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

[salehangphu]

Upgrades planned are Ram first, then perhaps a pcie ssd and a new graphics card. The tradeoff between AMD and Nvidia - what's the general consensus as to which brand tends to be better for what sorts of work / activity?

 

[h9826790]

Upgrades planned are Ram first, then perhaps a pcie ssd and a new graphics card. The tradeoff between AMD and Nvidia - what's the general consensus as to which brand tends to be better for what sorts of work / activity?

If CUDA helps, go for Nvidia of course.

If you need OpenCL, AMD usually give better performance per dollar (and less drama in OSX).

For gaming, Nvidia.

For FCPX, AMD.

This is my basic understanding.

 

[Hirakata]

So my 2011 27" i7 iMac (12,2) just died over the weekend. It's at the shop not getting checked out, but I'm guessing it's either the PSU or logic board as it was pretty much running 24/7 for the past 4.5 years. (Gaming in Windows or rendering in Poser during waking hours. Rendering during sleeping hours. And running a half dozen @home projects using all cores when not in active use.)

I was planning on "upgrading" soon anyway, so this just sort of speeds things up. (And puts me out the $900 or so I was going to sell the iMac for...) Anyway, this is what I'm planning on "upgrading" to:

5,1 Mac Pro (2012 model)
Dual 3.46 Six Core
32GB RAM
GTX 980 Ti (Macvidcards)
1 TD HDD
Tempo SSD Pro Plus
850 Evo 1TB

I use Poser and Photoshop a lot (not for income) and boot into Windows for gaming. Will I be happy with this setup (at least for a few years...)?

Any suggestions would be appreciated, as I'm not going to pull the trigger for a couple of weeks.

 

[iMattux]

My new Mac Pro is a 2009 4,1 2.66GHz Quad. It had a 640GB HD with Yosemite, two nVidia GT 120's, and 10GB of ram.
I got it for <$400 on eBay. The case is flawless. That was important to me because I look at it every day and I plan to keep it for many more years.

The 3.46GHz W3690 will be here in a couple of hours. I already have a flashed Gigabyte HD 7970 GHz edition and 32GB of 1333MHz ram. I've done my homework. And gotten lots of help from these forums and guys like Pike, MacVidcards, PeterHolbrooke, rthpjm and many others.

On the first boot from his Yosemite drive, I did not hear the familiar and comforting Mac startup chimes. Resetting the PRAM and SMC fixed that (temporarily, read on...)

I pulled the boot SSD, supporting data drives and HD 7970 GPU out of my Mac Pro1,1 and put it into the new 4,1. Theoretically, my El Capitan boot SSD and everything else should drop into the new Mac Pro without so much as a hiccup.*

Again, I got no startup chimes. Hmmmm... Then I noticed that iStat Menus was no longer reporting GPU temps. Hmmmmm...

I went thru all the normal troubleshooting steps and finally booted up from Apple Hardware Test; it reports error 4SNS/1/40000001:VeAS-0.000 I had already reset PRAM and SMC, but I did again. Same result. This page helps me interpret the code:

• "4SNS" = a sensor problem;
• "V" indicates that it's a voltage sensor;
• "e" is short for PCIe and finally,
• "0.000" indicates that the sensor is reading 0 voltage

Ok. The voltage sensor on the motherboard/backplane is disconnected, shorted or otherwise not working. The card is obviously getting all the power it needs. GPUz and ATI's latest "Crimson" software does not report any errors. I even bumped the clock speed a bit and the voltage too, with no problems. (Running Windows 8.1)

Here's the question: Should I be worried? Should I return the computer to the seller? If this is the only "problem" that AHT found, am I making a wise choice to continue with my upgrade plans with this unit?

I really need someone who knows about hardware. Blind speculation is not going to help.

 

[Silencio]

I'm about to build out some new cMP systems here. I want them to be as robust as possible in terms of CPU, RAM, and GPU, but don't want to push them over the limit for power consumption or thermal output.

I'm looking at Dual 6-core 3.46GHz X5690s, 96GB of RAM, and GTX 980 Ti graphics cards. Is that configuration pushing things too close to the edge?

