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What to do with these 2006 Mac Pros?

Q

quickmac

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Feb 22, 2011
273
16
Very soon I may be obtaining 2-3 older 2006 Mac Pros.

I'm thinking of keeping one of them and selling the other 1-2 online then using some of that money to upgrade the remaining Mac Pro as much as possible.

Or are they not worth upgrading and should I just unload them all?
 
Well if you want some honest answers, you may want to post some of the specs for the machines you are getting. 2006 was the year of the intel transition, so they could be Xeon or G5s. That makes a big difference.
 
C. Alan said:
Well if you want some honest answers, you may want to post some of the specs for the machines you are getting. 2006 was the year of the intel transition, so they could be Xeon or G5s. That makes a big difference.
Click to expand...

All Mac Pros have Intel CPUs. Before Apple's transition to Intel the aluminium towers were called Power Mac G5.

The specs of those three the OP has there might still be interesting to enable us to give a good answer.
 
quickmac said:
Very soon I may be obtaining 2-3 older 2006 Mac Pros.

I'm thinking of keeping one of them and selling the other 1-2 online then using some of that money to upgrade the remaining Mac Pro as much as possible.

Or are they not worth upgrading and should I just unload them all?
Click to expand...

In my opinion, upgrade all three to dual x5355 processors and at least 8GB RAM. If possible, upgrade each to at least AMD 5770s (XFX ZNFC variants are my favorite). Additional power cables may be necessary (for instance if you wound up with 7300GT GPUs).

CPUs (~$150/pair) - http://www.ebay.com/sch/CPUs-/164/i.html?_nkw=x5355

RAM (~$100/8GB) - http://www.amazon.com/BUFFERED-PC2-...UUAC/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1334086434&sr=8-1

GPU (~$100/ea) - http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_trksid=p5197.m570.l1313&_nkw=xfx+5770&_sacat=0

GPU Cable (~$10/ea after shipping) - http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002UR1654/ref=oh_o01_s00_i00_details

Firmware Upgrade Tool - http://forum.netkas.org/index.php/topic,1094.0.html

In my geographic area and market, I can sell machines with these specs for about $1250 (maybe a bit more if I really haggle). The upgrades above should "only" cost about $1050 - $1100 TOTAL on top of whatever you paid for these machines; if you got a deal, there could be quite a bit of profit in this for you.

Ultimately, I probably would not want to keep a 1,1 or 2,1 for my primary machine just because they are no longer officially supported by Apple and you might run into compatibility issues with Mountain Lion (should you be so inclined to upgrade). With the profit from the sales, however, you might be able to grab a newer 3,1 or, even better, base 4,1 or 5,1.
 
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unload all three and buy the computer you want for in essence free. I would unload them before the ML transition though..
 
C. Alan said:
Well if you want some honest answers, you may want to post some of the specs for the machines you are getting. 2006 was the year of the intel transition, so they could be Xeon or G5s. That makes a big difference.
Click to expand...

Turns out they are Power Mac G5 towers, from what I can tell unfortunately they appear to be mid 2004 models so pretty old but still appear to function.

The specs I have are:

Machine model: PowerMac 7,3
Dual 2.5 ghz PowerPC G5 (3.0) processors
L2 cache per cpu: 512KB
Bus speed: 1.25 ghz
Superdrive and two hard drives
1GB of RAM (expandable up to 8)

I was able to look up the specific model by serial number and here's the full specs, looks like it was the fastest version of this model:

http://support.apple.com/kb/SP80

Don't know exacts on video or hard drive capacity or other PCI cards.

These are coming at no cost and we have like 7-8 of them and they all appear to be the same models, thoughts on what selling price should be or worth upgrading to keep?
 
quickmac said:
Turns out they are Power Mac G5 towers, from what I can tell unfortunately they appear to be mid 2004 models so pretty old but still appear to function.

The specs I have are:

Machine model: PowerMac 7,3
Dual 2.5 ghz PowerPC G5 (3.0) processors
L2 cache per cpu: 512KB
Bus speed: 1.25 ghz
Superdrive and two hard drives
1GB of RAM (expandable up to 8)

I was able to look up the specific model by serial number and here's the full specs, looks like it was the fastest version of this model:

http://support.apple.com/kb/SP80

Don't know exacts on video or hard drive capacity or other PCI cards.

These are coming at no cost and we have like 7-8 of them and they all appear to be the same models, thoughts on what selling price should be or worth upgrading to keep?
Click to expand...

