Upgrade advice - Mac Pro: from 1,1 to 5,1

This slightly dated article from Lowendmac uses a consistent method for rating Mac Pros [best case] multiple-processing power. It shows that the 2009 and later gets a boot from better memory organization and Multi-threading over 2008 and previous models that do not have those. It makes them seem like they have somewhat more processors than their nominal number of processors (when used for tasks that are multi-processor aware).

Remember that for "ordinary" tasks (probably including spreadsheets) Processor speed (not number of processors) is King.

Primate Labs has posted Geekbench 3 results for all the Mac Pro models since 2006 except for the 2013 model, which is only beginning to reach end users. Here are the numbers in 64-bit multi-core mode, which is the way you’ll be using your Mac Pro with OS X 10.7 and later:

• 2.0 GHz 4-core 2006, 3944
• 2.66 GHz 4-core 2006, 5262
• 2.8 GHz 4-core 2008, 5587
• 3.0 GHz 4-core 2006, 5858
• 2.66 GHz 4-core 2009, 8163
• 2.8 GHz 4-core 2010, 8400
• 2.93 GHz 4-core 2009, 8608
• 3.2 GHz 4-core 2010, 9535
• 3.0 GHz 8-core 2007, 11127
• 2.8 GHz 8-core 2008, 11231
• 3.2 GHz 8-core 2008, 12503
• 2.26 GHz 8-core 2009, 14077
• 3.7 GHz 4-core 2013, 14600
• 2.4 GHz 8-core 2010, 15487
• 3.33 GHz 6-core 2010, 15550
• 2.66 GHz 8-core 2009, 16513
• 2.93 GHz 8-core 2009, 17670
• 3.5 GHz 6-core 2013, 20561
• 2.4 GHz 12-core 2012, 21922
• 2.66 GHz 12-core 2010, 25139
• 3.0 GHz 8-core 2013, awaiting results
• 3.07 GHz 12-core 2012, 26700
• 2.93 GHz 12-core 2010, 27071
• 2.7 GHz 12-core 2013, 32912

from:

http://lowendmac.com/2013/best-mac-pro-prices/

.

OWC has quite a few used Mac Pros right now, 2009 or 2010. They all have at least one HD installed and a video card. Everything else varies.

This one would be quite an upgrade; you'd move over your graphics card, but it already has more storage space than yours, and 16GB of RAM:

http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Apple/MB877C16S2W3/

This one is more bare-bones:

http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Apple/MB879LLAUCW/

Here's the list: http://eshop.macsales.com/Search/?Ntk=Primary&N2=5915&Ns=P_Popularity|1&Ne=5000& N=5915&Ntt=Used+Mac+Pros

If you take the "all" list that kahjot posted, and sort by lowest price, a couple of low-cost 2.93 4-core 2009 models pop up. Some have crummy drives, but you have your old drives.

The GT120 bundled with them is not that powerful, but is a one-slot no-aux-cable card, and would provide support for your fourth display (and let you use a 5870 [two aux cables] instead of the 5770 [one aux cable], if you like).

8GB DIMMs are under US$100. Since they are about as cheap as two 4GB DIMMs, it makes no sense to buy smaller. You can upgrade by the each, you do NOT need matched sets.

The more expensive 2009 model than I linked to has a 3TB drive that could be housed in an external enclosure and used for additional backup, leaving room for all but one of his current drives.

I don't know how much one should sweat over the Geekbench numbers. I have a 2006 and a 2010, and there is a very satisfying difference. Whatever 2009 or 2010 model he gets is going to seem pretty nice in comparison to the old one.

Before you leave, and something you can use now and in any "cylinder" Mac Pro, consider this:

900MB/sec writes and 1100MB/sec reads and PCIe bootable but without a controller, the only real Mac Pro 1,1 bootable PCIe device. Using one now. Smaller SSDs are slower.

Samsung XP941 - $250 for 256GB or $499 for 500GB. This is the same design as found in nMP I get 550MB/sec on SATA III from Samsung 840 EVO 500GB. Even so, copying files to the XP941 (100GB) was amazing, blazing, fastest I have ever seen, and I have some SSDs in RAID0 too. The XP941 didn't exist until August so it is rather new on the scene still.

