2013 Mac Pro Quad Core

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I'm running a mid 2011 iMac 3.1 Ghz i5 12 Gb ram.

I'm up for an upgrade in the not too distant future.

Mostly for using CPU heavy plugs for near symphonic style electronica..

I've got my eye on the 2013 Mac Pro Quad Core.

My thinking being that the faster speeds the Quad Core processorer are running is going to give me the best bang for the buck in the immediate future.

Interestingly the processors in these cylinder mac pros are upgradeable, if you are reasonably adept even by the end users..

I can imagine a scenario where after 2 years of ownership, I would be able to get a hold of a 12 core processor for considerabley cheaper than they are available for now, as well as upgrade to larger SSD, and max out the ram for a considerable savings, thus extending the lifetime of the computer a least 5 years into the future.

Pro is more portable than an iMac, and the screen can be upgraded when the prices on these come down.

I hope to maintain a 7 year ownership cycle for my computer gear. And all electronic gear for that matter..

Anybody think the same thing?

I'll be using my present iMac as the screen for the Mac Pro..
waves break, but somehow it all makes sense.

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Your current iMac is already quad core?

I would have thought the sweet spot for you to upgrade would be the 6 more Mac Pro, or even an 8 core old gen model (although who knows how Apple will make that obsolete with it's obsession with OS 'upgrades'

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tehlord wrote:Your current iMac is already quad core?

I would have thought the sweet spot for you to upgrade would be the 6 more Mac Pro, or even an 8 core old gen model (although who knows how Apple will make that obsolete with it's obsession with OS 'upgrades'

I'm in a agreement that the 6 or 8 core would be a better upgrade..

I've been looking at the pricing on the 6 and 8 core versions and it just seems punitively high..

I've checked out the old version Mac Pro 5.1 with 2x6 cores running at 3.46 Ghz, if I could find a cheap Mac Pro 4.1 upgrade to this version, I could have a machine for about 1/3 less then the 2013 Quad core, and also have space for some of my internal drives.

But as you say how long will this hardware be supported by the OS? But come to think of it all my software functions now on my mid 2011 iMac, and if the performance is acceptable on the Mac Pro 5.1 12 core, then I think I would have a least five good years out of it..

The other solution would be to get a Maxed out iMac retina and run it along side my old existing machine..For 2 x 4 cores..

Price comparison

Mac Pro 5.1 upgraded an Ebay deal: US $2,724.95
Approximately DKK 18,596.03
item specifics;

Brand:
Apple
Memory: 32GB Product Family: Mac Pro
Hard Drive Capacity: 256GB + 2TB Processor Type: Intel Xeon 12-Core
Operating System: OS X 10.9 Mavericks Processor Speed: 3.46GHz
Bundled Items: Keyboard, Mouse, Network Card, Speakers, Wi-Fi Card

The minimum 2013 Mac Pro config for a 5 year user life:

Mac Pro Item Price: 29.455.20 kr. (USD) $4,400
Part number: Z0P8
Dispatched: 2-4 business days
Hardware
3.5GHz 6-core with 12MB of L3 cache
32GB (4 x 8GB) of 1866MHz DDR3 ECC
512GB PCIe-based flash storage
Dual AMD FirePro D500 GPUs with 3GB of GDDR5 VRAM each
User's Guide (Danish)
Accessory Kit
Software
Pages, Numbers, Keynote
iPhoto, iMovie, GarageBand
OS X

Retina Mac Five year usage period.

27-inch iMac with Retina 5K display Item Price: 26.459.00 kr. (USD)3.887,256
Remove (27-inch iMac with Retina 5K display)
Part number: Z0QX

Hardware
4.0GHz Quad-core Intel Core i7, Turbo Boost up to 4.4GHz
32GB 1600MHz DDR3 SDRAM - 4x8GB
1TB Fusion Drive
AMD Radeon R9 M290X 2GB GDDR5
Apple Magic Mouse
Apple Wireless Keyboard (Danish) & User's Guide (Danish)
Accessory Kit

Financially it seems like the Mac Pro 2013 6 core is pretty well out of reach. It's relatively expensive to upgrade to 12 core and I'd have to wait a least 2 years to do it. Also no screen and how feasible is it to use my 2011 iMac as an external screen?

