2007 Mac Pro advice

[Pieter Claessen]

Hi there,

I'm currently on a MBP 2011 with 128 ssd and 8gb of ram. I'm editing 4K footage of my Lumix GH4. On the Macbook it's not going so fast and I can't use Da Vinci Resolve for color grading.
So I've found a second hand Mac Pro from 2007 with these specs:

Mac Pro 2,1 Quadcore Intel Xeon 2 x 3 Ghz
12 GB Ram 667Mhz DDR-2,
ATI Radeon HD 5770 1024 MB Videocard
256 GB Solid State Drive (system)
3 x 1TB HD. (storage)
Optical Drive.

The price is € 875 ($ 1.075).

My question is, is this worth buying?
Will this Mac Pro handel the 4K better than my MBP?
Currently it has Snow Leopard on it, but I'm looking to get Mavericks on it so I can use Final Cut Pro X.

Thanks in advance!

 

[GameFreak348]

Its way too overpriced, Mac Pro 4.1 sell for that price

 

[NOTNlCE]

Its way too overpriced, Mac Pro 4.1 sell for that price

+1

That price is insane. You're better off getting a Dual Processor 4,1 or 5,1 Mac Pro if you're doing serious 4K work.

 

[apphotography]

Prices for used Mac Pros are higher in Europe. The price he has quoted is pretty much standard with those upgrades.

You should pay a little more money and buy a dual processor 4,1. This has a better upgrade path later on.

 

[Synchro3]

I guess a single Hex-Core would fit also if you install a good graphics card. Buy a Mac Pro 4,1, upgrade it to firmware 5,1 and install a Hex-Core CPU (Intel Xeon W3690 or X5690). On Ebay are many Intel Xeon CPU's for sale.

For CUDA/Da Vinci Resolve you need a Nvidia card: http://www.evga.com/articles/00730/ or here: http://www.macvidcards.com/index.html

Don't buy the Mac Pro 2,1: Your Mac Book Pro 2011, if it has an i7 Quad Core, is faster than the Mac Pro 2,1.

For Comparison: http://www.mactracker.ca

 

[EdDuPlessis]

I guess a single Hex-Core would fit also. Buy a Mac Pro 4,1, upgrade it to firmware 5,1 and install a Hex-Core CPU (Intel Xeon W3690 or X5690). On Ebay are many Intel Xeon CPU's for sale.


For Comparison: http://www.mactracker.ca

X5680 is the best value CPU right now. You can get a pair for about the same price as a single X5690. Sellers are keeping the price of the latter artificially high because they know there is a demand for it,