Are you still happy with your 5.1?

[D1G1TAL]

Hey Guys
Been a while since I've posted, been a long time fan of Apple's design ever since the G5 and Mac Pro.

As you know tech changes and I went with the Mac Mini and been upgrading ever since, even owned a couple iMacs but wasn't happy with being locked out so much (upgrade wise).

Got the latest Mac Mini and as usual Apple seem to be going backwards, so I started thinking about going to the dark side and building a PC but man it's been an ugly mission finding quality with my OCD, so I started missing my old Mac Pro and managed to find a couple reasonable Mac Pro systems on eBay, but sadly the cases are pretty battered so my OCD is through the roof on that side.

I really have my heart set on a RTX 2060 for some windows gaming and I'll have the option to go in and out of MacOS if I really need to, but what I really liked about the Mac Pro was the board design and that casing is just hard to beat.

I wanted to know if you guys plan on using the Mac Pro 5.1 for much longer, are you still happy?

Thinking if I can get at least just over a year of reasonable gaming until I can afford something that suits my style and maybe prices drop on a case I've seen https://thor-zone.com/mini-itx/ (5 months until kickstarter).

Really can't make my mind up...

I wanted to know if you guys plan on using the Mac Pro 5.1 for much longer, are you still happy?

 

[crjackson2134]

I'm not a gamer so you can take this with a grain of salt, as I'm only a casual user these days (retired from everything but life and family).

I've built so many high-end pre-windows/windows boxes over they years it could make your head spin. My overall satisfaction has never been as high as with my Mac Pro 5,1.

Yes, there are aspects that are now considered technically challenged, but honestly it doesn't effect me much. You can upgrade this thing to the sky and back (sans CPU) and daily performance is (in the words of Nacho Libre') "Pretty Dang Nice".

I'm very happy with mine (I do dual boot windows, and game for testing). Currently I'm having a complication (NVMe boot annoyance) with a recent upgrade, but eventually I'll get it sussed out and remedied.

You can easily use this machine for several more years depending of course, on your exact requirements. It's plenty fast in most regards.

 

[BillyBobBongo]

I really have my heart set on a RTX 2060 for some windows gaming and I'll have the option to go in and out of MacOS if I really need to, but what I really liked about the Mac Pro was the board design and that casing is just hard to beat.

Yeah, I'd love to be able to drop in an RTX 2060 too. I use my Mac Pro in both macOS (for work) and in Windows (for gaming) and an RTX 2060 would really push that gaming to a new level. I keep hoping the NVIDIA and Apple well get their issues with one another sorted out, but I'm not holding my breath. Chances are we'll see those performance/power improvements when Navi gets released later this year, but it sucks to have to wait.

Really it's only the whole song and dance with graphics cards that irks me from time to time. For the rest I'm still more than happy using my Mac Pro.

 

[aaronhead14]

I'm happy with the design, but not with the outdated specs. It's still, to this day, the best designed Mac ever made.

 

[Zeke D]

I'm happy with my 2010. All Apple really has to do to keep us prosumers happy is refresh the 2012 with the latest tech (USB-c, PCIE3, SATAIII & updated nVidia drivers for the RTZX series) and most of us would be ecstatic. Back to the cMP, I still love it. even with outdated specs, it's still a very functional machine. I still keep my 2006 around just to run windows.

I don't think that you'll get hardware acceleration on the RTX2060/1660TI under OS X.

 

[flowrider]

BUT, Any Nvidia card MAY be a dead end as far as any MacOS after HS. Lot's of speculation, but no-one really knows what the heck is goin' on. Right now I'm stuck on HS with my GTX1080. And YES my cMP 5,1 aint goin' nowhere.

But, if you're only interested in Windoz why not a Windoz machine? And, no you won't have the option of going in and out of the MacOS with an RTX card, there are no drivers, at least not at this time.

