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Need help upgrading a Mac Pro

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Phil-X-
Posts: 7205 - Karma: 14,399
So some kid at my school is selling a Mac Pro (2007) for $250. Im trying to figure out if its worth it to buy and upgrade for my parents. My dad was hesitant to spend $850+ on a mac mini, so if I can upgrade this thing enough within a $600 budget I'll snag it.


It's not going to be used very intensely, the most intense thing would be some small photoshop work. Need to get it running with an ultra sharp monitor as well. Maybe a small ssd to boot from.



(MA356LL/A)
Mac OS X V 10.4.11
Processor: 2 x 2.66 GHz Dual-Core Intel Xeon (Quad Core)
Memory: 2 GB 667 MHz DDR2
Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce 7300 GT (256 MB)
Extra HD: 500 GB installed about a year after purchase
Dec 10 2013 11:35PM
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Dr.Dealgood
Posts: 2587 - Karma: 1,352
It'd be fine as a daily driver for web browsing and the like but any intensive PS work is gonna lag a bit. I had one right around that vintage and upgraded the memory, very easy and cheap to do yourself. Basically just have to pop the battery out and remove some paneling and go to work.

Have you thought about just getting, say... a new windows laptop that could be more powerful?
Dec 10 2013 11:41PM
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Tinga
Posts: 11349 - Karma: 2,333
$850 could buy you a hell of a lot more windows than it can mac.
Dec 10 2013 11:43PM
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Phil-X-
Posts: 7205 - Karma: 14,399
Yes, I understand it is easy to upgrade. Thats why I would like to purchase it, in order to upgrade. I just need help finding specific parts that will be compatible and capable of running maverick
Dec 10 2013 11:43PM
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Chunter
Posts: 2050 - Karma: 1,894
Running Maverick on such an old laptop could reallyyyy slow it down from my previous experience, even with added RAM. I upgraded the RAM on my 10' Macbook Pro and it was super easy; just do a quick google search on the different companies that offer upgrades for your year and read some reviews to make sure that company isn't total garbage.
Dec 10 2013 11:49PM
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Olimar
Posts: 3537 - Karma: 4,077
Id definitely upgrade to atleast 4 gigs of RAM. I always check my activity monitor and I almost am constantly running over 4 without even knowning it. That being said I almost always have email and iTunes open. The processor looks pretty solid but mostlikely is no longer running at the speed considering the age so you might want to look into that. SSDs can be expensive and if your on a budget Id probably pass considering the other things you may need.
Dec 10 2013 11:49PM
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Phil-X-
Posts: 7205 - Karma: 14,399
Could you guys stop recommending windows computers?

I am well aware of windows, as are my parents, we have both owned windows computers as well. I just use a macbook pro n iphone but at their house my parents have a macbook air, iphones and want to replace their windows desktop tower with a mac (to have a fully compatible home network) also I intend on getting them an apple TV for christmas so they can mirror devices on the TV
Dec 10 2013 11:50PM
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Tinga
Posts: 11349 - Karma: 2,333
sure could. just looked like it was more of a money debate from your first post but you made it painfully obvious your family isnt strapped for cash by the amount of apple products youre touting.
Dec 10 2013 11:54PM
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Dr.Dealgood
Posts: 2587 - Karma: 1,352
You could push it to 6g apparently.
https://discussions.apple.com/message/17350587#17350587


I would guess the ram upgrade would cost you around:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&DEPA=0&Order=BESTMATCH&Description=memory+macbook+pro+2007&N=-1&isNodeId=1

I think it's more worth it to get a new windows laptop. Go with Win7 Win8 is, not my favorite. You'll get a whole lot more power and generally speaking a much easier task of upgrading in the future.









Dec 10 2013 11:59PM
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eheath
Posts: 61647 - Karma: 123,455
Slap some more ram in there, only bummer is that the older mac pros use really expensive stupid ram so 4gb is $160 and 8gb is $299.

Grab an ssd boot drive and you could even upgrade the graphics card but its probably okay

Dec 11 2013 12:08AM
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Gooneez
Posts: 96 - Karma: 3,366
you might want to look into building a desktop there is a ton you can do for $850
Dec 11 2013 12:09AM
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Phil-X-
Posts: 7205 - Karma: 14,399
dude.. we're not talking about a laptop

Click for larger image
Dec 11 2013 12:10AM
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whoa-dere
Posts: 10596 - Karma: 7,105
dude just get a new mac pro
Dec 11 2013 12:12AM
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Phil-X-
Posts: 7205 - Karma: 14,399
What do you think about the processor?

