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How Old is Your Mac Pro?

I have a 2008 Mac Pro 3,1 dual quad-core 2.8GHz running strong 24/7 with some upgrades:

16GB RAM
HD 5870 graphics card
dual 240GB SSD in RAID-0 for boot/apps/user
dual 1TB hard disks in RAID-0 for library music, photo, video, etc.

external 3TB eSATA RAID-5 for Time Machine Backups
external 7TB NAS for Time Machine Backups
(Time Machine alternates between the two backup systems each hour)
 
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2008 Mac Pro 3,1

Just put a HD5770 card in. Works well other than Apple's sleep bug cutting my fps rate in half after coming out of sleep. Other than that it's a solid computer.

When Apple decides to obsolete my computer I'm probably going to run Windows on it full time. The hardware is solid so I should be able to get at least 5 more years out of it if not more. I have a 10 year old Dell running XP and it still hums along as well.
 
I'm on a 11 month old baby.

Previously I had a 2008 model and barely got 3 years from it. In the 3 years I replaced graphics card, power supply & processors. All under apple care.

From my understanding, my situation was not typical, and it should be noted I never lived further than 1km from the beach in this period. For 1.5 years we lived 500m from the beach which more than likely was a contributing factor to corrosion and a sped up the life on parts.

Note: its a good idea to clean out the dust of the machine! it can become a magnet to both moisture and salt and thats all you need to short circuit.
 
DesterWallaboo said:
Apparently you no longer have to flash PC video cards to work in the Mac since 10.8
Click to expand...

My Sapphire card is already flashed thanks.
If I went to ML I would lose the use of my huge back catalogue of Rosetta based software. Not spending thousands on replacing that just yet.
 
TallManNY said:
How many years before you felt like your Mac Pro was starting to show its age?
Click to expand...

1,1 MacPro from 2006, here.

I felt the graphics card that came with it was getting inadequate in 2011, so I switched that out in 2011. The processors were fine, but I was antsy for power, so I did a $40 upgrade and got 50%+ bump up in February '12. That was VERY inexpensive. A month ago I decided to put in a $99 SSD and get startup faster, so that helped. So in the last year I dumped in $400 to get a $6000 computer up to something excellent in today's computing range available for high mid-level consumers.

This computer will be good for "daily" stuff through 2015, I bet. I can always dump in the speediest processors and get processing jacked up another 30%.

Odds are that they higher-end 2013 MacPro (assuming it gets here) will get an easy decade of use before becoming technosaurus.
 
I purchased my current Mac Pro pre-owend earlier this week. Previous owner purchased it from Apple on March 2011. It has AppleCare till March 2014. It's a stock spec 2.8GHz Quard-Core.

I plan to keep this unit for about 4-5 years. I've upgraded the storage, added a eSata card and ordered 16GB of RAM. In a year or so I'll upgrade the GPU, maybe the CPU and probably add more RAM if needed.

My previous computer was a 27" iMac that I had for about 4 years.
 
Lesser Evets said:
The processors were fine, but I was antsy for power, so I did a $40 upgrade and got 50%+ bump up in February '12.
Click to expand...

Wait, question here, you upgraded from what to what? In your sig it says 2x1.86. how was that a 50% bump from what you had before? Just trying to figure out what you had and what you now have because I have an old 1,1 sitting on my floor and haven't done anything to it besides a ram bump. for $40 I would consider doing something like what you accomplished!!
 
Well, I am still running a 1,1 (see sig for specifics) I am on my 3rd video card - I replaced the 7300 within a week of purchase with a 3870. When the fan on it died, I replaced that with a 5770 from the Apple store.

I'll be running this one until we see what Apple does with the next MacPro.
 
Just retired my early 2008 Octocore, 3,1. It was running fine - really no reason to get rid of it, except it needs a fresh OS install (1st one in 4 years) and it's no longer under warranty. I've replaced it with a 5,1, 6 core machine. The memory is faster (1333 vs 800) - so I figure that more than makes up for the loss of two cores. Of course the CPU is faster too, and it's now under warranty again.

My thinking is that the old 2008, with 12GBs of RAM, and couple of other minor upgrades is still worth about a $1000. Once I sell it and apply that cash to the really good deal I got on the 5,1 Mac Pro through the refurbished store, this new Mac Pro will have been very very affordable. I plan to keep it for at least 3 - 4 years. All of my peripherals just plugged in, naturally.