Lou

 

[Macdctr]

I have updated my MacPro 5,1 so it has the updated 802.11ac wifi and bluetooth 4.0 card so I have continuity and handoff capability. Adding my RX580 and PCIe NVMe M.2 drive was icing on the cake so to speak. I'm running Mojave and couldn't be happier with my desktop. It does everything I need for a desktop and have no complaints.

 

[MisterAndrew]

I love my Mac Pro 5,1! It's fast enough for my needs with the specs I have listed in my signature. My only small complaints are that it takes an entire minute to boot up from the PCIe SSD (I'm not sure if anyone knows exactly why) and there's no boot screen with the new AMD card (which is mostly a cosmetic issue now), but other than that I love it. As others have said though don't set your heart on an Nvidia card (newer than Kepler) if you plan on using macOS. That's a dead end as far as anyone can tell. RX 580 and Vega cards are plenty fast for most needs. If you plan on using Windows or Linux exclusively then you can go for an Nvidia card, but then you'd be better off just building a new Windows/Linux PC.

 

[Macdctr]

I just picked up a 2012 MacPro 5,1 tonight for $150! I have a new project this weekend

 

[handheldgames]

Hey Guys
Been a while since I've posted, been a long time fan of Apple's design ever since the G5 and Mac Pro.

As you know tech changes and I went with the Mac Mini and been upgrading ever since, even owned a couple iMacs but wasn't happy with being locked out so much (upgrade wise).

Got the latest Mac Mini and as usual Apple seem to be going backwards, so I started thinking about going to the dark side and building a PC but man it's been an ugly mission finding quality with my OCD, so I started missing my old Mac Pro and managed to find a couple reasonable Mac Pro systems on eBay, but sadly the cases are pretty battered so my OCD is through the roof on that side.

I really have my heart set on a RTX 2060 for some windows gaming and I'll have the option to go in and out of MacOS if I really need to, but what I really liked about the Mac Pro was the board design and that casing is just hard to beat.

I wanted to know if you guys plan on using the Mac Pro 5.1 for much longer, are you still happy?

Thinking if I can get at least just over a year of reasonable gaming until I can afford something that suits my style and maybe prices drop on a case I've seen https://thor-zone.com/mini-itx/ (5 months until kickstarter).

Really can't make my mind up...

I wanted to know if you guys plan on using the Mac Pro 5.1 for much longer, are you still happy?

YES.

Since early 2009, I've been running the current generation of Mac Pro. Although it initially shipped with a 2.66 QuadCore CPU, and 6 gigs of ram, it was instantly upgraded with an i7-975 3.33Ghz cpu and 16Gigs of ram.

Upgrading to a PCIe SSD and 32GB of consumer desktop RAM, gave the system a boost, aligning performance with PCIe SSD performance found in 2012/2013 macbook pros. Upgrading to a i7-990X with 6 cores at 3.46Ghz gave the system another boost. Jumping 48GB of RAM added another boost in my workflow. In 2018.. 9 years after purchase, the cMP is still relevant. Which is CRAZY!! Sure, single core performance is slower than newer CPU's... In my case, why cares? I'm a software developer and the code still compiles more than fast enough..

But it just gets better. Before back Surgery in June 2018, I needed a project to keep me occupied and on a hunch, I picked up a Highpoint 7101A PCIe 3.0 SSD adapter that ended up unlocking 3000 MB/s PCIe SSD performance on a system that's 9 years old. Extending the life and performance of this machine for another year or so. Taking the system to the next level, I upgraded to a dual CPU tray and 96GB of RAM. In my workflow, I run without Virtual Memory and a 20 to 30 GB ram disk increasing performance yet again. I also use internal hard disks for mass storage and time machine and have never felt held back by SATA II speeds.

On the video card front, with Mojave going forward, Apple is in the AMD Camp. If your hopes are for a recent video card, the Radeon VII is competitive and should have working MACOS drivers in the near future. I gave up on Nvidia with the 970GTX that was never supported on developer betas.

