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Is This A Decent Price for a Used 2008 Mac Pro?

O

ooans

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Jun 4, 2011
284
338
Hello folks,

I have received a chance to buy a used Mac Pro, which is probably the 2008 model.

It has following specs:
2.8ghz quad xeon
32gb ram
ati radeon 2600
(no hard drive included)


The price at the moment is 770 dollars. Is this a good price?

I would be using the Mac Pro to run Final Cut X and as a server running Mountain Lion Server. If I've understood correctly, this model of Mac Pro officially supports Mountain Lion. (and hopefully it would also support the next version of the OS!)


One question aside the price: how loud is this machine when running idle or doing simple non-demanding server tasks? (of course I would be using an SSD to make it more quiet)

Thank you!
 
ooans said:
Hello folks,

I have received a chance to buy a used Mac Pro, which is probably the 2008 model.

It has following specs:
2.8ghz quad xeon
32gb ram
ati radeon 2600
(no hard drive included)


The price at the moment is 770 dollars. Is this a good price?

I would be using the Mac Pro to run Final Cut X and as a server running Mountain Lion Server. If I've understood correctly, this model of Mac Pro officially supports Mountain Lion. (and hopefully it would also support the next version of the OS!)


One question aside the price: how loud is this machine when running idle or doing simple non-demanding server tasks? (of course I would be using an SSD to make it more quiet)

Thank you!
Click to expand...

This is the one that I have. I'll let someone else answer if it is worth the price but I'll answer your other questions.


Yes, it supports ML (that's what I'm running now). However, you will need to upgrade the video card to run FCP X. FCP X 10.0.6. will not even allow you to open the app anymore on a non-OpenCL compatible card (you could on earlier versions).

My system is pretty quiet at idle and under load. I don't think this will be an issue at all.
 
Last edited:
With 32GB of RAM it is a good price, yes. See if it has built in bluetooth and possibly wireless. Also make sure it has two processors, but even with one, its a good price.
 
ooans said:
The price at the moment is 770 dollars. Is this a good price?

I would be using the Mac Pro to run Final Cut X and as a server running Mountain Lion Server. If I've understood correctly, this model of Mac Pro officially supports Mountain Lion. (and hopefully it would also support the next version of the OS!)
Click to expand...

The RAM (which is expensive on pre-2009 models) makes it probably a fair price.

But regarding upgrading from ML, it's worth noting that the 2006 and 2007 models is left out in the rain now. The 2008 model is next, so I would not expect it to be supported by the next OS X, but be happy if it happens.

If you're plan on using it as a server accessible from the internet, you might want to check out Apple's history of providing security patches on "discontinued" software...

ooans said:
One question aside the price: how loud is this machine when running idle or doing simple non-demanding server tasks? (of course I would be using an SSD to make it more quiet)
Click to expand...

Turn it on before buying?

In general it should only let out a small huuuuummmmm.
 
This is a crazy good price.
I think this is a dual quad core as I think the single CPU model maxes out at 16GB

I just bought two 4GB sticks for 180.

Make sure it has apple approved thick heats sinks.

I'm upgrading from 16GB to 24GB ram now.
 
Omnius said:
Depends on your overall needs.
Click to expand...

Not sure what ml does that sl doesn't... only thing i can think of is driver support for certain videocards... and its not exactly official drive support... sorta in a grey area. Even then you can use netkas.org or groths.org info and software to make cards work in SL
 
$770? That sounds like they could be scamming you. I wouldn't sell my 2008 for $770.
 
I just bought a brand new quad-core 2.8GHz Mac Pro 5,1 (closeout deal on the 2010 model) for $2000 and spent another 70 bucks bringing it up to 10GB of memory...

So this sounds like a very low price, given the large amount of memory it has. This is less than one third the price of a new Mac Pro.
 
Lord Blackadder said:
I just bought a brand new quad-core 2.8GHz Mac Pro 5,1 (closeout deal on the 2010 model) for $2000 and spent another 70 bucks bringing it up to 10GB of memory...

So this sounds like a very low price, given the large amount of memory it has. This is less than one third the price of a new Mac Pro.
Click to expand...

big difference between the 2010 and 2008. not to mention it costs significantly more money (now) to upgrade ram on a 2008. the 2008 still uses ide for the superdrive bay so it costs more to buy new optical drives and is harder to find them. The HD sled bays don't use sata III but instead sata II....

There are many reasons why a 2008 is not worth as much. However for many MP 2008 users like myself, a few reasonably priced upgrades makes our machines still very viable for continued use.

I put a crucial m4 ssd boot drive and a 6870 GPU in my 2008.. which already had 14 gigs of ram (i purchased 12 gigs when it only cost 100 bucks) and thus my machine is still kicking strong... but that doesn't mean i would expect someone to purchase it for 1600 bucks when it is clearly not going to be able to be upgraded easily in the future....

The motherboard.. is aging... the processors are aging even though its a dual quad core still... and the ram costs to much to upgrade. I'm happy with my beast, and its still does what i need, but as far as i'm concerned it is more powerful geekbench wise than what it is worth for resale for most customers. However some people need Mac pros for work related things... and in that case its still great.
 
^ All true. But used prices on these are still higher than what you'd expect if you're comparing them to equivalent Windows machines. I shopped used machines before buying new and the 2008 Mac Pros are not cheap. You could probably sell your machine for more than you feel its worth.

Of course, my theory has always been to buy the newest, most powerful machine you can afford, which is why I stretched for a newer Mac Pro rather than go used. Wish I could have gotten a new 2012 base model rather than a 2010 model (albeit a new one) but the $500 difference in price was not justified by the small difference in specs.
 
Thanks for everyone for their answers!



jessica. said:
$770? That sounds like they could be scamming you. I wouldn't sell my 2008 for $770.
Click to expand...

After trying to get further info from the seller, he started to act very weirdly.
So I would not be suprised if it actually was a scam!
Thanks for the heads up.
 
ooans said:
Thanks for everyone for their answers!





After trying to get further info from the seller, he started to act very weirdly.
So I would not be suprised if it actually was a scam!
Thanks for the heads up.
Click to expand...

That's a bummer. I often hate that we live in a world where we can't just trust something. Such is life though.
 
ooans said:
After trying to get further info from the seller, he started to act very weirdly.
So I would not be suprised if it actually was a scam!
Thanks for the heads up.
Click to expand...

That's a shame.

You have to be a skeptic when shopping classified ads or ebay. Know the item you're shopping for inside and out, and know what the current going price is. Be prepared to pay a fair price - if a deal looks too good to be true, it usually is!
 
This is a steal, especially if it has dual processors.
I use this same box as my main Mac at home and it's a beast. I've never been the kind of person to keep a computer for very long. I've always had to have the fastest system and was constantly upgrading. But I've had this system since I bought it new in 2008 and I still love it. I have an Accelsior SSD in it now and it screams.

oops, just saw the last couple of posts. Bummer.
 
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