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Mac Pro 2010 expectations

Verdenshersker

Verdenshersker

macrumors member
Original poster
Oct 17, 2014
94
1
Copenhagen, Denmark
Hey everyone,

I had a chance to grab a Genuine Mac Pro 5,1 for 485 USD with the following specs:

3,2 Ghz Quad Core
8 GB DDR3 1066 Mhz
500 GB WD Blue
2 x HD5770 1 GB

I want to upgrade it, so I can use it for my design as well as for some lighter video editing (no more than 1080p), but what can I expect? Will it be good enough?

I have this hardware incoming, I want to place in the machine:
32 GB DDR3 1333 Mhz (4 x 8 GB)
Intel Xeon W3680 3.33 Ghz 6 Core
Debroglie Dual SATA III to PCI-E X1 SSD Adapter Card for Mac Pro
4 Port SuperSpeed USB 3.0 PCI-E Card for Mac Pro
2 x 128 GB Samsung SSD (Had it lying around)
Asus GTX 950 Mini 2 GB (Had it lying around)

My plan is to make Fusion drive out of one ssd and the hdd for at total of 628 GB and a 128 GB SSD for Bootcamp (only playing a few games).

Would this be a sufficient build for what I am looking for?
The total for the whole machine with all the upgrades will be around 800 USD
 
If you can grab it for free take it definitely. It's still a good machine, especially with SSD's and a beefy graphics card.

Instead of a W3680 I would choose a W3690 (max single core performance).

The GTX 950 needs Nvidia web drivers installed before you install the card.
 
#2 Sounds good. I feel like it will be a good machine :)

#3 It's not for free - its a total of 800 USD. And taking the W3690 is just even more and I don't know if the 3.46 vs 3.33 is so much better?
Regarding the Nvidia Web Drivers - is that a problem? I'm only considering this card, because it can run a 4K display and it is good enough for my games.

#4 I will be using Premiere Pro CC. And with both the HD5770, I can't have the USB 3.0 and dual SSD card in the machine...
 
Verdenshersker said:
#2 Sounds good. I feel like it will be a good machine :)

#3 It's not for free - its a total of 800 USD. And taking the W3690 is just even more and I don't know if the 3.46 vs 3.33 is so much better?
Regarding the Nvidia Web Drivers - is that a problem? I'm only considering this card, because it can run a 4K display and it is good enough for my games.

#4 I will be using Premiere Pro CC. And with both the HD5770, I can't have the USB 3.0 and dual SSD card in the machine...
Click to expand...

W3690 is only slightly better than W3680, but if you already buy a CPU I would get the max. possible.

Nvidia Web drivers are no problem if you are patient enough to wait for new drivers after each security and system update. And yes, the GTX 980 can indeed run 4K displays, but has no boot screen.
 
Synchro3 said:
W3690 is only slightly better than W3680, but if you already buy a CPU I would get the max. possible.

Nvidia Web drivers are no problem if you are patient enough to wait for new drivers after each security and system update. And yes, the GTX 980 can indeed run 4K displays, but has no boot screen.
Click to expand...

Yeah, the W3690 is about 120 USD and the W3680 is about 75 USD. I just wanted to save a bit there.

It's a GTX 950 - not 980. I'm okay with the no boot screen, since I will be keeping the HD5770 (at least one of them) for booting purposes :)
 
I have a 4,1 with 4-core 2.93 and 8GB and GT120 stock. I've added am Accelsior PCIe card that takes a Sata3 SSD (boot and apps), plus a Inateck KT4004. I use FCPX 10.4 to edit HD videos without any issues. I say this because what you have will work fine for HD editing. An old friend has a stock 5,1 with original 500GB SSD and 5770, plus 12 GB. He uses Premiere Pro without issues (though I did poke him to upgrade to 32 GB).

If you have a strict budget, a W3680 (or x5680) is nice. Other threads state that the xx90 series are only a tiny bit faster.
The memory will be helpful.
I would prioritize the USB3 over a the SSD card. In my testing, along with others, there is no difference for video performance between the card in a SATA connection (you have 6) and mounted on a PCIe card. Moving bits around is an essential part of the video workflow, and USB3 is a big help.
 
A six-core 3.33GHz Mac Pro will be a nice machine but whether it’s worth $800 for such an old machine is another matter.

Just to set your expectations a five year old quad core i7-4770 has about 5% more multi core performance but about 50% higher single threaded performance. You can buy a well specified used HP Z220 workstation with i7-4770 for less than half what the Mac Pro will cost or an equivalent used ex-corporate desktop PC for even less.

Unless you really need MacOS it’s really expensive for the performance.
 
#8

Thanks for the info!

#9 Just to inform you, I am in Denmark, where they prices are a lot higher here, so you don't get a lot for $800.
A great example is the new iMac Pro - the base model in the US i $5.000 - in Denmark it is just above $7.000 if you do the currency translation... So $800 here would be something in the line of $500-550 for people in the US.
 
I have the similar but the 3.46 hex and it feels sluggish. It benches 3100 single 15500 multi.

It has 2x 850 evos on pci cards raided running about 800mb read and write, its the graphics card that lets it down but still undecided what to buy as all the nvidia drivers are awful and the ati cards are less powerful and all the cards are about twice the price they should be atm. Seems silly to drop £300-400 on a graphics card when the rig is probably worth £1000 and a 27" base 5K imac is only £1700 and runs circles round it in day to day use. Bought my dad a base 27" 5k fro christmas and it benches single 4570 and multi 15100. Plus you get that 5K display.

I use lightroom mainly and its really stuttery and drives me mad. Its because im using the 27" ACD and it struggles to push the pixels if I put it on the 23" ACD it behaves better. Indesign doesn't really tax it neither illustrator.

Im a graphic designer and photographer and looking to swap it out. At the end of the day its still a 9 year old system, its impressive it works as well as it does but it feels its age.
 
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I have a good experience with an ATI 7970 3GB card. You def want a killer video card. I had heard the ATI were better for FCP but I wonder if the Nvidia options are just as good in practice.
 
#11 I will mainly be working with Sketch, Framer & Principle for Mac (UI Designer) , but I do jump into Photoshop, Illustrator, Premiere Pro and Adobe Audition as well, so I will like to have a somewhat great experience there as well.

My older HD5770 isn't the best anymore and I have the GTX 950 lying around, so I will try that. If it is still bad, I might go for an RX 580 8 GB or so
 
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