Just got a cheap Mac Pro 1,1

[InsightsIE]

Hi there,
I got a cheap Mac Pro 1,1 that I want to sell on and mark up. I'm trying to decide what the best strategy for it is to get the best price. On the plus side it has 4GB of ram and 4TB of storage inside. However it has the 7300GT and no Wi-fi card. I put Mac OS Lion on it and now I'm wondering:

q1: What is the smoothest version of OS 10 I can put on the system keeping the 7300GT? I know its supposed to work very badly with El Capitan, would it be the same for Mountain Lion or Yosemite etc?

q2: What is the cheapest graphics card I can get that'll work on a Mac Pro 1,1 with El Capitan? I looked at the 8800GT mac edition and it's too expensive. What is the cheapest GPU I can get ready to go that doesn't need flashing/pre-flashed?

q3: What's the cheapest way to get Wi-Fi on the machine. Is it the Airport card from eBay or a third party PCI card? Is there an option that would cover anything from Lion to El Capitan?

 

[pl1984]

If you want to try and make money off of this system my recommendation is to pull the 4 TB of storage and sell it off separately and give the rest of it away to whomever will take it off your hands. I wouldn't recommend throwing any additional money into it. The 1,1 Mac Pro is a nice system but there's a reason you got it cheap.

 

[InsightsIE]

If you want to try and make money off of this system my recommendation is to pull the 4 TB of storage and sell it off separately and give the rest of it away to whomever will take it off your hands. I wouldn't recommend throwing any additional money into it. The 1,1 Mac Pro is a nice system but there's a reason you got it cheap.

No way will it be given away for free. Wasn't that cheap. What wi-fi upgrade would you recommend? Putting the original apple airport card in or a PCI option? I'm leaning towards latter but don't have ideas of which type? Hopefully one with the antennas so I don't have to perform crazy wiring on it.

 

[Naimfan]

You're better off parting it out.

 

[tsialex]

No way will it be given away for free. Wasn't that cheap. What wi-fi upgrade would you recommend? Putting the original apple airport card in or a PCI option? I'm leaning towards latter but don't have ideas of which type? Hopefully one with the antennas so I don't have to perform crazy wiring on it.

Install a MacBook 2007-2009 AirPort Extreme card (BCM94322MC Part Number MB988Z). It’s the same as the original Mac Pro Wi-Fi and it’s cheap ($11ish on eBay). Buy one with the screw, it’s difficult to find the correct one.

Your Mac Pro has all the antennas cables hidden near the Wi-Fi slot, you don’t need to mess with drivers, just works.

 

[borgranta]

Hi there,
I got a cheap Mac Pro 1,1 that I want to sell on and mark up. I'm trying to decide what the best strategy for it is to get the best price. On the plus side it has 4GB of ram and 4TB of storage inside. However it has the 7300GT and no Wi-fi card. I put Mac OS Lion on it and now I'm wondering:

q1: What is the smoothest version of OS 10 I can put on the system keeping the 7300GT? I know its supposed to work very badly with El Capitan, would it be the same for Mountain Lion or Yosemite etc?

q2: What is the cheapest graphics card I can get that'll work on a Mac Pro 1,1 with El Capitan? I looked at the 8800GT mac edition and it's too expensive. What is the cheapest GPU I can get ready to go that doesn't need flashing/pre-flashed?

q3: What's the cheapest way to get Wi-Fi on the machine. Is it the Airport card from eBay or a third party PCI card? Is there an option that would cover anything from Lion to El Capitan?

Sim 3 requires the 7300 GT which may make the Mac ideal for playing classic Mac games. I managed to find the original Sims game for Mac though I never owned a Mac.

 

[leon771]

I’d just flip it as is and not spend a cent on it.

If it were a 4,1 or 5,1 then sure, go to town on upgrades.

A WiFi upgrade and cheap graphics card aren’t going to make the 1,1 any more desirable.

 

[Macschrauber]

Sell the 7300 ( if it has no swollen caps ), drives and sell the whole Mac without GPU, you will spend days making the Mac desirable for just a few bucks.