If you have space, i'd say keep one and let the others go. Try the Marketplace.
 
As far as I remember, 2006 machines don't support any decent video cards. I'd get rid of them all, and get at least a 2008 (3,1).
 
r00tb33r said:
As far as I remember, 2006 machines don't support any decent video cards. I'd get rid of them all, and get at least a 2008 (3,1).
Click to expand...

Apple's 5870/5770 work perfectly and off-the-shelf PC 6870 cards work without flashing. I'd say pretty decent cards.
 
MacinJosh said:
Apple's 5870/5770 work perfectly and off-the-shelf PC 6870 cards work without flashing. I'd say pretty decent cards.
Click to expand...

Actually you are correct. I forgetfully dismiss ATI for not having CUDA support (which they probably won't, cause that's Nvidia's tech) but I guess if it isn't needed then ATI cards will do.
 
flatfoot said:
The Macs the OP owns are still Power Mac G5s.
Click to expand...

Ah, indeed. Missed that one. However, the point I made is still valid as it was in response to a statement made of what I believe was a Mac Pro 1,1.

EDIT: The Radeon X1900 GT seems to be the best consumer GFX card available for the PM.
 
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I found ...

Power Mac G5 - they are noisy, slow and can't run current software. Not really useful anymore. Very cheap to buy.

2006 - 7, Mac Pro - quiet, fast, and runs all the current software. Still over a grand for reasonable spec.
 
eurekor said:
Power Mac G5 - they are noisy, slow and can't run current software. Not really useful anymore. Very cheap to buy.
Click to expand...

Depends on what you want to do with it. Its a bit power-hungry, but it could be used as a local server and for an occasional Retro Games night.

2006 - 7, Mac Pro - quiet, fast, and runs all the current software. Still over a grand for reasonable spec.
Click to expand...

Also a consideration...


-hh
 
G5s? If it were me, I would sell them. For me to keep it, it would have to be at least an Intel Mac.
 
The fastest video card for those is a 7800GTX 512 Meg or the ATI Radeon X1900GT.

I personally created the 7800GTX 512 and when Barefeats tested it at the time, it was (and still is) the fastest PowerPC GPU. I haven't sold them in years but still have a GTX512 laying around. Some of the copycat "we aren't clever enough to write our own roms so we just steal anything we can get our hands on" bozos still sell my PPC stuff, they can be found. Not sure if "CrappleMePantix" has them anymore.

I am pretty sure that you can buy a X1900XT 256 Meg and flash it with Mac X1900GT rom and it will work. Might even be a touch faster and those cards are plentiful as they don't work in 2006 Intel Macs. Rom should be at the Mac Elite Wiki if it is still around.

Sadly these machines are all very old tech now and you won't be retiring on what they will sell for. You can either put 10.4 or 10.5 on them.Maybe there is a church or civic group that needs to edit simple videos somewhere who could give you $200-350 for them.

Get rid of them fast, or part them out. If they are liquid cooled, look for leaks. The liquid cooling systems might be worth more in parts.

But you should probably post further questions, etc in the PPC section.
 
I'd keep one and sell the rest. It'd make a great secondary machine. Or pull all of the parts out of the other two and max it out. I'm not 100% sure if its worth the hassle trying to sell them. Unless you can find a local buyer. Shipping costs would be huge.
 
TacticalDesire said:
I'd keep one and sell the rest. It'd make a great secondary machine. Or pull all of the parts out of the other two and max it out. I'm not 100% sure if its worth the hassle trying to sell them. Unless you can find a local buyer. Shipping costs would be huge.
Click to expand...


Yeah that's what we're thinking. There's 3 of us handling 8 of these, so we'll likely each take 2, max out one of each of the two from each of the other two then either keep the parted out one for parts or sell it's parts and then that leaves 2 (8 total it seems) we'd probably leave fully functioning as is and sell hopefully locally.
 
quickmac said:
The specs I have are:

Machine model: PowerMac 7,3
Dual 2.5 ghz PowerPC G5 (3.0) processors
L2 cache per cpu: 512KB
Bus speed: 1.25 ghz
Superdrive and two hard drives
1GB of RAM (expandable up to 8)

I was able to look up the specific model by serial number and here's the full specs, looks like it was the fastest version of this model:

http://support.apple.com/kb/SP80
Click to expand...

These are AGP G5s, so fastest available video cards are:
- 7800GS (flashed)
- X800/X850XT or flashed FireGL X3
 
666sheep said:
These are AGP G5s, so fastest available video cards are:
- 7800GS (flashed)
- X800/X850XT or flashed FireGL X3
Click to expand...

