MP All Models Buy cheap 7,1 or Studio

[Regulus67]

@Regulus67 - what GPU temps do you see on your Duos when they are working hard?

I have not installed them yet. Still using the Vega II.

Will make the change when I have the second 7.1.
Also just purchased Windows 10 Pro, because I had the home version (to see if I thought Windows is ok).
And I suspect Windows will ask for activation again, because of major hardware change. So might as well go for the Pro version then.

I am seriously considering installing Win Pro on the internal SSD. For the speed advantage, compared to the 1TB Samsung EVO SSD. Perhaps I'll allocate 1TB of the internal 4TB SSD to windows.

 

[avro707]

I am seriously considering installing Win Pro on the internal SSD. For the speed advantage, compared to the 1TB Samsung EVO SSD. Perhaps I'll allocate 1TB of the internal 4TB SSD to windows.

I have Windows 11 installed on Samsung 980 EVO NVME on a Sonnet card (PCI-E).

That is really fast.

Windows 11 Pro for Workstations didn't ask to be re-activated when I upgraded from W3245 to W3275M. I would just do your upgrades in steps, ie, GPUs first then later the CPU.

In the old days when I have had to reactivate Windows I've been on the phone with Microsoft and they were quite easy to deal with.

 

[Regulus67]

I have Windows 11 installed on Samsung 980 EVO NVME on a Sonnet card (PCI-E).

That is really fast.

My Samsung 870 EVO is a SATA drive.

Sequential Read	560 MBps
Sequential Write	530 MBps

 

[MarkC426]

My Samsung 870 EVO is a SATA drive.

Sequential Read	560 MBps
Sequential Write	530 MBps

Not the dreaded 870...
Are they not problematic with a 7.1 (as they are with a 5.1)...

Post in thread 'Caution! Troubles with 870 evo drives on cMP 5,1 !'
https://forums.macrumors.com/thread...0-evo-drives-on-cmp-5-1.2287656/post-33049296

 

[Regulus67]

Not the dreaded 870...
Are they not problematic with a 7.1 (as they are with a 5.1)...

I have not had any issue with it so far. And Windows gaming (Divinity: Original Sin 2) has been fine.
I will upgrade to the Duos for Baldur's Gate 3 and Cyberpunk 2077.

I play on a 27" Thunderbolt Display.
But will test the 27" 5k DIY and 32" XDR display to see if the cards can run such high resolutions in those games

 

[avro707]

My Samsung 870 EVO is a SATA drive.

Big difference.


This is the way: https://www.sonnettech.com/product/m2-4x4-pcie-card/overview.html

And some fast NVMEs installed on it.

 

[Regulus67]

Big difference.


This is the way: https://www.sonnettech.com/product/m2-4x4-pcie-card/overview.html

And some fast NVMEs installed on it.

An incredible difference. But can also be somewhat of a challenge, from what I have been reading in the "Mac Pro 2019 NVME Raid drives failing to mount" discussion.
I prefer to be on the cautious side for now

 

[avro707]

from what I have been reading in the "Mac Pro 2019 NVME Raid drives failing to mount" discussion.

Fortunately that's only a problem on the MacOS side - and I haven't seen that problem in over a month. I'm using the machine every day and have not seen the "drive wasn't ejected properly" message that shows when that would occur.

The NVME drives remain mounted the whole time for me. But I caution mine are not set up in a RAID config, I have one for Windows, the other is a working drive.

 

[sfalatko]

Does anyone know if you buy one of the 'ipower' machines, can you get Apple Care from Apple if they are Brand new/refurbs...?
Does Apple still offer AC for intel macs?

If you buy one of the "New in Box" Mac Pro's from ipower you can get a one year warranty and if you choose to pay you can also get AppleCare. You need to make a PDF of your receipt and add the machine's serial number to it. You can then submit the receipt to Apple and talk to a customer support rep. They confirm that the serial number has never been registered, review your receipt, and then register your machine as newly purchased with the date on the receipt. After that you can purchase AppleCare since your machine is seen by Apple as new.

And as @Regulus67 pointed out I am in the US so can only confirm it works for the US.