Those who want a 1.1 put another gpu in and have experience in fiddlng (or need a base Mac to swap a defective).

 

[pl1984]

No way will it be given away for free. Wasn't that cheap. What wi-fi upgrade would you recommend? Putting the original apple airport card in or a PCI option? I'm leaning towards latter but don't have ideas of which type? Hopefully one with the antennas so I don't have to perform crazy wiring on it.

I intentionally did not recommend any additions because I do not believe they will increase the value of the system beyond what you would spend for them. While the 1,1 Mac Pro is a very nice system (it's a shame Apple didn't support it longer) it doesn't have much value.

Now if you wanted to hold onto it and build it up, that's a different story.

 

[TheStork]

You're better off parting it out.

I concur. The case will bring $50-$80 to a hackintosher who is looking for a case mod project. Unfortunately, I don't think you'll get much more money for the rest of the components because the MP1,1 is out of date. Good luck!

 

[fastlanephil]

I concur. The case will bring $50-$80 to a hackintosher who is looking for a case mod project. Unfortunately, I don't think you'll get much more money for the rest of the components because the MP1,1 is out of date. Good luck!

And that’s assuming that the case is in decent shape.

 

[jbarley]

No way will it be given away for free. Wasn't that cheap. What wi-fi upgrade would you recommend? Putting the original apple airport card in or a PCI option? I'm leaning towards latter but don't have ideas of which type? Hopefully one with the antennas so I don't have to perform crazy wiring on it.

I use this tiny USB wi/fi adapter from Edimax, works well enough at wireless "n" speeds and takes up no space at all plugged into a rear usb port.
Since I purchased mine Edimax has come out with a newer version that supports wireless AC.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/EDIMAX-EW-...475375?hash=item467f7af56f:g:odgAAOSwnpBbNDf6

 

[InsightsIE]

Install a MacBook 2007-2009 AirPort Extreme card (BCM94322MC Part Number MB988Z). It’s the same as the original Mac Pro Wi-Fi and it’s cheap ($11ish on eBay). Buy one with the screw, it’s difficult to find the correct one.

Your Mac Pro has all the antennas cables hidden near the Wi-Fi slot, you don’t need to mess with drivers, just works.

Thanks! Bought one for €7 with screws!

So thanks for all the replies. The USB Wi-fi was very tempting but I opened up and saw the 2 antennas wires in good condition still with plastic on the tips and I watched a YouTube video so I'm giving the internal PCI-E card a go. But thanks for recommending the Edimax I have it bookmarked for future endeavours!

I'm kinda doing a 50/50. I'm taking bits out but likewise putting bits like the Airport card in which if anything wont reduce it's value and would raise it's valuation at least at breakeven point and perhaps making it more desirable as a more complete system. Not only am I taking the 4TB out but there's other very high end video PCI-E cards in it that I'll sell separately as one of them is worth around $300 - $400 alone!

I don't know how eligible it is as a Hackintosh as it does have minor scruffs and scrapes, particularly the bottom - Apple dropped the ball there by not coming up with a feet system.

Out of curiosity what would be the cheapest video card possible to put in it that would make it compatible with El Capitan, PC, flashed or no flashed etc (Although I'm sure flashed is cheaper).

Also to be mentioned, this wont be an eBay machine so I can understand why everyone is right to just get rid of it and break even / modest profit as online is so competitive but this is planned to be sold locally.

 

[macagain]

Good luck! I couldn't even give mine away!

 

[InsightsIE]

Good luck! I couldn't even give mine away!

It's getting awfully tempting to keep it.

 

[barmann]

No way will it be given away for free. Wasn't that cheap. What wi-fi upgrade would you recommend? Putting the original apple airport card in or a PCI option? I'm leaning towards latter but don't have ideas of which type? Hopefully one with the antennas so I don't have to perform crazy wiring on it.

Chances are whatever you invest in it, you will just lose more money .

 

[meanmean]

I also couldn't give mine away and I was offering it with 32GB of ram and a 470gtx.

El captain isn't really all that supported anyway, unless you run older kernels or ignore all the 2008 security updates...