MP 6,1 Does this make sense? Purchasing a 6,1?

[Mac3Duser]

that's true and windows 11 is not supported on intel macs. One day, Microsoft will stop the windows 10 support.
ten years for a computer is very good.
intel xeon macs are still good for some apps. for the moment. that's why, according to me, buy some for cheap prices is interesting. But cheap. And maxed out.

 

[MisterAndrew]

a) the only data we have is from the prior architecture switches....
b) none of the "current" Intel Mac are an option for OT
c) the 6.1 MacPro (which is the topic) has already been dropped

New "M1" based Macs have been introduced less than a year (M1Max/Ultra is just M1 with more of everything) while everything Intel is 3 years old, so even without the whole x86/ARM these would still be dropped long before M1.

As for using any Mac past it's OSX support, noone knows what the future will hold. Linux runs on anything is less than 30 years old. Windows requires (AFAIK) BootCamp specific drivers which may be an issue with what every version is current in 5+ years.
Using OpenCore to run unsupported version of MacOS is a similar unknown.

You're making assumptions about future support that we don't know yet. The newest M1 Macs came late to the show and will likely be replaced sometime this year with M2 versions. The M1 Mini and Studio will likely have the same length support status as the 2018 Mini and 2019 Mac Pro.

I know this thread is about the 6,1 and it's not a good option now, but I think the 7,1 is a better option than a M1 Mac. Linux does not run well on M1 Macs yet and it may never. There's a project for it, but there is a ton of work to do still.

that's true and windows 11 is not supported on intel macs. One day, Microsoft will stop the windows 10 support.
ten years for a computer is very good.
intel xeon macs are still good for some apps. for the moment. that's why, according to me, buy some for cheap prices is interesting. But cheap. And maxed out.

Windows 11 runs fine on Intel macs with TPM 2.0 and Secure Boot bypassed. The Xeons in the 7,1 are officially supported.

 

[mateo14]

Can someone explain what will happen if the hard drive dies in Mac M1 and some intel Macs?

Can I still boot them using the external hard drive?

These are two questions that I think about switching to more modern Macs.

PowerPC was initially important for Microsoft, and they decided to drop the support for it a few years later. I can't say the same thing about M1.

Simmilarly, Linux on PowerPC was important for some companies like Loki, LGP, Illwinter Game Design, and Runesoft. The first two companies are closed now.

Runesoft released only ATD for Linux, Illwinter Game Design
has two games for ARM, and Noble Master Games has game builds for ARM.

Can we run Linux ARM binaries on M1 Macs?

I can't try it myself because I don't have M1 Mac.

 

[avro707]

It's a bit of a fuss to boot from different drives:

About Startup Security Utility on a Mac with the Apple T2 Security Chip - Apple Support

Use Startup Security Utility to make sure that your Mac always starts up from your designated startup disk, and always from a legitimate, trusted operating system.

support.apple.com

The 5,1 and 6,1 are probably not so difficult. I had to jump through hurdles to put Windows on my 7,1 tower because the NVME drive was seen as external. Once configured right it runs well and Windows seems to love running on the 7,1.

 

[Bug-Creator]

but I think the 7,1 is a better option than a M1 Mac.

The 7.1 starts at 6k (10k is easy to hit with a sensible config), one can buy a M1Max or even M1Ultra now and still have enough money left to upgrade to a M5 variant down the line.

So, no the 7.1 is not the better option outside of some money-ain't-the-issue use cases.

 

[Mac3Duser]

the 7.1 is overpriced, and has not been updated with the xeon W-3300 series and a chipset with integrated GPU.
Bootcamp does not support windows 11 officially.
Possibly for the price of a 7.1 with a 12 core (which is the minimum), 96gb of ram and an AMD Pro W6800 you will have a mac pro 8.1 m2 ultra, a macbook pro m2 max, and a new apple display.

 

[avro707]

the 7.1 is overpriced, and has not been updated with the xeon W-3300 series and a chipset with integrated GPU.
Bootcamp does not support windows 11 officially.
Possibly for the price of a 7.1 with a 12 core (which is the minimum), 96gb of ram and an AMD Pro W6800 you will have a mac pro 8.1 m2 ultra, a macbook pro m2 max, and a new apple display.

Can you show where you got the price of the 8,1 M2 Ultra? I'm just curious where you are getting this concrete information.

Windows 11 runs fine on Bootcamp - you just put Windows 10 on first then do the upgrade process. It wasn't that hard. What's surprising is Windows 11 runs faster than MacOS.

