Mac Pro 3,1 Move to What ????

[limes666]

Get 2012 or 2010 ( which might end support next year.) but it's up to you. Do you to stay current?

Do you mean by 'stay current' like operating system? - if yes then yeah I try to, I'm on 10.11.5.
I read also that support may end on 4,1 + 5,1 macs too. I guess it all depends if I can find something money wise that isn't really too expensive - that's why I was wondering about this MacBank.co.uk place. I am based in UK so will see what's about.

 

[thats all folks]

I can see there are lots of options and opinions and personal preferences, and also the debate around the new OS, which got me thinking. I guess my question was, do I spend more money to upgrade the machine? And then I saw this ad at MacBank.co.uk saying they swap your 3,1 bits into a 5,1 machine. Wondered if anyone had used them / heard of them before? I haven't got a quote from them yet so maybe not cost effective.

No one can "upgrade" a 3,1 to a 5,1. They are selling you a 5,1 and taking your 3,1 as a trade-in. they then preform a service by moving your drives and cards from the 3,1 into the 5,1. I know nothing of that company nor it's trustworthiness. I guess if you want someone to handle all of that for you and are willing to pay their markup, it could be a good way to go.

 

[limes666]

No one can "upgrade" a 3,1 to a 5,1. They are selling you a 5,1 and taking your 3,1 as a trade-in. they then preform a service by moving your drives and cards from the 3,1 into the 5,1. I know nothing of that company nor it's trustworthiness. I guess if you want someone to handle all of that for you and are willing to pay their markup, it could be a good way to go.

Thanks for the reply - yes, I guessed it's swapping drives etc into new machine and paying for labour etc. I will drop them a line - just wondered if anyone had dealt with them. They are UK based. A lot of stuff I sourced from the forums is based in US so I was seeing what options I could find here

 

[pat500000]

Do you mean by 'stay current' like operating system? - if yes then yeah I try to, I'm on 10.11.5.
I read also that support may end on 4,1 + 5,1 macs too. I guess it all depends if I can find something money wise that isn't really too expensive - that's why I was wondering about this MacBank.co.uk place. I am based in UK so will see what's about.

My bad on typo...damn iPhone. Lol. Hope you find what you need.

 

[ITguy2016]

Do you mean by 'stay current' like operating system? - if yes then yeah I try to, I'm on 10.11.5.
I read also that support may end on 4,1 + 5,1 macs too. I guess it all depends if I can find something money wise that isn't really too expensive - that's why I was wondering about this MacBank.co.uk place. I am based in UK so will see what's about.

Do you stay current merely for the sake of being current? Or do you do so because the applications you use require you to do so?

It's always a disappointment to see ones system become unsupported. However if the system (including OS and applications) continues to do what is needed then continue to use it as is until such time as it no longer supports your needs. Then you can evaluate your options based on the current offerings.

 

[LarrikinAus]

I have to say, the 27" imac late 2015 looks like it is a decent machine. It doesn't slow down / throttle like the old imacs did, its 1TB SSD performs amazingly well with 1520 write and 1894 read. Those speeds suggest the SSD is NVMe.

You can upgrade the RAM using third party RAM.

I know you can't upgrade the GPU later in life, but nor can you with the "current" 2013 mac pro.

I'm pretty sure that when I finally retire my mac pro early 2013, I'll be buying that imac, or whatever the latest one is at the time.

 

[AidenShaw]

...its 1TB SSD performs amazingly well with 1520 write and 1894 read. Those speeds suggest the SSD is NVMe..

It would be better to look at latency and IOPS to determine if a drive is AHCI or NVMe.

NVMe is better at latency and IOs per second, especially under heavy load.

 

[kevink2]

Back in early May I finally decided to upgrade from my Mac Pro 3,1 to something newer. I decided to try the Hackintosh route so I could build something with a fast i7, memory that can be expanded to 64GB at some point, and more flexibility than an iMac.

Not that I really NEEDED it

But my MP was occasionally losing ethernet access to my router, requiring a reboot. And some other flakiness. And now I have a 4K monitor on my new system.

I also upgraded within the last year to the 2015 MBP. For a laptop, it still made sense to me to purchase new.

I'll have to decide what to do with my old hardware. Linux? I'll have to fight the obsolete EFI firmware. The last time I tried Linux on it for a test, I needed to install a separate boot loader.
[doublepost=1466551740][/doublepost]The MP isn't technically out of support for at least another year. You don't get the latest OS, but Apple will still provide security updates for El Capitan for at least another year.

 

[drasl]

I have to say, the 27" imac late 2015 looks like it is a decent machine. It doesn't slow down / throttle like the old imacs did, its 1TB SSD performs amazingly well with 1520 write and 1894 read. Those speeds suggest the SSD is NVMe.

You can upgrade the RAM using third party RAM.

I know you can't upgrade the GPU later in life, but nor can you with the "current" 2013 mac pro.

I'm pretty sure that when I finally retire my mac pro early 2013, I'll be buying that imac, or whatever the latest one is at the time.

The 1TB Fusion drive only has 24GB og SSD......24 GB, its barely enough to contain the OS alone.
How much more does it cost more than the regular 1TB HDD.

Sure it will show fast transfers for "new data", but it will be slow as hell for the stuff you dont use every week.

 

[LarrikinAus]

The 1TB Fusion drive only has 24GB og SSD......24 GB, its barely enough to contain the OS alone.
How much more does it cost more than the regular 1TB HDD.

Sure it will show fast transfers for "new data", but it will be slow as hell for the stuff you dont use every week.

I wouldn't get the fusion drive - I would get the 1TB SSD.

 

[xSinghx]

...Apple has never been a big advocate or backward compatibility, because they're in the business of selling hardware.