 

[flowrider]

My only small complaints are that it takes an entire minute to boot up from the PCIe SSD (I'm not sure if anyone knows exactly why)

Actually, not quite true. Boot times are not extended with an AHCI or an SATA SSD in a PCIe slot, they are however extended with a NVMe SSD. And, like you said, I don't know why

Lou

 

[weckart]

I just picked up a 2012 MacPro 5,1 tonight for $150! I have a new project this weekend

Nice one. You can easily spend a lot more tarting it up, mind.

 

[Macdctr]

Nice one. You can easily spend a lot more tarting it up, mind.

Very true but if you already have the RAM, GPU, PCIe NVMe M.2 drive, USB 3.0 card and dual processor tray... there's not much else you need to "build up" the new MacPro

I just need to get this kit to retrofit 802.11ac and Bluetooth 4.0 into the new tower...

 

[MisterAndrew]

Actually, not quite true. Boot times are not extended with an AHCI or an SATA SSD in a PCIe slot, they are however extended with a NVMe SSD. And, like you said, I don't know whyView attachment 824103

Lou

My SSD is AHCI. Boot time is extended.
[doublepost=1551600145][/doublepost]I said I love mine, but if you asked me if I’d buy one right now I’d say no. With the new Mac Pro getting so close, it doesn’t really make sense to buy an old Mac Pro. So to anyone thinking about buying one, I’d say wait a few months until we see what the new model is like before making a decision.

 

[HunPro]

Being a recent convert myself, after two days of setting up and pushing the limits of this cMP, I can already feel that getting this 10 year old machine was a great deal.

My production machine is a 15" rMBP 2014, 256 GB SSD, 16 GB RAM, quad core i7 and integrated graphics. A wonderful laptop that served me well over the years, but I just kept hitting its limits, especially when I wanted to work on two or more projects simultaneously.

I will keep it, however I need a plan B. My previous plan B was my old Sandy Bridge MacBook Air with a faulty keyboard, an SSD equipped Mac Mini if you will, with 4 GBs of ram.

This cMP offers a step up from the rMBP in many areas, as far as a stationary workstation goes:

- The 6 core Xeon that can run indefinitely under heavy load without throttling is a major plus: MacBook thermals are a major blow to the user experience once the system starts to throttle.
- Noise: as I was migrating stuff, both the rMBP and the cMP were running under high load in the same room. The little MacBook's annoying fans could be heard on the lower floor. Yet again, throttling and the noise makes a laptop sub-optimal for heavy duty work.
- Thermals: during sustained, heavy loads I had to disable the turbo boost on the rMBP, limiting the quad core Ivy Bridge to 2.2 Ghz. The user experience was better this way, a steady performance with fans still screaming, but at least it wasn't running at the thermal wall every second. No Geekbench score will reflect this real world usage difference.
- Graphics: the same as the cpu, thermals and noise make it sub-optimal. Obsolescence hits GPUs harder as they benefit from parallelization better, therefore they could keep increasing their peak performance as silicon scaled in the past decade, unlike CPUs that can barely increase their single thread performance from generation to generation, using newer processes to bargain for other thing, mainly power. x86 hit 3 GHz around 2005(!) and is yet to move significantly beyond, IPC rarely increases in double digits, Nehalem was probably the last revolutionary IPC increase. The 130W Xeon I ordered for the cMP might not be as energy efficient as the latest ultrabook sku from Intel, but it's no 386 in the Pentium III era either. In the rMBP the GPU competes with the CPU for memory space and bandwidth: it will never be as robust as a dedicated GPU when it comes to heavy duty graphics.
- RAM: 16GB is nice, and although 1.5 is taken by the GPU, I still would not complain. However, I am doing memory management, I have to. Swapping makes me worried about the proprietary SSD is wearing itself down. I do close Photoshop when I switch to a project that requires a desktop linux VM, and vice versa. In the cMP I installed 64GBs for $130, then launched everything. I even gave that linux VM 8 GBs of RAM. Why not? There's so much more left. No swap, 0KB. 6 cores and 12 threads can handle all this stuff. Persistence is a major real world benefit.
- Storage: the cMP not only has a faster NVMe SSD, it's also upgradeable further. The rMBP uses a proprietary SSD, the options are limited and expensive. The cMP also came with a 750 GB HDD: the first time I have a Mac with a platter spinning inside of it. Retro? Maybe, but for many tasks it's faster than a NAS over the network, it's local.
- Display: the retina screen is beautiful but it also needs replacement as the coating is rotting away. Apple will do it for free I think, so I'm not being unfair here. But yet again: let those PC people push the affordable 4K/5K screens and the cMP will have its own retina display in hidpi mode for a few hundred dollars.
- Windows: using SSD-only macs, I never felt the disk space costs of another operating system justified. I can put an old 500GB HDD in the cMP for free and have it, if need be.