 

[iMattux]

You can check out these stores for the power supply for 2009, 2010, and 2012 Mac Pros

http://www.premiummacparts.com/index.php?controller=search&orderby=position&orderway=desc&search_query=661-5011+Power+Supply+980+Watts+for+Mac+Pro+2009,+2010,+2012+A1289&submit_search=

Premium. Yeah you can say that again! $41 for a mini-6 pin PCIe to 6 pin for a video card?!?! You can get them for $.99 with free shipping! And $41 for a 3mm hex wrench?!?! $313 for a SuperDrive?!?! OMFG! That's beyond criminal.

I REALLY hope no one here - or anywhere else - gives these guys ANY BUSINESS.
[doublepost=1454349543][/doublepost]

I'm about to build out some new cMP systems here. I want them to be as robust as possible in terms of CPU, RAM, and GPU, but don't want to push them over the limit for power consumption or thermal output.

I'm looking at Dual 6-core 3.46GHz X5690s, 96GB of RAM, and GTX 980 Ti graphics cards. Is that configuration pushing things too close to the edge?

Short answer: No trouble at all. Go forth and build with confidence. Note that the processor swap is a bit trickier on the dual cpu units. The very smart and very experienced guys at Anandtech.com fried $2K worth of hardware. Read up and be very careful.

I've done a lot of research in this area for the last couple of months, Silencio. The Mac Pro has a 980W PSU. That's huge by PC standards and I'm talking about custom-built extreme gaming rigs. You will have no problems at all with that configuration. There is some small debate over how much power you can draw and where from - internal PSU vs. adding another - when you try to put 2 power-hungry GPU's in the box, but as long as you only have 1 - and a GTX 980Ti is a beast with lower draw that some others - you are not gonna be pushing anything beyond what it was designed for. I can dig up some links to the PSU discussion on Apple Support discussion boards if you want to read and be more informed and comfortable moving forward.

On the GTX 980Ti - If you're concerned about thermals, stay away from the reference cards (designs with 1 fan) and get one with double or triple fans. I've become a fan of the Gigabyte Windforce 3x design myself, and the PC builders all have their faves for various reasons, but the consensus is that the each of the partners improves upon the reference design by overclocking it, cooling it differently, drawing less power or whatever tweaks the end user seeks. Despite being PC-centric, TechPowerUp.com and 3DGuru.com are great resources for reviews, benchmarks and side-by-side comparisons to help you choose.

Cheers

 

[dimobr]

Hi everyone! Last week I received my cMP:

Mac Pro 5.1 - 2010
2x 2.93GHz (6 cores)
24gb RAM ECC (6x4)
HD5870 (already changed by a GTX680)
2x 2TB HD
2x 512 SSD
Cinema Display 30" + keyborad + magic mouse.

HDDs and SSDs are installed in standard slots (SATAII, as is well known). I don't care to keep the HDDs using these connections since I use them only for file storage, but I want to make better use of SSDs, someone has experience with controllers that use the chipset Marvell 88SE9128? Can anyone tell me if this is compatible with my 5.1?

I'm from Brazil (sorry for bad English) and here I can not find options like those offered by Sonnet or Apricorn and import makes these products arrive here with absurd prices.

Thank you.

 

[Macdctr]

Note that the processor swap is a bit trickier on the dual cpu units. The very smart and very experienced guys at Anandtech.com fried $2K worth of hardware. Read up and be very careful.

I have heard that with MacPro dual processor 4,1's it is a bit trickier to do the processor swap because those processor trays use delidded processors. The 5,1 dual processor trays use lidded processors so swapping them out is simply taking the old one out and putting the new one back in. The processor heat sinks don't need to be torqued on super tight....just snug using a t-handle 3mm hex wrench.

I did the dual processor swap on my 5,1 yesterday and did not have any issues. I think if you just take your time and do one processor at a time you won't have any problems, that's all.

 

[Squuiid]

I finally took the plunge and bought a single processor Mac Pro 2010 (5,1)

Here are the upgrade parts I've bought:
1x Xeon X5690 3.46GHz Six Cores CPU
64 GB RAM (4x16GB)
2x Samsung XP941 512GB PCIe SSD (OS X and Win 10)
2x Lycom DT-120
1x NVIDIA GTX680 2GB (now flashed)
1x Sonnet Allegro Pro USB 3.0
1x Apple WiFi 802.11AC + Bluetooth 4.0

Parts ordered but not put together yet. Anyone see any issues with any of these? Hoping they will all work together!
Thanks in advance.

