That's very nice of you to offer. I have a couple friends in Austin I thought about asking, but I know that's a bit of a drive too.
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MP 6,1 Prices need to drop on 2013 Mac Pro - Let's Go!
- Thread starter w4rmk
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That's very nice of you to offer. I have a couple friends in Austin I thought about asking, but I know that's a bit of a drive too.
Good deal! Wow, lucky on the price drop, I would have been all over that; 2690 was my total! Even brand new, I'm still a little uncomfortable with the price, but I'm very happy to have it on my desk.
I totally understand on that front. I don't really know anyone in Texas or Kansas that I could have asked, but I probably wouldn't have, either. I drove through Florida last summer, almost to Miami, in two days... but I drove back home in just one. 16hr+ drive, over 1100 miles...but I think with all the stops I made, it turned into a 22hr drive.
That's the only reason I had the confidence to swing by Kansas. That kind of experience really kicks you in rear and pushes you to do crazy things. Or at least, it makes you think you can do crazy things
Enjoy! In my opinion, it's a wonderful and elegant machine. A 6,1 D700 12c is my daily driver at home!
hah, you could do a 'retro' unboxing video
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Speaking of unboxings... I might have something ready at some point. Didn't know if there was any interest in one, so the footage has been sitting in my GoPro for a few days
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Sweet. I think that’s cheaper than the used ones you can get from OWC.
Been looking for any leftover Pros in Canada, but no such luck. Doesn’t help that most resellers didn’t carry them in the first place...
Still loving 5,1 tower, but if I had chance to find trash can with fair price, I would gladly grabbed it as 5,1 SFF companion.
Even 2018 are more powerful with more efficient chips and TB3, but serious bluetooth bug and I heard so much horror stories under current Catalina release with 2018 mini was sound not goods.
6,1 can be maxed out with 12 cores, e-GPU hacks, 128GB RAM, maxed out configuration in terms of CPU and memory amount is almost similar with 5,1, which might be appealing for some 5,1 owners.
Even 2018 are more powerful with more efficient chips and TB3, but serious bluetooth bug and I heard so much horror stories under current Catalina release with 2018 mini was sound not goods.
6,1 can be maxed out with 12 cores, e-GPU hacks, 128GB RAM, maxed out configuration in terms of CPU and memory amount is almost similar with 5,1, which might be appealing for some 5,1 owners.
Speaking of unboxings... I might have something ready at some point. Didn't know if there was any interest in one, so the footage has been sitting in my GoPro for a few days
Ohhh man...I can just hear the sound of that plastic elegantly tearing from its perforations. LOL! Do the video!
Same. I’ve never seen one drop so low brand new so I knew I had to get it.
The price was still a bit high which made me question whether I should or not, as per my earlier post in this thread, but I’ve been wanting a 6,1 for 6 years so I took the Leap of faith
it is cheaper than OWC I believe, too. The config I was looking at OWC was 12-core 128gb RAM 256GB SSD D500 but this one came with D700 and although it is only 16GB RAM, it is OEM with better data rate and bandwidth than the 128GB. I did purchase some used Apple OEM 32GB RAM for pretty cheap just to try it out. Additionally, while it may not be 12-core, single core performance is better due to high clock speed.
I’m pretty happy with my purchase.
Yeah I purchase the 2018 Mini as an alternative to the 2013 Pro since it was newer with more modern tech but it was limited by the integrated graphics.
I always chalked the BT issues to the housing, and that it was under a Satechi aluminum monitor stand, mostly because it is working really well now that it is only mounter under my desk.
As mentioned above, I just got 32GB RAM to try out. I will probably move to 64GB eventually, but due to the caveats of going 128, I’d probably stop at 64GB.
I guess for my use the best config would be 8-Core 64GB RAM and perhaps a 2TB SSD upgrade.
I got my used MP 6,1 12c 32GB RAM D500 512 GB SSD for a bit above 1500€ a few months ago, which at the time was less than all other offers from reputable sellers.
After some teething problems (cloning the boot drive from my MP5,1 wasn't such a great idea, and I had strange RAM problems, which turned out to be a bent pin in a slot), it has mostly been a smooth ride. That little machine must have been frustratingly limiting for some pros, but for the enthusiast who can live with its performance enveloppe, it is a nice, clean and quiet little workhorse.
The geek in me ended up buying an eGPU enclosure to host the spare RX580 then Vega 56 I had around, but of course you loose the almost total quietness of the MP 6,1, even if my modded Razer Core V2 is actually pretty quiet too. eGPU operation in Catalina has also been trouble free for me (you need to use the purge-wrangler script of course), its is plug an play and sleep/wake have not been affected.