The cMP at this point cost me less than the entry level Mac Mini's US list price ($799), never mind the sales tax and etc. that would push its price above $1000.

I'm yet to install a new GPU, it's using an ancient HD4870 right now. I will in time, for pennies. The 8GB RX 580 is a beast that you can pick up second hand for $150 if you're lucky. It's insane to have an option like this for an aluminium box with an apple on it.

 

[JesterJJZ]

I ordered a 2012 Refurb the day the Trash Can was announced. I knew it wasn't a direction I wanted to go. The machine has served me well since then. I've upgraded pretty much everything I could. I work with 8k Red Raw now so it's definitley struggling a little bit. But I can still easily edit in Premiere at 1/8 and even 1/4 resolutions. Editing to a 1080p or 4k timeline is easier respectively. With a 980ti, Grading in Resolve works well too. I grade in a 1080p timeline and switch to 4k if I need to render 4k. 1080p playback in Resolve is pretty solid at 23.98fps (I hardly ever shoot anything but that) 4k playback stutters a bit, but I don't need to monitor in 4k right now.

While my system still "works" I'm eagerly awaiting an update to the MacPro. For a system that maybe cost $5k with upgrades over the last 7 year, it's really a drop in the bucket for how much I've used it. I'm ready to drop $10k on the next MacPro if I feel it's worth it. Even at that price it's easy to recoup over a few months.

 

[MarkC426]

I'm happy with my 2010. All Apple really has to do to keep us prosumers happy is refresh the 2012 with the latest tech (USB-c, PCIE3, SATAIII & updated nVidia drivers for the RTZX series) and most of us would be ecstatic.

Yeah, if only there hadn’t been the ‘B... S...’ regarding the fans, causing them to remove from sale.

 

[flowrider]

My SSD is AHCI. Boot time is extended.

I have both, and I can tell you that if your AHCI SSD, in a PCIe slot, is taking longer to boot than any drive in an SATA slot, then something is wrong. My SM951 in a PX1 boots much faster then my 970 Pros in a I/O Crest.

Lou

 

[JeffPerrin]

Yes - Even zippier than the day when I bought it in mid 2012, thanks to SSD drives! (And soon, a USB 3 gen 2 card?)

Big Pro is the customization you get with internal drive bays and PCI slots, not to mention the 4 RAM slots.

Big Con is the lack of Thunderbolt (which Apple should have put on this machine when it was released, mid 2012.

Overall, I have been very happy with this machine. Extremely reliable and consistent (unlike my previous G5). Where it does show it's age when compared to newer Macs is in video compression duties (no onboard hardware encoder) and limited GPU support in the latest OS. The lack of Thunderbolt will be a growing pain point as more and more audio, video and storage peripherals move towards this connector as a standard.

Looking forward to seeing what Apple has in store for the 7,1. I sincerely hope we see the Mac Pro return as a true workstation-class computer.

