New owner 2010 and 2012 Mac Pro 5,1. Need OS advice.

[gn2]

Hi, I'm a long time PC builder, I just bought two Mac Pro's, one has identification on the case that marks it as a mid-2012, and the other as a mid-2010.

I have managed to get a blank drive updated to High Sierra on the mid-2010, but the mid-2012 boots to a Windows7 drive, and if I put in the High Sierra drive, it just cycles for a bit then returns a "no bootable device found....etc" screen.

Am I right in assuming the mid-2012 machine had Windows installed on it before which is why it goes to a Windows "no boot device found" notice ?

If Windows was installed on it, what makes it a more attractive machine, if I leave it on Windows, or get it back to MACOS ? I plan to build the 2012 up, dual XEON X5680's, at least 32GB of ram, and as high end a video card as I can get into it...

So which OS is best do you think, Windows or MACOS ??

Thanks for looking at my thread.

 

[borgranta]

Based on how often my Windows computers last I would have to say that Mac OS is better.
[doublepost=1530574177][/doublepost]A mac running Windows would probably be good for running some computer games that are not compatible with Mac

 

[gn2]

Why do people with Mac Pro's put Windows on them ? It can't just be for a couple of games, can it ? Aren't these the top of the heap for pro workstations/media creation/ music production ?

 

[cobracnvt]

Hold down the option key when you turn it on. You should be presented with all bootable devices\partitions found, which should include your High Sierra drive.

There is a way to pick what to boot by default. It's probably set to boot the Windows partition and can't find it.

 

[pl1984]

Your choice in OS should be dictated by the applications you want to use and your preferences. Since you have two, which sound as if they're just for tinkering, why not put macOS on one and Windows on the other?

Is the 2012 already a dual processor configuration? If not to make it so will require the replacement of the CPU tray which is quite expensive. Enough so the general rule of thumb is to sell a single processor system and buy a dual processor system.

 

[flehman]

Didn't High Sierra require a firmware upgrade for APFS (it is so sad that I can't even remember 1 year back). It sounds like you may have gone through that process on the 2010 MP and then just dropped the drive into the 2012 without upgrading the firmware. The mid-2012 may need to have its firmware upgraded before it can recognize a High Sierra boot drive, especially if it is an APFS-formatted drive.

 

[gn2]

Didn't High Sierra require a firmware upgrade for APFS (it is so sad that I can't even remember 1 year back). It sounds like you may have gone through that process on the 2010 MP and then just dropped the drive into the 2012 without upgrading the firmware. The mid-2012 may need to have its firmware upgraded before it can recognize a High Sierra boot drive, especially if it is an APFS-formatted drive.

Thanks for that info, I think you've nailed it with that.

The older one was a 2 processor one, so I'm going to swap that cpu tray into the 2012 and make it into a dual X5680 with 32GB of ram and a 1TB SSD(since I just happen to have a SATAII 1TB SSD sitting around here...). Should be a pretty good start. Then the 2010 one will be a single core W3565, likely 16GB of ram...it won't be a powerhouse like the dual cpu, but still not too shabby.

Thanks for all the replies.

 

[Zeke D]

Why do people with Mac Pro's put Windows on them ? It can't just be for a couple of games, can it ? Aren't these the top of the heap for pro workstations/media creation/ music production ?

What else am I to do with my 2006 cMP? I could do the hack thing and get El Cap on it, but that has all manner of issues, and I'd still need to upgrade the video card. My 2006 is just fine with a 1GB 5770, 16GB RAM, dual QC CPUs, and an SSD for running Windows7.

 

[Nunyabinez]

Thanks for that info, I think you've nailed it with that.

The older one was a 2 processor one, so I'm going to swap that cpu tray into the 2012 and make it into a dual X5680 with 32GB of ram and a 1TB SSD(since I just happen to have a SATAII 1TB SSD sitting around here...). Should be a pretty good start. Then the 2010 one will be a single core W3565, likely 16GB of ram...it won't be a powerhouse like the dual cpu, but still not too shabby.

Thanks for all the replies.

When you dual boot, the Mac Pro sets a flag telling it to boot to Windows or MacOS. Then it fails if it can’t find what it is looking for and won’t move over to the other format. You typically use the boot camp control panel to change this setting, but if you don’t have a MacOS drive it gets stuck looking for a Windows drive.

So, even when you have a valid MacOS drive in the machine, it is looking for that NTFS drive. If you hold option at boot you can choose your Mac drive, but you still need to go into the startup control panel to select the MacOS drive to permanently change it.

FYI, if you do a Reset (unplug the cable and hold the power button for three seconds) it will revert to looking for a Mac drive instead of a Windows drive. I have to do that with my Mac Pro because APFS is not playing friendly with Windows drives and the only way to get into MacOS is to do a reset since I have a GTX 1060 and can’t get into the option screen at boot up.

 

[h9826790]

Why do people with Mac Pro's put Windows on them ? It can't just be for a couple of games, can it ? Aren't these the top of the heap for pro workstations/media creation/ music production ?

I need Windows to fine tune and flash some of my GPU (e.g. my current Sapphire PULSE RX580).

Also, before I own my Hackintosh, I also need Windows to utilise the GPU's hardware encoding ability. My 1080Ti can do that really well, but not in macOS.

And of course, I also use it for gaming in Windows.

 

[gn2]

Nunyabinez, thanks so very much for the precise information. I'm sure that's exactly what was happening with this machine that wouldn't do anything other than look for a Windows drive.

I was able to get around it by putting in a blank drive, a usb with MACOS installer on it, clearing the PRAM, then holding the Command + R(I think...). Install the older MACOS, upgrade to El Capitan, then do the firmware update, then update to High Sierra.

So, I've got High Sierra on two drives, one for each Pro, now on to figuring out how to make a 1TB SSD the boot drive for the dual cpu 2012, how to flash my HD5770's to be natively recognized, and try to decide if I'm going to use a nice GTX780Ti I have in the dual cpu, or find a 280x or something else I can flash to native Apple bios...so many decisions...

 

[ssgbryan]

Gn2, I am re purposing my 1,1 as a media server.

I'll replace the Woodcrests with a pair of low-power quad core Clovertowns (L5335 with a 40 watt TPD @ $9.95), move my Blu-Ray player from my 4,1 and add 4 3Tb ($59.95 each) hard drives for media. Yes, I need 12Tb to hold all of my media (1,500 movies, 49,000+ songs, and an undetermined numbers of TV Shows).

If I install Windows, I can throw a GT 1030 (15 watt TPD) in it and drive a 4K TV panel. I can't that in OSX. And as an added bonus, I can game on it to an extent.