MP All Models Buy cheap 7,1 or Studio

[avro707]

I hang my damp t-shirts side-on in front of the exhaust when they're out of the spin cycle. Also, keeps the room 20c when it's 15c outside

Because the room is warm, if I have some cycling kit just out of the wash it gets hung up in the room and the computers help dry it. Okay not the intended use of those machines - but does the job.

 

[mattspace]

Because the room is warm, if I have some cycling kit just out of the wash it gets hung up in the room and the computers help dry it. Okay not the intended use of those machines - but does the job.

may as well harvest the waste heat *nod*

 

[Natalia22]

Yes, Boot Camp Assistant.

It should be fairly easy to install. But you need special pci-e power cables, mini-to regular 8 pin cables. Belkin or OWC.
And the card should not be to long. Max 304 mm / 12 inches (tight fit). RTX 4060 or RTX 4070 cards will have more than enough room, and no cooling proplem.

MacOS will not support the cards, of course.
I installed Windows 10 on a separate SSD HD, which does not have boot issues like the NVMe cards.
I have only MPX cards in my machines for now.


The strength of the Mac Pro is the graphic power you can get. As avro707 expained, the CPU is old, but it also supports more RAM. 16-core up to 768GB RAM.

Thanks for such a detailed description 🙏
--------
I have doubts about connecting my two monitors. If I add rtx4000, then every time I reboot the Win-Mac I need to switch cables from card to card or be content with one monitor? It seems that in my case there will be a lot of inconvenience.

 

[avro707]

I have doubts about connecting my two monitors. If I add rtx4000, then every time I reboot the Win-Mac I need to switch cables from card to card or be content with one monitor? It seems that in my case there will be a lot of inconvenience.

I want to know how people go with using an MPX module and a RTX4090 (or similar Nvidia card) in Windows - especially what they do for drivers.

 

[darkus]

Im a Mac Pro lover, but TBH the studio has done it ALL for me without any noticable difference to the MacPro. This is with an M2 Ultra Studio... Love it. I would get it over Mac Pro, unless we are talking edge cases

 

[PortableFishy]

Thanks to all the info on this thread, I decided to order a 2019 Mac Pro 7,1 28-core with a 1 TB SSD, 96GB RAM and a Radeon Pro 580X. It is on its way now and I can't wait for it to arrive sometime next week

I ordered a "Grade A" one from ipowerresale, fingers crossed that everything goes smoothly. For anyone that has ordered from them before, how has your experience been? Are there any particular things that would be good to double check when it arrives? (e.g. Genuine CPU, memory, power cord, etc)?

 

[basslik]

Eventually you might be on borrowed time on that machine. Silicon will eventually push the intel out.

Although, OCLP, and Martin, as well as others do amazing workarounds.

 

[tsialex]

Eventually you might be on borrowed time on that machine. Silicon will eventually push the intel out.

Although, OCLP, and Martin, as well as others do amazing workarounds.

When Apple stops Intel support a pair of years down the road, no workaround will work since macOS will be compiled just for Apple Silicon.

 

[Regulus67]

I am not concerned at all for when Apple drops support for the machine.
With the direction Apple is taking, has me more concerned about how to preserve my machines as they are.
And Microsoft isn't tempting me at all with its latest development. Neither is the AI race.

Let the people who wants to stay up to date do so. But some of us will be quite happy to stay behind with what works well for us.
We'll move ahead if and when we see the need to do so.

A nice machine you got PortableFishy 👍 I hope you will be able to spec it out for a reasonable cost to whatever you need, over time

 

[Regulus67]

Eventually you might be on borrowed time on that machine. Silicon will eventually push the intel out.

Will the M series also be on borrowed time? Who knows if there will be workarounds for them. All will one day be left behind by Apple. Same as every other machine that has been released

 

[avro707]

Are there any particular things that would be good to double check when it arrives? (e.g. Genuine CPU, memory, power cord, etc)?

Seem to be genuine CPUs. My 28 core machine is good - has two W6800X Duos, one of them a brand new card from Apple.

Excellent condition for mine meant one tiny mark on the corner. Otherwise pristine condition.

Power cable will be USA one, so you might need to use a different one as I did. That’s easy.

Apple will eventually drop support for M series machines too, so folks with existing ones will have machines on borrowed time.

 

[Carrotstick]

I wouldn't buy any new Mac right now

*Mac Desktop.

MacBooks still are the best for productivity and work.