But to be honest, unless you're gaming or doing 3D rendering, you're probably going to be fine with the stock GPUs.
After some teething problems (cloning the boot drive from my MP5,1 wasn't such a great idea, and I had strange RAM problems, which turned out to be a bent pin in a slot), it has mostly been a smooth ride. That little machine must have been frustratingly limiting for some pros, but for the enthusiast who can live with its performance enveloppe, it is a nice, clean and quiet little workhorse.
The geek in me ended up buying an eGPU enclosure to host the spare RX580 then Vega 56 I had around, but of course you loose the almost total quietness of the MP 6,1, even if my modded Razer Core V2 is actually pretty quiet too. eGPU operation in Catalina has also been trouble free for me (you need to use the purge-wrangler script of course), its is plug an play and sleep/wake have not been affected.
But to be honest, unless you're gaming or doing 3D rendering, you're probably going to be fine with the stock GPUs.
Here's the unboxing of my refurbished one. It's the base model, but I'm happy with it so far. It's a beautiful computer. The build quality feels much better than I was expecting. They packed a lot into this little thing.
Cool, you got it! Nice unboxing, thanks for posting. So that’s how the Apple refurb comes packaged. Have you decided to keep it?
Yes, I wouldn't have opened it if I wasn't intending to keep it. The GPU performance could be a little better though. Google Earth Pro is a little choppy and 4K HEVC video is also a little bit choppy. Would you be able to test a video with the D700s to see if it plays smooth or choppy at all?
Here's the sample clip I tried. https://4ksamples.com/elysium-2013-2160p-1-minute-sample-footage/
AMD HEVC hardware support on macOS starts with Polaris GPUs, nothing earlier* will accelerate it.
D300 = HD 7870 GHz versions (Pitcairn)
D500 = HD 7950 / R9 280
D700 = HD 7970 / R9 280X
*R9 380 theoretically have an ASIC capable of decoding 8-bit HEVC, UVD 5.0, but no one made it work with macOS AFAIK.
Okay, thanks. Do you think a CPU upgrade would help for that or would it be best to use an eGPU?
Edit:
Also to be technical, I think the D300 is more comparable to the W7000 (Pitcairn XT GL). https://www.techpowerup.com/gpu-specs/amd-pitcairn.g420
And it looks like nothing else shares the D500's Tahiti LE GL GPU. D700 has the W9000's Tahiti XT GL GPU, but without ECC memory of course. https://www.techpowerup.com/gpu-specs/amd-tahiti.g120
AMD hardware acceleration works really well, even a lowly RX 460 will decode 10-bit HEVC without a sweat. Even the fastest Xeon E5 compatible with MP6,1 won't help much, since decoding will have to be done totally by the CPU, without GPU assist or offloading to QuickSync.
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D300/D500/D700 have resources not available with the gaming GPU counterparts, like professional driver support, but the equivalence is valid from the performance standpoint and resources that both the lines share. It's easier to see that HEVC support only appears two generation later with macOS.
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Okay, so it's just lack of HEVC support. I tested H.264 and ProRes 4K videos and they play smooth.
I finally got the new Mac Pro set up. The build date is late June 2016 according to the coconutBattery app and it came with El Capitan. Pretty smooth sailing except for a little hiccup. I had a hard time after I installed Catalina to discover Lightroom 6 doesn't have a 64-bit installer. So I wiped the drive and installed Mojave so I could install Lightroom and then it wouldn't activate because it said I already have it on 2 computers. I thought I signed out of my old Mac Pro before I sold it, but maybe I didn't. Then I spent a couple hours with Adobe on chat and holding on the phone so they could fix it. I felt like they were giving me the run around so I purchased an annual subscription for the Photography plan that includes the new Lightroom and Photoshop apps. It'll be nice to have the new apps anyways.
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I tried Earth Pro on mine, and opening up is a little choppy. After playing around a little, it seems pretty smooth. Maybe more RAM could help? (currently 16GB)
Tried to check out the clip, but it wants to dl a movie player I think?
Unfortunately, I'll be stuck on Mojave for Lightroom 6 and Photoshop CS6, as well as a whole slew of apps (mostly games) that have disappeared from the App Store. Strangely, I haven't had the same issues with Lightroom 6. Serial registered to my Adobe account and currently installed on three Macs. Two of which I installed on Bootcamp as well, so technically "5 computers" if counting Windows as its own. Different story with Photoshop though, same as yours, two Macs limit.