Apparently not when the best they have on offer is 3yrs old, and that's just the MacPro. Cinema displays, well...let's not talk about it...

 

[gpzjock]

I agree that the nMP is not worth the price. My challenge with the iMac is the cost vs performance. The 5K iMac with 4.0 GHz i7 processor, 8GB RAM, and 2 TB fusion drive is $2799. Throw in the $200 OWC memory upgrade to 32 GB and you are up to $2,999. My 2008 Mac Pro 3,1 64 bit GeekBench score is 11,300 vs the new iMac is 16,600. That does not seem to be a big performance jump for the $3k.

The 2012 cMP with 3.06 GHz processors, 64 GB RAM, and SSD can be had for around $2,000 with a score of 27,800. The big issue with this one is what will Apple do in regards to future OS support.
[doublepost=1466256399][/doublepost]

Personally I am not frustrated with decision to drop the early 2008 Mac Pro as it is an 8 year old machine and different from the newer machines, but the 2009 seems very arbitrary. The 2009 hardware is more capable than several of the models that they kept supported. The 2009 is almost identical to the 2010 except for the firmware. Why drop support if the hardware is the same?

The 2010 and 2012 are identical. My concern is what happens next round - do they keep supporting the 2010 as long as they support the 2012; do they drop support for the 2010 and keep supporting the 2012 for two more years; or do they drop support for both of them at the same time?

I agree with all your concerns. My gut feeling is that both the 2010 and 2012 will be toast for support by 2020.
A 2016 5k iMac is an expensive computer but it still factors a huge and pricey screen into the deal, so adding a ridiculous priced 5k screen to nMP would add £600 to the bill. As I said, if you want a nice screen the iMac wins on economy hands down but is still pricier than a PC.

 

[jamessnell]

I have a cMP 3,1 (Early 2008 with 2 x 2.8 GHz, 16 GB RAM, SSD). For several months, I have been researching what the next machine should be. The new Mac Pros are out of the question because the performance is just not worth the price. The other Macs are nice, but again the performance is not worth the price.
....
What are you doing for future machines? Any thoughts on the subject?

This is very much a problem for me as well. My MacPro3,1 is sporting 24GB of memory, a mirror raided ssd in a fusion drive with a mirror raided pair of 2TB drives. I've upgraded video cards (even successfully dabbled in video card firmware editing; I highly do not recommend doing that).

We each have our own requirements and needs here are my main ones, weighed by arbitrary points:
- (10 points) Native support of Mac OS
- (Infinity points) Hardware compatibility for Mac OS (can at least be a Hackintosh)
- (5 points) Upgradable GPU
- (10 points) Upgradable Memory/Storage
- (8 points) Multiple displays possible (not USB, 3+ at least)

My workstations get used for Software Development (via Eclipse & Vim), I do minor CAD work for 3D printing and I massively enjoy my long-standing quad monitor setup.

This is my current sequence of hopes & changes for my desktop environment:
1. Apple adds a Legacy Support option for macOS (we pay a little for them to support machines like this)

2. Running as a Hackintosh works well (I've logged about 2yrs under that kind of situation, if I wanted to eff-around getting my machine to work constantly, I'd go back to Linux on the desktop)

3. Endure being out of date, it may be tolerable for a few years.

4. Abandon macOS entirely (go back to Ubuntu Desktop)

5. Retire the MacPro3,1 from desktop duty (it'd be repurposed as a Linux/BSD server). Replace it with a used 27" iMac (I've recently bought 4 from a e-recycler for between $300-$550/ea, they're surprisingly decent)

6. Additionally retire my beloved 17" MBP, get a newer unit with multiple thunderbolt ports (if only that actually existed) and drive multiple external displays

7. Give up entirely on Apple to the point of going full-on generic PC again. Likely would entail living on Windows and heavily heavily existing within a Linux VM (The best multi-display X11 experience is through VMWare's video drivers, weird, I know).

I hope Apple manages to slow down enough that they get back to going after the niche crowd, like the creative folks. Clearly Moore's Law is on an extended vacation, so the economics have shifted a lot too. Maybe they'll move back towards charging a reasonable fee for macOS and in-turn supporting old gear longer. One of their senior guys made some statement at WWDC about a 5yr old machine being really old, that guy's running on obsolete logic. I hope they upgrade their thinking soon.

What I think will realistically happen at my desk is that I'll use the MacPro3,1 for another 1-3years. The day will come when I score a good deal on ~3-5yr old iMac that I'll use the 2 thunderbolt ports on to drive additional displays and endure 1 USB-driven display to fill-out my desk. I'll likely then get in to a pattern of sustaining that until Apple decides to entirely abandon the x86 platform. The moment Jobs said they were going x86, I signed-on. The moment they leave it, is the moment my exodus gets serious.

 

[AidenShaw]

What are you doing for future machines? Any thoughts on the subject?

Z or Precision.

 

[jamessnell]

Z or Precision.

Are those models? Ambiguity--;

 

[AidenShaw]

Are those models? Ambiguity--;

HP's Xeon workstations are Z-xxx, or the "Z-series".

Dell calls their Xeon systems "Precision Workstation xxxx".

If you only want to look at Xeon systems with ECC memory, those are two of the best options. If you don't want the security of ECC memory, there is a much wider range of i7 systems out there.

I bought (with my own money) a Dell Precision T3610 system for my home PC, because I believe in ECC memory. (This system is essentially the MP6,1 hex core, but with support for 256 GiB of RAM (instead of 64 GiB), a bunch of internal drive bays, and a bunch of PCIe slots.)

Very happy with it, and happy that if there's a hardware problem Dell will come to my home for 4 years and fix it.

 

[pastrychef]

I did the same thing that kevink2 did. Built myself an i7 Skylake hackintosh.