Last Generation Mac Pro 5.1 (2010-2012)

[Conor D]

I'm looking at a new system as a replacement for my 2010 Macbook Pro and 2009 iMac. It would appear that the 5.1 Mac Pro can be bought on eBay refurbished for around £1000.

3.2ghz 4-12 Core Xeon processors are available for various prices, many come with 1GB Graphics cards but it's possible to install a 3GB HD7950 GDDR5 card for an increase in performance.

I have recently made do with the limited performance of my MBP which has quite a dated graphics card (256mb 330M) and can sometimes struggle when recording audio or editing video. Running new games via Bootcamp is pretty much not possible.

Is anyone familiar with the last of the 2010-2012 Mac Pro systems? I'm looking for a future proof system that isn't going to struggle for a few years and can be (somewhat) upgraded if needed. I would be tempted by a 2014/15 iMac or Mac Pro but for the price of £1500-2500 it seems excessive for what I could get out of a 5.1 Mac Pro.

Before anyone mentions.. I'm not interested in a Hackintosh or building a Windows 7 Machine.

[ZesPak]

Conor D said:

I'm looking for a future proof system that isn't going to struggle for a few years and can be (somewhat) upgraded if needed.

...

Before anyone mentions.. I'm not interested in a Hackintosh or building a Windows 7 Machine.

That could be a problem.

Conor D said:

I would be tempted by a 2014/15 iMac or Mac Pro but for the price of £1500-2500 it seems excessive for what I could get out of a 5.1 Mac Pro.

I'd seriously consider a new iMac for the requirements you've stated.
The 5.1 Mac Pro is probably the least future proof machine Apple have offered in the last decade. Sorry to break it, but in terms of hardware it was dated half a year before it came out. We had 3 older ones that needed replacement and we were glad we held out for the new Mac Pro.

[Conor D]

ZesPak said:

Sorry to break it, but in terms of hardware it was dated half a year before it came out. We had 3 older ones that needed replacement and we were glad we held out for the new Mac Pro.

What's the verdict on the new Mac Pro? I'm tempted to hold off and wait for an updated MP in 2015 - although I don't know if it will actually come. £1800 would buy one from the US.

ETA: For the £1500 price tag of a 27" iMac, man maths would make a £1800 Mac Pro, £300 27" Display and £100 for a Keyboard/Mouse a better all-round prospect.

Edited by Conor D on Wednesday 27th August 23:53

[supersport]

Where would you get the 27" for £300, it's £900 on the website.

[Conor D]

supersport said:

Where would you get the 27" for £300, it's £900 on the website.

I wouldn't be looking at an Apple Cinema Display. More than likely an eBay/Korean 1440p 27" IPS Panel. Similar to this screen.

[Randomthoughts]

Conor D said:

3.2ghz 4-12 Core Xeon processors are available for various prices

[Pedant]They were two 6-cores, not 12-core processors.[/Pedant]

[Conor D]

Randomthoughts said:

Conor D said:

3.2ghz 4-12 Core Xeon processors are available for various prices

[Pedant]They were two 6-cores, not 12-core processors.[/Pedant]

It's good to know.. I really still need to do a lot of research re both Mac Pros.

[Bikerjon]

Quite a few upgrades available for the old Mac Pro's. You can get PCI SSD cards which I suspect will make the most difference and then still have plenty of space for regular SATA storage.

I quite like them but they're big, heavy machines that kick out out a lot of heat and sometimes noise too. Not exactly low power consumption I suspect!

[maffski]

Conor D said:

I wouldn't be looking at an Apple Cinema Display. More than likely an eBay/Korean 1440p 27" IPS Panel. Similar to this screen.

I think I would stretch the man maths to a 28" 4k display, something like this: http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prod...

[markmullen]

I run a Mac Pro for photo editing, a dual quad core 3.2 Ghz machine with 28Gb of RAM, SSD and HDD etc.

Even by modern standards it's a brisk old thing, SSDs help.

It is big and heavy and throws a lot of heat out (my girlfriend works from home and through the winter using it she didn't have the heating on in the office it chucks so much out!).

For the money you can get them for they're great value.

[Randomthoughts]

She's obviously not trying hard enough. Two 6-core 3.46GHz and 192GB RAM in my HP and I have to have the window open in winter or I sweat!

[theboss]

Randomthoughts said:

She's obviously not trying hard enough. Two 6-core 3.46GHz and 192GB RAM in my HP and I have to have the window open in winter or I sweat!

Yeah, they're pretty inefficient, those older CPUs

[ZesPak]

Randomthoughts said:

Two 6-core 3.46GHz and 192GB RAM in my HP and I have to have the window open in winter or I sweat!

:eek;

What MB is that run on?

[Randomthoughts]

ZesPak said:

:eek;

What MB is that run on?

HP z800. Yeah, it's a shade old, but who cares; it'll run Windows 8.1 and a Citrix XenServer virtual machine in VMware Workstation with 40 virtual desktops and associated infrastructure underneath it...