MP 1,1-5,1 Scored a minty 09 Mac Pro.

[NO_H2O]

I Was looking for a 2012 Mac Mini on Craigslist a few days ago and saw a fresh listing for this Mac Pro so I thought I should ar least have a look at it. It was so clean, well cared for and in my price point. I had to buy it. I have never seen one this clean. After giving it a run through, the owner pack everything up in the original packing materials right down to the plastic wraps for the keyboard, mouse, cables, and cinema monitor. I paid the man and loaded in the car.
It is a single processor machine. It has been flashed to 5,1, has 32 gigs of ram and running High Sierra.
I started into bing watching videos on Mac Pro upgrades. Made a thumb drive to patch load Catalina. But the current graphics card will Not work for that. So I went to my local Micro Center, picked up 2 each 1TB 7200 hard drives, a Samsung Evo 1TB SSD and some speakers. I started looking for a graphics card on the Bay. After being out bib on a few I ended up scoring (I hope it was a score) MSI Radeon RX 570 4GB card. Then I found this forum (should have done this first) And here I am. I want to bring this machine forward and get some good use out of it. I hope that I opted for the right graphics card to do the job. I dabble in photography and music. I am not a gamer. I am looking forward to working my way forward with this machine.
I thank you in advance for any guidance you may have.

Dave

 

[TECK]

Look at MP5,1: What you have to do to upgrade to Mojave (BootROM upgrade instructions thread) and OpenCore on the Mac Pro, they are musts for upgrades.

 

[NO_H2O]

Thank you for your reply. I will get right on that.

 

[vel0city]

You really would have been better off putting the money towards a new M1 Mac Mini. 4,1 and 5,1 are so unbelievably tired now, they are like swimming through bricks compared to the M1 or even an i5 iMac.

 

[Macdctr]

You really would have been better off putting the money towards a new M1 Mac Mini. 4,1 and 5,1 are so unbelievably tired now, they are like swimming through bricks compared to the M1 or even an i5 iMac.

Not everyone require the latest and greatest to accomplish what they want. The 4,1 and 5,1 are still solid computers and with the right upgrades can still get the job done.

To the original poster, nice pickup!

 

[NO_H2O]

Thanks. When I saw how well it had been treated. I had to buy it. I did have one RAM chip that I had to reseat after it road home on its side in the back of my car. It only showed 24 gigs when I first booted it up.
I have done tech work for a few bands in my day. Every recording studio I have been in (Muscle Shoals Sound, Tree, Sonica, Reel 2 Reel) all had one or two of these Mac Pros in them. They were so well engineered and built. I had to have it.

 

[NO_H2O]

I pulled the trigger on a Xeon X5690 last night.

 

[StuAff]

Nice find, nice upgrade already. Should you find a 4,1 dual tray going cheap, that X5690 will drop straight in....Be careful doing it though!
http://blog.greggant.com/posts/2018/05/07/definitive-mac-pro-upgrade-guide.html is a brilliant resource on everything you can do with these lovely old boxes.

+1 on doing an OC setup. A boot screen on your RX 570, GPU video acceleration (and this makes a lot of difference to performance, even just watching YT), all for the princely sum of nothing.

Mojave is probably the best bet for a daily driver OS. The last officially supported release for 5,1s, still runs 32 bit software, no compatibility issues, and Catalina or Big Sur don't add anything practical for your setup, unless you wanted to spend $$$$$ (at current prices) upgrading to a 5700XT or somesuch.

 

[AlexMaximus]

I pulled the trigger on a Xeon X5690 last night.

Perfect choice and congratulation on such a good mint machine. You will be very happy. The MP5.1 is outstanding till today and there are great upgrades available that keeps the machine super fast. I have tuned up this baby since I got it in 2016 and so far I can’t bring myself to sell it. You just can’t get that kind of built quality anywhere else for that little money. Kudos on the right choice on your SSD and GPU, - the AMD570 is very fast, you will be delighted. (Don’t forget, the 2019 MP7.1 comes with an amd 580, using the same drivers) You just may want to read how to unlock the gpu hardware acceleration on this forum, everything else is perfect.

