Just Upgraded my Mac Pro (Late 2013)

[Theophilos]

Hello, everyone,

In this day in which Mac users are rightly outraged by Apple's failure to update the Mac Pro in more than 1,000 days, I wanted to share a good experience I had in upgrading my Mac Pro 6,1.

A year ago, I purchased a Quad-Core version with 12 GB RAM, dual D300s, and a 256 GB SSD. Before even powering it on, I upgraded the 12 GB RAM to 32 GB RAM from OWC.

Although the Mac was running absolutely fine with MacOS Sierra for everything I do (Photoshop, Lightroom, Premier Pro, etc.), I wanted to make it a bit more "future proof."

So I found this processor on eBay for $899.00 and purchased it: Intel Xeon Processor E5-2667v2 QS CPU 3.3GHz 8-Core 25M Max 4.0GHz SR19W QF67 ES. In addition, I also found 32 GB of OWC RAM for the Mac Pro on eBay for $150.

After upgrading everything, I have a beast of a machine with Geekbench 3 scores of 3757 Single-Core (up from 3611) and 27311 Multi-Core (up from 14321, and more than the stock 12-core version, it seems.) Obviously, if you're simply after benchmarks, there are thousands of computers running 18-44 cores that have better benchmarks than this, but for my use in the MacOS ecosystem, the upgraded machine is running quite smoothly and I am very happy with it.



In the future, I would consider upgrading the SSD to one of the new 4-channel 1 TB versions, but after an expenditure of almost $1,000 on this upgrade, that will have to wait.

It's a small encouragement that we can still upgrade our machines and great real-world performance in MacOS.

 

[PhiLLoW]

how much time did you need to take the mac pro apart, replace the cpu and put it back together?

( english not main language, sorry )

 

[pat500000]

I think i might go this route since i'm using FCP X still.

 

[Theophilos]

PhiLLow,

It took me about 1.5 hours, following this excellent video from OWC: Mac Pro (Late 2013) Processor Upgrade Video - YouTube. It should have taken much less, but I was delayed when the two of the housings for the four main heat sink screws came off with their screws. It made reassembling the CPU and heatsink modules much more tricky. Had that not happened, the whole thing would have been ridiculously easy.

pat500000,

Yes, I think it's a great option. I've been enjoying the speed boost in Adobe Premier Pro CC 2015.4, which now partially supports MacOS's Metal feature. The extra 32 GB of RAM really helps, as well. It's amazing to see how RAM hungry MacOS is; it uses whatever you put into the system.

 

[pat500000]

PhiLLow,

It took me about 1.5 hours, following this excellent video from OWC: Mac Pro (Late 2013) Processor Upgrade Video - YouTube. It should have taken much less, but I was delayed when the two of the housings for the four main heat sink screws came off with their screws. It made reassembling the CPU and heatsink modules much more tricky. Had that not happened, the whole thing would have been ridiculously easy.

pat500000,

Yes, I think it's a great option. I've been enjoying the speed boost in Adobe Premier Pro CC 2015.4, which now partially supports MacOS's Metal feature. The extra 32 GB of RAM really helps, as well. It's amazing to see how RAM hungry MacOS is; it uses whatever you put into the system.

At the moment, there are no news about mac pro...so i'm thinking grabbing one hopefully from refurbished.

 

[thefredelement]

Hello, everyone,

In the future, I would consider upgrading the SSD to one of the new 4-channel 1 TB versions, but after an expenditure of almost $1,000 on this upgrade, that will have to wait.

It's a small encouragement that we can still upgrade our machines and great real-world performance in MacOS.

NICE!

Would you happen to know what model SSD the 1TB you mentioned is?

 

[Theophilos]

NICE!

Would you happen to know what model SSD the 1TB you mentioned is?

Yes, here it is:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/351601210482

 

[leon771]

Assuming this is a production machine are you worried at all about any errors in your CPU as it is an engineering sample?

