is upgrading such an old system worth it will I see a big difference? and will it be able to keep up with todays standards?
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Mac Pro 1,1 8 Core upgrade worth it?
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Well, you should probably provide more details. What CPUs do you have in there now and what are you trying to get out of it? Is it too slow for you now? And what kind of budget are you looking at if you were to buy a new computer? Is that going to change in the near-ish future?
But without knowing anything else, I'd say no. "New" software isn't going to run on that system for very much longer due to the 32-bit issue. But if you just want a mild speed bump for <$100 and are happy with the software its running now, then go for it.
Well things like Photoshop adobe Encore Final Cut Pro X ETC... I currently Use my base i5 13 MBP but it get slugish in encore and final cut pro.... I have the 2.66 Mac Pro Quad 1,1 .... thing is I am getting it tomorrow but I am upgrading the Video card to XFD AMD and 8GB ram to be able to use Final cut with no issues and to be able to upgrade to Mountain Lion the 64 bit boot is a fix other members are already trying to figure out to work but from what i was told my dual core MBP pulls a little better bench numbers so now I dont know if its going to be just as slugish and if the 8 cores will help
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Problem is I'm a college student I need a power house for work at home and my MBP for notes but I am selling my MBP to get the new redesigned one everybody is saying is going to come out I already got the buyer lined up 
Problem is I'm a college student I need a power house for work at home and my MBP for notes but I am selling my MBP to get the new redesigned one everybody is saying is going to come out I already got the buyer lined up
So buy an old powerbook to take notes with..
What I'm getting at is you spend money and time upgrading the MP then you need to hack 10.8 forward on it all for less "power" than a 15" MBP. The MP has other benefits obviously but a 10k geekbench is stock i5 territory, and the i5 will use significantly cheaper RAM.
My Vote MP 4,1 and a powerbook/cheap tablet
Im going to stick to this mac pro until the next 2 Updates then I am going to buy the current model from there on ( I should have started my career by then money flow will be better)
It would certainly be worth it under the right circumstances. A lot depends on what you already have in the 1,1 and what you plan on doing with it.
In my case, I am doing a CPU replacement next month. I have already addressed most of the bottlenecks in my system (see sig)
My workhorse applications are Vue, Shade, Poser Pro 2012, and Photoshop Elements - rendering is the workhorse.
I wouldn't sweat the ML - have you seen ANYTHING that makes you go "I gotta have that!" I haven't in either Lion or Mountain Lion. I am chugging along with SL.
In my case, I am doing a CPU replacement next month. I have already addressed most of the bottlenecks in my system (see sig)
My workhorse applications are Vue, Shade, Poser Pro 2012, and Photoshop Elements - rendering is the workhorse.
I wouldn't sweat the ML - have you seen ANYTHING that makes you go "I gotta have that!" I haven't in either Lion or Mountain Lion. I am chugging along with SL.
I recently did a BSEL upgrade on my 1,1 to an 8-core.
It's awesome, and it outstrips all MacBooks and Airbooks and Minis and most iMacs. Honestly, the dual processor Macs trash the single processors, even without serious speed. Do the upgrade with a pair of cheap processors BSEL'd for extra boost. Don't even think about upgrading to any single-processor Mac system, and don't think about a current Mac Pro since they are close to antique.
You'll have a good system again by going 8-core. If you can afford the fastest processors, put them in.
Just upgraded my 5150's to 5355's and seen a very nice improvement in performance.
http://retrocosm.net/2012/05/25/mac-pro-11-processor-upgrade/
Given you can get these Xeons for good prices now and the minimum hassle involved in swapping them out I'd say it's definitely worth it.
http://retrocosm.net/2012/05/25/mac-pro-11-processor-upgrade/
Given you can get these Xeons for good prices now and the minimum hassle involved in swapping them out I'd say it's definitely worth it.
Just to add to an old post but with current news. Even 3 years after this discussion I think it is worth it to keep upgrading these old beast! I did the upgrade from quads to 8 core (3.0GHz) around the time of this last post. Of course I got a great deal on a matched pair ($180 for both) and the swap was pretty straight forward. I then went with an small SSD as my main drive. A huge improvement in using FCP back then. Now, in 2015, I'm eager to upgrade to a GTX 780 and start running a 64bit EFI to boot up with Yosemite! Especially now that I have been using Premire Pro and can't wait to see blazing speeds with my CUDA capable graphics card! Maybe even El Capitan might bring even better performance with all they are touting.
I had upgraded my 1,1 to 2,1 with 3.0GHz 8 core and 24GB of memory some years ago. When I upgraded my main system to a mid 2010 with 12 cores, I thought, I would sell it. But I decided to keep it as a backup and am glad, I did.
I just added a Fusion drive to the 2007 model and upgraded to Yosemite 10.10.4. It has had the Apple ATI Radeon HD 1480. It really does not feel significantly different from the newer model. Everything runs. The graphics card has an impact on games and future Metal compatibility, but otherwise you would be hard pressed to find a difference 8 years later.
upgraded mine 2 years ago with 2 * 2.66 Ghz quads (not the quickest), have 14 Gb of ram in there. Didn't see much in changing the system (at what expense) except I installed finally an SSD in there (hdd died last week) ans THAT is indeed a nice upgrade to do ... think it was basically the slowest part in the good old box ... think it'll go for some more years again