MP 1,1-5,1 Sorry. End of the line, pal.

[ericstjohn]

As I drummer, I realize I'm not a rocket scientist and I'm good with that.
But I'm also a peasant and I have a Mac, which goes to prove what I just opened with.
Dr Google is useless, that's why I'm here...

MP 3,1 Early 2008 "8-core" 2.8 Xeon, +- 12g RAM (of which most sticks have failed)
Stock grafix, all four bays used for OS and storage
Option boots to El Capitain for internet. LOL Safari isn't supported. Go figure. Gotta love Apple.
I use Snow Leopard for Logic Pro 9 Studio, FCP 6 Studio, Adobe CS6 Suite, Office Mac 2010
My sleep indicator light began the pulse thing and wouldn't boot, so I followed steps and determined that it was failing RAM but now I can start the machine. I did a PRAM reset and that hardware manager reset thingie after the flashing sleep light.
So, to summarize that, it pulsed and I took out all RAM and re-booted one stick at a time to stop the flashing and she boots up. I have 4gb of RAM still running.
My front cpu fans stopped working that's why I did the hardware manager reset. No joy. PSU and memory bay fans work fine, just no front fans. I found ONE online to replace it. I'm trying to decide if I wanna throw money at this otherwise beast of a machine.
I'm discovering that even a cheap Mac Mini won't help because of SL. And if I recall correctly the EOL for Logic 9, et al is Mt Lion? ugh. Snow Leopard is Mac's equivalent to Ws7 Pro and was probably way too stable for Apple to keep on the payroll so they killed it like Gil Bates did with Ws7...
So... should I throw money at it? Should I buy a 4,1? Will I hit a roadblock for SL/Logic 9? Do I need to sell my children and go with a new Mac since the VA only gives me so much a month? Should I just quit playing and writing music since I don't want to learn Pro Tools on a frkn Windows PC? Should I build another PC and hackintosh it? Can this old dog learn that trick?

 

[tsialex]

Buy an early-2009 or a mid-2010 Mac Pro, get it running with SnowLeopard/Logic 9, then start to upgrade the GPU/RAM to have it running Mojave and newer macOS releases on another SSD.

Since no brand new Mac will run Logic 9 natively, you have to resort to the used Mac route - at least will be cheap.

 

[jscipione]

It seems like you've come to the conclusion that you need a new computer of some kind. A straightforward solution might be to get a 2009/2010 Mac Pro and move your 10.6 Snow Leopard install to it. However, I'd like to suggest an alternative solution. Find a used 2018 Mac mini (or buy new from Apple store since they still sell them) and install VMWare fusion or Parallels on there, virtualize your 10.6 Snow Leopard instance, and run Logic Pro 9 Studio, FCP 6 Studio, Adobe CS6 Suite, Office Mac 2010 that way. This solution enables you to browse the web using a more modern software stack than 10.11 El Capitan provides and you'll still have access to those old programs through virtualization. The GPU performance on FCP 6 probably won't be as good but the rest of those programs should run about the same. For this solution to work you'll need an Intel Mac of some kind, and the 2018 Mac mini is probably the best combination of value and performance given those constraints, especially if you can find a used one for a cheaper price.

 

[Soba]

It seems like you've come to the conclusion that you need a new computer of some kind. A straightforward solution might be to get a 2009/2010 Mac Pro and move your 10.6 Snow Leopard install to it. However, I'd like to suggest an alternative solution. Find a used 2018 Mac mini (or buy new from Apple store since they still sell them) and install VMWare fusion or Parallels on there, virtualize your 10.6 Snow Leopard instance, and run Logic Pro 9 Studio, FCP 6 Studio, Adobe CS6 Suite, Office Mac 2010 that way.

Unfortunately it's not possible to run Snow Leopard in Fusion or Parallels out of the box (at least not that I'm aware of).

Virtualization wasn't supported for the client version of OS X until 10.7 Lion, so Snow Leopard can't be booted or installed. The reason given at the time was that the OS X license agreement prohibited virtualization, but there were conflicting stories about this; for whatever reason, it's not supported and doesn't work. It might be possible with some hacking, but this isn't a rabbit hole I ever wanted to go down. I remember that VMWare accidentally released a version that allowed Snow Leopard to run, but this was quickly patched in a subsequent update.

However, Leopard Server and Snow Leopard Server are supported in VMs, so this might be a solution. I use Snow Leopard Server for a few old games that never worked well (or at all) on Lion. Not all software works well on Server, unfortunately, so you'd really have to test this thoroughly.