 

[pastrychef]

I finally took the plunge and bought a single processor Mac Pro 2010 (5,1)

Here are the upgrade parts I've bought:
1x Xeon X5690 3.46GHz Six Cores CPU
64 GB RAM (4x16GB)
2x Samsung XP941 512GB PCIe SSD
2x Lycom DT-120
1x NVIDIA GTX680 2GB (now flashed)
1x Sonnet Allegro Pro USB 3.0
1x Apple WiFi 802.11AC + Bluetooth 4.0

Bought all the parts but not put together yet. Anyone see any issues with any of these? Hoping they will all work together!
Thanks in advance.

Looks like a great system. Should serve you well for a long time.

 

[raymanster]

Got a 3.1 last November which is running great, 2.8 8-core, 32 GB RAM, 120 GB SSD, a couple 2 TB drives, wifi card and an EVGA 750ti.

Lucked out and found a 4.1 this week for a good price, single 2.66 ghz processor. Now 5 days later upgraded to a hex core (x5670) and 32 GB of 1333 mhz RAM. Next on the list is a new SSD as I want to keep the 120 GB SSD in my 3.1.

 

[Squuiid]

Next on the list is a new SSD as I want to keep the 120 GB SSD in my 3.1.

Here is BY FAR your best option. The also do a 256GB card if you want smaller:

If you live in the UK, here's a great deal on the 512GB XP941, at £150. There are still plenty in stock:
https://www.overclockers.co.uk/sams...state-drive-mzhpu512hcgl-00000-hd-205-sa.html

They also have the Lycoms for £10
https://www.overclockers.co.uk/lycom-dt-120-m.2-pci-e-ssd-to-pci-e-adapter-card-hd-000-lm.html

 

[neongold]

Hi

This is my first post on this MacRumors. Happy to join this community.

I picked up a Mac Pro 2,1 with 3.0GHz with eight cores, 6GB of memory, 750GB Hard Drive, ATI X1900 and Bluetooth for $100 last week off Craigslist. I thought it was a deal I couldn't passed up.

It runs great. I installed 32GB of memory and installed Yosemite because I wanted to use BootChamp to boot directly into Windows 10 64bit which I also installed(I upgraded from Windows 7 64bit and installed Boot Camp drivers through a workaround). I also installed an old ATI 5670 1GB, I don't have a boot screen.

Do you guys have suggestions other upgrades?

I want USB 3.0, WIFI, and a graphics card that will enable boot screen.

 

[scott.n]

Welcome to MR. That's a great deal.

USB 3: I'm happy with my Inateck KT4004, but that's on my 5,1. I'm unsure if there are any issues using it on a 2,1.

WiFi: Any mini-PCIe Airport card intended for a Mac Pro or iMac should work. I like part number 661-5946 from the 2011 iMac since it's one of the few that can use all three of the antennae in later model Mac Pros. (I think that yours only has two antennae though.) But any part from 2010-2011 vintage would be a safe bet.

GPU: I'd recommend a GTX 680 that you flash yourself. There are several AMD options also, if you prefer.

 

[cheezeit]

What's a deal for a 5,1 Mac Pro? Looking to pick up a new desktop as my current mac mini isn't powerful enough and I want dual monitors. Anything to avoid/search for on a mac pro? Just hope the one I settle on lasts...

 

[h9826790]

What's a deal for a 5,1 Mac Pro? Looking to pick up a new desktop as my current mac mini isn't powerful enough and I want dual monitors. Anything to avoid/search for on a mac pro? Just hope the one I settle on lasts...

If you don't need dual CPU setup. May be better to search for cheap 4,1. They are virtually identical, but cheaper.

It also means, if you are going to buy the 5,1. Make sure that's NOT a 4,1 flashed to 5,1, because they are virtually identical. Some seller will advertise their upgraded 4,1 as 5,1, but sell it at a higher price.

 

[cheezeit]

If you don't need dual CPU setup. May be better to search for cheap 4,1. They are virtually identical, but cheaper.

