Bought first Mac Pro (Mid 2010) 12 core - how to stress test it?

[ActionableMango]

The Superdrive appears to not be working - wouldn't the Diagnostics/AHT reported this?

The AHT is not very thorough. Not as much as people think.

The Superdrive can probably just be cleaned. Or, replace it with a new Blu-Ray drive since you were looking to upgrade components anyway.

 

[iOrbit]

I'm just thinking how much room do i have to negotiate a price reduction? i paid £910 all together. he offered £50 initially, but this was just based on the damaged handle. even that alone i felt £50 was too small.

but now with the superdrive not working, what should be the goal to reduce the overall price to? £810?

if i paid a lot more for this Mac, i would want more of a reduction but i already got this Mac cheaper than usual.

 

[westom]

well its not failed to start so far, but there a consistent noise to it.

This concept applies. A part can be defective and still perform (operate). Then much later, the same defect causes failures (as also demonstrated by heat that is a diagnostic tool; not a reason for failure).

Previously noted - that sound is typical of a defective (ie worn) sleeve bearing. Sometimes worn so little that a toothpick of good grease can avert an inevitable failure. But that sound is a classic symptom of a defective fan bearing.

 

[iOrbit]

i'll look into how to grease the bearing on that fan, hopefully its not uncommon and easy to find on youtube.

i let the MP run FurMark for about 7 hours, via Geeks3Dapp. no issues. i also let handbrake run an encode lasting about 4-5 hours. no issues there.

would it be safe to say that this Mac Pro is operating fine?

my main concern is the PSU and the sound its making.

 

[ssls6]

Open one terminal per core and type the following in each

yes > /dev/null

let it run as long as you want then kill "control-c" each terminal window

 

[Squuiid]

I'm just thinking how much room do i have to negotiate a price reduction? i paid £910 all together. he offered £50 initially, but this was just based on the damaged handle. even that alone i felt £50 was too small.

but now with the superdrive not working, what should be the goal to reduce the overall price to? £810?

if i paid a lot more for this Mac, i would want more of a reduction but i already got this Mac cheaper than usual.

Minimum £200 alone for the damage. £50 is a joke.
If he were to put this back on eBay, with the damage, he would almost certainly lose £200 off the value, plus he'd have to pay for shipping to collect the damaged item from you.
Minimum of £200, seriously. Don't accept less.

 

[iOrbit]

I think I'm going to keep the Mac (so long as me and the seller can agree on what is a fair price reduction).

I've done memtest 3 times - on the 3rd time i made memtest perform 5 tests. not a single issue. so I'm pretty sure the ram is okay.

the CPU under full load from Handbrake (6-10 hours) has not made the machine crash or freeze. neither had Geekbench stress test (24 hours). so i think the CPU/MOBO is alright.

the machine hasn't crashed or frozen once during the GPU tests either.

so I'm left with feeling the machine is okay, its just the PSU and GPU I'm concerned about - but neither of them have failed or anything during any stress tests.

 

[nofxrs]

Noise from a fan usually indicates bearing failure. One can remove fan blades and carefully grease its sleeve bearing if wear is minor. Lot of work. But also educational.

A failed fan often does not start on startup and without warning. Too many want to solve things by cleaning dust. A computer can be very dusty and still work just fine - as long as a hole still exists in any dust blockage. Dust typically does not cause noise.

Would you point any diy tutorial for the intake fan? seems the only audible fan on a mcP 2010 i recently bought is the intake one.

 

[westom]

Would you point any diy tutorial for the intake fan?

Would not even know where to find a tutorial. Was dealing with muffin fans and bearing wear even long before the IBM PC existed. When these even cooled core memory.

Take its label off. Find a C clip. Remove it. Slide fan blades off a shaft. Grease it. If it does not work, then so what? Its not like it will kill a patient. Fans are cheap and easily replaced. Do this for a same reason we fix anything - #1 reason is to learn.

 

[iOrbit]

okay, the conclusion is - i've kept the Mac pro, me and the seller agreed on £120 refund. in total i've paid £790 now.

i do appreciate that £200 was arguably the right sort of price point, but i feel it was too much, as i said before - these Mac's sell for £1000 (cheap) to £1500 (not that expensive really) i got it for £870+£40 shipping. the seller would've made a "loss" in terms of value to reduce it by £200.. and while that is not my fault, i am not cruel enough to try. i started with £150 in negotiations. It was that or return it. i favoured to keep* it.

GPU has survived 10-12 hour stress tests, PSU hasn't failed during them, Geekbench 24 hours didn't cause an issue, and meatiest 5 times in a row found no errors (+2 separate memetests prior this occasion).

my only concern is the GPU and PSU could be on its way out - that and i need to replace the CD Rom drive and possibly clean it out. i may post pictures later.

1st Memtest pass

2nd Memtest pass x2

final Memtest pass x5

 

[Zwhaler]

You could download BOINC and run Einstein@Home on 24 threads for as long as you like. Your PG&E bill will go up by a lot though.

 

[nofxrs]

Would not even know where to find a tutorial. Was dealing with muffin fans and bearing wear even long before the IBM PC existed. When these even cooled core memory.

Take its label off. Find a C clip. Remove it. Slide fan blades off a shaft. Grease it. If it does not work, then so what? Its not like it will kill a patient. Fans are cheap and easily replaced. Do this for a same reason we fix anything - #1 reason is to learn.

Tks,
but firstly i'm not able to find any tutorial of how to remove the intake from the case. Would u point any ?