What have you done with an early Intel recently?

[B S Magnet]

Quite a few of the themes came packaged as ThemePark and Magnifique plugins, while others had DMG installers (so just like installing an app), and others need manual installation.

That is what I would expect, generally. To have them bundled together in place saves on having to hunt the eight corners of the internet to find them (which, generally, is getting tougher as more time passes on and old stuff falls away from even archive-dot-org). And also, to have them all together, for posterity, is liable to be helpful to more people as time passes.

 

[theMarble]

That is what I would expect, generally. To have them bundled together in place saves on having to hunt the eight corners of the internet to find them (which, generally, is getting tougher as more time passes on and old stuff falls away from even archive-dot-org). And also, to have them all together, for posterity, is liable to be helpful to more people as time passes.

Calling finding these a hassle would definitely be an understatement. Surprisingly, quite a few of the download servers for the themes are still up, however finding the sites that take you to those download links is the hard part.

I was originally just searching for themes for my machines, but then I thought that it would be handy to have a resource with all of these in one place.

 

[B S Magnet]

Every time a recent arrival to the Early Intel Macs forum, long locked into the planned obsolescence mindset, bemoans “old computers” being “before 2018” or, worse, “Intel Macs”, I cannot help but smile and nod in a pitying kind of way.

Presently using an early 2008 MacBook Pro, running a dosdude1-patched version of High Sierra, with a ready USB stick (with an OCLP-patched Monterey planned in the coming days as proof-of-concept, with no plans to actually use Monterey, because no thanks); the latest ESR of Firefox running well over 100 tabs, Signal, and current build of gqrx (which is, by design, a processor-intensive SDR tuner).

A few minutes ago, I was also watching a YT clip in the foreground whilst listening to atmospherics, literally, in the foreground and, functionally, in the background. If you squint, you can hear Peter Gabriel and a bit of pride in Tom’s singing.

Fretting over “my computer is — holy 🏐⚽🏀⚾🎱 — four years old, so oooooold” is so late-stage… well, you know. Even Tom here looks at your take the same way I might.

Welcome to the Early Intel Macs forum.

 

[DCBassman]

Aaaand, because I have absolutely nothing better to do, put the iMac up to Catalina, courtesy of course of @dosdude1's patcher. It's fine but needs SSD speed really. As I've now rather belatedly figured out how to use standard UK Windows keyboards with macOS, I'll leave Catalina on there. You've no idea how that transposed @ symbol tripped me up. No more!
Given that the Mac Pro 3,1 has poorer graphics but LOTS more horsepower, I'l have another go at putting Catalina on that too, because, why not?

 

[swamprock]

I moved my 2010 Macbook Pro back to Catalina from Ventura, since Ventura started to run like hot garbage. Plan on trying Ventura (or maybe even Sonoma) on my newly-acquired 2012 Mac Mini, once I install a second drive in it (with help from OWC's kit). Both machines run Catalina very well.

 

[theMarble]

Given that the Mac Pro 3,1 has poorer graphics but LOTS more horsepower, I'l have another go at putting Catalina on that too, because, why not?

What GPU does it have? If it's not Metal-capable, then the experience won't be all that great.

 

[DCBassman]

What GPU does it have? If it's not Metal-capable, then the experience won't be all that great.

Definitely not Metal-capable, HD2600XT. Then neither is the GPU in the iMac, and that's coping with it.

 

[DCBassman]

So, this time I have Catalina running fine on the iMac, and acceptably on the Mac Pro. Now I need to start the process of gathering info on upgrading both to be a bit more matched to the OS they are both running.
iMac: the difficulty here is the well-known ones of it being a bit awkward to get into, and not upsetting temperature sensors when changing things. Otherwise, the bits are simple. SSD, max out the RAM. Move from E7600 to E8600. M5100 graphics card upgrade. Job done. How far would that go, OS-wise?
Mac Pro 3,1: for this, it's all about the graphics card. Not too worried about more RAM, I doubt I'll ever do anything requiring even the 16GB I have, let alone more. That said, if it comes my way...
Having read about it, mainly on here, it looks like a flashed GTX680 is the way to go...

 

[VivienM]

I installed Snow Leopard on my new-to-me 2010 Mac Pro yesterday! Dual booting with High Sierra.

Do I want a third version of OS X on there? If so, which one?

 

[B S Magnet]

I installed Snow Leopard on my new-to-me 2010 Mac Pro yesterday! Dual booting with High Sierra.

Do I want a third version of OS X on there? If so, which one?

Some might suggest Mavericks. Others might suggest an OpenCore Legacy Project install of Monterey.

