MP All Models Buy cheap 7,1 or Studio

[Carrotstick]

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.

Actually in some consumer strong countries/territories UK/EU/Aus you will be able to get a new Mac Pro every couple years. After all you could say that my $8000+ Mac Pro died within 5 years and it’s not reasonable for a computer that expensive to die so early and get a brand spanking new MP each time.

For those in US, yeah you’re stuck.

 

[mattspace]

Actually in some consumer strong countries/territories UK/EU/Aus you will be able to get a new Mac Pro every couple years. After all you could say that my $8000+ Mac Pro died within 5 years and it’s not reasonable for a computer that expensive to die so early and get a brand spanking new MP each time.

For those in US, yeah you’re stuck.

Certainly, but I'm thinking further down the road. Car makers have to keep parts in manufacture for a loooooong time, and have to allow third party interoperability with pretty much every system. Given the Mac Pro is priced like a car, it would be a persuasive argument to apply the same criteria.

 

[avro707]

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.

Unfortunately not enough people to force authorities to give Apple a smack over that.

Same with GPU limitations. Since they can't provide their own proprietary ones to ordinary buyers (only available as parts), lift the restrictions and let others come into the space.

I suppose we'll all end up using Windows 11 and putting in Nvidia 4090 or 5090 when they arrive.

Car makers have to keep parts in manufacture for a loooooong time, and have to allow third party interoperability with pretty much every system. Given the Mac Pro is priced like a car, it would be a persuasive argument to apply the same criteria.

It would be nice to push that angle and make a big stink about it but even the most of the community here just wants the Mac Pro to go away and die and the users of it to go away and never come back, or alternatively assimilate into the Apple Silicon collective. You will COMPLY! [/borg-voice]

 

[PortableFishy]

My Mac Pro 7,1 28-core / 1TB SSD / 96GB / Radeon Pro 580X has arrived and is working well! Here's a picture of it alongside my old friend the Mac Pro 2,1

 

[Rimmsi]

Great, what condition is bottom case?

 

[PortableFishy]

The Mac Pro's 7,1 case was in excellent condition. It had a few tiny marks so not flawless but aren't easily noticeable unless searching for them and I'm happy with the condition.

The Mac Pro's 2,1 is flawless since I had purchased it brand new.

 

[avro707]

My Mac Pro 7,1 28-core / 1TB SSD / 96GB has arrived and is working well! Here's a picture of it alongside my old friend the Mac Pro 2,1

View attachment 2402541

Nice, must be like going from a chugging Cessna to supersonic airliner!

 

[PortableFishy]

Nice, must be like going from a chugging Cessna to supersonic airliner!

Indeed! It was like stepping into a different universe when starting up the 7,1 for this first time and I'm having a lot of fun setting it up and using it.

Still lots to research and upgrade but the set up has been smooth so far and I was already able to get the core studio functionality up and running

On a side note, lugging around the two Mac Pro's these past couple of days has made me come to realize that the 2,1 is truly built like a tank

 

[avro707]

On a side note, lugging around the two Mac Pro's these past couple of days has made me come to realize that the 2,1 is truly built like a tank

They are all damn heavy. I notice mine with two W6800X Duos is very, very heavy. But it's solidly built.

 

[Melbourne Park]

My Mac Pro 7,1 28-core / 1TB SSD / 96GB has arrived and is working well! Here's a picture of it alongside my old friend the Mac Pro 2,1

View attachment 2402541

What is your GPU plan? None in your's so far?

The Apple cards are no longer available ... I don't know if one can run 3rd party GPUs until Apple's OS in the 7,1. But a great Windows machine for sure ... in a couple of years I guess. When I've looked for 7,1s, they seem stripped of all but the RX 580 GPU. Got one of those in my 5,1. I'm still tempted to bung my RAID card in a 7,1. I love the darn form factor. But in 24 months they are likely to be no good for contemporary software. For instance with licensed software that requires hand shake internet approval, that means IMO the machine will have to switch to Windows because such companies don't allow us to run old versions of their software. What a racquet ...

 

[PortableFishy]

What is your GPU plan? None in your's so far?

