Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

2009 Upgrade Awesomeness Attained! Thanks everyone.

E

echoout

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Aug 15, 2007
600
16
Austin, Texas
Just wanted to thank everyone for the amazing amount of information provided here. After a 12 year motion graphics career using Macs I bought a decked out z820 several months back, and while I love it for rendering, Windows 7 is better than ever but still painful.

My students being freaked by nMP prices got my gears turning and I decided to go for a 2009 MP upgrade project. Dr. Stealth's rig was just so inspirational to me.

So, looked for a few days, found an externally rough dual 2.26 down in San Antonio that was bone stock. The inside was like Indy opening the Lost Ark; dusty, but clearly untouched (my face didn't melt). I had some parts sitting around from different projects including an SSD and a GTX 680, got some Crucial RAM off Amazon and a couple X5680s off eBay and turned this thing into a beast. SOOOOO pleased.

It's not quite as fast as my z820 but it's a Mac and it's so much more design friendly. If the GeekBench and CineBench scores are any indicator, I'm in great shape.

Thanks Dr. Stealth, MacVidCards, pastrychef, Thomas Pindelski, OrangeSVTguy and everyone for being so generous with all of your knowledge!
 
Last edited:
Thanks for posting a thanks - I guess all of us here use the info and not many of us realise how valuable it is and how much time some people spend helping out.

Not that I helped in your case but I would also like to say thanks to all the posters out there who have helped me

Cheers
 
Excellent news - it's always nice to hear back :)

I am sure you will enjoy the new 'beast' you have unleashed (and yes workstations can be more powerful, but always lack that Apple touch in my opinion).
 
Hi Echoout. Congrats on your new machine. I am sure you'll enjoy using it for many years.
 
I have owned probably 5 Mac Pros and work in a lab full of 2009 8-cores, but jeez mine is so much faster now. Thinking this will be my primary After Effects machine. After Effects is just so much more pleasant on the Mac side.
 
echoout said:
Dr. Stealth's rig was just so inspirational to me. Thanks Dr. Stealth, MacVidCards, pastrychef, Thomas Pindelski, OrangeSVTguy and everyone for being so generous with all of your knowledge!
Click to expand...

Awesome ! I'm on my machine more hours a day than I would like to admit. I do believe I'm good for the next 4 to 5 years. It's a strong, dependable workhorse that I consider my silent business partner...

Dr. Stealth
 
In a very confusing turn of events, I ended up moving my Titan from my z820 into this rig and ohmahgah. So awesome. Think I got almost all of the kinks worked out. Excited to try it out on my next freelance job.

I teach motion graphics at a college here in Austin and now am on the prowl for 2009s to do this for my students heading out into the workforce.
 
Landed the most high profile freelance gig I've ever had and it's so nice doing the design work on my MP and then network rendering it with my HP. 2 workhorses churning out some beautiful renders. Glad I didn't wait!
 
echoout said:
In a very confusing turn of events, I ended up moving my Titan from my z820 into this rig and ohmahgah. So awesome. Think I got almost all of the kinks worked out. Excited to try it out on my next freelance job.

I teach motion graphics at a college here in Austin and now am on the prowl for 2009s to do this for my students heading out into the workforce.
Click to expand...

Ok, you need to be careful.
Others can explain in greater detail (and some will dispute), but the GTX Titan draws more power than the Mac Pro is rated for.

Basically, the PCI-E slot is rated for 75W maximum.
The 6 pin power cables connect to the mother board, not directly to the power supply.
Here's the kick: the traces in the motherboard are rated for 75W each.
So 75W PCI-E slot + (2 * 75W power cable) = 225W max power draw for a graphics card.

Any card with a high power draw than that *cough* TITAN *cough* and you risk damaging the motherboard.

Some people have run a Titan anyway and report no problem.
Some people have put in more powerful cards and fried their Mac Pro.

The safe way to run that card is to buy an additional power supply just for the graphics card. Some are external (ugly and bulky) and some are internal (requires some minor mods to the case to run wires).

There are several posts that talk about the different ways to do this safely.

Good luck, and I'm extremely jealous of your rig (I have a stock 2009 2 CPU + Ram)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back