2010 Mac Pro 5.1, is it still worth buying?

[pastrychef]

SATA 3 and USB 3 can easily be added through PCI cards. I am replying on my 2009 Mac Pro which has both.

At some point, I had both too. Towards the end, I had to remove the the SATA 3 card because I wanted to use an Apple SSUBX blade type SSD and was out of slots. Before selling off my 5,1, I had:

1. Graphics card
2. 10GbE
3. SSUBX adaptor
4. USB 3

 

[kensic]

Any SATA SSD can be used in cMP without any adaptor. Just plug that into one of the SATA port and then you are good to go.

The easiest way is actually just plug that in the lower optical bay.

And yes, the Max sequtntial speed will be limited to around 250MB/s. However, for most real world ops. We need a SSD because it's low latnecy, which will not be affected by SATA 2 connection. High sequential is just a number. It won't make your Mac boot faster, won't make your Mac significantly most responsive, and usually only make the apps loading tiny bit faster.

I have a Tempo SSD card, which is effectively a PCIe SATA 3 adaptor. I used that for a period, and can't feel any difference in real world.

Of course, SATA 3 sure is better than SATA 2, but that's only if you really can benefit from it (e.g. You often copy large files). If you want to pay for it, do it! It's nothin wrong to do that.

However, that's not the only way to connect a SSD in cMP.

IMO, if you focus on high sequential speed, you should buy a PCIe SSD, so that you pay for the SSD, but but not the adaptor. For SATA 3 connection, you pay a lot on the adaptor, but can't even reach 50% of a PCIe SSD's Max sequtntial speed.

Just a friendly reminder, you should go for the SM951 if you want a fast SSD, but not the OWC SSD.

thanks for the explanation, yea i don't want to spend anymore money. so ill just install my extra ssd in the optical bay slot, and use it as 3gb/s. like you said in real life performance, i probably want see a different between 3 or 6 (and i don't really transfer big files anyway)

looked up a sm951, and it seems expensive. my extra ssd is a crucial m4. and use it as a boot drive and what software i use. all other data (music, pictures, movies) can go to the spinning drive.

 

[buster84]

thanks for the explanation, yea i don't want to spend anymore money. so ill just install my extra ssd in the optical bay slot, and use it as 3gb/s. like you said in real life performance, i probably want see a different between 3 or 6 (and i don't really transfer big files anyway)

looked up a sm951, and it seems expensive. my extra ssd is a crucial m4. and use it as a boot drive and what software i use. all other data (music, pictures, movies) can go to the spinning drive.

It's expensive because it delivers 4x the speed of Normal SSD. This is why Apple ssds are expensive as well since there all X4.

 

[kensic]

It's expensive because it delivers 4x the speed of Normal SSD. This is why Apple ssds are expensive as well since there all X4.

ahhh i see, learning new things everyday.

so if i were to use the SM951 drives, i need to buy the PCI-e adapter correct?

any reliable adapter brands i should look at?

would this be a good buy?
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Samsung-SM9...040761?hash=item1c6d40b239:g:IRQAAOSw9NdXtxOD

 

[buster84]

ahhh i see, learning new things everyday.

so if i were to use the SM951 drives, i need to buy the PCI-e adapter correct?

any reliable adapter brands i should look at?

Ahh. Yea a lot of people are still learning that there are sdd's that can deliver that much speed. The sm951 can read/write a little less than 1500mbps on the Mac Pro with this adapter. The limiting factor is the pci slots speed.

This is a good thread about all the faster SSD's

This is the Lycom DT-120 M.2 PCIe to PCIe 3.0 x4 Adapter

I also have the same drive in my new laptop and as you can see the drive reads much higher but that's about it, your not loosing that much performance on the Mac Pro and in real world normal computing you probably wouldn't even notice the difference when accessing files.

 

[carpsafari]

x

 

[AlexMaximus]

short back story - i got into photography about 1 year ago, and have been casually editing photos (2ish photos a week) on my macbook pro 2012 (i7 quad core) on Aperture. so i feel like im ready to move my work to a desktop.

so is buying a used 2010 macpro 5.1 (6 cores) still worth it? is it still future proof? ill be using this with my dell 27" 2560x1440 resolution screen and i can always update gfx card (currently have a spare gtx 660)

local craiglist ads are selling these 2010 macpro 5.1 6 cores for 750-900$

thanks for you inputs.

I tell you, how I see the MP 5,1 from Apple - especially the latest 2012 Model:

The 5,1 is the "historic remnant" of an old consciousness from a time, where the leading imperative for product development was this :

"Build the technological most reliable pro machine (the 5,1) that you can think of" while having a great timeless peace of engineering art with full upgradability to remain in the Market/Customer field as long as possible".