You pretty much already have the only two versions I ever run with regularity, so I can’t really endorse either.

 

[VivienM]

Some might suggest Mavericks. Others might suggest an OpenCore Legacy Project install of Monterey.

You pretty much already have the only two versions I ever run with regularity, so I can’t really endorse either.

How optional is the requirement for a Metal-capable GPU in Mojave and following? I thought it... wasn't.

And when I looked into GPU upgrades, I got the impression that if you cared about Snow Leopard, you pretty much had to stick with the original 5770 or similar? (e.g. a 5870)

I actually would love to have Monterey or similar on the Mac Pro, but I got it as more of a retro machine, so... throwing that ability away to run the same software stack as on my 2020 iMac doesn't seem to make any sense.

 

[B S Magnet]

How optional is the requirement for a Metal-capable GPU in Mojave and following? I thought it... wasn't.

For earlier Metal-oriented builds like Mojave to run wel on non-Metal-GPU Macs, OpenCore Legacy Patcher accommodates for this by gracefully relying on non-Metal calls for things like the UI. This is better illustrated by a demonstration of this patching action with OCLP and Monterey at the selected time index; the after-patch impact on the UI is discussed just a minute or two later.

And when I looked into GPU upgrades, I got the impression that if you cared about Snow Leopard, you pretty much had to stick with the original 5770 or similar? (e.g. a 5870)

For this one, I will defer to our resident GPU nerds like @Amethyst1 to detail that. Mix-and-match GPUs is a smidge beyond my wheelhouse.

I actually would love to have Monterey or similar on the Mac Pro, but I got it as more of a retro machine, so... throwing that ability away to run the same software stack as on my 2020 iMac doesn't seem to make any sense.

Well, you can try it for the sake of seeing it actually work. With my early 2008 MacBook Pro, I’m planning to install an OCLP-patched Monterey soon, mostly to demonstrate an effective proof-of-concept for my own benefit. I plan to remove it shortly thereafter, as I don’t find the usability experience, post-Catalina, one I enjoy terribly much.

 

[theMarble]

How optional is the requirement for a Metal-capable GPU in Mojave and following? I thought it... wasn't.

It is optional, but recommended. Yes, macOS can run fine without a Metal GPU thanks to OpenCore, however graphically-intensive tasks will be a heap slower than they would be with any Metal card. For watching H.264 videos at 1080p or lower, browsing the web and doing some light photo editing (not anything that draws heavily from the GPU), you will be fine. Once you start doing anything higher, you can start to see the system choke a lot faster than you'd expect.

And when I looked into GPU upgrades, I got the impression that if you cared about Snow Leopard, you pretty much had to stick with the original 5770 or similar? (e.g. a 5870)

The 5870 is overall considered the faster card you can run on Snow Leopard. The 6870 will also work, however it is closer in performance to a 5770 than the 5870. A long time ago, there were some efforts to get Fermi (GTX 4xx/5xx) cards working on OS X, however if I recall correctly only some very specific AIB models of the GTX 460 and 470 actually worked on Snow Leopard with some very hacked together Hackintosh drivers. The 5xx cards needed Lion to run.

The 460/470 is also slower than the 5870/6870 IIRC.

 

[VivienM]

The 5870 is overall considered the faster card you can run on Snow Leopard.

The 5870 is less expensive than I thought on eBay; I guess trying to get my hands on a GF Ti4600 for the MDD had affected my perception. Is it a worthwhile upgrade? I was presuming not, but...

 

[theMarble]

The 5870 is less expensive than I thought on eBay; I guess trying to get my hands on a GF Ti4600 for the MDD had affected my perception. Is it a worthwhile upgrade? I was presuming not, but...

From the 2600 XT, anything is an upgrade. Even a non-Metal card like the 5870 is leaps faster than it.

 

[VivienM]

From the 2600 XT, anything is an upgrade. Even a non-Metal card like the 5870 is leaps faster than it.

Right, but I'm starting with the 5770.. two 5770s, in fact... not sure why the original owner of this Mac Pro ordered it that way...

 

[theMarble]

Right, but I'm starting with the 5770.. two 5770s, in fact... not sure why the original owner of this Mac Pro ordered it that way...

In that case, I would stick with the 5770's. The 5870 is faster, however the difference will only be noticeable depending on what you are doing with it.

 

[ToniCH]

Received my new Mac Mini Server C2D 2.53GHz late 2009 this afternoon. Full original packaging and documentation and also Mac Server 10.6 DVDs and Applecare stuff.