It also means, if you are going to buy the 5,1. Make sure that's NOT a 4,1 flashed to 5,1, because they are virtually identical. Some seller will advertise their upgraded 4,1 as 5,1, but sell it at a higher price.

I've checked the serial and "about" screen it says 2010. It's a single quad 2.8 with the 5770. Asking is $350, which from what I'm researching is a steal? Please correct me if I'm wrong

 

[h9826790]

I've checked the serial and "about" screen it says 2010. It's a single quad 2.8 with the 5770. Asking is $350, which from what I'm researching is a steal? Please correct me if I'm wrong

The "About this Mac" is meaningless. I can easily give you something like this.

By the way, the serial number check should be accurate. And yes, if it's in good condition, it's a steal.

 

[pastrychef]

$350

Great price.

 

[Squuiid]

I finally took the plunge and bought a single processor Mac Pro 2010 (5,1)

Here are the upgrade parts I've bought:
1x Xeon X5690 3.46GHz Six Cores CPU
64 GB RAM (4x16GB)
2x Samsung XP941 512GB PCIe SSD (OS X and Win 10)
2x Lycom DT-120
1x NVIDIA GTX680 2GB (now flashed)
1x Sonnet Allegro Pro USB 3.0
1x Apple WiFi 802.11AC + Bluetooth 4.0

Parts ordered but not put together yet. Anyone see any issues with any of these? Hoping they will all work together!
Thanks in advance.

Just coming back almost a month later to say I absolutely LOVE this machine! So happy with it!
Thanks again to everyone who contributed to me putting this together. There is so much good info in this forum.

A small change to the final specs, I ended up having to ditch one of the XP941 SSDs and am now using a Samsung 850 Pro instead. This was so that I could use BootCamp in Legacy BIOS mode as the GTX 680 doesn't work in Windows UEFI.

I also had to move the XP941 from slot 2 to slot 3 in order to allow sleep. This is a known issue with the XP941 UXM6401Q firmware. Apparently XP941 SSDs with firmware UXM6501Q do not exhibit this problem. From what I've read there is unfortunately no way of updating the firmware.

Final slot config:
Slot 1: GTX 680
Slot 2: Sonnet Allegro Pro USB 3.0
Slot 3: XP941 SSD
Slot 4: empty

Bay 3: Samsung 850 Pro (I used Bay 3 and not Bay 1 as this means the drive doesn't share the IDE controller in Windows with the Superdrive.)

 

[VinnyVincent]

Hi guys first post

Hey I just signed up and I am wondering if I did an okay job on this purchase as I am just getting back into the game. The last mac I had was in 2000

I was going to buy a new mini mac 1.4 i5, but decided to go with a used pro instead.

this is the one I got:

Early 2008
xeon 2.8 quad core
4GB ram
500gb HD
El capitan
345 dollars. This is probably a little high but it's all I could find this weekend and I wanted it asap. It was cheaper than the local stores that sell used macs.
Anyhow I am wondering if I did a good job buying this instead of the new mac mini entry level for 499?
I am mainly just using it for media content and movies. Downloading stuff while watching movies/surfing the web. Is this a good computer for that?

Also what about upgrades? Should I bother considering my use?

Is there an additional slot for a processor? I notice there's a 2008 that features 2X2.8 ghz, but mine is just the 1X model. Is it possible to put a 3.2ghz xeon into the second processor slot?

Ram Is an obvious upgrade to do as well. I was thinking about gettng the 16gb kit for 60. Is that a good price?

 

[austinpike]

Early 2008... 345 dollars. This is probably a little high but it's all I could find this weekend and I wanted it asap.

Maybe a little high since it doesn't have the upgrade potential of a 4,1 or 5,1. But people always ask inflated values for the older models - given that it can run El Cap out of the box it is certainly better than a 1,1 or 2,1. Compared to the (lacking) specs on the base Mac Mini, versus the upgrade options you have on the 2008, I think you made the right choice.

