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Best place to search for used Mac pro's

Z

zerb

macrumors member
Original poster
Apr 4, 2012
40
0
in the market for a 09+ pro to replace my 1.1 that I'm currently using. found a few sites when i googled, used mac pro's, but just wanted to make sure i wasn't missing anything specific good OR bad about whats out there.
 
Don't know that there is a 'best' place to look for them. For sure, until a new one is announced (assuming that happens at all) people are going to be sitting on their machines. I honestly can't see a lot of '09 users upgrading but I could be way off on assuming that. I also think there are going to be a lot of 1,1 and 2,1 users who will want to use ML and therefore upgrade. Any reason you are shooting for a 4,1 instead of a 3,1?
 
well, correct me if I'm wrong, but the 3.1's didn't have an upgradeable CPU i didn't think. and i know for certain that the ram is much more expensive, DDR2 .vs DDR3. figured i could scoop up a 2.66GHz Quad-Core 4.1, and eventually put a 3.33ghz hex core in there. 16gb of ram is just a bit over $100 from transintl or OWC. then i can take the ati 5770 i have in my 1.1 and put it in that box and sell the 1.1 (with x5355's in it) on ebay to recoup some funds.
 
You can in theory upgrade either to some degree. The 4,1s just kind of hit a sweet spot if you find a good deal on one, and they're likely to remain supported longer. Obviously I can't guarantee that, but the 3,1 hasn't been sold in roughly 3 years at this point, so it makes me nervous regarding longevity. Ram is way more expensive, and this becomes more noticeable if you're going to max it out. The 1,1 ram is a little cheaper, and some people have used it. The 4,1 ram can go as high as 32GB without being terribly expensive, and at that point it'll satisfy an extremely high percentage of computer users. Part of the appeal of the 6 core thing is that it's clocked much higher. Not everything scales in a linear manner with core count, and per core the performance there is quite good.

I've seen quite a few mac pros on Craiglist. When we see new ones that number will probably go up.
 
16gb is $128 in 4x4gb sticks or $180 in 8gb sticks, which would allow for another 16gb in 8gb sticks down the road if needed. neither of which is a bad price in my opinion. upgrading a 4.1 CPU to a 3.33 hex like i said above seems to be near the $500 price range, but i haven't done too much digging to find anything really. once again, thats not too awfully expensive if you ask me either. i haven't looked much deeper into it so i assume, that hex core 3.3 is the best bang for the buck CPU upgrade you could do to the 4.1.


i just need to see what i can get for my pro 1.1 on ebay or the like then pick up a 4.1. i would wait until the new pro's are released, if they are, but then i think the price i could potentially fetch for my 1.1 would go down...as a lot 3.1's and 4.1's could hit the used market in favor of wanting to upgrade to the newest stuff. thus my reason for wanting to get into a 4.1 now, prior to that possibly happening.
 
Yeah but you'll likely get a better deal on a 4,1 after the new MP's hit the market, however you are likely also correct in assuming the value of your 1,1 will go down as well.

I'd like to jump to a 4,1 myself but frankly I don't use the 3,1 I have to its potential really, so why bother?

Good luck in your hunt.
 
ive been searching ebay all morning, lol. im going to list my 1.1 when i get home to see what i can fetch for that. then pull the trigger on a 4.1 hopefully soon there-after.
 
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