MP 1,1-5,1 Need some ideas on what to do with my 5,1 cMP

[Dahjxiii]

Hey Guys!

So I my daily driver used to be my 5,1 cMP. My line of work is Intense Photo/Video work, Full-time. Full adobe Suite, FCX, DAVINCI, etc.
I've since moved to the M1 Mac mini for only a couple of reasons:
1 - cMP couldn't drive my Samsung Odyssey 49" Monitor without issues (Neither RX580 or RX Vega FE could drive it comfortably)
2 - OWC Thunderbolt dock didn't work with the TitanRidge TB3 PCIe card - and I had a lot of TB3 peripherals that I needed.
No big thing, It wasn't a huge thing to switch.

My most recent specs for cMP were as follows:

macOS Big Sur 11.0.1
2 x 3.46GHz
48GB MHz DDR3
Radeon RX580 (Now Radeon Vega FE Edition)
8TB via m.2 x4 PCIe Slot (2 of which were BOOT)
16TB's in Drive bays
TB3 Card
10GBE Card for NAS
all that other good stuff


Now that my daily driver is my M1Mini, I'd love to put my cMP back to use for something. I have a Synology NAS but I could never have too much storage lol. Maybe a server but I'm not too versed in servers and what I could use it for. Based on my type of work what are some things you guys have seen folk repurpose their cMP's to do and if you have how-to links, I'd sure appreciate it!

Thanks again!

 

[Soba]

I was in a similar situation and I recently retired my 5,1 from daily use. I chose a top-of-the-line 2018 Intel mini for now because I run a lot of older OSes in virtual machines, which as yet do not (and may never) work on an Apple Silicon Mac. I expect to move to Apple Silicon in a year or two for my main system and will keep an Intel-based machine around for my VMs and other legacy software. I'd like the new architecture to have more shakedown time with more refinements made to both the hardware and macOS before making the jump. I'm in no hurry.

I thought about turning my 5,1 into a file server, but I ultimately bought a NAS for that. The 5,1 produces a lot of heat and consumes a lot of power, so I don't recommend leaving it running all the time. My home office is on the second floor of my home, and when I stopped running the 5,1 24/7, the temperature of the entire upstairs went down by 5–10º Fahrenheit!

I admit I'm in an unusual situation: I am required to play video games for work (!!!), so I turned my Mac Pro 5,1 into a Windows 10 gaming machine. I have an RX580 and this performs very well for most games; I really don't need a faster card right now—which is great, considering graphics card prices are still high enough to equal a down payment on a very nice new car. This system runs Windows flawlessly, and despite its age, it is still extremely fast with 2x 3.46GHz Xeons and 96GB of RAM. I removed the Highpoint 7101 PCIe controller and nVME drives I had installed and only run Windows from a SATA SSD for simplicity; I don't want trouble with Windows boot certificates bricking my Mac and didn't want to fiddle with OpenCore.

I have a lot of data on my NAS and elsewhere, so in the future I might also use the Mac Pro as a backup server with an LTO tape drive, but I am leaning toward getting a newer machine when it comes time for this. For one thing, I'd rather install a tape drive internally and the Mac Pro has no usable drive bays for this, and for another thing, as great as the 5,1 is, it's getting old and I'd like to sell it while it's still running well.

 

[ZombiePhysicist]

I have the same issue, and may soon be experiencing the same thing with my 2019 Mac Pro. The problem with a Mac Pro is it's too much computer for a "hand me down" for most people, because if anything goes wrong or becomes a problem, all the sudden I signed myself up to be IT.

And with the 5,1, just getting an update to work might become a nightmare since officially it's limited. Right now it's in storage, and I feel bad about it rotting away unused.

 

[Dahjxiii]

I was in a similar situation and I recently retired my 5,1 from daily use. I chose a top-of-the-line 2018 Intel mini for now because I run a lot of older OSes in virtual machines, which as yet do not (and may never) work on an Apple Silicon Mac. I expect to move to Apple Silicon in a year or two for my main system and will keep an Intel-based machine around for my VMs and other legacy software. I'd like the new architecture to have more shakedown time with more refinements made to both the hardware and macOS before making the jump. I'm in no hurry.

I thought about turning my 5,1 into a file server, but I ultimately bought a NAS for that. The 5,1 produces a lot of heat and consumes a lot of power, so I don't recommend leaving it running all the time. My home office is on the second floor of my home, and when I stopped running the 5,1 24/7, the temperature of the entire upstairs went down by 5–10º Fahrenheit!

I admit I'm in an unusual situation: I am required to play video games for work (!!!), so I turned my Mac Pro 5,1 into a Windows 10 gaming machine. I have an RX580 and this performs very well for most games; I really don't need a faster card right now—which is great, considering graphics card prices are still high enough to equal a down payment on a very nice new car. This system runs Windows flawlessly, and despite its age, it is still extremely fast with 2x 3.46GHz Xeons and 96GB of RAM. I removed the Highpoint 7101 PCIe controller and nVME drives I had installed and only run Windows from a SATA SSD for simplicity; I don't want trouble with Windows boot certificates bricking my Mac and didn't want to fiddle with OpenCore.

I have a lot of data on my NAS and elsewhere, so in the future I might also use the Mac Pro as a backup server with an LTO tape drive, but I am leaning toward getting a newer machine when it comes time for this. For one thing, I'd rather install a tape drive internally and the Mac Pro has no usable drive bays for this, and for another thing, as great as the 5,1 is, it's getting old and I'd like to sell it while it's still running well.

An unusual situation indeed! Haha. I appreciate your insight! The more and more reading I've done the more and more I've been seeing similar opinions about it, at least for the enthusiasts who are realistic enough to move on without considerable emotional damage lol.

I've been considering the gaming idea. The 250hz of the 49" monitor goes to waste a little because I don't play any games and I would like to, but I've been so out of touch with Windows that I'm a little apprehensive but I'll go ahead and give it a shot. I'm not keen on selling it, I don't really want to make nay money from the sale of it, I know there's a chance I'll want to tinker and it makes for a good system to tinker on. We will see.

 

[Dahjxiii]

I have the same issue, and may soon be experiencing the same thing with my 2019 Mac Pro. The problem with a Mac Pro is it's too much computer for a "hand me down" for most people, because if anything goes wrong or becomes a problem, all the sudden I signed myself up to be IT.

And with the 5,1, just getting an update to work might become a nightmare since officially it's limited. Right now it's in storage, and I feel bad about it rotting away unused.

YOU CAN SAY THAT AGAIN! That is one thing I don't miss - the struggle into getting it to run stable was a long one and I felt like a complete IT professional even though I'm a far cry from but but troubleshooting on that thing is so demanding. lol. It runs Big Sur really stable, I doubt I will push it past that, for my own sanity sake. I really just wanted handoff and a few other things that I could have just stayed with Mojave but here I am.

We will see, I might try it as a Win10 gaming machine before officially retiring OR giving it to my mom. I know, massively overpowered but, what I can say about it is that when I'm not trying to make it do things apple doesn't want it to do, it's a reliable ass machine and I think she'd be happy with that. She does a lot of CAD work so it'll be up her alley for sure.