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Found an 09 Mac Pro for $40

M

matty1551

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Jul 7, 2009
289
30
I was at a recycling center this morning and they had pallets of stacked computers. A cheese grater like case caught my eye and I soon realized it was a Mac Pro.

I asked about it and was able to buy it for $40. Everything seems intact and all fans run when powered on. The power light flashes when on and I'm hoping this is due to the lack of ram.

I have an upgraded 06 Pro with 2 x5355. You guys think it will be worth the effort to clean this newer one up and use it or should I stick with my 06 and sell the 09?
 
If you can get the 4,1 Mac Pro to run - it's a huge upgrade over the 1,1 you now have.

Lou
 
Heading to the store to get ram to test it. *Fingers Crossed*

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NOTNlCE said:
Wow, man - that's incredible. Is it a single or dual processor? What a find!
Click to expand...

Can't tell because I don't have the rigit length tool to get the heatsink off.
 
matty1551 said:
Heading to the store to get ram to test it. *Fingers Crossed*

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Can't tell because I don't have the rigit length tool to get the heatsink off.
Click to expand...

You should be able to just look inside and see if there are 2 Heatsinks or one. Also look to see how many RAM slots there are (4 = 1x CPUs 8 = 2x CPUs).

Post a pic of the open case and someone will let you know.
 
Then it's a single core. I thought maybe both CPUs were under the giant heatsink.
 
matty1551 said:
Then it's a single core. I thought maybe both CPUs were under the giant heatsink.
Click to expand...

Wow Great Deal! Even if it's a quad core single cpu, you can upgrade it to a 6 Core 3.33ghz which will make your Mac Pro fly. You can add SSD via PCIe or USB 3.0 card. Enjoy your new machine. :)
 
matty1551 said:
Then it's a single core. I thought maybe both CPUs were under the giant heatsink.
Click to expand...

It's not a single core. It's a single Xeon CPU - 4 cores. But $40 bux - if it works - what a find. It can be upgraded. Lot's of DIY threads here!

Lou
 
flowrider said:
It's not a single core. It's a single Xeon CPU - 4 cores. But $40 bux - if it works - what a find. It can be upgraded. Lot's of DIY threads here!

Lou
Click to expand...


Lol, Yeah that's what I meant. I always get them mixed up.
 
matty1551 said:
You guys know if this memory will work? I'm trying to find something cheap and available at frys so I can buy it on my way home tonight.

http://www.frys.com/product/5915524?site=sr:SEARCH:MAIN_RSLT_PG
Click to expand...

Yes the ram will work from the link you provided. Only note is if your 2009 Mac Pro processor is a quad core, the Mac will downgrade the ram speed from 1333Mhz to 1066Mhz which is fine and still runs ok. If you decide to upgrade the cpu to a six core, the ram speed will be 1333Mhz.
 
Macsonic said:
Yes the ram will work from the link you provided. Only note is if your 2009 Mac Pro processor is a quad core, the Mac will downgrade the ram speed from 1333Mhz to 1066Mhz which is fine and still runs ok. If you decide to upgrade the cpu to a six core, the ram speed will be 1333Mhz.
Click to expand...

Great, thanks for clarifying. Just need something cheap to test it out.
 
Running into another issue. With the stock video card I get nothing on the display. It powers on and I get the chime but nothing ever comes up on the screen.

I replaced it with my non MAC card and I get something on the display but it simply tells me "no bootable device"

My first thought was holding option on startup but I can't get anything on the display since its a non MAC card!!!

UPDATE: My Windows drive boots fine. Shouldn't I just be able to swap a mac hard drive from my old pro to the new?
 
Last edited:
If OS on this old MP HDD is minimum 10.6.4 - 10.7.5, it will work P&P. If you're running 10.8 or 10.9 with Tiamo's boot.efi, you need to replace boot.efi with original 64-bit one first.
 
666sheep said:
If OS on this old MP HDD is minimum 10.6.4 - 10.7.5, it will work P&P. If you're running 10.8 or 10.9 with Tiamo's boot.efi, you need to replace boot.efi with original 64-bit one first.
Click to expand...

So tiamos boot efi is my issue then.

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The computer is a single 2.66 W3520.

Do you still think this machine will outperform my dual CPU 2.66 on my Mac Pro 1,1?