But unfortunately this imperative changed because of money & politics. (Steve died)- All of a sudden, it wasn't about longevity and upgradability any more. - Apple became greedy. Now its about to control you, by making not only your product live cycle short, they take away your freedom.. by taking away your ability to upgrade. - And the new black trash can design Mac Pro 2013 proves that. - You are locked in.. or locked out. You can't put a graphic card in there!
This about "halves" the usable live cycle of your product, compared to a PC. All bad for the end user, but good for Apple.
They want you to buy more often. They don't want you to upgrade. It about the numbers, folks. This company is now run by an accountant, not a designer or a visionary. Times change, gentlemen.
And since the NUMBERS run the company and the annual revenue of shareholder reporting extravaganzas prove their Methods (because numbers are good) - they will not deviate from their path they are riding on.

This means for us, that we get less valuable products. Product that are shorter lived. We loose the ability to upgrade, and get in the tight corner of controlled firmware release cycles that match the number goals (as short as possible). Does this befit the customer? And so came along 2013.

In my case, I did choose the sunny side. I did not buy an iMac. I needed an open system where I could run some old console systems from back in the day on my screen. I also wanted a true multi boot system with a powerful GPU. CAD Systems doesn't run on Mac, no Catia and such. I wanted a system with future upgrade possibilities. I am really glad for that decision, because I did recently buy the VR Headset Vive from HTC. Thanks to those fine fine fine fine and brilliant folks from Macrumors, (especially Macvidcards), - "we as geek 5,1 owners" have modified GPU cards available that have been flashed to Apple specifications. How cool is that?

So, to answer your question: When you buy a 5,1 it is like buying an old exotic sports car, a real classic. Lets put a Porsch 911 in your mind. Black wich chrome, Fuchs rims and the old school spoiler .. 1988 or something...
Its not the fastest one, but its great for multiuser and geeks, people that like industrial engineering and timeless design.

 

[Philocetes]

I have been building/modding/upgrading pcs since the intel 286 came out. I don't think I have ever had one fail before I simply upgraded away to a new technology and scrapped it. Nonetheless, when I upgraded the CPU in my 2010 cmp, I was very impressed with the engineering detail compared to the PCs I typically assemble. Admittedly, I never spent a lot on pc cases, so it was simply stamped metal to mount stuff in.

I have seen cmp levels of engineering in windows type server technology but not at the retail product level. I worked the numbers, and after the cpu upgrade, my cmp was a lot closer in benchmark score to the i7-6700k than I would have guessed--so I scrapped my hack plans. I decided to stick with the xeon server grade cpu, the ecc ram, and the convenient hard disk bays (thought they do need adapters for ssd). Gonna ride my cmps until they die, then either hack it or move to windows/linux. Probably more than a lot of people, the over-engineered elegance is something I really like.
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...But nothing compares to the quiet, effortless performance of my cPro running one or more VMs with large compiles, video compression, etc., while keeping the tunes humming and mail going...

What software are you using to make it a vm host? I am pretty sure vmware free version will install on a mac pro. I have a 2009 upgraded to 12 cores and I have 64 gig of ram in the mail. I am planning on selling it, but it does strike me that this sort of machine is a pretty good way to host vms for a home lab.

 

[ITguy2016]

What software are you using to make it a vm host? I am pretty sure vmware free version will install on a mac pro. I have a 2009 upgraded to 12 cores and I have 64 gig of ram in the mail. I am planning on selling it, but it does strike me that this sort of machine is a pretty good way to host vms for a home lab.

I user VirtualBox to host VMs on my Mac Pro.

 

[ActionableMango]

when I upgraded the CPU in my 2010 cmp, I was very impressed with the engineering detail compared to the PCs I typically assemble. Admittedly, I never spent a lot on pc cases, so it was simply stamped metal to mount stuff in.

I agree.

I've been looking for PC cases like the cMP. The common PC cases are thin sheet metal with sharp edges, cables everywhere, dozens of little screws to hold everything down, and acres of plastic. The nicer ones tend to be oriented toward gamers, with rather garish styling and nonsense like windows so you can show off yer glowy cables and Christmas-tree-like LEDs on yer memory sticks.

I want a nice, large case built with premium materials like thick anodized aluminum, quiet, toolless, lots of capacity, no window, and subtle/elegant styling. There are a lot of cases that come close, but don't quite fit the bill.

 

[flowrider]

^^^^Totally agree. As I've said in the past, they'd have to pry my cMP 5,1 away from my cold dead hands.

Lou

 

[ActionableMango]

^^^^Totally agree. As I've said in the past, they'd have to pry my cMP 5,1 away from my cold dead hands.

Lou

I have dreams of finding a motherboard manufacturer small enough to be willing to do custom work, and have them make a run of Skylake PC motherboards to fit the Mac Pro case. There is more than enough real estate to work with and the power supply is certainly adequate.

