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which is better buy of mac pros?

pat500000

pat500000

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Original poster
Jun 3, 2015
8,523
7,515
Mac Pro 6,1 price 3,500 usd

3.5ghz 6 core
32gb Ram
1TB SSD
D700 graphics card x2

mint condition

Applecare until 2017

or

Mac Pro 5.1 mid 2010 $900
3.5 terabyte of hard disk space with 480GB solid state drive as the primary system drive, 16GB of Ram, upgraded ATI Radeon HD 5870

I currently have 2009 mp quad. 2.66
 
Like really? 303 views and nobody in this forum have any idea? BTW..it was on craigslist...and
the apple care of 6,1 is good till 2017.
 
1) On MacRumors, questions like this one belong in PRSI. :)

2) Unless you can really take advantage of and/or need the dual D700s, the 2010 Mac Pro looks fairly attractive from a price/performance standpoint.

There are other considerations: do you want Thunderbolt? HDMI? USB3?
Do you want to be able to muck with the innards?
Do you want Apple support or are you going to do it yourself?

Only you can make those decisions.

A.
 
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Alrescha said:
1) On MacRumors, questions like this one belong in PRSI.

2) Unless you can really take advantage of and/or need the dual D700s, the 2010 Mac Pro looks fairly attractive from a price/performance standpoint.

There are other considerations: do you want Thunderbolt? HDMI? USB3?
Do you want to be able to muck with the innards?
Do you want Apple support or are you going to do it yourself?

Only you can make those decisions.

A.
Click to expand...
what's prsi?
2) yeah...i need up to date techs...so thunderbolt suit me.
"muck with the innards?"
Both in regards to support and do it yourself.
 
Hirakata said:
Alrescha was making a joke. Asking if you should get a 5,1 or a 6,1 can start a holy war on Mac Rumors.

What's the CPU on the 5,1 you're looking at?
Click to expand...
OH..hahah okay. That made sense. 5,1 happens to be 3.33mhz
 
I am not quite understand why you want these 2 machines. But anyway, There are few reasons that I will go for the nMP

A) I need thunderbolt. (Your 4,1 can get the USB 3.0 by just $20, plenty of graphic card that works in the 4,1 has HDMI. So only thunderbolt matters)

B) I love the nMP's form factor. (It seems this is not the fact, otherwise, you won't consider the 5,1)

C) I need a higher CPU single thread performance Mac. (Unless iMac does not fit your other needs, the iMac obviously do better in this area).

D) I need Apple care

For the 5,1

1) I want to upgrade to dual XEON, and I don't want to deal with de-lidded CPU. (This is the only reason I will go for the 5,1).

In fact, since you already own a 4,1. It will make much more sense to just flash your 4,1 to 5,1. Install a W3680, and whatever the GPU you want (my dual 7950's performance is very close to the dual D700, except I only have 3G VRAM per card. However, I can use both card for display, unlike the the nMP only one card to drive all 6 ports. Therefore, I have 6G VRAM for display, same as the D700).

$500 should be more than enough to get a W3680 + 2x 7950. Another $300 to get a 1T 850 Evo, plug that into the lower optical bay. It's will cost you less than $900, but you will get a much better machine than that 5,1.
 
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h9826790's advice is spot on as far as I'm concerned. Flash your 4,1 to 5,1 and upgrade the CPU and graphics card. You can add USB 3.0 with a PCI card and add a SSD for speed (connected to a PCI card for full speed). You'll save a bunch of money and have something comparable to the 6,1.
 
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h9826790 said:
I am not quite understand why you want these 2 machines. But anyway, There are few reasons that I will go for the nMP

A) I need thunderbolt. (Your 4,1 can get the USB 3.0 by just $20, plenty of graphic card that works in the 4,1 has HDMI. So only thunderbolt matters)

B) I love the nMP's form factor. (It seems this is not the fact, otherwise, you won't consider the 5,1)

C) I need a higher CPU single thread performance Mac. (Unless iMac does not fit your other needs, the iMac obviously do better in this area).

D) I need Apple care

For the 5,1

1) I want to upgrade to dual XEON, and I don't want to deal with de-lidded CPU. (This is the only reason I will go for the 5,1).

In fact, since you already own a 4,1. It will make much more sense to just flash your 4,1 to 5,1. Install a W3680, and whatever the GPU you want (my dual 7950's performance is very close to the dual D700, except I only have 3G VRAM per card. However, I can use both card for display, unlike the the nMP only one card to drive all 6 ports. Therefore, I have 6G VRAM for display, same as the D700).

$500 should be more than enough to get a W3680 + 2x 7950. Another $300 to get a 1T 850 Evo, plug that into the lower optical bay. It's will cost you less than $900, but you will get a much better machine than that 5,1.
Click to expand...
To be honest: you are spot on.
1) yes, form is not a factor.
2) the problem with me is...I'm not a guy who does tech stuff...like upgrading processors and external stuff. The only thing I could is install basic things like ssd and memory. I know there are instructions but I don't trust myself doing little more advance stuff.
3) I need video editing components...I'm open to any nls app.
Basically My limitation is what's making me look for alternative route.
[doublepost=1456211126][/doublepost]
Hirakata said:
h9826790's advice is spot on as far as I'm concerned. Flash your 4,1 to 5,1 and upgrade the CPU and graphics card. You can add USB 3.0 with a PCI card and add a SSD for speed (connected to a PCI card for full speed). You'll save a bunch of money and have something comparable to the 6,1.
Click to expand...
I agree...but I'm limited due to inability to do things hands on...I can do simple memory upgrade or hard drive...but much more than that.
 
