Hey everyone,
I work on iMac Pro (After Effects, Davinci Resolve and C4D) at work and everything's fine but I have this old Mac Pro at home and I'd like to know if it's worth it to upgrade it as much as possible so I will be able to work on Ae, Davinci and C4D on it.
Here is my Mac Pro:
Mac Pro (Mid 2012)
2 x 2,66 GHz 6-Core Intel Xeon
24 Go 1333 MHz DDR3
SSD 250 Go
SSD 120 Go
HD 3To
HD 1To
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680 2047 Mo
If I add more ram and change the GPU is it enough? I have no idea if my processor is good for the softwares I use.
I'm wondering if with an upgrade I can get a good computer at the end or if I should buy a brand new one.
What are your suggestions?
Thank you very much!
Jack
First off , clean the interior of your Mac with a real compressor and give it time to dry ( there will always be water mist in the hose ) . Do this at 60 PSI and no closer than 6 inches to any component . It may not seem like a lot when you try , but it really works and is safe . These Macs are stealth vacuums and collect dust just for the fun of it . Do this just once and then buy a front chassis filter from TransIntl .
My recommended basic configuration for a reasonably powerful media editing DP Mac Pro 5,1 is this :
PSU ( internal ) = proprietary factory power supply is excellent . Replace with like when needed .
PSU ( external ) = 1000W VGA EVGA as nice as you can afford . Drill some holes in the side access panel to feed the 6 and 8 pin PCIe booster cables . Make certain the external PSU always is on before you start up your Mac . There's a special attachment for this that tricks the PSU into thinking its attached to a logic board . This mod is easy and will allow you to push two of even the most powerful internal GPUs .
Logic Board = proprietary . Can be replaced with another from a 2010 or 2012 model year Mac Pro 5,1 . You cannot use a 2009 ( Mac Pro 4,1 ) model year logic board .
boot ROM version = 144.0.0.0.0. This happens automatically with an OS installer . Update to this ASAP .
CPU Tray = proprietary . You must use a year 2010 or 2012 Mac Pro 5,1 Tray in your Mac . Do not use a Tray from a 2009 Mac Pro 4,1 . Upgrade the processors to a Dual Quad 3.46 GHz ( X5677 ) or Dual Six Core 3.46 GHz ( X5690 ) configuration . X5677s will not generate as much heat and you might just get away with not having to bump up the system fans to cool them , even at load . X5677s are also dirt cheap and powerful . You will also need to re-thermal paste the NorthBridge Controller Chip on your Tray . This is mandatory for a ten year old workstation .
Memory = used enterprise grade 16GB DDR3 1333 MHz ECC modules . They cost $20-25 each . Install six matching modules in slots 1,2,3,5,6,7 . Compatible models are : Samsung M393B2G70AH0-YH9 : Samsung M393B2G70BH0-YH9 : Micron MT36KSF2G72PZ-1G4 . This is the fastest and largest configuration possible .
Graphics cards = Vega Frontier Edition or Radeon VII if you modded your chassis , as described above and are using an external PSU . You might consider also a blower fan type Dual RX 480 install , as Resolve , FCPX and Blender likes two powerful matching GPUs . The Dual 480s do not require the chassis mod amazingly .
Boot drive = NVMe M.2 PCIe SSD on an adapter with heatsink . One drive needs only 4 PCIe lanes electrical . Sintech model ST-M2PCE4X adapter . Recommended drives : Intel 660p or HP EX 920 or 950 . Up to 2TB in capacity .
Boot Drive RAID Card = HighPoint SSD7101A-1 with four NVMe M.2 SSD slots . This card should be placed in a 16 lane electrical PCIe Slot ( Slot 1 or 2 in your Mac Pro ) . Recommended drives : Intel 660p or HP EX 920 or 950 . Up to 2TB in capacity . They RAID 0 nicely with three drives with bandwidth faster than a Mac Pro 7,1 . Reserve one drive as a non-RAID boot . We can no longer boot with RAID with Mojave .
All NVMe M.2 PCIe drives will boot slowly in a Mac Pro ( 1 to 1.5 minutes ) but are fast in an OS session .
HDDs can be used as mass storage in the HDD Bays . You can go as high as 16TB with OWC's special drive carrier with the proper drive mounting points . Factory HDD carriers will allow up to 6 TB .
Optical Drive(s) = One or two LG WH14NS40 Blu-ray drive . You can use Verbatim M-disc blanks up to 100GB to archive your data . They will last forever .
WiFi = if you want 802.11ac + BT 4.x , you are required to have an Apple branded card in the proper slot . There's a complex mod to do this , but it works with Continuity features in the OS . Third party 802.11ac devices will not give you "AC" technology or Continuity in a Mac , no matter what they claim . The factory 802.11n card is good enough for Mojave .
Blue Tooth 4.x = Startech has some nice Mac Compatible USB dongles . They will not provide Continuity , I think . You must over ride the factory installed BT card in terminal . Startech will walk you through . This dongle is stand alone .
USB 3.1 Gen 2 PCIe Card = Gigabyte brand model GC-USB3.1 , with one Type A and one Type C port . I personally use one of these to connect my iPhone and USB drives to . It's fast .
Sonnet 10 GbE PCIe card , model Solo10G PCIe Card G10E-1X-E3 . Yes , you can get real 10 Gb ethernet with your Mac so you can connect to a network or maybe an external RAID chassis .
Recommended macOS for all the above = Mojave 10.14.6 ( is officially supported with your Mac ) . You could take her to Catalina , but you'll lose 32 bit app support and there might be some sleep and password protected screen saver issues , since Apple does not support this OS on your Mac .
Have fun ! This is a great machine and built like a main battle tank . It's still surprisingly fast .