 

[Aiwi]

I'm using a RTX 2070 in my MP5.1 with 24GB RAM and a single X5690. It's pretty much the best Mac gaming experience possible. Naturally it has to run Windows 10 at the moment, because of the lack of MacOS drivers.

But every now an then there's something not supported, like things needing AVX instructions etc. This is never the case for games, but there are definitively some apps that run better on newer hardware.

You're probably looking at a 20-50% FPS increase going with a PC with the latest generation processors. But that'll cost you more, and it'll be riddled with blinking RGB LED's.

If you can get a MP5.1 for very little money, like 200-300USD, it's definitively a fun project.

You're most likely not going to see any performance increase in games using a dual CPU MP. So that could save you some money.

Overall I'm super happy with my MP for gaming. It's a relatively cheap hobby upgrading it and it's still plenty fast.

 

[shinkansenwarrior]

Beautiful design unmatched! My 2010 cheesegrater was paid off with one work project and I am still enjoying using it for 8 years plus.

I love the ability to upgrade internals compared to AIOs. You can upgrade upgrades!!
For me it is an investment I can rely on to do my job.

My MP 5.1 has been very reliable and a joy to use over the years despite it's aging but the ROI has been fantastic.
I guess it boils down to your usage... for me it is work not games.

The new linear MP comes soon with obviously substantial graphics support in line perhaps with what you wish....but with a new stratospheric price! Nvidia could provide support for RTX 2000 series cards....but Apple approving them is a different matter.

You can find good deals for MP5.1s with patience online in good condition. For now RTX 580 Sapphire 8GB RAM cards have dropped in price a lot and work well to give extra speed and power so you can enjoy using your cheesegrater with relative smoothness. Then later u can think about the next big step but for now enjoying that lovely board design and casing.

Ahhh.... that casing.....that cheesegrater casing... I come home every day and look at it......in all it's glory! A smile radiates all over my face ..... the pinnacle of Apple hardware design before things started to change ...LOL.

 

[StuAff]

Flashed 4,1 here. Yup, apart from the not-booting-into-Windows thing (about which I posted a thread) which I've never got sorted. RX 580 was a lovely upgrade, even at £280! Still not slow even these days. I'm choosing to be very quietly optimistic about whatever's lurking at Apple Park waiting to be unveiled. Hopefully it'll be easier to lug around, those metal handles hurt (that, and 25kg.....).

 

[haralds]

Actually, not quite true. Boot times are not extended with an AHCI or an SATA SSD in a PCIe slot, they are however extended with a NVMe SSD. And, like you said, I don't know whyView attachment 824103

Lou

From what I have read and based on my experience long boot times are related to two factors:
- RAM check for cold boot - I have 48GB ECC and it takes a bit for the chime
- APFS with trim. The system runs a diskcheck on the boot volume, to update the free list, since it does not know whether the system was booted without trim by another system.

 

[flowrider]

^^^^Again, I have both AHCI and NVMe in PCIe slots. The NVMe takes noticeably longer to boot than the AHCI SSD.

Lou

 

[Nard_S]

I'm not a power user on Mac (not a graphics/film guy) but do a quite a bit more on Windows. Have had a G3, a 2007 iMac (for life) and a slew of PC laptops (for work). The iMac Pro would have fit the bill but the price is stupid money and completely unjustifiable imo. Besides I'll never own an all in one unit again after replacing HD twice in the iMac. So I just got an unmolested 2102 MP, 3.06-12 core/64 gb/512 SSD/1T unit. Added a Dell monitor and going to add 2 more HD's and a newer card and go bi-polar on Mac and Windows. The Mac OS will handle life and all business communication. The Windows will remain off line and will provide double backup for work/business that will not be at the mercy of internet sabotage or the "cloud". To satiate my OCD side, also landed a brand new case. For the money spent, the system is wonderful and plenty powerful so I cannot be happier with the investment, if I get 3 years out of it all (5 is likely), it's a bargain.