I tried to get of Mac completely and tried a windows laptop and do they suck! There isn’t any laptop SoC/CPU that comes close to M3 Max performance and efficiency.

So I moved on desktop to PC but kudos to Apple for making killer laptop chips.

Now, back on topic I wouldn’t touch the Studio until it moved over to the M4 lineup.

 

[Carrotstick]

Will the M series also be on borrowed time? Who knows if there will be workarounds for them. All will one day be left behind by Apple. Same as every other machine that has been released

Linux would work on these machines that Apple leaves behind. That’s really far away tho, considering Intel Macs are still supported.

 

[PortableFishy]

Seem to be genuine CPUs. My 28 core machine is good - has two W6800X Duos, one of them a brand new card from Apple.

Excellent condition for mine meant one tiny mark on the corner. Otherwise pristine condition.

Power cable will be USA one, so you might need to use a different one as I did. That’s easy.

Apple will eventually drop support for M series machines too, so folks with existing ones will have machines on borrowed time.

It is great to hear that you had a good experience with your Mac Pro. I'm hopeful that they'll send one in a good condition this time around as well and will post an update when it arrives

 

[PortableFishy]

I am not concerned at all for when Apple drops support for the machine.
With the direction Apple is taking, has me more concerned about how to preserve my machines as they are.
And Microsoft isn't tempting me at all with its latest development. Neither is the AI race.

Let the people who wants to stay up to date do so. But some of us will be quite happy to stay behind with what works well for us.
We'll move ahead if and when we see the need to do so.

A nice machine you got PortableFishy 👍 I hope you will be able to spec it out for a reasonable cost to whatever you need, over time

I did think a lot about whether or not I should go with the Intel Mac Pro 7,1 and ultimately decided to go for it because I'm going to be using it in a music studio environment primarily to run Logic Pro.

I tend to prioritize stability and reliability for this type of use case and don't really go for the latest MacOS updates right away or chase after the latest software updates. I will be able to use the PCIe slots with my existing audio interface and the expandability will also allow me to easily upgrade to any of the modern audio converter offerings as well.

It's definitely unfortunate that it is already the end of the line for such an awesome Intel Xeon based 2019 Mac Pro which has so much potential and flexibility for expansion, upgrades and replacement components in case anything unexpectedly fails.

I've been using my trusty 2007 Mac Pro 2,1 in this capacity for so long now but its performance has really bogged down my workflow over the years so this will be a long overdue and significant upgrade for me. Although the final MacOS updates for the Mac Pro 7,1 will likely end within the next couple of years, I'm quite confident that I'll be able to happily use this as my main studio computer for at least the next 10 years

 

[avro707]

It is great to hear that you had a good experience with your Mac Pro. I'm hopeful that they'll send one in a good condition this time around as well and will post an update when it arrives

Yes, I'm picky with keeping my computers pristine (as with everything I have) so if I'm happy with the condition of a used machine then anyone would be.

The really eye-opening thing is the 7,1 is actually more reliable running in Windows 10/11 Pro (Workstation version) than in MacOS.

 

[Natalia22]

I want to know how people go with using an MPX module and a RTX4090 (or similar Nvidia card) in Windows - especially what they do for drivers.

I can't say anything about Nvidia. I couldn't connect both MPX and RX 6900 XT at the same time. For some reason I could only install drivers on one of them. Maybe someone has a better experience.
-----------
Guys, I have a request for you - when the time comes for everyone to switch to Nvidia cards, don't forget to invite me to a new thread)

 

[avro707]

We will hopefully have RTX5090s by that time.

 

[Melbourne Park]

I think a Mac Studio M4 (Max will be as fast as M2 Ultra I guess) with Thunderbolt 5 will kill a Mac Pro M4 for value. For those who can benefit from windows then a 7,1 with a fast GPUs will ease the transition to Windoze. I guess that is inevitable because Apple IMO now makes notebooks packaged as desktops.

I recently wanted to upload digital videos to my 5,1 - but the Firewire no longer connects to Firewire cameras (I offered to import my brother in laws old video tapes which are Hi8 and digital 8 and mini digital tapes). Big mistake!

After lots of pain I pulled out an old MacBook Pro 13" early 2011. It has
MagSafe power port
Gigabit Ethernet port
FireWire 800 port (up to 800 Mbps)
Two USB 2.0 ports (up to 480 Mbps)
Thunderbolt port (up to 10 Gbps) (weird connection though)
Audio in/out
SDXC card slot
Kensington lock
DVD burner inside the notebook.