On the backplane board the PCIe slots need to be in certain exact spots, the screw holes too, and the SATA connectors need to line up to the four bays. The logic board has to hold the CPU/memory and physically needs to mount the latches and pins which might need to be moved over from the Apple boards if they are custom parts.

Maybe need to do a Kickstarter to gauge interest and fund a run of 500 boards or whatever. Drop notices here and in hackintosh forums. Know of any small PC motherboard companies hungry for work and could provide a quote?

Although I see this as a Windows effort, it would be smart to pick USB/BT/Wifi/sound/etc chips that are known to be hackintosh friendly, in order to get additional communities interested.

When I see how many people are getting out hacksaws and dremels just to rig up an ITX PC motherboard in a G5 PowerPC case only to end up with a mess of cables and awkwardly fitting parts, it makes me wonder how many more would be interested if there was a really nice drop-in PC motherboard that was just as cableless and nice as Apple's.

Yes, I know. It's a pipe dream.

 

[pastrychef]

I agree.

I've been looking for PC cases like the cMP. The common PC cases are thin sheet metal with sharp edges, cables everywhere, dozens of little screws to hold everything down, and acres of plastic. The nicer ones tend to be oriented toward gamers, with rather garish styling and nonsense like windows so you can show off yer glowy cables and Christmas-tree-like LEDs on yer memory sticks.

I want a nice, large case built with premium materials like thick anodized aluminum, quiet, toolless, lots of capacity, no window, and subtle/elegant styling. There are a lot of cases that come close, but don't quite fit the bill.

I spent a lot of time searching for a quality PC case and never found anything close to the Mac Pro case. You are 100% correct when you say "thin sheet metal" and "dozens of little screws to hold everything down". At the end of the day, I settled for something that at least resembled the Mac Pros' cooling and designed for power supply to be on the top.

 

[Coolkidsforlife]

I spent a lot of time searching for a quality PC case and never found anything close to the Mac Pro case. You are 100% correct when you say "thin sheet metal" and "dozens of little screws to hold everything down". At the end of the day, I settled for something that at least resembled the Mac Pros' cooling and designed for power supply to be on the top.

Just traded my MacBook Pro 2011 i5 for a 2009 Mac Pro 2 x 2.66ghz dual core xenon. Think it was worth it? I used to fool around with a few G5's and loved the look of them and I couldn't turn down the trade for this one. Flash firmware to 5,1 so I am running sierra. About to upgrade to two 6 core 2.93ghz xenons.. think it's worth the $120? Plus whatever it's gonna cost for the odd screwdriver lol. And are there any upgrades you guys think I should for sure do to extend the life of this thing that won't cost me $200+?
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Just traded my MacBook Pro 2011 i5 for a 2009 Mac Pro 2 x 2.66ghz dual core xenon. Think it was worth it? I used to fool around with a few G5's and loved the look of them and I couldn't turn down the trade for this one. Flash firmware to 5,1 so I am running sierra. About to upgrade to two 6 core 2.93ghz xenons.. think it's worth the $120? Plus whatever it's gonna cost for the odd screwdriver lol. And are there any upgrades you guys think I should for sure do to extend the life of this thing that won't cost me $200+?

Ignore the name, I made this account in 2013 lol. Anyone know if I can change it?

 

[howiest]

And are there any upgrades you guys think I should for sure do to extend the life of this thing that won't cost me $200+?

An SSD boot drive makes all the difference in the world.

 

[Coolkidsforlife]

An SSD boot drive makes all the difference in the world.

Definitely, I'm sending my Evo 850 in to Samsung for repair then tossing it in there... should I get the pcie slot adapter for it so I can get sata 3 or?

 

[flowrider]

^^^^Yes, IMO the Apricorn Solo x2 or Duo x2 are the best of the breed. And their customer service is tops.

[doublepost=1486226733][/doublepost]

Ignore the name, I made this account in 2013 lol. Anyone know if I can change it?

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/changing-username.1376816/

Lou

 

[jakdaniel1975]

I can't tell anything about photos, but for videos especially 4K macbookpro 2015 is much much much faster to render from After Effects than MacPro 5,1 12 core beast. And i'm very sceptical about old MacPro after that experience.

http://barefeats.com/needmp.html : D: D

SATA 2 when 3 is the norm now

http://barefeats.com/hard200.html

USB 2 when 3 is the norm now and 3.1 is appearing in more and more computers

http://www.macworld.com/article/116...3-0-to-a-mac-pro-with-highpoints-rocketu.html

 

[steveOooo]

It edits 4K and renders quick for me and I am personally looking for a second 2010 for a second office.

Not sure what will happen when I need to upgrade - probably a iMac with a wd thunderbolt raid

 

[Zobrien]

It edits 4K and renders quick for me and I am personally looking for a second 2010 for a second office.