Yea I was looking at some ram and its stupid expensive. I think I found a site with some cheaper options though.
Dec 11 2013 12:14AM
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Dr.Dealgood
Posts: 2587 - Karma: 1,352
Wwwhhhhhhiiiiiiiiiiiffffffff...............

Then what ehv said.

But I'd still rather go PC for the money invested. Dollar / power will be greater.
Dec 11 2013 12:17AM
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chicken
Posts: 6843 - Karma: 2,121
http://www.debian.org
Dec 11 2013 12:35AM
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Chunter
Posts: 2050 - Karma: 1,894
oooops lol, thought you were talking macbook too. People still buy regular Mac Pros?

lol jk, have you tried refurbished ones? Still from Apple so they're not super cheap but I haven't had ANY issues with mine and got a killer deal on it for it being essentially new.
Dec 11 2013 12:46AM
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TimeWasted
Posts: 362 - Karma: 593
Damn boy a mac Pro for 250... the thing must have more damage than the Berlin wall if its that cheap.
Dec 11 2013 12:50AM
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Laurent.
Posts: 10056 - Karma: 25,313
You could just put it in your home as an objet d'art considering it's design is that good.

Click for larger image
Dec 11 2013 12:53AM
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whoa-dere
Posts: 10596 - Karma: 7,105
its
Dec 11 2013 1:01AM
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Phil-X-
Posts: 7205 - Karma: 14,399
lol thats exactly why I want it in my parents house, it would look perfect in their office. I definitely thinks thats the only reason I want to do this.
Dec 11 2013 1:04AM
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eheath
Posts: 61647 - Karma: 123,455
Processor is obviously old but it should hold up just fine. Make sure you buy the right ram though, worth spending a little more money to have the right thing
Dec 11 2013 1:09AM
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Laurent.
Posts: 10056 - Karma: 25,313
O dear, a tiny little mistake on an post I made before morning coffee.
Be happy I actually managed to form a sentence at this ungodly hour.

Just listen to Stephen Fry for a second.


Dec 11 2013 1:10AM
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Phil-X-
Posts: 7205 - Karma: 14,399
Right now this is what I think would be done-


-------------
SSD 44gb (boot + few apps)
Mercury Electra™ 3G SSD
$50
http://eshop.macsales.com/item/OWC/SSDEX3G044/


Cart
$20
http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Icy%20Dock/MB882SP1S2B/

--------------
Graphics card for PCIe 1GB
ATI Radeon HD 5770
$200
http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Apple/MC742ZMA/
--------------

12 GB ram (6x2gb)
$250
http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Other%20World%20Computing/53FB2MPK12GB/
----------

i guess no processor upgrade?


That would make it a pretty impressive system for
Dec 11 2013 1:50AM
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Phil-X-
Posts: 7205 - Karma: 14,399
Fuck. Wont be able to install mavericks or mountain lion with the given processor. If I upgrade them could I install the OS??
Dec 11 2013 2:12AM
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eheath
Posts: 61647 - Karma: 123,455
Just put on lion? its not that big of a deal
Dec 11 2013 2:12AM
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--ski--
Posts: 1670 - Karma: 817
Somewhat, but still not great.

Your motherboard is LGA 771, which 7 years old, is old and outdated so your limited by the bandwidth of the bus': in you case PCIe 1.0 and SATA 1.

With the SSD, your sequential read/write speed will be limited by SATA 1 (130-140MB/s). Furthermore, NCQ is not supported in SATA 1 and can drastically affect performance.

Your GPU is an upgrade but, again, is limited by it's bus: PCIe 1.0, so you'll be unable to take full advantage of it. However, if you're just doing "small" photoshop work, the upgrade will be unnecessary - you probably won't notice the difference.



Dec 11 2013 3:00AM
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Phil-X-
Posts: 7205 - Karma: 14,399
I need to find out if it would work with apple TVs screen mirror and stuff, not being on the newest OS is prob gonna be the deal breaker on this one
Dec 11 2013 3:25AM
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ElMexicano
Posts: 639 - Karma: 400
Processor should be okay

will want to get more ram, Mac ram is pretty expensive compared to pc ram
$150ish
http://www.memory.com/ts512mfb72v6u-t.html

a better graphics card would run you ... $100-$250


and ssd's around $150 for a 128GB which would be enough for the OS and some other important applications

It's hard to find parts that I'm sure will work without knowing the model number like

Mac Pro 1,1
or Mac Pro 1,2
figure out what the Mac Pro x.x is and people could help more.
Dec 11 2013 3:35AM
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howlongcanausern
Posts: 4982 - Karma: 1,737
that's a good deal but you have to remember DDR2 RAM is getting dated and will be the major bottleneck of the system with no fix other than buying internals that use DDR3

wouldn't use it for much else other than photoshop
Dec 11 2013 10:58AM
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