Ditch the older SATA II 3G SATA.

The 840 is okay but really you don't want to hold it back to SATA II anymore. Put it on PCIe or include when you sell, will help in the sale and really 120GB today are not worth that much when 250GB 850 EVO is so little.

Replace the hdd you have for a 2TB drive for TimeMachine.

I don't see that you have much in the way of data, no Aperture or Lightroom or so it is just heavy Excel and Office?

I would install Windows 10 and Office to run Excel natively on Boot Camp on a PCIe SSD that is bootable.

3.33 GHz 6-core 2010, 15550

The 3.33GHz modified Mac Pro 4,1 $899 from OWC? sweet deal.

There are people on MacRumors with 3.4GHz processors, single and dual.

I may eventually get a couple in the 256GB range, as you suggest).

Like the nMP, when using super-fast blade (SSD-PCIe) like XP941 you are better off with one good such device rather than multiple.

And having bought small only to upgrade later, I would

Avoid putting and using standard SSDs in the drive bays, other than you already have those, but not when adding or upgrading.

Drives fail and I think yours are old enough that you should consider them as archive spare backups and not for day to day use even if fast enough and large enough. Also backups as you have setup - redundancy and functional is key. Which means zero out every year or so too, and include TimeMachine once you get to Lion and above.

Ever tried Excel for Windows? might like it, and Word - I did and never looked back, different animals or cats or whatever.

4-core vs 6-core? Unless the price difference is $600 or more, I would go with 6-core and be sure that there is enough for today and maybe the next 5-6 years. What if you did want to run something in a VM? you would almost certainly want 6 cores. The 3.4GHz 6-core is the new top cat and popular now that price is no longer $1800.

The reason for 2nd SSD is to have fast IO for scratch / for not using the boot drive. When the boot drive has had more than enough to do and didn't have the bandwidth or capability.

SSD-PCIe blades made having older SSD controllers and 2 to 4 SSDs in a RAID0 a think of the past now that one device do the job. And the darn things don't have the problems with booting, data corruption etc those methods have had.

Every time I think I have hit the glass ceiling on my 1,1 I find something new that adds new ***** and performance.

And disk I/O is the bane of computers and thing the nMP showed how to do. So if you don't use FCP-X then you don't need powerful or dual GPUs (you do want CUDA for Adobe perhaps) and your ATI 5770 is probably enough and what 5,1 has (but you can use GTX 680 and above now too).

Need Mavericks? want the new interface and "iOS on the desktop" iosification then you want 5,1.

You were a good candidate for 2,1 firmware and a pair of 5355 or 65's (8-core) upgrade which is in the under $200 now.

I would have spent $300 now on XP941 256GB w/ adapter - use it now, then move it to 5,1 later.

The whole issue of TRIM with Yosemite deserves a footnote.

Originally Posted by mikeboss

there's only one known adapter that works with the Apple proprietary SSD:
http://www.pc-adapter.net/products/747.html

AFAIK there's no adapter for two PCIe SSDs that uses only one PCIe slot.

Name: 2013 MacBook Pro +Air SSD to PCI-e 4X adapter card

Model: ST-A2013SA-B

Detail:

ST-A2013SA-B Apple 2013 MACBOOK AIR/PRO Retina ssd to PCI-e 4X Adapter card is used to covert your SSD from 2013 Macbook Air or Pro to PCI-e 4X on desktop .