Not sure what will happen when I need to upgrade - probably a iMac with a wd thunderbolt raid

Love mine already abd haven't even used it but a few times and can anyone explain to me how to make a thread on the forums? I can't find it for my life

 

[Richielg]

Im in the early stages of testing a high spec 2010 5.1 mac pro and so far i'm extremely impressed. So its a 12 core 3.46 gb and 128gb ram model and 3gb radeon graphics and quite a small 500gb solid state drive that I bought for £2495. Im sure I could have got a better price on it but the fact is my top spec late 2013 mac book pro doesnt cut it and I just spent two months trying to resurrect my old windows pc for additional power and failed so I just need something with raw power and I need it to work. I use this for music production and with initial tests it seems to handle about 4 times as much as the mac book pro while remaining stable. Navigation is a tiny bit sluggish but its nominal. Boot time is slightly longer but again this is nominal. So I paid roughly the same price for the mac book pro brand new 3 or so years ago and and the 2010 model can handle about 4x the audio DSP which is great coz I love to use lots of software synthesisers and initially it looks like im going to be able to do a hell of a lot more of that without the hassle of it slowing down and becoming unstable. As for the heat I havent noticed it and I dont give a **** about the electricity consumption. Im happy being in a boiling hot studio with a high electricity bill so long as I have a beast of a system that lets me work in the way that I want. I think the equivalent brand new mac pro would probably set me back around 6k so all in all im very pleased. As for Hackintoshes I am very curious however I just need reliability and power. Too much stress working on an unstable system. work is complicated enough as it is.

 

[AidenShaw]

Im in the early stages of testing a high spec 2010 5.1 mac pro and so far i'm extremely impressed. So its a 12 core 3.46 gb and 128gb ram model and 3gb radeon graphics and quite a small 500gb solid state drive that I bought for £2495.

That's a pretty steep price for a 500GB SSD.

 

[Zobrien]

Im in the early stages of testing a high spec 2010 5.1 mac pro and so far i'm extremely impressed. So its a 12 core 3.46 gb and 128gb ram model and 3gb radeon graphics and quite a small 500gb solid state drive that I bought for £2495. Im sure I could have got a better price on it but the fact is my top spec late 2013 mac book pro doesnt cut it and I just spent two months trying to resurrect my old windows pc for additional power and failed so I just need something with raw power and I need it to work. I use this for music production and with initial tests it seems to handle about 4 times as much as the mac book pro while remaining stable. Navigation is a tiny bit sluggish but its nominal. Boot time is slightly longer but again this is nominal. So I paid roughly the same price for the mac book pro brand new 3 or so years ago and and the 2010 model can handle about 4x the audio DSP which is great coz I love to use lots of software synthesisers and initially it looks like im going to be able to do a hell of a lot more of that without the hassle of it slowing down and becoming unstable. As for the heat I havent noticed it and I dont give a **** about the electricity consumption. Im happy being in a boiling hot studio with a high electricity bill so long as I have a beast of a system that lets me work in the way that I want. I think the equivalent brand new mac pro would probably set me back around 6k so all in all im very pleased. As for Hackintoshes I am very curious however I just need reliability and power. Too much stress working on an unstable system. work is complicated enough as it is.

Funny thing is people on these forums will still try to tell you that a newer Macbook will outperform a 5,1 Mac Pro. I knew I was right in my thinking that an old Mac Pro is superior in power. Glad I have one myself

 

[Richielg]

Yes 2.5k was a bit steep for a 500 gb SSD lol. I can say for audio I think the spec of the mac book pros is falling behind the software development at the moment. In the sense that I had a 2009 dell studio dual core bought for 600 quid that I used to push really hard with a bunch vsts and I have never been able to push the mac book pro as hard with all of the latest vsts which use more demanding dsp algorithms. So the software is leaping ahead and the mac book pro spec is only improving in very small amounts. The 5.1 is going good but I have some compatability issues with legacy instruments and effects. I know windows is much better for supporting these but on mac every year more of them seem to die and become incompatible. I can not find any information online about how windows 10 runs on any mac pro when you push it really hard. Specifically does anyone have experience running windows 10 on mac pro 5.1 doing very intensive tasks when compared to say osx sierra? I dont have enough hard disk space to use both in tandem I pretty much have to commit to one or the other at the moment really coz my sample library is too large and I cant afford more hard drive space right now. Does windows 10 utilise multithreading on the mac pro as effectively as OSX? And does anyone have any experience using the different OS for audio? All anyone seems to be interested in comparing is Siri vs Cortana and I really dont give a **** about talking to my computer I just wanna work on it lol.

 

[Jayson A]

I just got myself a 3.2Ghz 5,1 (mid 2012 model). It's great!