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How much should I spend on an old MP?

frocco

frocco

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Jan 27, 2009
498
43
Hello,

It is 5/6 years old.

Model Name: Mac Pro
Model Identifier: MacPro1,1
Processor Name: Dual-Core Intel Xeon
Processor Speed: 3 GHz
Number Of Processors: 2
Total Number Of Cores: 4
L2 Cache (per processor): 4 MB
Memory: 6 GB
Bus Speed: 1.33 GHz
Boot ROM Version: MP11.005C.B08
SMC Version (system): 1.7f10
Serial Number (system): RM7052H4WS4
Hardware UUID: 00000000-0000-1000-8000-0017F205EDE2



Chipset Model: ATY,RadeonX1900
Type: Display
Bus: PCIe
Slot: Slot-1
PCIe Lane Width: x16
VRAM (Total): 512 MB
Vendor: ATI (0x1002)
Device ID: 0x7249
Revision ID: 0x0000
ROM Revision: 113-A52027-140
EFI Driver Version: 01.00.140

What is the most I should pay?
Is it worth buying for gaming and programming?
 
What is the most I should pay?
Is it worth buying for gaming and programming?
Click to expand...

This is probably not worth much more than $1,000.

1. Define gaming. If you're talking about recent FPS games with high GPU requirements, a Radeon X1900 is going to struggle to keep up.

2. Programming what?


Bear in mind that this is an older Mac Pro and its upgrade path will be somewhat limited versus the more modern models. For example, you're limited to using graphics cards that support EFI-32 (the Apple Radeon 5770 does). But the last of the EFI-32 NVIDIA cards was the 8800 GT.
 
www.mac2sell.net may be a good place to start. I seem to remember it being a bit on the low side in its estimates, but using it as a means to get a private seller off of an unreasonably high estimate.

You can type in the machine's specs (though it doesn't have a place for updated video cards for the pro) to see if you're getting a good deal (or, at least not getting raped).
 
frocco said:
Hello,

It is 5/6 years old.

snip..............
What is the most I should pay?
Is it worth buying for gaming and programming?
Click to expand...

~$500 (maybe) ......... would highly recommend getting a newer rev.
 
A 3ghz Mac Pro is definitely not only $500, closer to over $1000. The 2.66ghz ones are going for around $800-1000, and usually the 3.0ghz ones are in the $1k to 1,200 range depending on what they come with.

You can still upgrade a lot in it - I have a 2.66ghz and it's very fast. I dropped in:

SSD Hard Drive (Huge difference)
ATI 5770 (I had an 1900xt before. Only noticed a difference in gaming.)
More Ram (Went from 5gigs to 9, helps a lot)
 
$1,200 is about the highest I would go, and that is is what I am spending on my 1,1.

Of course the newer stuff will be faster, but obviously will also be more expensive. This will allow me a cheap way to run Lion without giving up the expandability of my G5.
 
That machine was originally released in Sep 2006, as I bought the same model as soon as it came out. I have been using it every day since I purchased it and has never let me down. The Machine is still going strong today. However it is getting to be almost 5 years old now, so I guess it is getting towards the end of its life. I noticed that Final Cut Pro X will not be able to run on it as the graphics card is not compatible. However it runs fine with FCP, Aperture as well as the latest version of Photoshop.
 
I have one of these machines, recently purchased used, and they are great Mac's still going strong after all these years. With that video card you are going to be pretty limited in terms of gaming, as well Xeon processors are not the best for gaming either. If you can, I would put your money in to newer technology, I would of done the same, but my budget was very restricted and I really wanted a Mac Pro for other reasons. You will get a much better gaming experience out of a more recent iMac then this Mac Pro, in my opinion. The prices others have quoted are the range that these Mac's go for, but as I said, I think $1000.00 would be better spent on a newer or even used iMac then a Mac Pro 1,1.
 
$900 seems to be the going rate around here for something like that, but in my opinion that's too high for a 5 year old computer.

Also, it will not be appropriate for gaming at all, unless you are talking about games that are also 5 years old. You can upgrade to an ATI 5770 for a couple hundred more and that would help a bit.

I don't know anything about "programming".
 
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