I expect that my next system will have so many new technologies included, I'll need to upgrade a fair number of peripherals as well. We'll see.... but I figure I have at least 3 years now to see where Apple is going and to get ready for the next migration.
 
'Nuff said ;)
 

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Mac Pro 3,1 (2008) Dual Quad Core 2.8 GHz, 8 GB RAM, Radeon 5870, bought it March 2008.

Used as the OP described:
Gaming, home movie editing, playing and fooling around etc.
Have updated the grfx card form the 8800 GT to a Radeon 4870 and now the 5870. NeXTSTEP is to put an SSD inside as boot-disk.

Probably my best Mac ever.... and I have a lot!
 
Wow. There are a lot of 2008s still going strong out there. And a bunch of 2006. And the PowerPC guy who upgraded with an SSD is getting some extreme longevity. :D

My iMac is just a year old and so I'm not due for an upgrade anytime soon. But there is the possibility of needing a second desktop in the house though. And even if that isn't necessary, when I do upgrade I always think about those MacPros. I'd love to have the latest and most powerful computer (and I can swing the cash if it is justified) and then if I could get 6 or 7 years out of it, I'd like that as well. Tinkering with upgrades would be fun. As one poster said, if you could get a decade of use out of it that would be amazing. We are headed toward a major upgrade next year. Maybe that is a ten year computer when it comes.
 
2010 hexacore
ATI Radeon HD 5770
32GB RAM
120GB SSD Apps/OS
3TB RAID-0 Projects drive
3TB TM


It's a baby. The boss was in a generous mood so I maxed it out. He might still spring for a display but I'm waiting to see what the next refresh brings.
 
is it just me or do the majority of people have the earl 2008 in this thread, with the 2006 in second?

figured the 2009-10 models would be more in use.
 
Phrygian said:
is it just me or do the majority of people have the earl 2008 in this thread, with the 2006 in second?

figured the 2009-10 models would be more in use.
Click to expand...

I have a 2009 converted to 2010. The 2008 was the best bang for the buck however.
 
Mp 1,1

I bought my used off of eBay from from an University sale.

My MP originally, was the low end model, with Dual 2.0GHz processors. I ran original configuration for a couple of years afterwards, but last year I started to do some upgrades to try and keep it up to ML specs. However, after the first couple of Beta's of ML, those of use with 1,1 and 2,1 realized we were no longer supported.

So, with that knowledge, I continued with my upgrades to see what kinda of Speed improvements I would see. Below are the upgrades:

1. Replaced original Quad 2.0 Processors, with Intel Xeons X5355s 2.66GHz turning my MP into a Octo-core.

2. I then took out the original 250GB HD, and replaced it with 4 2TB WD Green Drives.

3. Took the fan-less 7300GT, and replaced it with the 8800GT.

4. Finally, I upgraded the original 2GB of DDR RAM with, the more current 12GB.


I would have to say my upgrades might not be a big of jump as others, but I did happen to notice the largest speed improvement was when I went from the Quad setup to the Octo. Well, this is obvious, I was not expecting a 90% speed boost.

I presume that This MP, while stuck on Lion, will continue to be a power full machine for a couple more years. If not, I'm sure it will still be supported by Windows. :rolleyes:
 
beto2k7 said:
I have a 2009 converted to 2010. The 2008 was the best bang for the buck however.
Click to expand...

At the time, for high core power, it was cheaper than many Windows equivalents. At least new egg and Dell when I priced it.

It sounded like 2009 and later had a higher price premium.
 
GermanyChris said:
'Nuff said ;)
Click to expand...
Same here, the Quad G5 has been a rock. Mine's booting from a Raptor.

When I bought the G5 Quad, the writing was on the wall: Intel was coming. I bought the last, greatest G5 to avoid having to exist on the bleeding edge that resulted from the transition to Intel, and have been using the G5 with great results ever since.

But I have to admit I had been looking with longing at the 6 core since it was introduced in 2010.

So now... my new (to me) 2009 (which thinks it is a 2010 after the Netkas mod, 5770 card upgrade, SSD's, 24g RAM, and hex 3.33 CPU swap) is waiting for me to get a break in the action so I can put it to use in the studio machine room.