You can:
Upgrade the SATA SSD drive in a few minutes.
Upgrade the RAM cards to 4 times the factory provision (it takes up to 16 MB). $Au36 for those two 8MB memory cards combined. Change the battery in a few minutes.
Upgrade the WiFi bluetooth card too.

These days a Mac Studio desktop has around the same serviceability as an iPad. And much less than Apple's old MacBooks.

Apple has run off the rails with its desktops.

Despite loving the OS and also Apple's on line or telephone support, Apple seem to view the desktop market as a facility to continue their iPad and iPhone businesses. Microsofts' recent notebooks a quite serviceable, and got an 8 rating from iFixit. Apple gets more and more unserviceable.

All Apple have needed to do is avoid soldering drives, and have an affordable RAM upgrade policy for computers less than 2 years old (enough time for a buyer to decide they need more RAM). But Apple no longer has a customer focus or an ecological focus - because computers should be made to last, and be able to meet future needs.

At least the 7,1 fits that bill. But then, so does a PC, which I reckon, is what the 7,1 will end up being used as.

 

[basslik]

Will the M series also be on borrowed time? Who knows if there will be workarounds for them. All will one day be left behind by Apple. Same as every other machine that has been released

I'm still on my 2010 Mac Pro. In fact many hits records are still being made on these machines. Some cats are still on Mt. Lion. Left behind over a decade ago, but these beast of machines are just rock solid.

 

[flowrider]

^^^^Yup the 5,1 cMP was a solid and well designed machine, I had one. The NcMP 7,1 is IMHO, a superbly designed classic machine that could serve as a learning tool for other designers to emulate. Not only is it masterfully designed, but it is also much more robust than the MP 5,1. My 7,1 is not going anywhere for a long time👍🏻

Lou

 

[avro707]

Not only is it masterfully designed, but it is also much more robust than the MP 5,1.

Where it is much much better is how easy it is to work on.

Changing CPUs is very simple with this machine, it also has a lot more room inside for expansion and it is much quieter running than the 5,1.

My two 7,1s are staying for the long run. I love them.

On other machines, I like the Lenovo P10 Workstation:

It's not quite as beautiful as the Mac Pro 7,1, but a lot of thought went into it.

Even the P5 Lenovo can go 512GB ram and 48TB storage internally. The slide in and slide out power supply is good, the 2019 Mac Pro has similar. The RAM cooling ducts are something similar to what I saw someone here proposing for the very hot 2010 Mac Pro northbridge cooling.

The P10 will do dual Xeon 8490H, 60 cores each and 16 DIMM slots for RAM providing for 2TB of RAM and four NVidia RTX6000 ADA cards.

 

[mattspace]

^^^^Yup the 5,1 cMP was a solid and well designed machine, I had one. The NcMP 7,1 is IMHO, a superbly designed classic machine that could serve as a learning tool for other designers to emulate. Not only is it masterfully designed, but it is also much more robust than the MP 5,1. My 7,1 is not going anywhere for a long time👍🏻

Lou

What the 7,1 needs is a firmware update to allow 3rd party storage to operate in place (in the actual slots) of the Apple SSDs. Whether by disabling the SSD controller function in the T2, or however - the consumable nature of those drives will mean the 7,1 has a MUCH shorter service life than the 5,1 has had.

 

[Carrotstick]

What the 7,1 needs is a firmware update to allow 3rd party storage to operate in place (in the actual slots) of the Apple SSDs. Whether by disabling the SSD controller function in the T2, or however - the consumable nature of those drives will mean the 7,1 has a MUCH shorter service life than the 5,1 has had.

The other practical solution is to boot and work off NVME 3rd party drives so the Apple SSDs don’t wear out. So leave the factory SSD unused.

I don’t think Apple will ever allow third party like you said unless the law forces them.

 

[mattspace]

The other practical solution is to boot and work off NVME 3rd party drives so the Apple SSDs don’t wear out. So leave the factory SSD unused.

Yup, and as some folks have found, that becomes difficult when there are software incompatibilities that cause those drives to vanish.

I don’t think Apple will ever allow third party like you said unless the law forces them.

Yup, making a necessary part proprietary, and then refusing to supply that part to the market, in order to provide a competitive advantage to new equipment would be a serious act in many jurisdictions.