MP All Models The "I just ordered/bought/got my new/refurb Mac Pro" thread [Merged]

[yellowbunny]

Just joined the nMP club by picking up old stock from John Lewis(dept store in the UK) who were clearing out their Mac Pros !! always wanted a trash can for some reason - at 1200 pound vs the 2999 apple still want for it was hard to say no !!

I got the same deal from JL by was £1299. Very happy!

There's a guy on eBay selling 4 gig memory sticks for £15.99.

 

[StayWhatYouAre]

I got the same deal from JL by was £1299. Very happy!

There's a guy on eBay selling 4 gig memory sticks for £15.99.

Hey yellowbunny ! nice work as well ! i wonder how many they had to sell. Got al ink to the 15 pound ram you can share with me ?

 

[nigelbb]

I got the same deal from JL by was £1299. Very happy!

There's a guy on eBay selling 4 gig memory sticks for £15.99.

They are now sold out. TBH I'm glad that I didn't hear about the bargain as I would have ben sorely tempted & I don't really need new Mac Pro as my pimped 2008 Mac Pro 3,1 does just fine for all the work that i do with it nowadays.

 

[irra7ional]

Got mine 2 weeks ago Talk about a beat 32 GB ECC RAM, RX 560 (didn't want anything too crazy just enough to play some occasional games) , six cores Xeon @ 3.33 GHz, 2 x 1TB drives + 1 256 SSD (SSD and 1 of the 1TB drives from my old PC) for a total of 760 EUR. Of course upgraded Wireless, Bluetooth and so on in it too + USB 3

The only regret I have is updating to High Sierra yesterday and having to deal with a bunch of annoying issues.

 

[tpivette89]

Just ordered a early 2008 Mac Pro from OWC during their sale. 2.8ghz quad core, 4GB of Ram, 500GB 7200 HDD, wifi card, and a HD 2600 GT. Have 4 x 1GB sticks in route, and a pair of X5272 Xeons (as well as an extra heat sink) to throw in it for a nice little starter upgrade.

Just need to find a new monitor for my 2009 MP so I can steal the 20" Cinema Display from that to use on the new (to me) 2008.

 

[yellowbunny]

Hey yellowbunny ! nice work as well ! i wonder how many they had to sell. Got al ink to the 15 pound ram you can share with me ?

Here you go: https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre=https://www.ebay.co.uk/ulk/itm/202010515196
[doublepost=1514851149][/doublepost]

Hey yellowbunny ! nice work as well ! i wonder how many they had to sell. Got al ink to the 15 pound ram you can share with me ?

When I called them on 26th am they had 39 in stock. Yesterday afternoon two stores had one left.

 

[Naimfan]

Another "why not?" purchase - a Craigslist special. Listed as not being able to boot, no specs, new 1.5 TB HD, and 2 20" aluminum cinema displays. Also came with a wireless and solar powered Logitech keyboard and a wireless Apple mouse. Bought the set for $50.

Turns out to be a 3,1 - and it did boot. Shockingly - because the interior was caked with dust. A good vacuuming and it now runs perfectly. Something to tinker with!

It's a fairly basic 3,1 - 2.8 GHz 8 core, with 4 GB RAM, the original 320 GB HD, and a Radeon 2600 (which I've replaced with a GT120 I had). Ordered 32 GB of RAM (for $35!), and will also order an Airport card for it. Otherwise, it's done - might give it to my son if he needs a desktop. And both of the displays work (and came with the power supplies).

A LONG way from the 2013 MP I've been playing with, but should be fun to tinker with.

 

[StayWhatYouAre]

Here you go: https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre=https://www.ebay.co.uk/ulk/itm/202010515196
[doublepost=1514851149][/doublepost]

When I called them on 26th am they had 39 in stock. Yesterday afternoon two stores had one left.

Legend ! thanks for that on it's way ! can't see me needing more than 16GB

 

[nigelbb]

It's a fairly basic 3,1 - 2.8 GHz 8 core, with 4 GB RAM, the original 320 GB HD, and a Radeon 2600 (which I've replaced with a GT120 I had).

Sounds like a completely stock base 3,1. The Radeon 2600 was the standard graphics card & 2x2GB was the minimum RAM.

 

[pixelatedscraps]

Just picked up a 6-core 3.33Ghz 2009 4,1-5,1 cMP with 16Gb RAM, GT120 and a 1Tb HDD off eBay for $700. It’s to be upgraded to 48Gb RAM, a 500Gb SSD, USB-C 3.1 and a 4Tb spinner with some spares I have in the office, while a new Gigabyte Radeon RX 550 2Gb is ordered, and is to be used as an extra Photoshop editing machine in our studio.

Can't quite justify the iMP (until I talk to my accountant) and the wait for the next mMP is just too far away when the 5,1 cMPs are so cheap and still hold their own for us.

 

[MagicWok]

I've had a 4,1 cMP gathering dust for a while (that I got free and new ).