Specifications and features:
1. Fit SSD modules only from the following Apple 2013 MACBOOK AIr PRO :
11" Air Mid 2013, A1465(MD711.MD712)
13" Air Mid 2013, A1466 (MD760.MD761);
13" PRO Retina Late 2013, A1502 (ME864, ME865, ME866)
15" PRO Retina Late 2013, A1398 (ME293, ME294, ME874)
2. Fit following SSD modules:
Samsung MZ-JPU128T/0A2, MZ-JPU256T/0A2, MZ-JPU512T/0A2, MZ-KPU1TOT/0A2(512GB)
Sandisk SD6PQ4M-128G
3. compliant with PCI-e 4x,8X,16X slot
4. No need extra power adapter and any drivers
5.Supports DOS, Win98/SE, 2000, Server 2003, XP, Vista, 7, Sever 2008 & Mac OS & Linux

The Samsung XP941 is compatible as a boot device in the following computer models and motherboards:

All pre-cylindrical model Apple Mac Pro Tower computers (requires a PCIe M.2 to PCIe Standard adapter).

A little "testimonial" -

I wanted to add, adding this to a machine running 5680 or 5690s with lots of RAM and a Titan makes for a CRAZY fast machine that moves like your fingers do. Talk about peeling the years off. - MacVidCards http://forums.macrumors.com/showpost.php?p=20174185&postcount=344

• Samsung XP941 is the fastest x4 product for 128($125), 256($250) & 512GB($500) SSD's. Enthusiast class technology.
• Apple's 512GB($400) x2 is a main stream product. No need for trim enabler. Fast performance with a 20% savings over the XP941. x4 parts may be available on ebay. I haven't seen any.
• Apple's 1TB($600) x4 SSD performs on par with the XP941.

http://forums.macrumors.com/showpost.php?p=20092951&postcount=298

The 512G Samsung XP941 is fast. Twice as fast as the fastest 2.5" notebook size 6Gbps SSD we have tested to date. And a pair of them striped across slots 2+3 of a 2010 Mac Pro tower is four times faster.

I emphasize slots 2+3 because, as you can see from the graphs above, slots 3+4 produce significantly slower times with the striped pair of XP941s. That is because slots 3+4 share the same x4 uplink to the CPU. Therefore, after overhead, the total bandwidth tops out around 1500MB/s.

We tested with both the Bplus and LycomM.2 (NGFF) -> PCIe Adapters. There was no difference in the transfer speeds.

BTW, if you have a Thunderbolt2-to-PCie expansion chassis, the XP941 mounted on a compatible PCIe adapter will work there, too. However, you will be limited to 1375MB/s per Thunderbolt 2.0 bus no matter now many XP941s you stuff in the box.

We experienced that same limit when we tested a single LaCie Little Big Disk Thunderbolt 2.0 which uses a pair of XP941s.

http://barefeats.com/hard183.html

Hi John,

john from palm harbor wrote:

- New Mac Pro should have WiFi, Airport, and BlueTooth, if possible.

Just in case it is useful to know - you can upgrade Mac Pro 4,1 and 5,1 to have 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac wifi and Bluetooth 4.0 (for handover / continuity / airdrop) for about $100. It is easy to do too.

I have just done this on my Mac Pro 5,1 2010 and it worked nicely.

There are some photos of the steps involved here

I got the parts required from OSXwifi.com who delivered promptly and included some useful / clear instructions. But two things to be mindful of with the OSXwifi kit:

• You need to buy either an extension antenna cable or additional antenna (for bluetooth) if you want the new bluetooth capabilities to work - this is not included in their kit, and it is not clear on their web site that one or other of these extra elements is required.
• The kit requires a power connection to provide power to the new card - and their solution is an ugly kludge (a cable that comes out through a vacant PCI gate and plugs into an external USB socket).

But it works, and speedy wifi and fancy bluetooth are great life-extenders for the 4,1 and 5,1 machines.

HTH

Hey The Hatter,

I am interested in buying a Lycom DT-120 M.2 Pcie adapter and a Sm951 Drive for my Mac Pro 3,1. Do you know if on my system it is possible to boot from a Samsung SM 951?

Is there any issue you know I might encounter?

Thank you

brianino wrote:

Hey The Hatter,

I am interested in buying a Lycom DT-120 M.2 Pcie adapter and a Sm951 Drive for my Mac Pro 3,1. Do you know if on my system it is possible to boot from a Samsung SM 951?

Is there any issue you know I might encounter?

This is a pretty old thread now. I would suggest that you start a new topic asking that question, liable to get more attention that way.