I don't think you would get anything out of a second processor for your use. (but if you wanted to - there is an empty slot, but you can't just throw in a 3.2, they need to be matched. So either another 2.8 or replace both with 3.2. And you'd need to add the second heatsink. This thread looks useful: Upgrade Mac Pro 3.1 (2008) )

Given what you need it for, I would put as little $ into it as possible. The only thing I would do is add an SSD for the OS, keep the HD for storage or backup. 480Gb Sandisk SSD Plus is $99 right now at Amazon, which is the best I have seen for a decent drive in that size. Note that the SSD won't mount up to your drive sled, you can either just plug it in and let it "float" (it weighs nothing) or there are mounting solutions. Either an SSD-specific sled or an adapter for the existing sled. Note you can't use the sleds out there for a 2009+ - they are different.

For RAM - you may even get by fine on 4GB - but assuming you have 4x1GB now, I would just add another 4GB. Looks like you can get that for under ~$20 on eBay.

 

[raymanster]

You made a good choice choosing the Pro instead of the Mini. It is more then good enough for what you need it for, therefore you may not even need the 2nd processor.

You might want to upgrade the graphics card, I have an EVGA nVidia 750ti. But again considering your use, might be overkill.

I would suggest an SSD and more RAM (667 mhz is slightly cheaper). 16 GB of RAM (DDR2 800) cost me $70 earlier this year.

I got a 2nd processor for something like the equivalent of $30, they are very cheap. Fairly easy to install, you just need to be careful and follow instructions.

Browse this forum and you will find a lot of good advice in the older posts.

Hi guys first post

Hey I just signed up and I am wondering if I did an okay job on this purchase as I am just getting back into the game. The last mac I had was in 2000

I was going to buy a new mini mac 1.4 i5, but decided to go with a used pro instead.

this is the one I got:

Early 2008
xeon 2.8 quad core
4GB ram
500gb HD
El capitan
345 dollars. This is probably a little high but it's all I could find this weekend and I wanted it asap. It was cheaper than the local stores that sell used macs.
Anyhow I am wondering if I did a good job buying this instead of the new mac mini entry level for 499?
I am mainly just using it for media content and movies. Downloading stuff while watching movies/surfing the web. Is this a good computer for that?

Also what about upgrades? Should I bother considering my use?

Is there an additional slot for a processor? I notice there's a 2008 that features 2X2.8 ghz, but mine is just the 1X model. Is it possible to put a 3.2ghz xeon into the second processor slot?

Ram Is an obvious upgrade to do as well. I was thinking about gettng the 16gb kit for 60. Is that a good price?

 

[VinnyVincent]

Given what you need it for, I would put as little $ into it as possible. The only thing I would do is add an SSD for the OS, keep the HD for storage or backup. 480Gb Sandisk SSD Plus is $99 right now at Amazon, which is the best I have seen for a decent drive in that size. Note that the SSD won't mount up to your drive sled, you can either just plug it in and let it "float" (it weighs nothing) or there are mounting solutions. Either an SSD-specific sled or an adapter for the existing sled. Note you can't use the sleds out there for a 2009+ - they are different.

For RAM - you may even get by fine on 4GB - but assuming you have 4x1GB now, I would just add another 4GB. Looks like you can get that for under ~$20 on eBay.

Excellent info and those look to be really cost effective upgrades! I think I'll do the SSD first and take it from there.
Regarding the size of the SSD, and bare with me here because my knowledge on this is next to nothing;
Can I just go with a 128GB(only $50) and only keep the OS on that drive along with a few select programs I use most often and basically get the same performance enhancement as using a large SDD for everything?

For example I might put the OS and a small video editing program on the SDD and I would keep all my media on the 500gig that's already on there along with backup...

 

[austinpike]

Can I just go with a 128GB(only $50) and only keep the OS on that drive along with a few select programs I use most often and basically get the same performance enhancement as using a large SDD for everything?

Larger capacities of the same model are generally faster, but any size is going to be vastly better than a traditional HD. Personally I wouldn't go less than 240GB for a system drive. With video editing I'd think you would end up with cache and temp files on the OS drive. (Though you could maybe set it to use the media drive, but that partially defeats the purpose of having an SSD.) If you do iPhone backups to the system drive that will eat up space. If you are downloading movies you'll have to constantly monitor and empty your downloads folder.

It generally isn't much more to make that step up - the Sandisk I linked is $44 for the 120GB vs $64 for the 240GB.