Had some spare time and cash, so joining the upgrade club to 5.1 and put in some eBay purchases

• X5690
• 32GB 1333 Mhz Ram
• Wireless AC and BT4.0 card

Just deciding whether to raid some SSDs on the backplane on pay extra for some pci-e cards, and most likely a 1060 card. The velocity duos and such are a bit tricky to source in the UK so I might just use 2.5" adapters and the backplane since for my work load it will probably do, as the cMP is a backup rig now.

 

[lowendlinux]

My $247 single processor MP is here, flashed and has the RX480 in it

 

[Orion1]

Wife was away for a long weekend so it was upgrade/playtime.
Started off with:
Mac Pro 2010 with an x5670, 32gb, SSD in DVD space, stock ATI 5770
After a flash-o-rama (EAH6850 and PowerColor 7870 XT) adding EFI boot to both of them (two in case one would not work) and some upgrades I ended up with:
Mac Pro 2010 with x5675, 32GB, SSD in PCIe, PowerColor 7870XT (thinking it's an 7950)

 

[pixelatedscraps]

Just picked up a 6-core 3.33Ghz 2009 4,1-5,1 cMP with 16Gb RAM, GT120 and a 1Tb HDD off eBay for $700. It’s to be upgraded to 48Gb RAM, a 500Gb SSD, USB-C 3.1 and a 4Tb spinner with some spares I have in the office, while a new Gigabyte Radeon RX 550 2Gb is ordered, and is to be used as an extra Photoshop editing machine in our studio.

Can't quite justify the iMP (until I talk to my accountant) and the wait for the next mMP is just too far away when the 5,1 cMPs are so cheap and still hold their own for us.

Dammit. My accountant just told me it was a good idea.

10-Core, 64Gb, 1Tb SSD, 56 Vega here we come!

 

[1042686]

I picked up a MP 1,1 with a 250 & 160GB hdds & 32gb DDR2 running ElCap for $90USD. It came with the stock 7300GT and a 512GB XT1900 XT. I sold both those cards and replaced them with a NVIDIA GeForce GT 240 I had lying around which flies (no boot screen unfortunately). The box works well although the fans ramp up from time to time. Is there a calibration app for these?

 

[h9826790]

I picked up a MP 1,1 with a 250 & 160GB hdds & 32gb memory for $90USD. It came with the stock 7300GT and a 512GB XT1900 XT. I sold both those cards and replaced them with a NVIDIA GeForce GT 240 which flies (no boot screen tho). The box works well although the fans ramp up from time to time. Is there a calibration app for these?

Try MacsFanControl, but use it with caution. This apps can override system protection, if you keep the fan speed too low, you may kill your Mac.

 

[1042686]

Try MacsFanControl, but use it with caution. This apps can override system protection, if you keep the fan speed too low, you may kill your Mac.

I was curious if these mac pros have a calibration feature like the PowerMac G5s do to ring in unruly PMG5 fans. Perhaps not a disc but rather an app or partition you can boot into to sync up fan speeds etc. I use MFC with great success on an 06 white imac24" & 08 Aluminum MB except in both instances it was to ramp UP case fan speeds while pushing the GPUs, not bring them down. I agree that this is a dangerous proposition & would ideally prefer to let the MP control fan speeds when in a downward direction.

Anyhow, I find the way these fans ramp up then back down each time I bring it out of sleep to be odd - not a deal breaker at all for me - very happy with the box overall, but just weird. Thanks again.

 

[LightBulbFun]

I picked up a MP 1,1 with a 250 & 160GB hdds & 32gb DDR2 running ElCap for $90USD. It came with the stock 7300GT and a 512GB XT1900 XT. I sold both those cards and replaced them with a NVIDIA GeForce GT 240 I had lying around which flies (no boot screen unfortunately). The box works well although the fans ramp up from time to time. Is there a calibration app for these?

Try MacsFanControl, but use it with caution. This apps can override system protection, if you keep the fan speed too low, you may kill your Mac.

maybe if you guys looked at his BootROM version, it is horribly out of date LOL (the latest is B08 and he is running B00...)

the last EFI update for the Mac Pro 1,1 specifically handles some fan control bugs

https://support.apple.com/kb/DL206?viewlocale=en_US&locale=en_US "This EFI Firmware Update fixes several fan behavior and Boot Camp issues on Mac Pro computers."

 

[owbp]

I find the way these fans ramp up then back down each time I bring it out of sleep to be odd

I had the same behavior with my 1,1 (flashed to 2,1) when i've filled all the ram slots.
It had originally 4x2GB Apple factory RAM but the fans started ramping up after sleep (only after sleep and only for a few seconds) after i've added 4x2 Samsung RAM.

