2008 Mac pro - upgrades? worth it?

[Brizzleboy]

Hello -

I'm looking to upgrade my Mac Pro (Early 2008) see specs below:

Processor - 2 x 2.8 GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon

Memory - 2 GB 800 MHz DDR2 FB-DIMM

Graphics - ATI Radeon HD 2600 XT 256 MB

is it even possible? Would it be worth it?

I use a lot of stuff on my current Mabook 15inch 1tb but want to move over to my desktop for editing videos, producing music, graphics design.

You'll have to forgive my 'noobyness' with this all, very new to the upgrade world...(sigh)

 

[iluvmacs99]

Hello -

I'm looking to upgrade my Mac Pro (Early 2008) see specs below:

Processor - 2 x 2.8 GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon

Memory - 2 GB 800 MHz DDR2 FB-DIMM

Graphics - ATI Radeon HD 2600 XT 256 MB

is it even possible? Would it be worth it?

I use a lot of stuff on my current Mabook 15inch 1tb but want to move over to my desktop for editing videos, producing music, graphics design.

You'll have to forgive my 'noobyness' with this all, very new to the upgrade world...(sigh)

Yes you can, up to Mojave with the old Mac Pro 3,1 which is what you have. So it depends on what is your definition of worth. If you can get all the components necessary to get you up running Mojave with lots of RAM and a GTX770 card cheap, RAID your SSDs and HDs and you're sure your Mac Pro 3,1 can survive for a few more years of service, then I think it is worth it. I have included a video of a lady that actually upgraded her Mac Pro 2008 to run Mojave and do final cut editing.

Or you can get a Mac Mini Core i5 to do light video editing, music production and graphics design. With an added eGPU like the Sonnet Breakaway Puck, you will have a more modern system albeit will cost much than an upgraded Mac Pro 2008, but is more future proof. Anyhow, enjoy the attached video so you can decide whether it is worth your time to upgrade or not.

And this is part 1 of her journey with her Mac Pro 2008 upgrade

 

[Brizzleboy]

Yes you can, up to Mojave with the old Mac Pro 3,1 which is what you have. So it depends on what is your definition of worth. If you can get all the components necessary to get you up running Mojave with lots of RAM and a GTX770 card cheap, RAID your SSDs and HDs and you're sure your Mac Pro 3,1 can survive for a few more years of service, then I think it is worth it. I have included a video of a lady that actually upgraded her Mac Pro 2008 to run Mojave and do final cut editing.

Or you can get a Mac Mini Core i5 to do light video editing, music production and graphics design. With an added eGPU like the Sonnet Breakaway Puck, you will have a more modern system albeit will cost much than an upgraded Mac Pro 2008, but is more future proof. Anyhow, enjoy the attached video so you can decide whether it is worth your time to upgrade or not.

And this is part 1 of her journey with her Mac Pro 2008 upgrade

VERY HELPFUL!!

I will watch the videos and have a gander..

where would one purchase these things?

 

[iluvmacs99]

VERY HELPFUL!!

I will watch the videos and have a gander..

where would one purchase these things?

Can be your local computer store ,craigslist, ebay, Amazon etc. Good luck!

 

[satcomer]

Some of the Sonnet Tech PCIe cards that works in your 2008 Mac Pro!

Sonnet Technology also has YouTube channel that always shows the computers at the end it is for!

Sonnet Technologies

Sonnet Technologies, Inc. is a leading provider of Thunderbolt™ to PCIe® card expansion systems; eGPU boxes; pro media readers; RAID storage systems; and sto...

www.youtube.com

You can even get their Solo 10G PCIe card in your Mac!

 

[rfarnold47]

Hello -

I'm looking to upgrade my Mac Pro (Early 2008) see specs below:

Processor - 2 x 2.8 GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon

Memory - 2 GB 800 MHz DDR2 FB-DIMM

Graphics - ATI Radeon HD 2600 XT 256 MB

is it even possible? Would it be worth it?

I use a lot of stuff on my current Mabook 15inch 1tb but want to move over to my desktop for editing videos, producing music, graphics design.

You'll have to forgive my 'noobyness' with this all, very new to the upgrade world...(sigh)

probably out of date here but I am also trying to squeeze more life out of my 2008 Mac Pro and I have run into a bottleneck. I have used the DosDude patch to install Mojave, and I have upgraded my video card for metal. The problem is the Pcie slots on this machine. It seems that I can either have some fast internal storage or external storage but not both. There really is only one useable pcie-slot, the 16x pcie 2,0 slot. The other two slots are pcie 1.0. So I can have an OWC SSD card (or even an NMVe adapter) in the 2.0 slot, or a USB 3.1 adapter for external storage. But I can't have both. Looks like the 2009 4,1 is a big jump simply because all 4 pcie slots are 2.0, permitting both good internal and external connectivity.

 

[satcomer]

Plus I want to save you so wipe headache I had with my 2098 Mac Pro Dual during a lighting struck on a pole down the street! My power immediately would boot once the power came back on! In desperation I took out the display port cable from the Pro and it bottled right up! I then did a NVRAM reset and reconnect the Display cord and the monitor worked too!

So if you connect to display port/Thunderbolt port and power out page cause it not to boot, disconnect all connections, boot up, do NRAM Reset and reconnect all the disconnect cables again and it should be good!

 

[wardie]

probably out of date here but I am also trying to squeeze more life out of my 2008 Mac Pro and I have run into a bottleneck. I have used the DosDude patch to install Mojave, and I have upgraded my video card for metal. The problem is the Pcie slots on this machine. It seems that I can either have some fast internal storage or external storage but not both. There really is only one useable pcie-slot, the 16x pcie 2,0 slot. The other two slots are pcie 1.0. So I can have an OWC SSD card (or even an NMVe adapter) in the 2.0 slot, or a USB 3.1 adapter for external storage. But I can't have both. Looks like the 2009 4,1 is a big jump simply because all 4 pcie slots are 2.0, permitting both good internal and external connectivity.

There’s sockets on the motherboard for eSATA if that helps, I’ve got a 3.1 quite pimped up, until I got my 2017 iMac and stopped bothering. Didn’t try Mojave.