Perhaps the OP can get away with a newer version of OS X that works well in a VM. A used 2010 Mac Pro and gradually upgrading software might be the better route.

 

[jscipione]

Well so much for the virtualization idea, 2009/2010 Mac Pro it is then: the greatest Macintosh ever made is the best choice for running 10.6 Snow Leopard today.

 

[haralds]

Unfortunately it's not possible to run Snow Leopard in Fusion or Parallels out of the box (at least not that I'm aware of).

Virtualization wasn't supported for the client version of OS X until 10.7 Lion, so Snow Leopard can't be booted or installed. The reason given at the time was that the OS X license agreement prohibited virtualization, but there were conflicting stories about this; for whatever reason, it's not supported and doesn't work. It might be possible with some hacking, but this isn't a rabbit hole I ever wanted to go down. I remember that VMWare accidentally released a version that allowed Snow Leopard to run, but this was quickly patched in a subsequent update.

However, Leopard Server and Snow Leopard Server are supported in VMs, so this might be a solution. I use Snow Leopard Server for a few old games that never worked well (or at all) on Lion. Not all software works well on Server, unfortunately, so you'd really have to test this thoroughly.

Perhaps the OP can get away with a newer version of OS X that works well in a VM. A used 2010 Mac Pro and gradually upgrading software might be the better route.

You could virtualize the serve version of Snow Leopard.

 

[jscipione]

You could virtualize the serve version of Snow Leopard.

I read into this a little more. You can virtualize 10.6 in VirtualBox (no checks) but to virtualize using VMWare or Parallels you need server. Virtual Box is kinda sucky and it can’t be that hard to get ahold of 10.6 Server these days.

So if given the above is viable I say go with a Mac mini, if not go for a 2010 Mac Pro.

 

[KeesMacPro]

IMO a MP 2009/2010/2012 single CPU is definitely the best option.

I see a lot of drawbacks for a Mac Mini:
- higher price (budget plays a role)
- additional costs and hassle because of lots of drives> external enclosures
- I seriously doubt that Logic 9 / FCP will run smooth virtualized (and i havent read a confirmation here that it will )
- additional hassle to get SL Server and set it all up.( plus more costs and time involved)
- the risk that after buying it and setting all up, the machine will not meet expectations (for several possible reasons)

Buying a MP 5,1 or 4,1>5,1 , the OP can almost literally shove the 4 drives in, and move on.
As @tsialex suggested: with SL for all legacy software and Mojave or newer in a dual boot setup , you got best of both worlds (legacy + safe internet) for a very low price and little effort with a 100% guarantee that all software will run the same or better than before.

 

[MisterAndrew]

Instead of spending $500 on a 5,1 I suggest to buy a 2014 Mac mini with 16GB of RAM for $300 and the current version of Logic for $200. Then you'll have a Mac that can run Monterey. Get a Fusion model and you can put in an NVMe SSD with an adapter and also have a 2.5" SATA SSD. The 2014 mini is better than the 2018 in that regard.

 

[KeesMacPro]

$500 on a 5,1

Prices for a single CPU in Europe are ~ 200- 250 Euros. 500,- might be for a fully specced MP.
Server pull 3x8GB 1333MHz: ~ 50,-
X5690: ~ 50,-
GTX680 : ~70,-

Another consideration could be that the current version of Logic will not run with legacy hardware / software.

 

[KeesMacPro]

Gil Bates

Norman's father I presume?

 

[adam9c1]

2014 Mac Mini does have soldered non upgradable RAM.
2018 Mac Mini has upgradable RAM but unlike the 2012, you do remove the entire main logic board for this process.

 

[opeter]

I undestand, what others are writting, but sorry, if I were you, I wouldn't buy a 10+ year computer now (today) for serious work. It can and will fail in short time. Yes, this is a lottery. Maybe the decade old computer will work another 5 years, but there is simply no guarantee. And if you don't have spare/replacements parts for it, what will you do?

You should rethink your options and somehow move to newer software/computer.

 

[WayneStewart]

My suggestion would be that if it’s feasible to get suitable software then migrate to a newer Mac.

If it isn’t feasible then pick up a 2010 - 12 or 2009 Mc Pro. Prices have been dropping and will continue to do so.

I’m using a 2010 Mac Pro to run Snow Leopard for Adobe CS6. The Mac Pro is pretty rugged but like everything it will eventually need repair so recently I’ve been keeping an eye out for a backup. I've been bidding my time and last week I found a 6 core 3.33ghz machine for $75 cdn. I cloned my system over to it and it’s ready to go if my main system fails.