posting of upgrading the 3.2 model and the real world difference in results. Usually only the 2009 to hex or the 2010 2.8 model upgrade.

What I am considering is the

1. 3.33 w3680 cpu upgrade (saw similarly priced 3690's on eBay)
2. 680GTX upgrade
3. A faster SSD performance via the Accelsior or 2nd SSD in Raid0 with other PCI cards. I still do wish to have bootcamp so I think my choices are limited.

All of it looks like it would cost upwards of $1000+ CDN for the whole thing, so I am looking to piece it one at a time. Or sell it towards the 3.5 iMac at this point.

At the moment the Mac Pro is running 1.3 TB diy Fusion drive (stock 1TB hard drive with crucial M4), 5870 GPU, and 24 GB 1333 ECC ram (running at 1066)

Thanks for any advice
Click to expand...

Too me...I found the Accelsior card to be a bust....Ive had a few fail and got replaced. It is only good for fast storage but not to be used as a system ssd since it tends to overheat and dies.
 
L

LEOMODE

macrumors 6502a
Jun 14, 2009
544
54
Southern California
pastrychef said:
1. If you find that you are lacking processing power, go for the CPU upgrade.

2. If you're a gamer or use apps that can benefit from Cuda, go with the GTX 680. The performance difference between the GTX 680 and GTX 770 are very narrow and, personally, I would go with a GTX 680 rather than a GTX 770 because GTX 680s can be found with two 6-pin power connectors and I'm just more comfortable with that.

A GTX 780 would represent a larger jump in performance over a GTX 770 but also costs considerably more and, again, the 8-pin power connector makes me uncomfortable.

3. Faster/more storage is always desirable.
Click to expand...

Hey Pastrychef, how is GTX9 series instead of 7? I know 7 and 8 used considerably more power but I heard 9 series just goes with 6 pin connector. Other than having no boot screen, is 970 better than 680? I think 980 is a bit expensive for me so.. (You can look at my spec just below this sentence in my signature).
 
pastrychef

pastrychef

macrumors 601
Sep 15, 2006
4,753
1,450
New York City, NY
LEOMODE said:
Hey Pastrychef, how is GTX9 series instead of 7? I know 7 and 8 used considerably more power but I heard 9 series just goes with 6 pin connector. Other than having no boot screen, is 970 better than 680? I think 980 is a bit expensive for me so.. (You can look at my spec just below this sentence in my signature).
Click to expand...

My GTX 980 has been working great. It runs cool and quiet. I think the GTX 970 is also a fine video card and is just a tad slower than the GTX 980. Many people consider it gives more "bang for the buck".

The following two links will give you an idea of how the GTX 980 stacks up against other Mac compatible video cards:

http://barefeats.com/gtx980b.html

http://barefeats.com/gtx980.html
 
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