 

[LightBulbFun]

I had the same behavior with my 1,1 (flashed to 2,1) when i've filled all the ram slots.
It had originally 4x2GB Apple factory RAM but the fans started ramping up after sleep (only after sleep and only for a few seconds) after i've added 4x2 Samsung RAM.

what CPUs are you running?

it might help to upgrade the SMC firmware to that of a 2,1 Mac Pro as well (I know waking from sleep with the fans blaring is a known issue when running 2,1 Firmware with Quad Core CPUs on a flashed 1,1 with 1,1 SMC still)

you can find the needed stuff here in this thread

http://forum.netkas.org/index.php/topic,8690.msg27717.html#msg27717

 

[1042686]

maybe if you guys looked at his BootROM version, it is horribly out of date LOL (the latest is B08 and he is running B00...)

the last EFI update for the Mac Pro 1,1 specifically handles some fan control bugs

https://support.apple.com/kb/DL206?viewlocale=en_US&locale=en_US "This EFI Firmware Update fixes several fan behavior and Boot Camp issues on Mac Pro computers."

Cool. I’ll do this update when I get home from work today & will report back if I get an improvement. Thanks.

 

[owbp]

what CPUs are you running?

it might help to upgrade the SMC firmware to that of a 2,1 Mac Pro as well (I know waking from sleep with the fans blaring is a known issue when running 2,1 Firmware with Quad Core CPUs on a flashed 1,1 with 1,1 SMC still)

you can find the needed stuff here in this thread

http://forum.netkas.org/index.php/topic,8690.msg27717.html#msg27717

Thanks so much for the reminder! I knew i had seen the answer to that somewhere but who knows for how long would i searched for it.

Btw, the CPUs are X5355's but the Mac is on the loan to a friend for quite some time now (little more than a year) or else i would be busy restoring it from a bricked state for the hundredth time, as i was prepared to do something very "creative" with it
https://forums.macrumors.com/thread...and-macos-sierra.1977271/page-8#post-23625122

Hope to get it back soon, 'cause i really miss the old sock.

 

[LightBulbFun]

Thanks so much for the reminder! I knew i had seen the answer to that somewhere but who knows for how long would i searched for it.

Btw, the CPUs are X5355's but the Mac is on the loan to a friend for quite some time now (little more than a year) or else i would be busy restoring it from a bricked state for the hundredth time, as i was prepared to do something very "creative" with it
https://forums.macrumors.com/thread...and-macos-sierra.1977271/page-8#post-23625122

Hope to get it back soon, 'cause i really miss the old sock.

an external EEPROM programmer is a Firmware hackers best friend

https://www.anandtech.com/show/2800/upgrading-and-analyzing-apple-s-nehalem-mac-pro

"you couldn’t upgrade them to Harpertown without hardware modifications to the system (don’t ask me what they are ..)."

I do wonder what that Hardware mod was. I know somewhere else he mentions the mods that where done to intels V8 board to make harpertown CPUs work in that I wonder if its the same stuff...

 

[m25h75]

After thinking about it for some time now, I finally purchased a brand new Mac Pro in late December 2017. I've been waiting to test everything and make sure it works as it should, and it's been performing flawlessly so far. It replaced my 2010 Mac Pro (2.4GHz 8-core) and I couldn't be happier with my purchase. It's a 6-core/D700/16GB/512GB SSD configuration which I will upgrade to 64GB soon. Paired with Benq SW320 4K monitor and Drobo 5C for storage + additional external 1TB SSD. I use it mainly for my commercial product photography business and 4K video editing in FCPX. I've been going back and forth between it and 2017 5K iMac, but I already have brand new 5K iMac at the office (quad-core i7, 1TB SSD, 32GB DDR, Radeon Pro 580 8GB) and I don't really like it to be perfectly honest. Yes, the 5K screen is amazing (more attractive than accurate though) and the system is very fast, but it's also noticeably loud and I feel like it's going to start melting away while rendering 4K video or processing large amounts of photos in Lightroom or Capture One Pro. Call me crazy, but I highly prefer super quiet Mac Pro and stand-alone, accurate color profiled matte screen. It stays cool and quiet no matter what I throw at it, and the processing speeds are on par with iMac. No matter the benchmarks, it simply feels snappier and more fluid in my daily tasks. Yes, it may be old tech these days, but I would definitely buy it again

 

[deerworrier]

seems like the place to make first intros.
john in New Zealand, complete Mac noob!
My PC finally presented the last straw to me in the form of "could not complete update, please reinstall operating system" so. I'm here in Mac land.
just bought a 2009 4,1 2x2.26 with 12gb ram and original GPU.
i have ordered the 3.33 upgrade kit, installed an additional 16gb ram with another 32 on order (it was a deal so i took it) did the 4,1 to 5,1 thing and installed high sierra. i have 2 pic cards and 2 120gb ssd to run my OS and Apps and a stack of older HDD units that i installed. only thing I'm getting to grips with at the moment is the GPU upgrade (slowly trawling my way through the mountain of info here) and the keyboard is causing the odd bout of tourettes but i'll get the hang of it.
I'm sure i will have a question at some point.