BUYING ADVICE (2012 Mac Pro)

[OS6-OSX]

[QUOTE="AmazingRobie, post: 26344445, member: 324667"



My "needs" could be "wants" as far as you all are concerned, its a nunya beeswax type situation. Editing is slow in final cut, but that's besides the point here.

Not meaning to sound rude (because I respect everyones input and appreciate the time you and others have taken out of your busy life cycle to even give answers/suggestions), but your little graphic and the overall tone of your last comment...irritates

Besides. I'd already written in the original post hours before that I wanted to close this discussion, so the point which you're trying to make, is a moot one my friend.[/QUOTE]

So let's see. You state that the discussion should be closed but you continue to peep in and comment! This is a "public" forum so the "needs" and "wants" as far as I am concerned can pertain to "anyone" that benefits from them. Based on over 1000 views it's obvious you are not the only one reading these posts. So the point or points that I or anyone else makes or tries to make are not quite moot.
The easiest way for you to "close the discussion" is to stop commenting.
And how in the world does one get overall tone without punctuation? I think they have an "ignore" button or feature. This keeps unwanted posts from showing on your screen. Of 14yrs in MR I have never tried it, but it will get used in one minute!

Another way to close a thread is to ask the Mods.

HEY, MODS LOOKS LIKE A GOOD THREAD FOR THE WASTE LAND!

 

[Matty_TypeR]

I have to say after starting a thread where you were willing to drop 4K on a 2012 Mac Pro 5.1 to be closeing it because you feel critiqued about your choice, having been shown similar machines saving over 2k and given viable options to spend that 4K on, with people genuinely offering reliable advice you behave like a kid in a kinder garden given a choice of cakes and not knowing which to pick.

Your business demands are your choice parameters, what does your business demand for you to grow and continue your work at a reliable pace. Your choices have been given yet you consider carrying on with an unreliable iMac which was never designed to be the heart of a business or serious option for heavy duty work loads. And then consider the hackintosh route which from a business perspective is a no go for anyone serious about there business.

There are people giving strong advice that requires you the OP to consider, after all the slating of iMac woes and apples lack of future vision and hardware failures you are not prepared to change for the benefit of your business.

I have a feeling this whole thread has just been baiting and self denial of your own requirements.

Good luck with your choice, so many cakes to choose from.

 

[verdejt]

AmazingRobie there is an app called Mactracker here is the link. https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/mactracker/id430255202?mt=12. With this app it shows you the specs of every Apple Product. What I found useful in my search for a replacement for my iMac was the connections tab which lists all the ports and such (I have a Blu-Ray burner that was connected FW800 and wanted to keeps that connectivity.) I definitely understand your hesitation about buying a Mac from eBay and I felt the same way. I had my iMac for 14 months before the graphics chip started to show signs of failure and develop kernel panics. Since I bought it used and didn't get an extended warranty I was screwed. I babied it for another year before it became an annoyance to the point I spent more time on my iPad and only did things like surf the net watch YouTube and movies and check email. I stopped my Genealogy research, editing photos and videos and doing complex spreadsheets and desktop publishing for my wife who is a Science teacher. I could get all her of projects like that done while she graded papers which helps her out a lot. I did lots of research and looked at many systems and knew basically what I wanted and prayed that I didn't get a 40 pound pile of scrap. I only shopped from places that offered a return and answered as many questions as I threw at them (trust me I asked lots). There were some basic specs that were needed to be met before I considered even purchasing it.

1: Had to be a 5,1 machine (nothing flashed to 5,1)
2: Had to have at least 24Gb of RAM
3: Had to have a SSD of at least 120Gb (As I have a 4 bay NAS and have lots of spare spindle drives laying around spindle drive size didn't matter to me.)
4: Installed video card had to support at least 2 monitors. ( Already had planned on buying new video card that support metal and had MAC EFI to get boot screens)
5idn't look like it was dragged behind a car for 30 miles. ( Some of the ones I looked at had deep gouging from who knows what)
6: Had to have at least 6 cores. (Really wanted dual processors but would settle for single)
7: Seller had to have a return policy
8: I had a top amount I was willing to pay for it. In my case $800. (Because I knew I was going to spend another 250 on a video card.)

What I ended up with as a Mid-2010 MacPro with 32Gb of RAM, 2x2.4 GHz quad core processors, 250Gb Samsung EVO 840 SSD, 1 TB Spindle Drive, Non Flashed PNY GTX760 2GB video card. I made an offer of $600 which they accepted and knocked about a hundred or so off the asking price. I then purchased a Flashed video card from another vendor for about 230. I asked this guy a ton of questions. One of the most important was are the Mac boot screens on all ports. Most flashed cards I saw only had boot screens on one port. So totaled up my 2010 MacPro cost a little over $800.00. On a downside my Mac Pro was missing 2 of the drive sleds. I found them on a website for about 12 dollars each then in one of my posts someone posted the file to print them on a 3D printer. Since the school I work at has a fabrication lab I 2 printed for free.

Don't give up hope and get discouraged and take peoples comments too seriously. You know what you do with the computer and what you want in a computer. It's your money buy what you want that will get the job done and satisfy you. Trust me many people commented (not on this board) that I should just buy and iMac and move on. I've had the iMac and love them but given the thermal issues and video cards well not an option. Since I always run 2 screens I already had a monitor to use with the MacPro. I will purchase a second monitor later on.

