MacPro 1,1 upgrade worth it?

[varsis]

Well, I have had my mac pro 1,1 for ever now. Im looking to upgrade, either the ram or build a hackintosh. I currently only have 3 gb's of ram, which is really slow these days, the price for 8gb's is fairly expensive. What would you do? wait and build a hackintosh, or upgrade the ram and hack your way around mountain lion?

Im leaning towards the hackintosh.

 

[ashman70]

What is your budget to upgrade your Mac Pro 1,1?

 

[varsis]

What is your budget to upgrade your Mac Pro 1,1?

Not much as of now, at the end of summer Il hopefully have some more cash to put in. But from the looks of it I'm better of selling and upgrading something else. I even just tried to play diablo III, can't even run that due to the graphic cards.

Im thinking couple hundred is all I'm comfortable putting into an old machine.

 

[paronga]

well you need a budget.

how must are you prepared to spend on a new machine?

i mean 8gb of ram (4x2gb sticks) can be added to you already present 3gb sticks (unless you have single socket, then you'd get 9gb or 10gb depending on your setup). That would only cost you a few hundred.

Drop in a new gfx card whcih is about $100-$200

also, an ssd for <$100

so you can have your machine screaming fast again for $500.

what's your budget for new computer?

 

[GermanyChris]

you can build a heck of a hackintosh for the 500 budget of the above poster. I would be capable of running Mountain Lion and has the benefit of newer architecture.

But it's still not a Mac, both in a good and bad way.

If it were my money I'd wait see if new MacPros come out then sell yours and take the savings you have for your upgrade and get a new one.

Remember 32bit EFI is the limiting factor.

 

[paronga]

you can build a heck of a hackintosh for the 500 budget of the above poster. I would be capable of running Mountain Lion and has the benefit of newer architecture.

But it's still not a Mac, both in a good and bad way.

If it were my money I'd wait see if new MacPros come out then sell yours and take the savings you have for your upgrade and get a new one.

Remember 32bit EFI is the limiting factor.

i agree with what you're saying.

personally, i'd neve touch a hackintosh.
also, the $500 budget can be halved:
get secondhand GFX card upgrade.
upgrade with 4GB stick and keep the 3GB in there to get 7GB total.
skip out on the SSD.

should only cosst around $250 and still be way more stable than hackintosh.

or like said above. Sell macpro 1,1 (probably should do that before new ones come out) and then buy secondhand 4,1 5,1

 

[GermanyChris]

i agree with what you're saying.

personally, i'd neve touch a hackintosh.
also, the $500 budget can be halved:
get secondhand GFX card upgrade.
upgrade with 4GB stick and keep the 3GB in there to get 7GB total.
skip out on the SSD.

should only cosst around $250 and still be way more stable than hackintosh.

or like said above. Sell macpro 1,1 (probably should do that before new ones come out) and then buy secondhand 4,1 5,1

My hackintosh is plenty stable. It just comes down to personality, do you like to tinker?

 

[paronga]

plenty stable?
so all components work (audio, wifi, bluetooth, USB, firewire, ethernet) and upgrades happen without a glitch (ie: 10.7.3 ect)

personally, i don't like to tinker on my main machine (ie, my mac pro, and i don't jailbreak my iPhone)

 

[ashman70]

They way I see it you have two viable options. You can go the hackintosh route if you want, its dead simple these days to build one, there are far more online communities with people building them then ever before and lots of compatible hardware. Or, you can buy a newer Mac Pro, like a used 3,1 which has 64bit EFI, can use the memory and graphics card you have now, and can be upgraded later on. In my opinion, there is no point in pouring money into a Mac Pro 1,1 but buying a 3,1 is a better, long term investment, even if Mountain Lion is the last supported OS the 3,1 runs, if Apple chooses to make the 3,1 obsolete next year.

 

[GermanyChris]

plenty stable?
so all components work (audio, wifi, bluetooth, USB, firewire, ethernet) and upgrades happen without a glitch (ie: 10.7.3 ect)

personally, i don't like to tinker on my main machine (ie, my mac pro, and i don't jailbreak my iPhone)

All of those things..it's gone from 10.6.3 to 10.7.3

I didn't jailbreak my iPhone either

 

[varsis]

All of those things..it's gone from 10.6.3 to 10.7.3

I didn't jailbreak my iPhone either

Hmm, Did you used a hacked version of the os or a special boot to allow the oem disk to work?

Im torn between selling, and building one. + of building would be there is some warranty on it.

I definitely will be using 10.8 however, maybe not right away but a few months after, once most of the bugs are out. I will be getting a mac book pro here shortly (Whenever the new one comes) I can get by with that, I don't use over the 4 cores, however more is nice when running multiple applications. But the ram on this desktop is killing me. It needs more.

I find the ram over priced, I would like to retain having a desktop. I use mine for networking, programming running multiple monitors ect...

As for the external parts working, I only really need a GPU to run 3 monitors, usb to work, and ethernet. I don't recall the last time I even used firewire...

 

[GermanyChris]

Hmm, Did you used a hacked version of the os or a special boot to allow the oem disk to work?

Im torn between selling, and building one. + of building would be there is some warranty on it.

I definitely will be using 10.8 however, maybe not right away but a few months after, once most of the bugs are out. I will be getting a mac book pro here shortly (Whenever the new one comes) I can get by with that, I don't use over the 4 cores, however more is nice when running multiple applications. But the ram on this desktop is killing me. It needs more.

I find the ram over priced, I would like to retain having a desktop. I use mine for networking, programming running multiple monitors ect...

As for the external parts working, I only really need a GPU to run 3 monitors, usb to work, and ethernet. I don't recall the last time I even used firewire...

It's time for a trip to tonymac..

you won't be using 10.8 on the 1,1 most likely

the ram is expensive, I run multiple monitors on my MBP (HIS multiview II)

You are the only person who can decide what is right for you..visit tonymac register and have a look around if it looks appealing go for it. If you get out of your depth quickly just don't get the MP. If you go the hack route use one of his customac builds and buy from the links that way he gets a bit of money for all the free software you going to download from his site.