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netnothing

macrumors 68040
Original poster
Mar 13, 2007
3,822
422
NH
So I just picked up the 2.66 GHz Mac Pro :D and was wondering if I could ask the Mac experts here.....

....what do you think the life expectancy is of this Mac Pro?

With all it's expandability, I figure this machine will last a long time. I don't plan on using it for major pro video editing or anything....more for home video/photo, web development, and general use.

The seemingly endless ability to upgrade HD and Memory seems like it will fit my needs for a long time. I guess the biggest issue is processing power. I'm guessing the Dual Intel processors are way ahead of most regular PC's out there today, right?

I'm a lifelong PC user....and wasn't looking forward to upgrading all my hardware just for Vista, so I went with a Mac Pro.

Thanks for any input you can give.

-Kevin
 

slughead

macrumors 68040
Apr 28, 2004
3,107
237
6 years is a good estimate, especially since you can upgrade HDs, RAM, Video Cards (maybe), and use SATA optical drives.
 

howard

macrumors 68020
Nov 18, 2002
2,017
4
i wonder if it will be possible to upgrade the cpu as well after a couple years...
 

netnothing

macrumors 68040
Original poster
Mar 13, 2007
3,822
422
NH
6 years is a good estimate, especially since you can upgrade ......Video Cards (maybe), .........

What are the limiting factors in upgrading Video Cards?

I realize that if in 2 years, the standard cards are configured for different PCI slots, then you're out of luck.

Are there any real limiting factors for the near term?

-Kevin
 

RedTomato

macrumors 601
Mar 4, 2005
4,161
444
.. London ..
As long as you're not using it for video work or high end games, it should still be going well in 6 years time.

I use a 6 year old Apple PowerMac G3 for backup, and it runs 10.4, webmail, mail.app, MS Office 2004 etc perfectly fine. It's a bit slow on some graphics heavy sites that's all. I haven't tried it with photoshop.

re the Mac pro - PCI lasted for about 15 years, and PCIe, which the mac pro uses, is the new standard, and should last a decade. Ditto for SATA.

My sole concern would be the RAM - the mac pro seems to use a very specialised kind of RAM, which I know next to nothing about, and which doesn't seem to be be coming an industry standard.

I would be wary that in a few years time, they will cease making that type of memory, and then prices will start going through the roof.

My G3 Powermac is fully stocked with 1GB (4x256MB) RAM, but if it wasn't it wouldn't be worth it to buy more RAM now, as its type of RAM (PC100) is expensive and rare now.
 

localoid

macrumors 68020
Feb 20, 2007
2,447
1,739
America's Third World
6 years is a good estimate, especially since you can upgrade HDs, RAM, Video Cards (maybe), and use SATA optical drives.

Six years? :rolleyes:

Six years ago in early 2001 the AMD Athlon "Thunderbird" 1.3Mhz and Intel 1.7Mhz P4's were state of the art running the latest and greatest PC133 SDRAM RAM and considered to be highly "upgradeable" by their owners.

Within two years any high end system you buy today is going to be considered middle end or maybe even lower middle end. It always has worked this way. I remember friends waiting to buy the original Pentium @ 60 Mhz, many of them believing it would be the last PC they needed to buy in their lifetime. Didn't happen... technology moves on.
 

wdlove

macrumors P6
Oct 20, 2002
16,568
0
I would think that it should have a good longevity. Purchased a Power Mac G4 in September 2000 and only added memory. I dream of having a Mac Pro.
 

RedTomato

macrumors 601
Mar 4, 2005
4,161
444
.. London ..
Six years? :rolleyes:

Six years ago in early 2001 the AMD Athlon "Thunderbird" 1.3Mhz and Intel 1.7Mhz P4's were state of the art running the latest and greatest PC133 SDRAM RAM and considered to be highly "upgradeable" by their owners.

It's a bit different for macs. They do last longer.

I wouldn't touch a P4 PC now if you gave one to me, but I'd still take an older PowerMac.

Just remembered my 350 MHZ G3 was made in early 1999, so it's actually 8 years old :)
 

JeffDM

macrumors 6502a
Sep 16, 2006
709
10
It's a bit different for macs. They do last longer.

I wouldn't touch a P4 PC now if you gave one to me, but I'd still take an older PowerMac.

Just remembered my 350 MHZ G3 was made in early 1999, so it's actually 8 years old :)

My dad is currently running a dual 500MHz Xeon-based system, made in 1998. I have my grandma using a single 400MHz P2-based system, just as old.
 

Pants Dragon

macrumors regular
Nov 8, 2006
212
0
I used an iMac G4 from 2001 all the way up to late 2006 when I got my Mac Pro. I expect this thing will last my parents a good 10 years. If I wasn't moving out, I'd probably make them upgrade in another 5 years though. :p


EDIT: Heh, actually it was a G3, not a G4.
 

ivnj

macrumors 68000
Dec 8, 2006
1,515
102
My 2000 Pismo is a tad slow. But hey if I can reply here on these forums that's good enough for me. As long as the browsers don't stop supporting 10.3.9 for another couple of years I'm good. Or become outdated and all the new sites start using a new browser or code that isn't 10.3.9 compadible and they force me to have 10.4 or 10.5 in a few years.