Good Luck. Feel free to DM if you have any other questions.

 

[pl1984]

@pl1984 - We're just going to have to agree to disagree brother. I feel the polished appearance of the software and OS are important and I like macOS's aesthetic. I'm not saying I couldn't use something else to create, but more that I don't want to. I'll figure out a solution, whether its keeping this box going until something presents itself via Apple or eventually breaking down to go the Hackintosh route. Like I stated before, terabytes of data migrated over to newly formatted drives would take weeks if not longer and more time than I care to spare, not to mention the financial expense. What your suggesting sounds like crazy talk to me. No offense. Take care.

I think you may be misunderstanding what I'm trying to say. I completely understand your preference for the Macintosh and, if Apple showed a commitment to professional users, I wouldn't be suggesting you investigate a migration away. What good is a polished product offering if it is insufficient for your needs? I love the classic Mac OS but I no longer use it (for anything other than play) because Apple moved on. Thus forcing me to find alternatives despite my preference for it.
[doublepost=1534162076][/doublepost]

Imma probably look around for the next couple of days (maybe weeks) and see what I can find. I don't buy from eBay a whole lot, I have, but small things which I could insure they were working right when I got em like replacement pads for earphones and such...but buy Apple equipment off eBay given my track record of buying Apple products that fail, just kinda puts me off the whole idea. I haven't heard anything bad about the mac pros per se, not like the 2008 macbook pro graphic chip failures or the 2011 imac graphics chip/logic board failures and dark displays, but surely you can see why one might be hesitant to buy used on a marketplace like eBay given the dollar values we're speaking of here...which brings me to...

Ebay has a buyer protection policy which heavily weighs in favor of the buyer. If you purchase from a reputable seller (i.e. one with a significant amount of positive customer feedback) you'll probably do just fine. I purchased my 6,1 Mac Pro from Ebay and it has been problem free.

With that said I would be very hesitant to buy a cMP from Ebay due to insufficient packaging most sellers appear to do with them. This results in bent handles / feet (verdejt has first hand experience with this). If you know of some place which sells and warranties these older systems I find some value in that. So perhaps that's the best way to go. The problem is the cMP does not support Thunderbolt.

 

[AmazingRobie]

I have to say after starting a thread where you were willing to drop 4K on a 2012 Mac Pro 5.1 to be closeing it because you feel critiqued about your choice,

Not the reason it was closed, but okay, internet criticism doesn't affect me but nowhere have I seen any critiques which would be particularly bothersome to me.
I got enough of the answers I was looking for, (ANSWERS: the OWC is overpriced, $2,500 is more inline for those specs plus 2010 is same as 2012 since 3.46Gh wasn't original spec from Apple and theres no thunderbolt port which I did not know), to continue looking for an alternative and did not want to waste any more of anyones time, but nor did I want others to feel they are being ignored and their effort commenting wasted. Much like these irrelevant offtopic comments about intent and oh-so-delicious cakes...and other such MOOT points.

I have a feeling this whole thread has just been baiting and self denial of your own requirements.

Good luck with your choice, so many cakes to choose from.

Mmmm-mmm-mmm tastee cakes.... mpt mpt mpt

Good Luck. Feel free to DM if you have any other questions.

I had planned onit, sir. You'll most likely hear from me again when I have questions. Thanks.

The problem is the cMP does not support Thunderbolt.

One of the 3TB GDrives I have with Thunderbolt also has Firewire and the SSD Monster Drive I use for editing is Thunderbolt only, if prices come down more on SSD, I may end up gifting that drive to my wifes sister who also work on a mac and solve all issues. That sounds less expensive than migration. We'll see. Thanks.

 

[pl1984]

I got enough of the answers I was looking for, (ANSWERS: the OWC is overpriced, $2,500 is more inline for those specs plus 2010 is same as 2012 since 3.46Gh wasn't original spec from Apple and theres no thunderbolt port which I did not know)…

My comment about the 3.46GHz processors was to say I do not think there's value in paying a premium for a genuine 2012 model because, with dual 3.46GHz processors, it would not be genuine because Apple never offered a cMP with that processor configuration. IOW don't pay a premium for a genuine product because it's not Apple genuine.

One of the 3TB GDrives I have with Thunderbolt also has Firewire and the SSD Monster Drive I use for editing is Thunderbolt only, if prices come down more on SSD, I may end up gifting that drive to my wifes sister who also work on a mac and solve all issues. That sounds less expensive than migration. We'll see. Thanks.

If your Thunderbolt requirement is to obtain fast disk speeds you may want to investigate a PCIe M.2 based solution for the cMP. You could also investigate USB 3.0 cards for any external hard disks you may have.

 

[AmazingRobie]

Good Luck. Feel free to DM if you have any other questions.

verdejt. I have some questions for you. Is there a way to message you through mac rumors or email? I do not see anything...thanks.

 

[bookemdano]

verdejt. I have some questions for you. Is there a way to message you through mac rumors or email? I do not see anything...thanks.

Click on his name to the left of one of his posts, then click "Start a conversation"