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What do you think?

Ultracyclist

Ultracyclist

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Oct 13, 2014
339
315
Zwijndrecht, Netherlands
Hi Guy's (and girls)

Recently I got this 2006 Mac Pro 1.1

I did the firmware update to 2.1 and with al the hardware updates this is my total setup

Mac Pro 2006
2X Intel Xeon x5355 Edit: replaced with the X5365
32gb RAM 667Hrz
ATI Radion 5770 1gb Edit: replaced with an Sapphire HD 7950 3GB
Kingston SSDNOW 120gb Edit: replaced with an Samsung 850 evo 250GB
Apple HDD 320gb (old one from my MBP) Edit: replaced with an WD 1TB
PCI-E Adapter Set Apple BCM94360CD BT 4.0 Wifi Card
PCI-E USB 3.0 Card Inateck KT4006

2X Dell Ultrasharp U2515H
Hercules 2.1 Slim
Apple Magic trackpad
Apple Wireless keyboard + wired keyboard

OS: 10.11.4


So what do you think?
 
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IMG_2864.jpg
 
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Always nice to see the first gen Mac Pro still being put to good use! I just donated mine to my brother over Christmas when I upgraded to the dual processor 5,1
 
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Macdctr said:
Always nice to see the first gen Mac Pro still being put to good use! I just donated mine to my brother over Christmas when I upgraded to the dual processor 5,1
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Nice, this 1.1 I have, I got from a friend of mine. He didn't use it anymore because he has his 3,1 he uses.

I just like it as a project and to have it as my desktop "BEAST" :D
 
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So, stupid question. Sapphire 7950 vs Radeon 7950? What's the difference? I thought about Sapphire, but why are there so many brands for the same model card? (haven't had a desktop in 12 years!)
 
Radeon HD 7950 is model, like nVidia GTX 680. Manufacturers are Sapphire, MSI, Gigabyte, EVGA, ASUS an so on.
Just be sure to snag one with DVI, HDMI and two mDP ports if you want all them to work after flashing.
 
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I was just given a 2006 MP 2.66qx. Planning on building it up and seeing what it can do. Is this information still relevent? Does the OP still have this thing running in their setup?
 
Beamerrx7 said:
I was just given a 2006 MP 2.66qx. Planning on building it up and seeing what it can do. Is this information still relevent? Does the OP still have this thing running in their setup?
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I’ve sold it. Today I use 15” rMBP 2015 combo with RX580 eGPU and those displays.

But buyer reported it still is fully operational.
 
Interesting.

I already have a 2017 MBP and a 2012 MM. This just fell in my lap and I figured it would be a good project to keep me busy. Glad to hear someone is still using this. I am tossing around the idea of upgrading to a 3,1 logic board.
 
Beamerrx7 said:
Interesting.

I already have a 2017 MBP and a 2012 MM. This just fell in my lap and I figured it would be a good project to keep me busy. Glad to hear someone is still using this. I am tossing around the idea of upgrading to a 3,1 logic board.
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Don’t, upgrading the motherboard will force you to upgrade many many other parts as well.

You’d be better off just buying a 3,1
 
I wouldn't advise investing a whole lot, but you can do a lot with just a little money. This is my summer project. My retired 1,1 (flashed 2,1) will become my iTunes server.

CPU Upgrade: After upgrading the firmware to 2,1, replace the dual cores with a pair of L5335 Clovertown CPUs (2.35Ghz, drawing 50 watts each $10 for both, shipped.) This give you 8 cores and a low power draw. (100 watts vs 300 for the 3.0Ghz Clovertowns)

Video Upgrade: Nvidia GT 740. These can be had off Ebay for around $50. Can game some, and it will drive a 4K panel.

System Ram: Max out is 32Gb, about $50 right now on Ebay. Can be taken to 64Gb but the 8Gb sticks required are both pricey and rather hard to find.

Hard drive (boot): 120Gb SSD in the lower optical bay. You can pick up a HD (SSD or spinner) off Ebay that has 10.11 on it with all of the necessary tweeks for it to run on a 1,1, about $35.

Hard drive (data): 5 Hitachi 3Tb in a ZFS Z2 pool (double parity, 7.8Tb usable) Cost $300

Blu-Ray (Upper Optical bay): $50 Mac Playback software $50.

I already have most of this from when it was my production machine (Ram, Blu-Ray player & software, Boot HD). Just need to get the HDDs.

$130 or so will get you 8 cores, a GT 740, a 240Gb SSD, and 16Gb of ram (always get 4Gb sitcks - you may not need 32Gb today, but you might need it next week).
 
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Does anyone know if the Mac Pro 2006 can get above El Capitan? I myself have a MBP 2015 and I wasn’t a fan of El Capitan, I prefer Mojave, would love to have it on the Mac Pro (couldn’t find much on going above El Capitan)

It’s been a long time since I’ve done anything around computers, but I plan on flashing from 1,1 to 2,1, then upgrading the CPU, RAM, GPU and adding a boot SSD. I’m not too hassled on getting it above El Capitan, if it’s as stable on Mojave as it is El Capitan that’d be great but I’d be happy with anything above Mountain Lion.
 
iamrobbie said:
Does anyone know if the Mac Pro 2006 can get above El Capitan? I myself have a MBP 2015 and I wasn’t a fan of El Capitan, I prefer Mojave, would love to have it on the Mac Pro (couldn’t find much on going above El Capitan)

It’s been a long time since I’ve done anything around computers, but I plan on flashing from 1,1 to 2,1, then upgrading the CPU, RAM, GPU and adding a boot SSD. I’m not too hassled on getting it above El Capitan, if it’s as stable on Mojave as it is El Capitan that’d be great but I’d be happy with anything above Mountain Lion.
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Sierra needs a Xeon with SSE 4.1 support, first Mac Pro to have a Xeon processor that can run Sierra is early-2008 Mac Pro (MP3,1).

MP1,1 and MP2,1 can only run macOS up to El Capitan.
 
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