The Apple cards are no longer available ... I don't know if one can run 3rd party GPUs until Apple's OS in the 7,1. But a great Windows machine for sure ... in a couple of years I guess. When I've looked for 7,1s, they seem stripped of all but the RX 580 GPU. Got one of those in my 5,1. I'm still tempted to bung my RAID card in a 7,1. I love the darn form factor. But in 24 months they are likely to be no good for contemporary software. For instance with licensed software that requires hand shake internet approval, that means IMO the machine will have to switch to Windows because such companies don't allow us to run old versions of their software. What a racquet ...

Oops, I forgot to mention that it came with the standard Radeon Pro 580X which should be sufficient for me in a studio / DAW environment

 

[avro707]

The Apple cards are no longer available ... I don't know if one can run 3rd party GPUs until Apple's OS in the 7,1. But a great Windows machine for sure ... in a couple of years I guess.

You are stuck to using 6x00 generation cards, unless you can find somehow to get the Apple specific MPX modules ordered as brand new spare parts, which I managed to do in the recent machine I got.

Limiting GPU support (and stopping supply of your own ones barely 2 years after people could still buy the machine new) is very bad form, but Apple has plenty of support from non Mac Pro customers to do so.

All to try and force people into buying Apple M type machines when our existing ones still do the job...

Then what happens when the Apple specific SSDs need replacing? The same problem for folks with M series Mac Pros as well I guess, if Apple stops making that storage available those will be useless as well.

 

[mattspace]

Still lots to research and upgrade but the set up has been smooth so far and I was already able to get the core studio functionality up and running

The thing that I would suggest is the biggest "gotchya" vs your old machine (presumably wiht older OS) is that it's very difficult to keep a modern Mac asleep. Must frustratingly, Calendar reminders will wake your machine to see if it has been moved geographically during sleep, in case the "time to leave" reminders need to be adjusted.

You can see the logic issue there.

This becomes a real issue with multiple displays, because the minimal wake state it uses to check this stuff doesn't seem to fully engage the graphics drivers, which is necessary when there are more than 2 displays connected. So your window arrangements get screwed up.

 

[Rimmsi]

Can you check SSD drive health with Smartmontools? I wonder how much wear the internal drive is in a unit with a 28c CPU.

 

[PortableFishy]

The thing that I would suggest is the biggest "gotchya" vs your old machine (presumably wiht older OS) is that it's very difficult to keep a modern Mac asleep. Must frustratingly, Calendar reminders will wake your machine to see if it has been moved geographically during sleep, in case the "time to leave" reminders need to be adjusted.

You can see the logic issue there.

This becomes a real issue with multiple displays, because the minimal wake state it uses to check this stuff doesn't seem to fully engage the graphics drivers, which is necessary when there are more than 2 displays connected. So your window arrangements get screwed up.

Thanks, it is good to know about the potential issues with sleep mode.

I haven't run into it so far but if it becomes too troublesome I might just switch the computer off when not in use.

I have a habit of doing that for the studio gear to not drain energy, wear out vacuum tubes, make the room uncomfortably warm, etc

 

[PortableFishy]

You are stuck to using 6x00 generation cards, unless you can find somehow to get the Apple specific MPX modules ordered as brand new spare parts, which I managed to do in the recent machine I got.

Limiting GPU support (and stopping supply of your own ones barely 2 years after people could still buy the machine new) is very bad form, but Apple has plenty of support from non Mac Pro customers to do so.

All to try and force people into buying Apple M type machines when our existing ones still do the job...

Then what happens when the Apple specific SSDs need replacing? The same problem for folks with M series Mac Pros as well I guess, if Apple stops making that storage available those will be useless as well.

Yeah, the graphics cards and the Apple SSDs will probably be the most difficult to service / source in the long run.

For the graphics cards, I might keep my eye on some better MPX modules to upgrade to and then keep my 580X as a backup.

I was also worried about the Apple 1TB SSD and smartmontools is showing that it has around 15TB written and 12TB read over about 900 hours of use. Is that normal and do the number of CPU cores impact the rate?
What is a expected max TBW for these Apple 1TB SSDs?

I am planning on getting a HighPoint SSD7104 and creating a MacOS only NVMe that will be my default boot drive so hopefully that will help to prolong the lifespan of the Apple SSD.