The CPU / GPU upgrade is very straight forward, study the technician guide, watch few videos on YouTube, and then you are good to go.

It was my 1st time to install CPU / GPU on my 4,1 as well. No problem at all. Not much harder than do the LEGO right.

Anyway, my suggestion is to keep learning, none of us know how to use the Mac when we were born, but we learnt, we growth up, so now we can use it. Same as the hardware upgrade, we learn, and then we can do it. There is no secret, and we need practice during learning. As long as we do the preparation properly, do the upgrade with your common sense, the risk of damaging anything is very low. The cMP is a well designed, easy to upgrade machine (except the dual processor 4,1).
 
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h9826790 said:
The CPU / GPU upgrade is very straight forward, study the technician guide, watch few videos on YouTube, and then you are good to go.

It was my 1st time to install CPU / GPU on my 4,1 as well. No problem at all. Not much harder than do the LEGO right.

Anyway, my suggestion is to keep learning, non of us know how to use the Mac when we were born, but we learnt, we growth up, so now we can use it. Same as the hardware upgrade, we learn, and then we can do it. There is no secret, and we need practice during learning. As long as we do the preparation properly, do the upgrade with your common sense, the risk of damaging anything is very low. The cMP is a well designed, easy to upgrade machine (except the dual processor 4,1).
Click to expand...
I'll reconsider the 2009 because you are right... It will save me money. Thank you. One thing Though..do people sell already customized/pre installed 4,1 to 5,1 chip on those motherboard like.
 
Yes, but usually overprice.

I can only recommend you to get those "pre upgraded machine" from trustable seller, which basically means… expensive.

eBay may have few cheap upgraded machine occasionally, but hard to tell if the machine really upgraded properly, especially if you are not familiar with the hardware. It may become a disaster for you if something goes wrong.
 
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pat500000 said:
Mac Pro 6,1 price 3,500 usd

3.5ghz 6 core
32gb Ram
1TB SSD
D700 graphics card x2

mint condition

Applecare until 2017

or

Mac Pro 5.1 mid 2010 $900
3.5 terabyte of hard disk space with 480GB solid state drive as the primary system drive, 16GB of Ram, upgraded ATI Radeon HD 5870

I currently have 2009 mp quad. 2.66
Click to expand...

I guess the bigger question is:

what will you be using a new machine for? If it's for regular computing, then the 2010 will be fine.
More intensive tasks? Well definitely the new one. Those D700s will be fantastic for graphics and video.

I have a 12 core 2010 and I also have a 12 core 2013 nMP (with D500s).

The newer one crushes the older one for tasks in Compressor and other intensive tasks.

I do LOVE the form factor. It's incredible what this thing can do considering it's a fraction of the size (yes, even adding a few peripherals to your desk area which are inside the 2010, still results in more desk space).

Have gotten used to needing peripherals although I only use a few.

Love the fact the new one consumes less power and is incredibly quiet.

I've been using the older 1 less for my work jobs.

So again, it depends on what you'll be doing.

Also, look at the refurb section. I saved huge $$$ on my 2013 when I bought it.

Good luck!
Keebler
 
Keebler said:
I guess the bigger question is:

what will you be using a new machine for? If it's for regular computing, then the 2010 will be fine.
More intensive tasks? Well definitely the new one. Those D700s will be fantastic for graphics and video.

I have a 12 core 2010 and I also have a 12 core 2013 nMP (with D500s).

The newer one crushes the older one for tasks in Compressor and other intensive tasks.

I do LOVE the form factor. It's incredible what this thing can do considering it's a fraction of the size (yes, even adding a few peripherals to your desk area which are inside the 2010, still results in more desk space).

Have gotten used to needing peripherals although I only use a few.

Love the fact the new one consumes less power and is incredibly quiet.

I've been using the older 1 less for my work jobs.

So again, it depends on what you'll be doing.

Also, look at the refurb section. I saved huge $$$ on my 2013 when I bought it.

Good luck!
Keebler
Click to expand...
Mostly video editing. Although I like I fcpx... I was looking into avid or premiere pro.
[doublepost=1456242140][/doublepost]
h9826790 said:
Yes, but usually overprice.

I can only recommend you to get those "pre upgraded machine" from trustable seller, which basically means… expensive.

eBay may have few cheap upgraded machine occasionally, but hard to tell if the machine really upgraded properly, especially if you are not familiar with the hardware. It may become a disaster for you if something goes wrong.
Click to expand...
Thanks for warning and I should be careful.
 
pat500000 said:
Mostly video editing. Although I like I fcpx... I was looking into avid or premiere pro.
[doublepost=1456242140][/doublepost]
Thanks for warning and I should be careful.
Click to expand...

I would definitely go for the nMP then. More expensive, but well worth it.

Editing in FCX is smooth as butter, but as I mentioned - if you're outputting using Compressor or Adobe's product (forget the name), the ability to use multiple cores for output results in fantastic speeds.

Just to get you going :)

http://www.apple.com/shop/browse/home/specialdeals/mac/mac_pro

the latest refurbs...
 
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