 

[ActionableMango]

That Ebay seller referring to an engineering sample as a "new-other" processor is huge stretch.

 

[shaunp]

Hello, everyone,

In this day in which Mac users are rightly outraged by Apple's failure to update the Mac Pro in more than 1,000 days, I wanted to share a good experience I had in upgrading my Mac Pro 6,1.

A year ago, I purchased a Quad-Core version with 12 GB RAM, dual D300s, and a 256 GB SSD. Before even powering it on, I upgraded the 12 GB RAM to 32 GB RAM from OWC.

Although the Mac was running absolutely fine with MacOS Sierra for everything I do (Photoshop, Lightroom, Premier Pro, etc.), I wanted to make it a bit more "future proof."

So I found this processor on eBay for $899.00 and purchased it: Intel Xeon Processor E5-2667v2 QS CPU 3.3GHz 8-Core 25M Max 4.0GHz SR19W QF67 ES. In addition, I also found 32 GB of OWC RAM for the Mac Pro on eBay for $150.

After upgrading everything, I have a beast of a machine with Geekbench 3 scores of 3757 Single-Core (up from 3611) and 27311 Multi-Core (up from 14321, and more than the stock 12-core version, it seems.) Obviously, if you're simply after benchmarks, there are thousands of computers running 18-44 cores that have better benchmarks than this, but for my use in the MacOS ecosystem, the upgraded machine is running quite smoothly and I am very happy with it.

View attachment 664759

In the future, I would consider upgrading the SSD to one of the new 4-channel 1 TB versions, but after an expenditure of almost $1,000 on this upgrade, that will have to wait.

It's a small encouragement that we can still upgrade our machines and great real-world performance in MacOS.

I got around a 30% performance hike on my 6-core nMP too by selling on ebay and buying a PC with a 6850k for less money than I sold the Mac for. And I ended up with 128GB RAM, and loads of space internally for SSD's. I'm not a Mac-hater by the way, just disappointed that there's no development on the platform and I had to move on to get what I wanted.

 

[Chicane-UK]

At the moment, there are no news about mac pro...so i'm thinking grabbing one hopefully from refurbished.

I would seriously wait until the end of the year at least. Sure there are no rumours right now, but it would be insane for Apple to not at least refresh the Mac Pro platform (if not a complete redesign) when this fabled / elusive Mac event happens in the next month or so.

 

[pat500000]

I would seriously wait until the end of the year at least. Sure there are no rumours right now, but it would be insane for Apple to not at least refresh the Mac Pro platform (if not a complete redesign) when this fabled / elusive Mac event happens in the next month or so.

Yeah I just got myself z series. They are insane. Why do this to the users? I don't think there will be a keynot otherwise they need to release the invitation.

 

[Theophilos]

Assuming this is a production machine are you worried at all about any errors in your CPU as it is an engineering sample?

I was on the fence about it, but I scoured through his eBay feedback and found many satisfied customers who had purchased engineering samples. There was one user from Germany who bought the same exact CPU for his Mac Pro 6,1.

So far, I have been running all of my applications and haven't observed any errors or kernel panics. Everything is running quite smoothly, I must admit.

 

[Theophilos]

Just thought I'd update this thread on the day I expect to receive a new 2019 Mac Pro.

Since I upgraded my 2013 Mac Pro with this 8-core Xeon off eBay (which was an engineering sample), I used and pushed my Mac Pro every day and upgraded to all of the new MacOS versions without any problems whatsoever. In the last 3 years, I remember only 2-3 kernel panics/random restarts, which seem to be related more to the SSD as opposed to the Xeon processor.

Overall, it was a good investment that saved a lot of money as opposed to ordering the same spec from Apple. My 2013 Mac Pro started as a base model quad-core with 16 GB RAM and a 256 GB SSD. Now, it is an 8-core with 64 GB RAM and a 1 TB NVME SSD with an m.2 adapter. It's still working great and my children will hopefully enjoy it for years.