 

[NO_H2O]

AlexMaximus. Tell me about that C130. Or is it a C130. I see a T tail.
well I am waiting on the AMD570 and X5690. I checked my BootROM and it is MP5.1.0089.B00. I think I will go the OC rout and start with Mojave at least for starters. I shut my MacBook Pro down a couple years ago and I need to get a bunch of photos off of it after I sort this upgrade out.

 

[NO_H2O]

Also. Will I need to upgrade the WiFi/Bluetooth card to go to Mojave?

 

[NO_H2O]

My X5690 arrived today. Got it installed and all is well. Also installed an Inateck USB 3 card and it seems to be working well. My graphics card should be here Monday. So I will be moving forward. I will just re-read the info you fine people have posted for me and proceeded with caution.

 

[KeesMacPro]

I checked my BootROM and it is MP5.1.0089.B00. I think I will go the OC rout and start with Mojave at least for starters.

Looks like a cMP in excellent condition,congrats!

Whether you'd like to go the OC route or stay with one or multiple supported OS setup, it's recommended to update the BootROM to 144.0.0.0.0 .
This is the latest version and comes with a few advantages /might be necessary for OC .
This update can be done by installing Mojave natively.
For further details:

MP5,1: What you have to do to upgrade to Mojave (BootROM upgrade instructions thread)

Please fully read this first post, you will probably find that you have one or more problems described into the various notes below. Mojave will only install if you have upgraded your BootROM to the current release and your Mac Pro have a Metal capable GPU*. If you are trying to install Mojave...

forums.macrumors.com

 

[NO_H2O]

Graphics card arrived today. Reviewing the steps required. Still not sure if my current WiFi/Bluetooth will work after updates.
Update to 144.0.0.0.0 by installing the Mojave firmware.
Shut down.
Swap in the graphics card.
Install OC and EFI on the clean SSD. Start up and install Mojave to the Clean SSD. Then hope that I have a boot screen and my WiFi/Bluetooth is working.
Did I miss anything?

 

[NO_H2O]

All went well. Thank you all for your help.

 

[nigelbb]

If you haven't already found it this page is a useful one-stop shop for details of upgrading Mac Pro 3,1/4,1/5,1 http://blog.greggant.com/posts/2018/05/07/definitive-mac-pro-upgrade-guide.html#m2host

 

[NO_H2O]

Yes. I have that saved in my favorites. Thanks.

 

[AlexMaximus]

AlexMaximus. Tell me about that C130. Or is it a C130. I see a T tail.
well I am waiting on the AMD570 and X5690. I checked my BootROM and it is MP5.1.0089.B00. I think I will go the OC rout and start with Mojave at least for starters. I shut my MacBook Pro down a couple years ago and I need to get a bunch of photos off of it after I sort this upgrade out.

I hate to disappoint not being a C-130. This puppy is of European descent, your vasallian army at your service.

 

[NO_H2O]

I saw the T tail and figured it was an AirBus A400. I worked C130s for a while in my life.

 

[NO_H2O]

I installed a Lycom DT-120 with a Samsung 970 Evo M.2. I formatted it and cloned my fresh Mojave drive to it. It still shows up as an external drive. What did I not do correctly?

 

[KeesMacPro]

I installed a Lycom DT-120 with a Samsung 970 Evo M.2. I formatted it and cloned my fresh Mojave drive to it. It still shows up as an external drive. What did I not do correctly?

Drives installed in the PCIe slots are seen as external, this is normal.
There is a way to make them seen is internal though:
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/innie-a-fix-for-pci-drives-seen-as-external.2136229/

 

[Macbookprodude]

Not everyone require the latest and greatest to accomplish what they want. The 4,1 and 5,1 are still solid computers and with the right upgrades can still get the job done.

To the original poster, nice pickup!

I agree with this !!! I use a Mac Pro 2010-2012 and it does what I need it to do.