 

[Photios]

If you buy one of the "New in Box" Mac Pro's from ipower you can get a one year warranty and if you choose to pay you can also get AppleCare. You need to make a PDF of your receipt and add the machine's serial number to it. You can then submit the receipt to Apple and talk to a customer support rep. They confirm that the serial number has never been registered, review your receipt, and then register your machine as newly purchased with the date on the receipt. After that you can purchase AppleCare since your machine is seen by Apple as new.

And as @Regulus67 pointed out I am in the US so can only confirm it works for the US.

I'm in the US, and I can confirm that this does work. I submitted a pdf, set up a call with Apple Customer Service, and they gave me a full 1 year warranty. I then added AppleCare + for a year at a time. Pretty amazing, really. Though my serial number reveals that my computer was manufactured the 3rd week in the 2nd half of 2022, this is still a computer over 4 years old.

 

[avro707]

Just ordered a pair of W6800 Duo 64GB cards - new from Apple.

I will probably sell the W6800X 32GB MPX module.


Simply a beast of a machine. 4x GPU and 128GB VRAM. 🤯

 

[MacHeritage]

Just ordered a pair of W6800 Duo 64GB cards - new from Apple.

How did you get them? They say they are sold out on the online store everywhere.

 

[mattspace]

How did you get them? They say they are sold out on the online store everywhere.

The Australian Apple Store has the full range of parts at the moment. Whether that’s proximity to China, or our consumer protection laws being significantly more strict, thus cutting off supplies of parts less than a year after it was a “new” system is a bit of a no-no, or we’re a market with no significant secondhand presence in these systems, so Apple is shifting stock, who can say?

 

[avro707]

How did you get them? They say they are sold out on the online store everywhere.

As above from Matt - everything was out of stock but they are showing in stock again so I ordered them.

I figured they aren't going to be around forever and I wanted them so now or never. RAM doesn't matter so much, it is not bespoke to the 2019 Mac Pro, it's a common part for lots of servers or workstations.

In Australia we have NO second hand Mac Pros at all, though I don't know if that makes a difference.

I got my 2019 Mac Pro new in September or October 2022 so again not much more than a year after the new date.

 

[MacHeritage]

Thank you @mattspace and @avro707!

I think Apple should have kept stock of these throughout the world for at least a while longer. I've never seen them cut off product upgrades so fast before. Especially ones that probably have a good profit margin.

I was hoping to get a 7,1 and then upgrade the GPU etc. down the road a ways but now that looks almost impossible from Apple. You have to find a used one somewhere over here in North America.

 

[mattspace]

Thank you @mattspace and @avro707!

I think Apple should have kept stock of these throughout the world for at least a while longer. I've never seen them cut off product upgrades so fast before. Especially ones that probably have a good profit margin.

It's not cutting off product upgrades, it's manufacturing supply issues. You can't buy storage for the 2023 Mac Pro in Australia at the moment. I suspect there's actually been a catastrophic failure of the production lines responsible - probably a Covid thing.

I was hoping to get a 7,1 and then upgrade the GPU etc. down the road a ways but now that looks almost impossible from Apple. You have to find a used one somewhere over here in North America.

I bought mine secondhand, but still under warranty till next year. They've never had them in the refurb store in Australia, but people were selling them for a while (and they were getting snapped up VERY quickly).

 

[avro707]

was hoping to get a 7,1 and then upgrade the GPU etc. down the road a ways but now that looks almost impossible from Apple. You have to find a used one somewhere over here in North America

Grab that last new one from ipowerresale if it is still there. Then get AppleCare on it and gradually upgrade it.

They are great machines, they just work and work. No matter what you throw at them they just silently chew through it.

Can’t wait to see how mine will be now, absolutely maximum spec except RAM and OEM storage.

 

[Regulus67]

Grab that last new one from ipowerresale if it is still there. Then get AppleCare on it and gradually upgrade it.

If you live in the US, I think you can choose different parts on a brand new 16-core machine

Apple Mac Pro | iPowerResale

Browse the Apple Mac Pro and more refurbished Apple products available online from iPowerResale. Start shopping today.

ipowerresale.com

 

[avro707]

Happened to use the AI functions in Photoshop on a gigantic image today (content aware fill) and that was the first time I've seen all the 28 cores really working.