Good catch, i guess I should have clicked the link.

Will be interesting to see what's in them already.

With any luck there will be a 6800 Ultra or GT from Apple or an Apple X800/850.

The later flashed cards are nice but more bother as they require power run whilst the Apple cards took advantage of the AGP Pro slot.

Even Apple 9800 Radeons aren't bad cards. The stinky, sluggard cards are the 5200 Ultras that came in first G5s. Seem to recall they were 64 Megs and VERY slow.

The later Radeon 9600 base cards were better, but 9800 or better will be much more sellable.

Most Radeon 9800s can be flashed to work in these machines, but will require a power drop from the DVD drive. 9800XT not much faster but has speed controlled fan in some cases.

6800GT and Ultra can be flashed using a ROM written by my old friend Arti Itra. The BEST 6800 to flash is a Quadro FX4000. It is an AGP card and can run a 30" Display, the vast majority of flashed 6800s only do 24". I seem to recall that you have to change device id in the rom to match but otherwise it takes GT or Ultra rom.

The original Fire Gl X3 discoverer and writer of 7800 GS was a really brilliant guy. There are refined versions of my original roms at the Mac Elite.

These Nvidia cards are nice but sadly must be flashed in an AGP PC, something hard to find these days. The ATI cards can all be flashed in a Mac with a little research.

If you prefer legit, Apple cards (or need them to run ADC displays) try Mac Pro Systems in San Jose or DVWarehouse in LA, they both carry older Mac AGP cards.

There is a guy on EBay named "YoYomarv" who used to sell Mac AGP cards. He is the only one of current PPC sellers who had anything to do with original writing and discovery of these cards and deserves the business more then the copy-and-paste flashers.

But there are MANY you can do yourself with a little research.

Or maybe you will get lucky and they will all have valuable cards that you can part out. The 6800GT and X800XT from Apple still get decent money.
 
You could certainly put a decent amount of investment into those machines and get a very workable Mac Pro, which while having a bit of an aged CPU, could still preform quite well with enough RAM, a SSD for booting, some big but also quick HHD and a graphic card if you tend to do anything which depends a strong GPU(plus you're future proofing the machine, as Apple's OS updates tend to damage a Mac's ability to take full advantage of all the new features because the graphic cards that some standard are subpar after any serious amount of time.

I love my Mac mini, but I also ready want to sell the guy just to get an Ivy Bridge machine. I'm figuring I could get a faster quad core along with a HUGE graphic card jump, assuming Apple uses the dropping in wattage for Intel's lowest mobile quad core CPU. Perhaps Apple had to pick between expanding the form factor of the Mini, or less wattage CPU(which meant Dual Core CPU) and a dedicated graphic card(This is the $799 model with an ATI graphic card) or a higher wattage CPU and Intel's built in graphic solution(this is the server model)

Let me buy a Mac Mini with a dedicate graphic card and a quad GPU and I'd be a happy man.
 
quickmac said:
Turns out they are Power Mac G5 towers, from what I can tell unfortunately they appear to be mid 2004 models so pretty old but still appear to function.

The specs I have are:

Machine model: PowerMac 7,3
Dual 2.5 ghz PowerPC G5 (3.0) processors
L2 cache per cpu: 512KB
Bus speed: 1.25 ghz
Superdrive and two hard drives
1GB of RAM (expandable up to 8)

I was able to look up the specific model by serial number and here's the full specs, looks like it was the fastest version of this model:

http://support.apple.com/kb/SP80

Don't know exacts on video or hard drive capacity or other PCI cards.

These are coming at no cost and we have like 7-8 of them and they all appear to be the same models, thoughts on what selling price should be or worth upgrading to keep?
Click to expand...

Let me know what you're looking to get out of them
 
GermanyChris said:
Let me know what you're looking to get out of them
Click to expand...

Probably just a fun second machine to tweak and mess with. Possibly use it as a main desktop (even though my 2009 MBP is more capable for gaming with intel processors) for browsing, some music production, light video editing maybe, and just trying out programs and tweaks.
 
quickmac said:
Probably just a fun second machine to tweak and mess with. Possibly use it as a main desktop (even though my 2009 MBP is more capable for gaming with intel processors) for browsing, some music production, light video editing maybe, and just trying out programs and tweaks.
Click to expand...

I wanted to know what you were going to sell them for.

The quad will do everything you're looking for and more
 
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