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MP 6,1 Mac pro 6.1 value

J

jerry512

macrumors newbie
Original poster
May 7, 2006
10
7
San Francisco
Purchase advice. I have a chance to purchase a 6 core 2013 Macpro for $350. What do you think? I know it's no longer supported. Mostly just for general use with a couple of VM's. I know better options are available, but I like the ports available. Or is a headache.

Thanks in advance
 
But your posts from 2017/2018 show that you already have a 6.1 Mac Pro., so you should already know if the 6.1 is a headache or not..?
 
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jerry512 said:
Purchase advice. I have a chance to purchase a 6 core 2013 Macpro for $350. What do you think? I know it's no longer supported. Mostly just for general use with a couple of VM's. I know better options are available, but I like the ports available. Or is a headache.

Thanks in advance
Click to expand...
What about the one you already have which you got from Best Buy at $1750 with the D300 back in 2017?


Unless you can buy a brand new one, I wouldn't bother with it. Just seems doubtful for support going forward with lots of bespoke parts. A 5,1 if a video card fails, you just get a 6800/6900, flash it, do a pixlas mod and install the new card.
 
Honestly if you are going with tech that old a 5,1 Mac Pro is a better buy. If something breaks you can just replace it. If something breaks on a 6,1 you are screwed.

Some machines just arent worth the headache:
Late 2013 6,1 Mac Pro
2011 Macbook Pro's with dedicated GPUs
Any Macbook with a butterfly keyboard
 
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Can’t go wrong at that price, especially if nice condition. Brilliant piece of kit and if you accept it for what it is in todays term, slow and largely none expandable then go for it. Love mine, use it infrequently but each time I do I love the look and silence of it quietly going about its business. I coupled mine with an egpu just to drive a ultra widescreen but it drives 4K just fine without.
 
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The above is quite true and I do love my 6,1 - it’s maxed out in the specs and it’s a beautiful thing to look at. Also so much quieter than the 5,1 with its howling fan noise.
 
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There is no better Mac for anything near that price if your main use case is running a bunch of x86 VMs. You don’t say how much memory the one you’re looking at has in it. Might want to factor that into your costs.
 
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Possibly only me holding an opposite view. It doesn't make any sense buying cMP or Trashcan in 2022. Particularly for running virtual machines (including MacOS), non sensical at all.

Better options available: 1) build a PC with used/new parts (Ryzen processors, cheap but adequate consumer motherboard /w ECC DIMMs support) or 2) buy a second hand but relatively new OEM PCs. Both options available in compact form factors if that's what draw you to Trashcan.

You also get silent operation and flexibility of user replaceable parts. Best of all AVX2 support.
 
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One friend passed on a 7.1 for about 1000€ because “intel is dead for apple”.
 
I agree with kvic that the 5,1 and 6,1 should not be considered now. I suggest to only consider a 7,1. Or if you don’t mind a closed box system then a Studio.

The 7,1 will stay supported until at least 2027. This is assuming it’s discontinued next year, receives two more OS updates, and then security updates for two more years. But you can always run Windows or Linux on it after that.
 
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jerry512 said:
Purchase advice. I have a chance to purchase a 6 core 2013 Macpro for $350. What do you think? I know it's no longer supported. Mostly just for general use with a couple of VM's. I know better options are available, but I like the ports available. Or is a headache.

Thanks in advance
Click to expand...
For just 350 USD it's the best purchase you can do.
In Italy for the same machine configuration you have to pay 1350 EUR.
Take the chance. You won't regret it.
 
After I read this, I checked the Apple trade in value of mine. 6 core, D500. Apple will give me $320. I'm keeping it though, just because it's nice to look at. My M1 mini ran circles around it though.
 
TobiasT said:
One friend passed on a 7.1 for about 1000€ because “intel is dead for apple”.
Click to expand...
Oh really? Why given that 7,1s, even base models are going for much more - one in my country went for more than three times that price with a bidding war at the end.

This friend of yours missed out on plenty of money. But if they want to throw away money just to push a point then so be it.

kvic said:
Possibly only me holding an opposite view. It doesn't make any sense buying cMP or Trashcan in 2022. Particularly for running virtual machines (including MacOS), non sensical at all.

Better options available: 1) build a PC with used/new parts (Ryzen processors, cheap but adequate consumer motherboard /w ECC DIMMs support) or 2) buy a second hand but relatively new OEM PCs. Both options available in compact form factors if that's what draw you to Trashcan.

You also get silent operation and flexibility of user replaceable parts. Best of all AVX2 support.
Click to expand...

The 5,1 and it's generation are just getting too old now. 6,1 is beautiful to look at but it's a nightmare to work on with lots of bespoke parts.

The 7,1 is what we all liked about the 5,1, just better thought out, more PCI slots, more room inside it, more ram.

I'll stay with 7,1 for as long as I can then move over to PC again most likely. Windows 11 Pro runs beautifully on the 7,1, it's really fast.
 
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For 350 , usd i presume, for a working 6,1 you really cannot go wrong.... but remember, the usb A ports are 'only' 3.0 , and the TB ports are 'only' 2.0. Both these are limitations, especially the latter because TB2 devices are rare and expensive, so mostly these 6 ports will just sit there doing nothing. (although its the best way to connect a 4k monitor)
 
scottrngr said:
After I read this, I checked the Apple trade in value of mine. 6 core, D500. Apple will give me $320. I'm keeping it though, just because it's nice to look at. My M1 mini ran circles around it though.
Click to expand...
And if you get a nice cooling fan stand, along with a mesh bottom cover for the Mac mini + EGPU it is a MacPro6.1 killer.
 
a 6 core for $350? if everything else is base model (512gb storage, 16 or 12gb ram, d300 gpu's) i wouldn't buy it, because the value of the trashcans just keeps going down lol. if you can bring the price down to $300 or less it might be worth it. i bought mine a little over a year ago for $800, then sold it about 2 months ago for under $400, that price hurt to look at haha. the value on them just keeps falling, since outside of a some specific use cases they really aren't the best tool for the job anymore. you mentioned ports, but it's not a huge selling point imo. 6x thunderbolt 2 sounds cool on paper until you do some shopping and realize there's very few options for thunderbolt 2 expandability. last i checked the only tb2 dock i could find was nearly the price of the computer itself. dual ethernet might be useful, but the 4x usb 3.0 can be achieved with any tb3-equipped mac.
 
pretty good price, but you'll probably want to upgrade to an 8-core if you feel comfortable taking it apart.
 
grouch said:
pretty good price, but you'll probably want to upgrade to an 8-core if you feel comfortable taking it apart.
Click to expand...
If you are doing that, you may as well jet go the whole way and put the 2.7ghz 12 core CPU in. It runs very nicely and isn’t expensive.

The upgrade is tricky to do however and not recommend if you aren’t experienced with this kind of work.
 
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Hiya 6,1 lovers.
I picked up one of these for $725AUS ($488US, $488EUR, $424GBP) and absolutely love it.
I've seen others higher, with better specs (this has 256GB SSD and only 32GB Ram), but considered it a good price for an entry level. Already bought a 12 core CPU for it, coming in a few weeks.

$350 (I'm assuming US) is pretty decent for it. Enjoy it.
 
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Planning on using it for my base machine running legacy Music software that can’t go past Catalina, so it’ll work as a workhorse for Logic and those programs. Still got a 2014 iMac and want to use Luna to display it but unsure if it’s worth it yet. See how things go with the upgrades first
 
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