It treated it like "you call this work, this is nothing".

It was so fast and immediate on an 18000 pixel wide image.

 

[Regulus67]

I ordered a Xeon W-3265M today from China. Almost all the 28-core CPUs are sold, and more expensive $1900.
The 24-core CPUs was added May 10th (yesterday) at $1100.
😊

 

[avro707]

We have some powerful machines here!

I guess everyone wants the W3275M just to have the top CPU the 7,1 was available with.

Apparently there is little difference in overall performance between the two.


I’m still waiting for Apple to ship my GPUs, they are very slow. They must have got a shock to see them being ordered.

 

[Regulus67]

We have some powerful machines here!

I guess everyone wants the W3275M just to have the top CPU the 7,1 was available with.

I agree 🥰
It is great that we can upgrade them to such an extent, making them a lot better after all this time.

I barely dare to look at the original Apple prices back in August 2021

Buy Mac Pro Tower

Customize your new Mac Pro tower enclosure with up to 28 cores of power, up to 1.5TB of memory, and Radeon Pro Vega II Duo. Buy online at apple.com.

web.archive.org

My setup when I got the all the parts would have been $20 400. I paid full price for my SSD kit and Promise Pegasus J2i from Apple. The rest I found at great discount

(Looks like Apple store has all the parts in the US again) *my mistake

 

[avro707]

I barely dare to look at the original Apple prices back in August 2021

I did look at them. Mine with all the upgrades now would be USD$24,899.

In the AU store it was AUD$38,349!

Mac Pro 7,1 2019

2.5GHz 28‑core Intel Xeon W processor, Turbo Boost up to 4.4GHz

48GB (6x8GB) of DDR4 ECC memory

Two Radeon Pro W6800X Duo with 64GB of GDDR6 memory each

1TB SSD storage

Apple Afterburner card

My original machine with W3245 Xeon and W6800X 32GB and the 1TB SSD and 48GB RAM was $17,049 according to the store link but it was $16,674 when I ordered it. Ouch.

Mac Pro 7,1 2019

3.2GHz 16‑core Intel Xeon W processor with Turbo Boost up to 4.4GHz

48GB (6x8GB) of DDR4 ECC memory

Radeon Pro W6800X with 32GB of GDDR6 memory

1TB SSD storage

Sticker shock aside it has been absolutely brilliant.

I am missing the Mac Pro magic trackpad, although I never really use those devices. You'd only have ordered it to have the complete package of custom items.

I realise my 48GB RAM is a bit puny. It would be fun to have the full 1.5TB but it's not necessary. If I did go for that I'd get a few RAM chips at a time rather than the whole 12 because they are still very expensive. But from Apple itself at the time the prices were insane:

Woah! The 1.5TB option disabled unless you choose the 24 or 28 core CPU, the others were all non "M" spec CPUs that could take only up to 768GB. AUD$37,500 in RAM! 🤣

 

[Regulus67]

I realise my 48GB RAM is a bit puny. It would be fun to have the full 1.5TB but it's not necessary. If I did go for that I'd get a few RAM chips at a time rather than the whole 12 because they are still very expensive. But from Apple itself at the time the prices were insane:

Woah! The 1.5TB option disabled unless you choose the 24 or 28 core CPU, the others were all non "M" spec CPUs that could take only up to 768GB. AUD$37,500 in RAM! 🤣

You have to choose DDR4-2933MHz PC4-23400 Load Reduced RDIMM (LR-DIMM) Memory or R-DIMM, they can not be combined.
So it is probably wise to make a choice when one starts to purchase 128GB memory modules.

If you plan to get a few memory modules at a time, you get some extra considerations. And can not use LR-DIMMs. See Apple's note in the photo.

I bought a memory kit, 6x Samsung 32GB DDR4 2933 MHz ECC REG M393A4K40CB2-CVF PC4 Server PC4-23400R RAM.
To avoid mixing different modules, like size and manufacturer.

 

[Regulus67]

Having built PCs and a few servers in the past, I learned to match memory with how many channels the CPU supported, and the same memory modules. To avoid any issues.

I would not like to have less memory than video RAM. Always thought that is important

Intel had a version without the M, with lower memory capacity.