older pre cylender mac pro worth getting what should I start with

[Sossity]

i am looking for a mac desktop that is durable has good heat management and is upgradeable, and not super expensive. I thought about imacs, but I want something that I can easily get into to replace parts.

I looked at mac minis too, but they seem to overheat and not last that long.

the current mac pro is out of the question and too expensive for me, so this leaves me with pre 2013 mac pros.

I would use it for internet, virtual machines, photoshop cs6, a little hd and maybe 4k video editing, and some audio encoding, ripping cds and dvds.

I am on a tight budget, cant really go over $500.00, less would be better, and I can gradually upgrade and get components for it.

my main concern for this is noise and power consmption, I have read that these really bring up electric bills, and I cannot do this, if they do bring it way up, this could be a deal breaker for this, but they do look durable and powrful.

anybody with one of these manage to keep thier bills down?

 

[Zlobnick]

Try to find a base 4,1 quad core model, that one you can gradually upgrade to 5,1, 12-core, 128 GB RAM and Titan cards

 

[DPUser]

Yes, 4,1 quad should be in your price range. Last time I looked, Macofalltrades.com had 'em at $499, and better deals can be found on Ebay or, if you're lucky, Craigslist.

 

[Sossity]

thanks, can this one support newer oses? if I get one, would I be able to install maveriks or higher?

how about power consuption, anybody with one have a problem with this? are there ways around this?

where this will be, it will be in a room that gets hot in the summer, with no ac, but just fans.

 

[h9826790]

Try to find a base 4,1 quad core model, that one you can gradually upgrade to 5,1, 12-core, 128 GB RAM and Titan cards

IMO, not a good plan. From single CPU to dual CPU, you need a new CPU tray. Which is extremely hard to get a cheap one (compare to get a whole used dual processor 4,1). If you want to go 12 cores, try to get the cheapest 5,1 is a far better choice. It's not that easy to upgrade a dual processor 4,1's CPU, and if you go for the de-lid route, that will have extra cost.