Just kinda debating if its worth all this hassle or if I should just clean it and sell it. If the performance difference is nominal I don't see a in swapping over to this 4,1
 
Depends on what you do.
In single threaded and memory intensive apps 4,1 will be faster. In gaming as well.
In multithreaded apps it won't, unless you'll upgrade CPU to Hex.
I own both: 1,1 with 28GB RAM and 5365s and 4,1 with W3570 and 48GB.
4,1 has undoubtedly higher potential than your current MP.
 
Pretty sure I'm gonna sell. The more I think about it, I don't even push the limits on my 1,1. I only bought it because I wanted something more powerful than my 2010 MBP.

The only thing that bothers me about my current mac is startup time. I can take my profits, buy a nice SSD and put the rest in the bank.

Really happy to see that it's fully functional though, thanks for pointing out Tiamo's boot EFI. Definitely didn't think about that causing an issue.
 
matty1551 said:
Pretty sure I'm gonna sell. The more I think about it, I don't even push the limits on my 1,1. I only bought it because I wanted something more powerful than my 2010 MBP.

The only thing that bothers me about my current mac is startup time. I can take my profits, buy a nice SSD and put the rest in the bank.

Really happy to see that it's fully functional though, thanks for pointing out Tiamo's boot EFI. Definitely didn't think about that causing an issue.
Click to expand...

Just so you know, you could build this into a very nice machine with more future life in it than your current machine.

Also, if you fixed this machine up, I would think you could make a good profit on it. Here in the UK/Europe, there are people bringing over 2009 mac pros, flashing them to 5,1, upgrading the processors, cleaning them up and upgrading, and the prices they get for single processor ones are in the 1500 - 2500 British Pounds range. Now that will be higher than in the US, but still…… it might be worth your while to build it as if you're going to use it yourself, and even if you don't you'll have something to sell for a fair whack
 
CASLondon said:
Just so you know, you could build this into a very nice machine with more future life in it than your current machine.

Also, if you fixed this machine up, I would think you could make a good profit on it. Here in the UK/Europe, there are people bringing over 2009 mac pros, flashing them to 5,1, upgrading the processors, cleaning them up and upgrading, and the prices they get for single processor ones are in the 1500 - 2500 British Pounds range. Now that will be higher than in the US, but still…… it might be worth your while to build it as if you're going to use it yourself, and even if you don't you'll have something to sell for a fair whack
Click to expand...

+1 - I vote migrate to the '09. It can do everything your 1,1 can do but better. If you're not pushing the limits of your 1,1, the stock Quad Core should be plenty of power for you. You have more PCIe lanes, no limiting front side bus, much more memory capability, faster RAM speeds, hyper threading, more upgradability, and OS X support that doesn't require hacks. In my situation, I would probably sell the 1,1 and use the profits to max out the 4,1 - but of course, your choice. Just my 2 cents. Good luck, and congratulations on the incredible find!
-N
 
Mactracker shows Geekbench for your 1,1 at 4800

Your 4,1 is listed at 8,100.

The 4,1 should be way faster for ALL tasks, single- and multi-threaded. What NOT NICE said, above: If you can get it working, keep it, not the 1,1. RAM is cheap and faster. PCI is faster. SATA in optical bay. Upgradeable to 5,1. Upgradeable to Mavericks (if you want it!) without modification.
 
NOTNlCE said:
+1 - I vote migrate to the '09. It can do everything your 1,1 can do but better. If you're not pushing the limits of your 1,1, the stock Quad Core should be plenty of power for you. You have more PCIe lanes, no limiting front side bus, much more memory capability, faster RAM speeds, hyper threading, more upgradability, and OS X support that doesn't require hacks. In my situation, I would probably sell the 1,1 and use the profits to max out the 4,1 - but of course, your choice. Just my 2 cents. Good luck, and congratulations on the incredible find!
-N
Click to expand...

+1
Great find and just KEEP IT!
Cheers
 
NOTNlCE said:
+1 - I vote migrate to the '09. It can do everything your 1,1 can do but better. If you're not pushing the limits of your 1,1, the stock Quad Core should be plenty of power for you. You have more PCIe lanes, no limiting front side bus, much more memory capability, faster RAM speeds, hyper threading, more upgradability, and OS X support that doesn't require hacks. In my situation, I would probably sell the 1,1 and use the profits to max out the 4,1 - but of course, your choice. Just my 2 cents. Good luck, and congratulations on the incredible find!
-N
Click to expand...

Or, if they're not even pushing the 1,1 just get a Mac Mini. It'll use 1/6th the power, saving a lot of money annually.
 
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