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wonderspark

macrumors 68040
Original poster
Feb 4, 2010
3,066
112
Oregon
I've been using this Mac Pro for a really long time. Bought CTO as 3.33Ghz quad core that came with either Leopard or Snow Leopard (I should look for that old install disc) and a 30"ACD, and updated it to 6-core and GTX 980Ti, Blu-Ray burner and more, as far as High Sierra 10.13.6 with 144.0.0.0.0. It's been great, but I finally broke down and got a Mac Mini M4 Pro, CTO 14/20 core, 64GB RAM, 1TB storage, and a new Dell U4025QW monitor.

The main reason for moving on is that on the rare occasion that I shut the Mac Pro down, say for vacation or extended power outage that outlasts my battery backup system, the thing sometimes takes several tries before it will power back up. Pressing the power button just makes little clicks, and the light goes out after a couple seconds each time. It sometimes takes me ten minutes to get it to come on, although it does always come back to life.

It's odd to look at this silent little box on the base of the new monitor stand, but I think fifteen and a half years of service from the old MP is pretty rad, and I'll miss the heat it generates in winter, and the soft whirr of the fans... and being able to put framed photos on top of it. I might keep it around to read/burn discs and such, until I get sick of storing it. (Chortle)
 
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Yeah, I bought my Single processor 2.66 the day it was released back in 2009. It got semi-retired when i got my hands on a dual processor a couple of years ago. I thought it was dead so many times. High Sierra? Nope... a Metal Graphics card and an unexpected firmware update extended life for 3 more years... then... Open Core... extended life another 3 years. Processors... SSDs... NVMe.... USB3... Graphics Cards... I think it was just dumb luck for us that the specific expansion potential of the cMP happened to match up with such a shift in hardware capabilities.

But I needed a little portability and got tired of the throw-away windows laptop I used for the occasion I needed a travel computer... So, my MBP M4 Pro showed up on Monday.

Both cheese graters are in the basement still serving up my 15TB of storage though. I mean.. .why not?
 
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I'm really not sure what I'm going to do with it. I think it's just going to take up storage space.

There's a part of me that thinks, "Oh, maybe I'll rip or burn a CD, DVD or Blu-ray disc again." But I've got stacks of blank CDs, DVDs and Blu-ray discs in a box that I haven't touched in at least four years. I don't think I'm going to rip or burn jack.

I also don't see using it as a server, since I just stream things now on one of the services.

Does anybody have a use for a 4,1->5,1 Mac Pro with:

- W3680 6-core 3.33GHz Xeon CPU, 144.0.0.0 firmware, macOS High Sierra 10.13.6
- Nvidia GTX 980Ti 6GB (flashed with EFI)
- 48 GB 1333 MHz DDR3 RAM (16x3)
- Areca 1880-ix16 RAID card with 2GB memory, connected via mini-SAS to 12-disk RAID tower
- LG Blu-ray burner from way back

Oh, and a 30" ACD, and extended Apple wired keyboard and Magic Mouse. And the wireless keyboard it came with.

It's all in perfect condition, no scratches or dents, no yellow in monitor, etc.

For free.

I'm in Oregon.
 
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After testing a base Mini 24GB/1TB, I decided to go with a full Pro with 48GB/2TB and 10Gbps ethernet. I am not throwing out the CMPro I have had for 14 years, but it will rest. The power savings will pay for the new model in two - three years. This is in my study/hideaway, which has a large curved Dell. All the USB devices are hooked to it, and routing is determined by the active video port. With multiple video ports, it is easy to switch between systems. Thunderbolt/USB-C 3.2 devices will be connected directly to the Mini.
My office has an M1 Ultra 64GB/4TB with a Mac Studio display and an additional 12 TB of Thunderbolt drives. I expect that to be in service for years.
I tend to buy and configure high and then amortize it over a long time period.
 
Effectively did the same thing. Though I have no intentions of parting way with mine at all (collector bug), and the fact that it still does darn well with Lightroom. in fact, the pro is faster at exporting Canon C-RAW photos than my base 12 core M4 Pro Mini.

With an External TB4 M.2 drive, it is turning out to be a great local server, and absolutely sips power as compared to the flashed 4,1 I have.

Mac Pro (idle & display off, not sleeping)
- 255 Wats

Mac mini M4 Pro (idle, display off, not sleeping)
- 27 wats
 
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