MP 1,1-5,1 Mac pro 5.1 as a server/NAS

[tollickd]

Hey all

Ok I have been offered a Mac pro 5.1 (2010) with specs of:

2 x 2.4 ghx Xeon quad core
16 GB 1066 MHz DDR3
Ati Radeon 5770
and 256 GB ssc boot drice and 5 TB HDD

I am wanting to create a server at home that can be used to back up my macs and iphones and to use it as a Media/NAS.

Is this total over kill and will cost too much to run in power over time or should I opt for a Mac mini 2014 with a few ext HDD attached?

Any advise would be great thanks

 

[Macsonic]

There's a video of this guy who converted his Mac Pro to a NAS server. He mentioned that cost is minimal.

 

[Macschrauber]

This just makes sense if you run the "server" just when needed. 24/7 costs to much energy.

Plus you have an old GPU what eats a lot of power plus a dual processor board. Maybe set in a energy efficient gpu like a RX560 or a Nvidia Kepler.

And replace the dual cpu board with a single cpu board.

But after all this beast still eats a whole lot of energy in 24/7

 

[krakman]

And replace the dual cpu board with a single cpu board.

IIRC the computer will work with just 1 cpu in a dual cpu tray.

you can get a X5672 which runs at 95W instead of 130W for most other Xeon CPUs

 

[tollickd]

ok good to know thanks guys. Maybe it will be over the top for my needs, messaged the guy to see if he would drop price no go 300 EUR

 

[krakman]

There's a video of this guy who converted his Mac Pro to a NAS server.

In this example he is using a single 16TB drive in his 5.1 to BACKUP an existing Drobo NAS server.

You can use any old Mac to do that.

And in this example setup, he could just use an external 16TB USB device attached to his 2019 Mac Pro to achieve the same result, negating the use of the 5.1 entirely.

 

[krakman]

Is this total over kill and will cost too much to run in power over time or should I opt for a Mac mini 2014 with a few ext HDD attached?

The nice thing about the 5.1 is that you can have all the hard drives inside the machine. No external wires nor enclosures nor power supplies.

For 300 Euors you might be better off buying a cheap Synology NAS.

 

[hwojtek]

He mentioned that cost is minimal.

The INITIAL cost.
While I use a 5,1 as a main computer for years now, it is an extremely power hungry machine even doing nothing. Here it is with two X5690s, 3 NVMe drives (no spinners) and a single Safari window, the very one I am typing this text into, opened:

In regards of a NAS, I am well catered with a Dell OptiPlex 7060 running a number of VMs under ESXi and a "dumb" (non-NAS) 4-disk enclosure hooked to it via USB3. Total power consumption of these two is below 80W.

 

[tollickd]

The INITIAL cost.
While I use a 5,1 as a main computer for years now, it is an extremely power hungry machine even doing nothing. Here it is with two X5690s, 3 NVMe drives (no spinners) and a single Safari window, the very one I am typing this text into, opened:

View attachment 2169660

Ok power here in Cyprus is at stupid levels already now i think a mac mini will defiantly for my needs.

 

[hwojtek]

Ok power here in Cyprus is at stupid levels already now i think a mac mini will defiantly for my needs.

You will be more than happy (and your utilities bill will be too).

 

[adam9c1]

Have you looked at Synology Diskstation?
A 4 or 5 bay unit in a Raid5 configuration with a hot spare would do great for this.

 

[G5isAlive]

Yep, I looked into this several years back, actually own an old 2010 Mac Pro... and decided it was STILL cheaper to buy a purpose built synology that had about 5% of the total energy costs. Of course, the Mac Pro running 24/7 acted as a better heater than the synology NAS.

 

[arw]

Just to throw some Euros into consideration: Assuming 130 W idle power consumption and an electricity price of 0,30 €/kWh results in 342 €/year.
A simple DIY Windows Server, Mac mini or a NAS consumes less than 10% of that.

 

[orionquest]

Agree with going with a Synology NAS. Having a dedicated desktop Mac of any kind is a waste for file services. Maybe a newer AS mac might be less energy but overkill for this purpose.