In my world (composer/producer/mixer) I don't need or want Thunderbolt. I don't care whether my video card is anything special, as long as I can run three monitors. I need PCIe to use the hardware I already own. So I've taken the conservative approach again. I'll be running DP7 or DP8 (just released) under 10.6.8. I'm hoping I'm good to go for 6 more years, as this machine more than quadruples my G5's processing power.
 
DPUser said:
Same here, the Quad G5 has been a rock. Mine's booting from a Raptor.

When I bought the G5 Quad, the writing was on the wall: Intel was coming. I bought the last, greatest G5 to avoid having to exist on the bleeding edge that resulted from the transition to Intel, and have been using the G5 with great results ever since.

But I have to admit I had been looking with longing at the 6 core since it was introduced in 2010.

So now... my new (to me) 2009 (which thinks it is a 2010 after the Netkas mod, 5770 card upgrade, SSD's, 24g RAM, and hex 3.33 CPU swap) is waiting for me to get a break in the action so I can put it to use in the studio machine room.

In my world (composer/producer/mixer) I don't need or want Thunderbolt. I don't care whether my video card is anything special, as long as I can run three monitors. I need PCIe to use the hardware I already own. So I've taken the conservative approach again. I'll be running DP7 or DP8 (just released) under 10.6.8. I'm hoping I'm good to go for 6 more years, as this machine more than quadruples my G5's processing power.
Click to expand...

I'll be ordering a baseline refub next week most likely. The only decision left is whether to keep it or not
 
My 2008 is still going but had a GPU failure (8800GT) and hardrive failure last year.

For the majority of its life I have been running two GPUs in it, originally a 8800GT and PC 5870 and now an Apple 5770 and the same PC 5870. Put two Intel 520 SSD as bootdrives for OSX and Windows and another HD for media.

It has had a fairly mundane life, only recently have I been running some simulations which take up 100 % CPU power.

I am not spending any more money on it.
 
beto2k7 said:
... The 2008 was the best bang for the buck however.
Click to expand...

kevink2 said:
At the time, for high core power, it was cheaper than many Windows equivalents. At least new egg and Dell when I priced it.

It sounded like 2009 and later had a higher price premium.
Click to expand...

In 2008, when I was still waffling about whether or not I wanted to spend the big bucks on a Mac Pro (I had completely overwhelmed my poor little Mini at that point) I read a review on ZDNet by, iirc, George Ou. He declared that the 2008 8 core Mac Pro was the best value workstation he could find. Period. So, I jumped up to that Mac Pro, and never regretted it.

Up until that point George had liked to mock Apple for its 'Apple Tax', and he would demonstrate how to build a similarly specced system for half the cost. Though his AIO 'home built' system was mightily ugly. He built a small plywood enclosure for the computer bits, and attached it to the back of a flat screen monitor. His wood-working skills were, at best, rudimentary.... and the attachment didn't quite rely on duct-tape - but it was close. For George to recommend the Mac Pro was huge, and gave me the confidence that the money was well spent. He was right.
 
keysersoze said:
Wait, question here, you upgraded from what to what? In your sig it says 2x1.86. how was that a 50% bump from what you had before? Just trying to figure out what you had and what you now have because I have an old 1,1 sitting on my floor and haven't done anything to it besides a ram bump. for $40 I would consider doing something like what you accomplished!!
Click to expand...

Sorry for taking so long to get back here...

It looks kooky--2x1.86 > 2x2.66, but the processors are 4-core jobs with a BSEL modification. You can find the BSEL mod for those processors if you search the net; the info is easy to find. What you have to do is buy them refurbished to get the low-low price (mine work perfectly for used), then get crafty with TINY bits of electric tape to cover a few contacts on the bottom of the processor boards.

Nothing too difficult for anyone to do. Just get the right tools to take apart the heatsinks on your processors, and get a long magnetic driver for the fan screw. Everything else is pretty easy to deal with.

Some folks that did the mod on this forum have even higher stats than I get! But, 8000+ Geekbench is way better than the 5100 I used to get. I think I had 8500 or 8600 Geekbench for this old Mac.

If you upgrade the video card, the processors, and throw in an SSD for your primary drive, you will have a computer to last for many more years. So, $400 or so and you have something pretty keen.
 
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