But....there was something clunking loose inside... Cracked the case open and there is only 1 HD and it was loose inside the case. It had knocked the big antenna loose and obviously no screws for either hard drive present... typical. 🙄 Seller said nothing about this.

But, I reattached the antenna and the single drive and it boots and runs nicely. Has a fresh 10.11 in it. It was so cheap that I wont be making a fuss about this. I would have replaced the boot drive with SSD anyways and already have loads of spinner drives in my boxes sitting idle, no need for more.

I am currently running a late 2012 Mac Mini Server as our family file server but I feel the machine is wasted in such minor job. My plan is to try if the 2009 Server could take its job and I could figure out something more worthy for an i7 processor in the 2012 Server to do.

Anyways, here is the first successful boot and I'm online:

Ps. I going to look at a Mac Pro 5.1 tomorrow. Looks promising.

 

[VivienM]

Ps. I going to look at a Mac Pro 5.1 tomorrow. Looks promising.

The market for 5.1 Mac Pros is... interesting. (I say this as someone who bought one like three weeks ago) Like many used things, at least around here, there are some that strike me as overpriced, then you can stumble on great bargains with 64 gigs of original Apple RAM. How much did that cost the original buyer?

What are the specs on the one you are looking at?

 

[ToniCH]

What are the specs on the one you are looking at?

Xeon X5660x2, only 16GB or RAM and original 4.1 HD4870 GPU and a SSD boot drive. I do have 64GB of 1333 ECC-memory and a MP compatible NVMe PCIe -card, 1TB NVMe-drive, lots of SATA SSD -drives and spinners to choose from and I think I also have a USB3-card somewhere. I am looking at upgrading the GPU to RX580. Considering the old parts I have plenty of, the out of pocket money for the machine and GPU would be very reasonable at this point. I mean like 2 tanks of gas much.

I could actually get the PowerColor RX Vega 56 locally quite cheaply but the power arrangement/concerns seemed complicated to me. Didn't quite get what is needed to make it run properly. And anyways, I think the RX580 is plenty fast compared to the original.

 

[eyoungren]

@B S Magnet, I am quoting you from a different thread because what you said now applies to me for today…

“I’ll take ‘Things you never knew you could do in OS X/macOS’ for $600, Alex…”

I am a big user of the App switcher on OS X/macOS. I'm also a fanatic for the wired Mighty Mouse (love the scroller ball). Today,, while using the switcher I accidentally brushed the roller ball on the MM.

As it turns out, you can use the roller ball on the MM to scroll right/left to select the app you want to switch to. I've been using the MM for years now and this is nothing I knew I could actually do (I never even tried it!).

So much easier that repeated CMD+Tab or using the arrows keys!

 

[B S Magnet]

@B S Magnet, I am quoting you from a different thread because what you said now applies to me for today…



I am a big user of the App switcher on OS X/macOS. I'm also a fanatic for the wired Mighty Mouse (love the scroller ball). Today,, while using the switcher I accidentally brushed the roller ball on the MM.

As it turns out, you can use the roller ball on the MM to scroll right/left to select the app you want to switch to. I've been using the MM for years now and this is nothing I knew I could actually do (I never even tried it!).

So much easier that repeated CMD+Tab or using the arrows keys!

Yah. Before my mighty mouse died last year, I vaguely remember knowing I could do that, but I never developed the muscle memory for it. Now I use a 20-year-old Microsoft Intellipoint trackball on that Mac (the iMac).

I do know that Cmd-Tabbing and holding down Cmd enables one to use the left-right arrow keys to navigate open applications.

 

[theMarble]

As it turns out, you can use the roller ball on the MM to scroll right/left to select the app you want to switch to. I've been using the MM for years now and this is nothing I knew I could actually do (I never even tried it!).

It can be done on any mouse that has a horizontal scroll wheel/ball. I do the same with an MX Master.

 

[B S Magnet]

It can be done on any mouse that has a horizontal scroll wheel/ball. I do the same with an MX Master.

I just confirmed the scroll wheel on the Intellipoint, whilst holding down Cmd (after Cmd-Tab), scrolls through open applications (scrolling up moves right in the list, scrolling down moves left).

 

[theMarble]

Today, I used my 2009 MBP to create an installer package for my HUD-style Snow Leopard About dialogs, now a tool known as "AboutThisHUD". I also finished getting screenshots of all 22 Leopard/Snow Leopard themes.

These are both for my upcoming WikiPost on theming 10.5 and 10.6.

I also got 8GB of 1333MHz DDR3 working in it, which is a miracle in my books given that these MBP's with NVIDIA chipsets are extremely picky when it comes to memory speed.