If it aint broke don't fix it.

Thanks,
ivnj
 

Superlat

macrumors member
Feb 17, 2006
39
0
Seattle
PIsmo response

I've got 10.4 on my 400mhz Pismo and its running great. FAR better than any other OSX so far. I did upgrade to a toshiba 80gig HD too. And I dont have to worry about it cooking eggs like the new MBPs. Of course, it's horridly slow on
redering 3D, and wont run Ableton Live or Reason very well. Fine with scanning and Pshop 7, though. Thats the kind of mac I like. The good ones they made when they were desperate. They're all resting on laurels now.
 

1dterbeest

macrumors regular
Feb 14, 2006
212
0
Waupun, WI
I'm surprised you can run Reason at all on the Pismo.
It ran fairly slow on my 800mhz iMac G4 and until
the Universal Binary came out, it was pretty bad
on my Macbook Pro also.
 

ivnj

macrumors 68000
Dec 8, 2006
1,515
102
Fast is all relative. My G3 or 604e clone even allowed me to browse the internet and check E-Mail. But OS 9 and even IE 4.5 became very outdated. If they just didn't base 4.5 on an oudated engine or stopped changing the engine every 4 or 5 years I'd still be in good shape.

They keep making the OS more robust and powerfull. And in the process they keep forgetting the little guy.

Thanks,
ivnj
 

olemed

macrumors member
Mar 27, 2007
59
1
Providence, RI
I am eagerly awaiting to upgrade my PowerMac G4 to a MacPro within the next few months. My 6 year old G4 (purchased July 2001) has served me well and is still a highly functional machine (1GB ram, upgraded stock 666mhz processor to Sonnet 1.2; upgraded to DVD-R, etc.,)

It is slowing down in terms of my digital photography habit, but otherwise a truly fine machine in every other way. I'm planning on giving it to my 8 year niece.

I think you could expect about the same life span and then some for a Mac Pro (I'm expecting 6-8 years myself once I outfit it with lots of ram, etc.,)
 

vohdoun

macrumors 65816
Jan 23, 2006
1,035
0
Far away from Earth.
if you max out the RAM in the mac pro, i think it'll last as long as you want it to...

Heh, that would indeed but damn I reckon he would be very broke as it seems so many forget how pricey Mac Pro memory really is.

[Edit] Just checked Crucial and Apple to compare prices on Mac pro Memory. It's utterly scary!

Guaranteed compatible memory upgrades for your Apple Mac Pro Desktop/PC

Apple 1GB $300.00
Apple 2GB $700.00
Apple 4GB $1,500.00

Crucial 1GB $157.99
Crucial 2GB $293.99
Crucial 4GB $765.99

Apple 1GB £200.00
Apple 2GB £470.00
Apple 4GB £1,010.00

Crucial 1GB £96.34
Crucial 2GB £173.89
Crucial 4GB £460.59

Man Apple is such a rip off for memory.
 

Monyx

macrumors regular
Oct 24, 2005
101
1
Australia
Expandable, well designed desktops have high longevity, so long as Apple OS continued to be supported on them. Take the MDD Dual G4 1.42Mhz, for years they have stabilised around the USD750 on Australian ebay and still well regarded.
 

netdog

macrumors 603
Feb 6, 2006
5,760
38
London
Great machine, and since it is overkill at this point, its longetivity is certainly enhanced.

The sad (or perhaps exciting) truth is that today's Pro is tomorrow's iMac is next week's Mini.

Still, don't let that bring you down. Fantastic machine. Hard to get better without a time machine at your disposal.
 

mashny

macrumors regular
Sep 3, 2006
185
0
My Mac G4/400 is a little over seven years old and works great -- never had a problem with it. I plan to get a Mac Pro in the next six months and give my parents the G4 (where it will probably work flawlessly for the next seven years at least). I do a lot of Photoshop and like to use the most recent versions of the application; working with large Photoshop files on my computer is slow going, especially since the maximum amount of RAM it can hold is less than I'd like. Obsolescence is inevitable in the computer world, but seven years is a respectable amount of time to own a computer (and, if I weren't as involved with Photoshop, I'd probably keep the computer for another few years).
 

checkflag

macrumors member
Dec 9, 2006
53
0
Heh, that would indeed but damn I reckon he would be very broke as it seems so many forget how pricey Mac Pro memory really is.

[Edit] Just checked Crucial and Apple to compare prices on Mac pro Memory. It's utterly scary!



Man Apple is such a rip off for memory.

check these guys out. I bought a dvd burner fo $29.00. there memory prices are half of apple. So are SATA drives

http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/apple/memory/
 
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