 

[MarkC426]

Maybe some interesting reading here:

What is the lifespan of my SSD? - Apple Community

discussions.apple.com

 

[flowrider]

For the graphics cards, I might keep my eye on some better MPX modules to upgrade to and then keep my 580X as a backup.

I threw my MPX580X in the trash long ago. It was causing problems for me👎🏼 I'm running a Gigabyte RX6800XT.

Lou

 

[PortableFishy]

I threw my MPX580X in the trash long ago. It was causing problems for me👎🏼 I'm running a Gigabyte RX6800XT.

Lou

Can a standard non-MPX graphics card be used ok in MacOS?

 

[PortableFishy]

Maybe some interesting reading here:

What is the lifespan of my SSD? - Apple Community

discussions.apple.com

Thanks, at this rate it looks like my SSD only has a few decades remaining 😳

 

[flowrider]

Can a standard non-MPX graphics card be used ok in MacOS?

Sure, as long as the OS has drivers for the card. As I posted I'm running a Gigabyte RX6800XT.

The 7,1 NcMP has internal plugs to power the cables needed to run the cards. You will also need cables:

2019 Mac Pro Auxiliary Power Cables (for AMD Radeon GPU cards)

Auxiliary power cables for 2019 Mac Pro. For use with Sonnet AMDRadeon RX 6800 XT and 6900 XT graphics cards.

www.sonnetstore.com

https://www.apple.com/shop/product/HQY92ZM/A/belkin-aux-power-cable-kit-for-mac-pro

Lou

 

[Melbourne Park]

Sure, as long as the OS has drivers for the card. As I posted I'm running a Gigabyte RX6800XT.

The 7,1 NcMP has internal plugs to power the cables needed to run the cards. You will also need cables:

2019 Mac Pro Auxiliary Power Cables (for AMD Radeon GPU cards)

Auxiliary power cables for 2019 Mac Pro. For use with Sonnet AMDRadeon RX 6800 XT and 6900 XT graphics cards.

www.sonnetstore.com

https://www.apple.com/shop/product/HQY92ZM/A/belkin-aux-power-cable-kit-for-mac-pro

Lou

I was confused about that. I went to the Euro site for Macvideocards, and did not see any cards for 7,1 machines. I guess the reason why is they are unnecessary? But I do not recall Apple saying one can use - for instance - a Gigabyte RX6800XT.

When Apple switched to Metal, they specified a few third party cards (such as the Sapphire RX 580) on their support pages. Because I could not find Apple specifying which 3rd party cards will work in the 7,1 (as they did in the CMP 5,1), I just presumed I would have to flash 3rd party cards in Windows, or buy a flashed card from macvidcards or someone like that.

The 7,1 still tempts me because of drive flexibility and also I have a Highpoint SD7101A-1 RAID card in my MCP. The main issue though is I feel if I bought a 7,1, besides the second hand risk, I'd end up in Windows in a few years due to Apple stopping support for the 7,1. While if I wait for an M4 Studio it will be supported for a long time IMO. The irony with Apple's Studio is they still sell only M2 versions, which will have two years less support IMO than the M4, or maybe even 3 years less support.

 

[flowrider]

^^^^No flashing necessary, 3rd party cards show the boot screen in MacOS👍🏻

Lou

 

[PortableFishy]

Sure, as long as the OS has drivers for the card. As I posted I'm running a Gigabyte RX6800XT.

The 7,1 NcMP has internal plugs to power the cables needed to run the cards. You will also need cables:

2019 Mac Pro Auxiliary Power Cables (for AMD Radeon GPU cards)

Auxiliary power cables for 2019 Mac Pro. For use with Sonnet AMDRadeon RX 6800 XT and 6900 XT graphics cards.

www.sonnetstore.com

https://www.apple.com/shop/product/HQY92ZM/A/belkin-aux-power-cable-kit-for-mac-pro

Lou

It's great to hear we have additional options, thanks for these details

 

[Carrotstick]

Then what happens when the Apple specific SSDs need replacing? The same problem for folks with M series Mac Pros as well I guess, if Apple stops making that storage available those will be useless as well.

Apple offers replacements SSDs modules for the Apple sillicon Mac Pro and Mac Studio thru their SelfService repair site available in US and Europe.

I bet they offer them for 7 years since the release date of the Mac and then axe them.