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Mac Pro 2016

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vance09

macrumors regular
Original poster
Aug 8, 2009
167
8
I have the quad processor Mac Pro 2009 and thinking of moving up a few notches to the 6 core 16gb ram 1 t drive with the default video 3 gb,I am looking for speed and reliability like the 2009 model.
I do a lot of graphics (cad work) and video editing.I hate to go higher as the cost goes through the roof but looking for people's comments.I run vmware or parallels with win7.Will win 7 run at a good speed
Also have had boot camp running in the 2009 but turns out win 7 is slow
Also looking at a external enclosure thunderbolt or usb3 for data storage and backups,question being will an external drive allow booting as i back up frequently and might need to boot on backup (if thats still selectible)
I do not want to use a raid assembly as my backup prg requires separate hard drives or partitions
I was surprised that the new Mac Pro is listed as 2013 , i had hoped apple would be updating the Mac Pro each year.
Maybe this is not even a good move.
I could use some expert opinions
Thanks
 
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Very interesting comment. By the way...I was referring to a post with no post except "f."
[doublepost=1467474104][/doublepost]
vance09 said:
I have the quad processor Mac Pro 2009 and thinking of moving up a few notches to the 6 core 16gb ram 1 t drive with the default video 3 gb,I am looking for speed and reliability like the 2009 model.
I do a lot of graphics (cad work) and video editing.I hate to go higher as the cost goes through the roof but looking for people's comments.I run vmware or parallels with win7.Will win 7 run at a good speed
Also have had boot camp running in the 2009 but turns out win 7 is slow
Also looking at a external enclosure thunderbolt or usb3 for data storage and backups,question being will an external drive allow booting as i back up frequently and might need to boot on backup (if thats still selectible)
I do not want to use a raid assembly as my backup prg requires separate hard drives or partitions
I was surprised that the new Mac Pro is listed as 2013 , i had hoped apple would be updating the Mac Pro each year.
Maybe this is not even a good move.
I could use some expert opinions
Thanks
Click to expand...
Yeah, it's unfortunate that they haven't updated it yet. I'm sure you seen many threads here about amd gpu that connects with future Mac Pro....so it might be possible but then again I have doubts. I think maybe Pc workstation would help you with your needs.
 
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for now, best to stick with what you have as the return on your dollars of the 2013 Mac Pro is damn poor. Apple pretty much has to come out with a new machine or at least a major update this year. you don't mention how your current machine is configured but if you've spent any time on these forums there are thousands of posts that cover the variety of upgrades and improvements that can be made to the 4,1 and 5,1 Mac Pros, making them much more competitive. so if you need a boost now; video card, RAM, USB 3, SSDs... and if you really want to dig in, a CPU upgrade. those could all make you feel better about sticking with your current box for another year or even more.

the entry level 2013 Mac Pro is a poor investment as it's practically bested by the top specced iMac. which costs less and includes a nice big screen.
 
If you already have a Quad core 2009 Mac Pro.

Then you may consider flash it to 5,1 (Free).
Install a W3680 (<$150)
Install a HD7950 3G (<150)
Flash the card to Mac Edition (Free)
Install a USB 3.0 card ($20) <- non bootable, but a eSTAT card can
Install 4x4G ECC 1333 RAM (<$20)
Install 1TB SSD (<$300)

And you can install few more HDD inside the machine for bootcamp, VM, data, bootable backup...

Now you can have a Hex core, 1TB SSD , 3G VRAM, 16G RAM, USB 3.0 (non-bootable) Mac pro (same reliability as your current 2009 model, and able to boot Win 7) for just $6xx.
 
JimGoshorn said:
You can't run Win 7 on the 2013 MacPro. Here is the Apple doc which says which versions you can run on which Macs:

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204048
Click to expand...

I can't run W10 on my 2008 Mac Pro according to crapple, yet it flies better than any version of OSX has ever done.

All you do is install from scratch, not through BootCamp, then install BootCamp drivers once Windows is installed. Why do people still take what Apple state as gospel?
 
I think unless something miraculous happens with the Mac Pro I would go for an iMac 5k maxed out bto or a pc if I were you. Personally I do a lot of similar work as you. I use Windows 10 through parallels and have 3D studio max installed there. Everything runs smooth in max even with a lot of Polys. Only thing that's a bit slow is rendering time because I only allocate 2 cores for parallels, but I just use a renderfarm service for that which is cheap and faster than any machine you can buy anyway. Apart from that I do most of my heavy work in after effects and photoshop in OS X and it's all fine on the top model 5k iMac with 32 gb of ram maxed out cpu & gpu and 1tb flash drive. If my next machine will be a new iMac or a pc I'm unsure of, because you get even more powerful hardware on the pc side, would be good for games and rendering. But in general I can live without that and I can not get anything near the speed of the iMacs flash drive or the quality and resolution of the screen... So certain things just don't exist on pc hardware... Also Windows scales much worse on 5k screens. Anyway buying a Mac Pro now would be just completely useless , there's nothing for you to gain from that from what you mentioned that you are doing, unless your main work is fcpx with 4K video editing, nothing else would give you any performance gain, and you would pay out of your nose without getting a nice screen or any new hardware.
 
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thanks everyone ,my mac 2009 is yosemite 2.26 quad 16 gb ram 6 T hard drive space 4870 512
graphics synmaster 27 in display 1920x1200 and a raid assembly on the bootcamp win7 which runs like a turtle
But with parallels or VM ware fusion I am getting 6.0 speed with win 7 ,which is not too bad.
I like the thread above about upgrading my mac that might be the way to go .
I will not spend the big bucks on a new mac pro (vintage 2013) and its is big bucks.
A macbook pro 15.5 maxed out with processor maxed and 512 sad might do a better job on parallels and
its portable to the shop,but i do need parallel for 3 PC programs
 
vance09 said:
A macbook pro 15.5 maxed out with processor maxed and 512 sad might do a better job on parallels and
its portable to the shop,but i do need parallel for 3 PC programs
Click to expand...

The mbp is good enough but if you 're using vm for prolonged time or for heavy processing you have to take in account the thermals, fan noise, and possible throttling.
Also think twice about the MBP's max ram, is this enough for your VMs and OS X?
 
Ok again ...thanks
I am taking the easy way out for now and do nothing, the systems i have will be fine for a few years just thought it would be nice to have something fast and new.
The new Mac Pro is very expensive if you went hog wild and with apple there is never a deal, i also have a dell workstation so i way ok for awhile
 
koyoot said:
He said that he was running Win 7 in Parallels VM. And there he can do it.

However at this point Mac Pro is not worth the money, unless... you look for refurbished model.
Click to expand...
Refurbished with education discount. Lol
 
lowendlinux said:
But its not a Mac
Click to expand...
...you say that like it's a bad thing.

Throw off the Cupertino shackles, get the system that you want - the one that meets your needs now and can up upgraded to meet future needs.

Or buy an Ipad Pro and adjust your workflow to what the device can do.
 
AidenShaw said:
...you say that like it's a bad thing.

Throw off the Cupertino shackles, get the system that you want - the one that meets your needs now and can up upgraded to meet future needs.

Or buy an Ipad Pro and adjust your workflow to what the device can do.
Click to expand...
I don't own any Mac's
 
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