Ultimate Mac Pro 4.1 Running Leopard for FreeHand and Speed!

[AirPlein1]

Illustrator just doesn't cut it…I use FreeHand every day and because my essence relies on efficiency, I need to use FreeHand for my vector work. Hence, I'm building the ultimate FreeHand machine, which allows me to function in Leopard, relax with Time Machine, and build the fastest Mac that 2009 could ever know.

I have purchased a Mac Pro 4.1 dual 3.33 MHz quad core. It has 64 GB of RAM, and I plan to fit an OWC Mercury Accelsior_E2 PCI Express SSD as the startup.

My question is…is there anything else I can do to make this the fastest FreeHand (and superfriends) Mac? I use Photoshop CS5 and Illustrator CS3 also.

 

[Draeconis]

Keep it off the internet.

 

[Marty62]

Clean install, with ONLY the programs you really need.
No "freebies" / Test outs etc etc.
Decent GPU also.

The more junk that gets installed / downloaded the slower the machine.

+1 on keeping it off the net UNLESS you need to do updates.

M.

 

[s-hatland]

i would suggest a separate SSD scratch disk for photoshop. keep all those writes off your accelsior to prolong it's life

 

[AirPlein1]

All great suggestions…thank you! It's running great and super fast. Any suggestions on a video card upgrade? I use a Wacom Cintiq 24 HD as my main with a 20" LCD as a secondary.

 

[Draeconis]

All great suggestions…thank you! It's running great and super fast. Any suggestions on a video card upgrade? I use a Wacom Cintiq 24 HD as my main with a 20" LCD as a secondary.

For 10.5.8? Does your 4,1 still have the ATI 4870? If so I think that'd be the best one you can use without upgrading the OS.

 

[AirPlein1]

For 10.5.8? Does your 4,1 still have the ATI 4870? If so I think that'd be the best one you can use without upgrading the OS.

It's actually a 5.1 as it turns out, so I believe it's the absolute fastest Leopard-bootable Mac Pro I could get. The original NVIDIA GeForce GT 120 is what's in it.

 

[Draeconis]

That isn't possible, the 5,1's from 2010 came with a special build of 10.6.4, so anything before wouldn't run on it.

Something isn't correct here, if you go to the Apple logo in the top left, click that then go to About This Mac what version is the OS?

If you go to 'More Info', what is the machine referred to under the 'Model Identifier' field? MacPro4,1? MacPro5,1?


...unless the machine you bought was a MacPro4,1 flashed to 5,1 firmware.. but even then, because of Leopard, the best card you can run is the Mac version of the ATI 4870, which isn't sold by Apple anymore, and you'd probably be hard-pushed to find that being sold anywhere new; eBay might have some though.

 

[AirPlein1]

For 10.5.8? Does your 4,1 still have the ATI 4870? If so I think that'd be the best one you can use without upgrading the OS.

That isn't possible, the 5,1's from 2010 came with a special build of 10.6.4, so anything before wouldn't run on it.

Something isn't correct here, if you go to the Apple logo in the top left, click that then go to About This Mac what version is the OS?

If you go to 'More Info', what is the machine referred to under the 'Model Identifier' field? MacPro4,1? MacPro5,1?


...unless the machine you bought was a MacPro4,1 flashed to 5,1 firmware.. but even then, because of Leopard, the best card you can run is the Mac version of the ATI 4870, which isn't sold by Apple anymore, and you'd probably be hard-pushed to find that being sold anywhere new; eBay might have some though.

I believe that's exactly what was done. It's Mac OS 10.5.8, with a 2 x 3.33 GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon. I bought it on eBay from a seller who had several Mac Pros for sale and I explained what I wished to do, and he configured and tested it for me with Leopard before the purchase. He tested the memory too, and it runs at 1333 MHz (8 x 8 GB). I feel very fortunate to have this set-up, since I must stick to Leopard. I'll check eBay for the ATI 4870.

 

[benobadboy]

Im doing the same on a Nehalem early 2009 4.1 Quad core 3.33Ghz mac pro for freehand.
is this the same mac pro as you used? And if you update the processor to Westmere 6 core could you still run Leopard and use Freehand

----------

That Mac Pro Nehalem 4.1 3.33Ghz came out with Leopard 10.5.6 so Freehand should work right?

 

[MacVidCards]

I believe that's exactly what was done. It's Mac OS 10.5.8, with a 2 x 3.33 GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon. I bought it on eBay from a seller who had several Mac Pros for sale and I explained what I wished to do, and he configured and tested it for me with Leopard before the purchase. He tested the memory too, and it runs at 1333 MHz (8 x 8 GB). I feel very fortunate to have this set-up, since I must stick to Leopard. I'll check eBay for the ATI 4870.

A GTX285 would also work, IIRC.