I have a guy wanting to sell me a refurbished 2011 refurbished mac pro 2.66ghz intel quad core xeon , 8gb memory , 1tb hard drive nvidiagt120 512vram .Also come with a 24 inch monitor . I am leary with the word refurbished . Is this a good setup ? what questions should I ask ? He is asking 575 . Any input would be greatly appreciated .
Thanks
Mac Pro, iOS 8.1.3
Who refurbished it?
Does it come with install DVD?
Does it pass Apple Hardware test
A guy that has a computer shop . he also works in an IT department at his job . when his company upgrades he buys the old systems and upgrades them or refurbishes them and sells them . He is a friend of a friend and my friend is vouching for him . I always had windows PCs I know nothing about MACs . I would like to be able to edit video and was also wondering if the specs of this machine would allow that .
Given the specs you indicated, It's not a "2011" Mac Pro. If it were built in that time period, it would have to actually be a 2010, but the video card is not the one that came with the 2010. It sounds more like this one:
The 2009 model is very decent machine, and the price isn't terrible, but you would probably need to upgrade the graphics card and add RAM and storage to work with video. Mac Pros can house 4 internal HDs very easily. You could run every OS from Snow Leopard to Yosemite on it.
For an example MacSales (OWC) is a long time online vendor and has used and what I call recertified systems. They also do processor upgrades and sell parts or do the upgrades.
Is it easy to upgrade the graphics card ? And how long until this machine would be obsolete ? Would I be better off going newer ?
Replacing a graphics cars is easy. Open side cover, remove power cables to the card if connected unscrew the card retainer and insert new card and screw in retaining screw. The connect the the power wires. The new cards typically need more power than the slot can deliver.
Also see:
So do you think this is a good deal , do macs usually last ?
I don't have any idea how long but it is near identical to the 2012 model, it runs 10.10 so unlikely to be killed off soon.
My Mac Pro 2006 is not getting security updates because I have only 10.7 on it and it has an older firnware than the newer models.
GPUs are easy though there is more to know than just dropping in any PC card so easy physically. That would be a whole other subject.
The processor can be upgraded. RAM and hard drives. And for the price, nice but it really depend what you expect to perform and the software and projects. You said you wanted a Mac so the cost of software etc is also a factor. Usually start from there.
Dual AMDs and Apple FinalCut Pro-X with 6 or 8-core and 32GB RAM along with storage, SSD(s), and "M.2" type SSD (1000MB/sec, the Mac Pro is almost unique in easy support for SSD blade storage to use and boot from).
The video editing that I want to do Is minor go pro stuff of family and some video camera stuff other than that . Just for basic use like music and photos and games . IS this machine good enough for that or would I be better off spending 600 on a new machine ?
you can upgrade the *** out of a good 2009 4,1 machine.
you can upgrade most everything.
$200 graphic card down the road
$200 memory
$200 SSD
$200 cpu upgrade if you want
You want find much new for $1000 other than low end used iMac or something that cannot be upgraded
Or build (another) PC with 4.4GHz i7 and motherboard, RAM.
$575 is a good buy. But once you begin to use it you can easily beef it up.
action24 wrote:
The video editing that I want to do Is minor go pro stuff of family and some video camera stuff other than that . Just for basic use like I assume music and photos and games . IS this machine good enough for that or would I be better off spending 600 on a new machine ?
For $600, I assume you are talking about getting a new PC?
The 2009 Mac Pro is good enough, but I think you will need more storage space and more RAM.
Questions about buying a refurbished from friend