 

[krakman]

buying a 6.1 in 2023 summary:


Good:

1. Cheap CPU and RAM upgrade are cheap.
2. Easy to upgrade RAM
3. Recent firmware update allows use of NVME SSDs with adaptor

Bad:

1. Monterey last official OS
2. GPUs old and non replaceable
3. Very difficult and expensive to repair.
4. Spare parts not readily available.
5. eGPU requires software hack
6. Thunderbolt 2 obsolete.
7. Difficult to replace CPU
8. Difficult to replace RTC battery

You are probably better off buying a Apple silicon Mac.

 

[Mac3Duser]

I had hesitated at the release of the mac mini M1 between a mac Mini M1 16gb 1to, a mac mini i7 intel 64 gb 1to and a mac Pro 6.1 12 cores 64 gb D700 1to
I could have the 3 at roughly the same price and finally I took the mac pro 6.1 for the 64 gb of ram, and for the better graphics card. the M1 and the xeon 12 cores had almost the same geekbench 5 and cinebench R23 scores
Today I think I would patiently wait for the mac mini m2 pro.

 

[startergo]

I had hesitated at the release of the mac mini M1 between a mac Mini M1 16gb 1to, a mac mini i7 intel 64 gb 1to and a mac Pro 6.1 12 cores 64 gb D700 1to
I could have the 3 at roughly the same price and finally I took the mac pro 6.1 for the 64 gb of ram, and for the better graphics card. the M1 and the xeon 12 cores had almost the same geekbench 5 and cinebench R23 scores
Today I think I would patiently wait for the mac mini m2 pro.

The latest Intel Mac mini with 64 GB ram and external GPU is a better option.
You can get EGPU for MP6,1 but the HWA does not work properly. And if you put a fan underneath it solves all the problems with throttling.

 

[mikas]

Things come in threes. The good and the bad. But not the Ugly, at least not in this case as you can pretty easily see.

I wouldn't buy any more of these. Unless they are cheap like soap.
The unofficial eGPU solution is kind of almost pretty good I think, if you're not reaching for the highest resolutions there is available today with it.

Apple's done the decent thing at last, and corrected the programming of two years or so defect firmware. These puppies run allright now, and with sleep activated too. No more unintentional, unwanted, sudden at sleep, or (sigh) unwarranted crashes. Thank You Apple (it took you about something like two years though).

But yeah, no more Ventura. It's all done with these babies. Allmost.

 

[avro707]

Things come in threes. The good and the bad. But not the Ugly, at least not in this case as you can pretty easily see.
View attachment 2143089 View attachment 2143096
I wouldn't buy any more of these. Unless they are cheap like soap.
The unofficial eGPU solution is kind of almost pretty good I think, if you're not reaching for the highest resolutions there is available today with it.

Apple's done the decent thing at last, and corrected the programming of two years or so defect firmware. These puppies run allright now, and with sleep activated too. No more unintentional, unwanted, sudden at sleep, or (sigh) unwarranted crashes. Thank You Apple (it took you about something like two years though).

But yeah, no more Ventura. It's all done with these babies. Allmost.

Ventura not yet, but let's see what the wizards of the Mac Pro scene do - it is working to a degree now, maybe they'll get it going better.

 

[MisterAndrew]

To be fair I like Monterey better than Ventura and I’m running that on the 7,1. Ventura isn’t very polished yet as an OS and I don’t care for the iOS-like theme.

As far as the 2018 mini with an eGPU I’ve read varying reports on reliability. For some people it has been a nightmare. It appears M2 Pro mini might be announced tomorrow.

 

[m1maverick]

I've seen rock bottom prices on the 6,1 locally and I think it may fit well into my mix of hardware in my art studio/archiving area.

I have a Dell workstation with a i7-8700, 32GB of ram, GTX 1070 and tons of storage. I have a large backlog of analog and DV tapes to go through and I think with my old FCPX license and hardware acceleration free on the Mac version of DaVinci Resolve, it would make some financial sense to snag and upgrade a 6,1.

Existing equipment and setup I have:

Sony DV/MiniDV Deck with Firewire port
Thunderbolt - FW800 adapter
S-VHS deck that upscales to a DVDO VP30 for 1080p. Actually looks pretty good!
BlackMagic Intensity Pro Capture card - bought maybe in 2014 so I know technology has moved on since then

Since I don't have a license for the paid version of DaVinci Resolve at the moment, I haven't started transferring any tapes nor any basic editing. I'm curious what configuration of the 6,1 would be comparable to my Dell workstation D300, 500 or 700?
Can someone remind me again if FCPX still have DV logging?

