I have a Mac Pro from 2006 (ordered as soon as possible after WWDC 2006...) that has slowly faded out of my life. As such, I never really bothered to upgrade any of the original components except the HDD (I added a 1TB drive). I've decided to pull the aluminum dinosaur out of 2006 and into 2012 (if I don't sell it first), but aside from adding RAM, what graphics card would I be able to put in it? Would it be powerful enough to run some modern games off of Steam? Also, it's still running 10.5 but I would upgrade to 10.7 if I decide to keep it. I'm a university student, and don't really run any CPU/GPU intensive programs anymore due to schoolwork. However, I would love to be able to sync my notes and outlines from my notebook (a rev A MBA) to my desktop for working when I get home. I don't know if Pages supports iCloud integration in 10.7, which as I understand is the last OS update the 1,1 Mac Pro will get. Is there anything similar that I could achieve? Thanks!
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Upgrades for a 1,1 Mac Pro?
- Thread starter VelvetBlue
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I set up a file sharing port and a vnc port in my router. Now I can access my MP from whereever I am via its IP adress with my MacBook.
Pretty cool, i like that. Dropbox uses space on my HD, and since I want to get a SSD for my MBP I want to save as much as I can.
Check Back-to-my-mac from the iCloud services!
Pretty cool, i like that. Dropbox uses space on my HD, and since I want to get a SSD for my MBP I want to save as much as I can.
Check Back-to-my-mac from the iCloud services!
You can upgrade to octocore very cheaply now. Also, take out your optical bay and replace with an SSD. It will make a world of difference. Finally, the biggest upgrade may be to NOT upgrade to Lion. SL is faster, better and has more features. Lion is actually a kind a crippled form of SL.
I have a 4870 card and that can run pretty much any game out there. You can upgrade to faster cards if you want but there is no point.
Yes, you can upgrade to Octocore for about $100 if you buy uses chips on Ebay (many of us have done this). Do a search on ebay for X5355 or X5365 (although the X5365 are ridiculously expensive so most of us go with the x5355s).
Ram is still pretty ridiculous in price although now you can get used RAM on ebay pretty cheap. I was able to pick up 8GB (4x2GB) for less than $60.
Drop in an SSD and the thing will fly. Super fast.
Video cards: If you don't care about boot screens (i.e. the initial gray screens), then you can use just about any Nvidia PC card in it now (need to get the drivers from Nvidia first) as long as it is a 9XXX series or newer. For $50 I put in a GT440 with dual DVI. I still run my 7300GT for the initial boot screen and to run one of my 3 monitors and the other two are run off of the GT440. Eventually I will add a second Nvidia card and drop the 7300GT and boot screens altogether (i'll keep it just in case it stops booting).
Mt. Lion - There is a hack to get it to run on the 2006's. More or less turns your Mac Pro 1,1 into a Hackintosh at least initially. I haven't done it yet since you can't use a 7300GT with it (no drivers) so I will have to replace the 7300GT before I can try it.
Unfortunately the original Mac Pro in their original configuration aren't really worth a lot these days. I picked mine up a few months ago for less than $400 off a guy locally. I dropped in the above upgrades and for less than $700 have a machine that competes with many of the current quad cores (can't match the 6+ core current machines though). For that price, I am able to hold off buying a Mac Pro until Apple completely redoes them in 2013 (hopefully).
Ram is still pretty ridiculous in price although now you can get used RAM on ebay pretty cheap. I was able to pick up 8GB (4x2GB) for less than $60.
Drop in an SSD and the thing will fly. Super fast.
Video cards: If you don't care about boot screens (i.e. the initial gray screens), then you can use just about any Nvidia PC card in it now (need to get the drivers from Nvidia first) as long as it is a 9XXX series or newer. For $50 I put in a GT440 with dual DVI. I still run my 7300GT for the initial boot screen and to run one of my 3 monitors and the other two are run off of the GT440. Eventually I will add a second Nvidia card and drop the 7300GT and boot screens altogether (i'll keep it just in case it stops booting).
Mt. Lion - There is a hack to get it to run on the 2006's. More or less turns your Mac Pro 1,1 into a Hackintosh at least initially. I haven't done it yet since you can't use a 7300GT with it (no drivers) so I will have to replace the 7300GT before I can try it.
Unfortunately the original Mac Pro in their original configuration aren't really worth a lot these days. I picked mine up a few months ago for less than $400 off a guy locally. I dropped in the above upgrades and for less than $700 have a machine that competes with many of the current quad cores (can't match the 6+ core current machines though). For that price, I am able to hold off buying a Mac Pro until Apple completely redoes them in 2013 (hopefully).
Sorry to hijack someone elses thread, but it's asking something that I'm struggling with. I have two Mac Pro 1,1's at home. One has the stock 7300 and the other the X1900 video cards.
I don't play games, I only use it for photo and video editing (NOT professional!), so I don't need a super whizzy card, just something because I'm nervous of the two cards conking out at some time after reading about them everywhere.
I don't really want to have to faff about with extra booster cables and power supplies if I can at all avoid it!
The local computer store stocks the following cards:
GT210
GF210
GT520
GT610
GT430
GT620
GT630
Are any of those suitable? I haven't a clue!
I use a gr440 dual svi in my 1.1 with no problems. Just a bit faster than the 430
Honestly, I'd sell it and see if you can get a Mini with a flash drive.
You said you don't run any CPU/GPU intensive programs which makes this the perfect candidate.
If you were still using the Mac Pro regularly, I'd probably tell you something different, but it sounds already kind of moved on from it. A Mini would probably be faster as well, except in graphics.
You said you don't run any CPU/GPU intensive programs which makes this the perfect candidate.
If you were still using the Mac Pro regularly, I'd probably tell you something different, but it sounds already kind of moved on from it. A Mini would probably be faster as well, except in graphics.