Mac Pro

[squirrel dog]

I have zero mac knowledge.What is the best year Mac Pro to get to upgrade?I would want to upgrade the vid card the memory and go to ssd drives.and add usb3 card . I see 2009 ones for sale ,is that to old os wise ? I have also been reading a lot about doing a hackentosh,but the mac pro seems a lot easier.

 

[SKORPI0]

Probably 2012 model.... ^_^
What are all the differences between the "Late 2013" [URL="http://www.everymac.com/systems/apple/mac_pro/mac-pro-cylinder-faq/differences-between-mac-pro-gray-black-cylinder-earlier-mac-pro-models.html#"]Mac Pro models and the "Mid-2012" Mac Pro models that they replaced?[/url]

 

[Essence_of_War]

Just keep in mind that 2012 Mac Pro is functionally identical to the 2010 Mac Pro. It didn't get a CPU upgrade from Westmere until it transformed into the Al-Black version.

 

[Eug]

Yeah that cheese grater Mac Pro doesn't even have USB 3. You can add it after the fact, but aftermarket cards have a habit of causing strange problems, and you'd still have the annoyance of having no front USB 3 ports.

I'd love to get one of those newer black garbage can Mac Pros, just because I love the design and its nod to the Cube, but I would never pay even half that MSRP. If I could get a used one for less than half MSRP though I'd probably bite.

 

[TheStu]

Yeah that cheese grater Mac Pro doesn't even have USB 3. You can add it after the fact, but aftermarket cards have a habit of causing strange problems, and you'd still have the annoyance of having no front USB 3 ports.

I'd love to get one of those newer black garbage can Mac Pros, just because I love the design and its nod to the Cube, but I would never pay even half that MSRP. If I could get a used one for less than half MSRP though I'd probably bite.

There are so many computers I want (both Macs and PCs), simply because they are beautiful. G4 iMac, obviously. G4 Cube, maybe? Dell Adamo (gen 1, not the XPS). New Mac Pro. There was also a Sony Vaio Z that was particularly good looking, but I can't recall the year.

 

[squirrel dog]

Thanks , I will look into a 2010 model .

 

[Eug]

There are so many computers I want (both Macs and PCs), simply because they are beautiful. G4 iMac, obviously. G4 Cube, maybe? Dell Adamo (gen 1, not the XPS). New Mac Pro. There was also a Sony Vaio Z that was particularly good looking, but I can't recall the year.

This is my G4 retirement home. 🙂

2 Cubes (both with flashed GeForce 6200 GPUs, and one with a 1.7 GHz G4 upgrade), 2 iMacs (1 upgraded to 2 GB RAM), and an iBook G4.

There is also a Core Duo iMac at the bottom there which I still occasionally use. I got the Core Duo for free from my workplace. There's something to be said for forced obsolescence: My workplace no longer supports any OS before 10.7 and this one maxes out at 10.6, so they gave it to me.

 

[Essence_of_War]

Thanks , I will look into a 2010 model .

I think all 2010s and later come with at least Radeon 5770s which are perfectly serviceable for driving multiple displays and OpenCL acceleration. If you're looking to upgrade video cards to do more gaming, and you want an efi splash at boot-up time, be aware that you're likely on the hook for a biiiigggg mark-up on mac-edition video cards. To my knowledge, there is an AMD 7950 and an Nvidia 680 w/ Mac editions. Both are pricey in comparison to the stock models.

 

[SKORPI0]

be aware that you're likely on the hook for a biiiigggg mark-up on mac-edition video cards. To my knowledge, there is an AMD 7950 and an Nvidia 680 w/ Mac editions. Both are pricey in comparison to the stock models.

Didn't think of that. ^_^

So off-the-self PC (Windows) video cards won't work? Do they need to have a mac firmware/bios? If so, anyway to convert a card with PC(windows) BIOS to mac?

Bought a Adaptec 29160 SCSI card years ago at a computer show cheap for a mac , was able to convert it for a PC by installing a PC Firmware/BIOS.

 

[Eug]

I used to flash PC video cards to Mac versions, and in fact, the two Cubes in the pic above have reflashed PC GeForce 6200 AGP cards in them. This gave me Quartz Extreme and the ripple effect. However, I needed a PC (with a PCI video card) to do this, and the video cards had to have special hacked firmwares because Macs never shipped with the GeForce 6200, and no aftermarket Mac GeForce 6200 cards were available AFAIK.

Dunno what the status is these days with Intel Macs, but I'm guessing the interest in this much less, since everyone just buys iMacs and MacBooks these days. The common folk don't buy Mac Pros like they did for the Power Macs.

 

[Essence_of_War]

Didn't think of that. ^_^

So off-the-self PC (Windows) video cards won't work? Do they need to have a mac firmware/bios? If so, anyway to convert a card with PC(windows) BIOS to mac?

Bought a Adaptec 29160 SCSI card years ago at a computer show cheap for a mac , was able to convert it for a PC by installing a PC Firmware/BIOS.

If the card in question has OS X drivers, then you can use it out-of-the-box as long as you don't mind not having an EFI splash screen. This will be fine 99 times out of 100, except when you want to boot from a different volume or restart in single-user/verbose mode.

There also exists a community of people who flash GPUs with custom Mac firmware. It can be done, it just requires some research and/or effort.

 

[squirrel dog]

I just like the case design of the 2010 Mac Pro . Dwelling on just using the case for a windows pc .