Mac Pro 3,1 - Anymore upgrades?

[ayeying]

So I recently was handed down a Mac Pro 3,1. It comes with the following specs:

2.8GHz 8-Core Xeon
36GB DDR2 ECC Ram
640GB (2x320GB RAID-0 Software) 7200RPM Hard Drive
nVidia GTX285 1GB Video Card

Besides the hard drives, what else is possible to upgrade on this system? I was looking at the 3.2GHz Quad Xeons but the 150 watt power vs the current 80 watt is disappointing. Maybe upgrade to the 3.0GHz but for 200MHz, I don't know if I should spend the time and effort in that upgrade. I'm not looking to upgrade right now but maybe within 6 months down the road slowly.

I'm surprised this machine is supported from 10.5 all the way till now. How likely would you think the system will be supported after Yosemite?

 

[fuchsdh]

So I recently was handed down a Mac Pro 3,1. It comes with the following specs:

2.8GHz 8-Core Xeon
36GB DDR2 ECC Ram
640GB (2x320GB RAID-0 Software) 7200RPM Hard Drive
nVidia GTX285 1GB Video Card

Besides the hard drives, what else is possible to upgrade on this system? I was looking at the 3.2GHz Quad Xeons but the 150 watt power vs the current 80 watt is disappointing. Maybe upgrade to the 3.0GHz but for 200MHz, I don't know if I should spend the time and effort in that upgrade. I'm not looking to upgrade right now but maybe within 6 months down the road slowly.

I'm surprised this machine is supported from 10.5 all the way till now. How likely would you think the system will be supported after Yosemite?

Personally I think it's got at least one more OS revision before it's abandoned, but it could have even longer to run. Depends on what Apple "officially" supports, probably--I suspect like with 10.8+ on the 1,1 and 2,1 Mac Pros, there will be ways to prolong its shelf life.

Sticking an SSD in as a boot drive will provide a nice boost off the RAID drive in terms of speed. Other than that, you can up the graphics card. I don't think any of the 2008 processor upgrades are worth the cost for what you get, for the reasons you've outlined.

 

[ayeying]

Personally I think it's got at least one more OS revision before it's abandoned, but it could have even longer to run. Depends on what Apple "officially" supports, probably--I suspect like with 10.8+ on the 1,1 and 2,1 Mac Pros, there will be ways to prolong its shelf life.

Sticking an SSD in as a boot drive will provide a nice boost off the RAID drive in terms of speed. Other than that, you can up the graphics card. I don't think any of the 2008 processor upgrades are worth the cost for what you get, for the reasons you've outlined.

I understand the reasoning Apple abandoned the Mac Pro 1,1 and 2,1 was because of their EFI being only 32 bit and starting from 3,1 they started using 64 bit.

What is the highest Nvidia or ATI graphics card, that's Mac compatable for this machine?

 

[fuchsdh]

I understand the reasoning Apple abandoned the Mac Pro 1,1 and 2,1 was because of their EFI being only 32 bit and starting from 3,1 they started using 64 bit.

What is the highest Nvidia or ATI graphics card, that's Mac compatable for this machine?

Theoretically you could put the new Maxwell cards in the 3,1s--whether or not they are bottlenecked by architecture in the 3,1 is another matter.

I had the 7950 in my current rig in my previous 3,1, and it worked quite well--personally I don't want to have to deal with the fuss of external or additional power supplies, so I found a graphics card that can use the 2 x 6 pin adapters in the Mac Pro.

 

[bmxfr]

mac pro 3.1 cpu upgrade

Hello
Isell my mac pro 1.1 whith x3550 8core (64on32efi)
And buy a Mac Pro 3.1 2X2.8 GHz XEON Quad-Core 8 (original)
What is the best cps to upgrade the 3.1
Thanks