If you chat with Adobe support, they are very helpful in deactivating it from a previous install. Not a fan of subscriptions, and I'm only in photography for hobby, so I'm sticking with the old stuff for a while.
Didn't know that about Coconut App, mine shows manufacture date 2017-11-27.
That's pretty new. You can use VLC player for videos QuickTime won't play. You might want to get more serious about your photography. You know these workstations aren't meant for gaming.
You can use VLC player for videos QuickTime won't play. You might want to get more serious about your photography. You know these workstations aren't meant for gaming.
Quick update, my 32GB RAM from OWC came in and it is Crucial Brand. Pretty happy with that. They also threw in a $100 wine voucher for nakedwines.com which is okay. (On purchases of 160 or more, dropping the total to 60 minimum) I don't drink but I'm sure my girlfriend would like the gift.
Anyways, gonna install the RAM soon.
Anyways, gonna install the RAM soon.
Sweet. I just installed 64 GB of Samsung RAM I got off eBay for $100. Four 16 GB sticks of M393B2G70QH0-CMA. So far so good.
Nice. I got mine for about $40 on an OWC clearance sale under 'Used Apple Brand RAM for Mac Pro' or something like that. Just confirmed and all of them work. I might consider the 64GB later, but that's as high as I'll go. Don't wanna go with 128GB and lose some of the speed and bandwidth for for more capacity.Sweet. I just installed 64 GB of Samsung RAM I got off eBay for $100. Four 16 GB sticks of M393B2G70QH0-CMA. So far so good.
I ran a couple passes of Memtest86 overnight and it found no errors. Seems to be good RAM.
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I called Apple to ask them if my machine has a warranty. It doesn't hurt I figured because when I entered the serial number on the support page it doesn't give any info. It just says to validate the purchase date. I went through two lower employees before they put an "agreement specialist" on the phone. I told him I just bought it and he said it doesn't have a warranty. I said that doesn't make any sense and he said it doesn't need to make sense to me and I'm not getting a warranty from Apple. He was very rude. Oh well. He did mention the purchase date was sometime in 2017. He didn't say where it was from. I guess I'll assume it came from their online store.
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I called Apple to ask them if my machine has a warranty. It doesn't hurt I figured because when I entered the serial number on the support page it doesn't give any info. It just says to validate the purchase date. I went through two lower employees before they put an "agreement specialist" on the phone. I told him I just bought it and he said it doesn't have a warranty. I said that doesn't make any sense and he said it doesn't need to make sense to me and I'm not getting a warranty from Apple. He was very rude. Oh well.
He did mention the purchase date was sometime in 2017. He didn't say where it was from. I guess I'll assume it came from their online store.
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I ran a couple passes of Memtest86 overnight and it found no errors. Seems to be good RAM.
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I called Apple to ask them if my machine has a warranty. It doesn't hurt I figured because when I entered the serial number on the support page it doesn't give any info. It just says to validate the purchase date. I went through two lower employees before they put an "agreement specialist" on the phone. I told him I just bought it and he said it doesn't have a warranty. I said that doesn't make any sense and he said it doesn't need to make sense to me and I'm not getting a warranty from Apple. He was very rude. Oh well.
Had a similar experience with the first perskn I talked to on the phone, which is where I ended up talking to a supervisor who told me that the pre-entered purchase date is generated from the ship date to the reseller, and which is why it wasn’t validating the actual purchase date. They sent me an e-mail where I had toreply with an attachment of my receipt with the purchase date and were able to verify/validate and give my my 1 yr limited warranty.
Granted, mine was brand new and not refurbished so it went a bit smoother.
I noticed the new D500 model I previously ordered for pickup at the California Micro Center store showed it was back in stock after they cancelled my order. I've also read their online stock system is live so so they lied about it being sold. I asked them to hold it for me and they told me they don't hold items for customers. I don't know why they have the store pickup option on their website then. Maybe they figured I wasn't local since my billing address is out of state. Still crumby of them though. Last night I noticed they marked it down to $1399 so I thought about flying down there this morning to get it. I checked about noon when I would have got there and it wasn't there so someone must have bought it this morning. I'm glad I didn't fly down there since it would have been a wasted flight. Someone got a heck of a deal. It would have been silly for me to get that one anyways though I guess since there isn't much of a difference at all between the D300 and D500. If was going to get another one I should get a D700.
That’s odd. I don’t think I ever heard them cancel an order/reservation. $1399 was a steal. Sucks that someone else got it.
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The Houston one has the D500 still, however it hasn’t been reduced by much.