Any other tips and advice welcome!
Thanks!

One item from your existing equipment list would prevent you from using the 6,1: The BlackMagic Intensity Pro Capture card. The 6,1 does not have any slots and therefore could not be used with the 6,1 without some external PCIe expansion enclosure.

Or am I just not understanding your requirements?

 

[DouglasCarroll]

+1 on this - the 6,1 is an engineering feat, sure, but the dual D700 does not compare. I agree that for your case, a 5,1 is the way to go. They are considerably cheaper to buy and upgrade with much more room to expand. I sold my 5,1 to go for a 6,1...but decided to cancel the order for the 6,1 and I'm thinking of purchasing another 5,1.

Just for fun, I priced up a full cart on eBay yesterday, with a 5,1 + some upgraded parts. Here's what I came up with:

Mac Pro 5,1 (2010)
12-core dual CPU setup (2xX5680 @ 3.33GHz)
128GB RAM
16.5TB storage space (4x4TB HDD and 2x256GB NVMe SSDs + PCIe adapters)
Radeon RX 590 8GB GPU

All for...I think $670ish before tax, aka roughly what you would pay for a 6,1 with D700s and far less storage/RAM.

So you paid top Emu$ for HW that is mostly 3 years old at this point. Sure it might make sense in some obscure money-ain't-the-issue cases but apart from those it will be just a bad investment.

I got a 6,1 for free so that beats spending a penny buying and then upgrading a 5,1 any day...plus it looks a hell of a lot cooler!

Plus...since when was buying ANY computer considered an investment??? They aren't like houses, computers go DOWN in value.

Finally if the original poster has a gallery apparantely the way things look mean something to the person, it's perfectly reasonable for them to take care of the totally mundane computing tasks they posted about with an "artsy" looking computer that fits well with the aesthetic of their livelihood if they want...and everyone here knows that the 6,1 can more than handle the tasks listed just fine.

 

[zackkmac]

I got a 6,1 for free so that beats spending a penny buying and then upgrading a 5,1 any day...plus it looks a hell of a lot cooler!

Great, except this wasn't about you, and is completely irrelevant to the OP since they were not given a 6,1 for free.

 

[m1maverick]

1. Recent firmware update allows use of NVME SSDs with adaptor

Can you expand upon this? I have a 6,1 and I'd like to install this update. However I don't see anything in Software Update. It's currently running Monterey 12.6.2.

 

[avro707]

Can you expand upon this? I have a 6,1 and I'd like to install this update. However I don't see anything in Software Update. It's currently running Monterey 12.6.2.

You have the most recent update.

And you’ll have the firmware update already.

 

[InuNacho]

First I want to thank everyone for the responses, it has been alot to think about!
I didn't know the M2 Mini was right around the corner when I made this post so I am strongly considering this option when it people get their hands on it and can test it with FireWire devices through an adapter chain.

 

[m1maverick]

First I want to thank everyone for the responses, it has been alot to think about!
I didn't know the M2 Mini was right around the corner when I made this post so I am strongly considering this option when it people get their hands on it and can test it with FireWire devices through an adapter chain.

No one here knows when (or even if) the M2 will be released. So no one can say it's right around the corner. The best we can say is the M1 Mac Mini was released 25 months ago therefore it would not be unreasonable to expect an update soon.

 

[InuNacho]

No one here knows when (or even if) the M2 will be released. So no one can say it's right around the corner. The best we can say is the M1 Mac Mini was released 25 months ago therefore it would not be unreasonable to expect an update soon.

The M2/M2 Pro Mini was just announced today and starts going out next week. The base config is slightly higher than my budget but the only reason I would still consider this older Pro is Firewire support.

 

[startergo]

The M2/M2 Pro Mini was just announced today and starts going out next week. The base config is slightly higher than my budget but the only reason I would still consider this older Pro is Firewire support.

I have connected in the past thunderbolt 3 MBP to cMP through FireWire in target disk mode.

 

[m1maverick]

The M2/M2 Pro Mini was just announced today and starts going out next week. The base config is slightly higher than my budget but the only reason I would still consider this older Pro is Firewire support.

Oh? Wow! Excellent! Off to check it out.

 

[avro707]

The M2/M2 Pro Mini was just announced today and starts going out next week. The base config is slightly higher than my budget but the only reason I would still consider this older Pro is Firewire support.

If that one could have 64GB ram it would be a pretty decent option. 32GB is slightly on the low side.