The iMac Retina will give the highest quality user experience because of the screen, but being a closed box it's hard to upgrade, and I'll still need external hardisks cluttering up the workspace and expensive. And it is still only 4 core's!

The Mac Pro 5.1 2x6 core 3.46 Ghz appears to me to be the cheapest and most powerful alternative that also takes care of my storage issues..I do have a lot of photos, they can reside in harddisk existing internally 3 available bays. I'd upgrade the OS drive to 256 SSD or 512 Gb when prices came down on these..

The main cons is i'll be missing is thunderbolt and usb 3 and noise, I'll keep it in a closet near the editing station so that shouldn't be an issue.. (EDIT) the Mac Pro can accept USB 3 cards in the PCIe slots.

I'd hate to have to step backwards into the future by going with older tech, but a least on papir it just screams do it! Why not save the cash, after all it even the most expensive solutions end up in the garbage heap of history in 10 years time...
Last edited by TwoToneshuzz on Fri Mar 27, 2015 11:17 pm, edited 1 time in total.
waves break, but somehow it all makes sense.

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It's a tricky decision as a quad core i5 is still a pretty decent CPU and upgrading to something significantly quicker is expensive.

If you look at the Geekbench Benchmarks for multi core 64 bit your iMac scores 8730, and I've just bought a Macbook Pro i7 with the upgraded CPU, 512GB SSD and 16GB Ram for a little over £2k. Perhaps that's the solution as it scores 14707? It'd mean you could sell the iMac as you'd have a screen and you'd also have TB and USB3.

http://browser.primatelabs.com/mac-benchmarks

I've also just bought a 27" IPS monitor so I can use dual screen if I want to as well.

The top of the range Macbook Pro's are very, very capable machines.

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I'm thinking that I'll get a used 5.1 Mac Pro with dual processors and upgrade it with the fastest possible processor a X5690 3.46 Ghz... Then use it with my iMac as the front end. either using remote desktop or VSL ensemble.. The firewire, and the drive bays in the Pro will be compatible with all my present hardware. I can upgrade with a SSD on a eSata card, all this for much cheaper than the Mac Pro 2013 Quad core I was looking at..

Then when this workhorse has done it's service, some more attractive prices on the present day Mac Pro's and the Displays they need will be available..

That doesn't rule out me getting a Macbook Pro 15" in the meantime..Here I'll also a used or refurb model...
waves break, but somehow it all makes sense.

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I have a mac pro 5.1 upgraded to a duel 6 core 3.46. It scores 32000, just under a new mac pro. Keep in mind that with the new mac pro you will need thunderbolt chassis for and PCIe cards. This adds to the cost. My mac is stupid fast now, I'm hoping to get another three years out of it.

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Okay I'm looking at one idea of a setup.

Mac Pro 5.1 upgraded to a 3.46 6 x2

using a matched pair of this processor:

Intel Xeon X5690 CPU
SLBVX
3.46GHz 6.4GT/s Turbo 3.6 GHz
6 Core
1333MHz FSB
12MB L3 Cache
64 Bit
Turbo Boost
Hyper Threading
Virtualision
Speed Step
Demand Based Switching
Sockets Supported FCLGA1366


All of the Mac Pros internal 4 internal drive bays used for files and mirrored backups not raid though..

2x 4Gb the back drive WD green power the other most speedy for use on the internal bus say WD Caviar Black for photo/video

2x 2Gb for Logic Projects audio files etc.

One of these for the System:240 GB OWC Mercury Accelsior E2 PCI Express High-Performance SSD with eSATA Expansion Ports

One for Samples 480GB OWC Mercury Accelsior E2 PCI Express High-Performance SSD with eSATA Expansion Ports.

I'll use two external drives one 2 TB and one 4 TB for external off site backup.

All this can be had for a little less than the price of the basic 2013 Mac pro Quad Core.

My thinking here is I have almost as fast a machine as the 12 Core 2013 Mac Pro, with better and Cheaper data storage.

The e2 PCI Express SSd's will give almost the same speed as the Mac Pro 2013 internal SSD.

This self upgraded system can be tweaked and added to, so I can say buy the basic 2009 8 core Mac Pro 5.1 and update the processor first. Then upgrade the System drive to SSD, then the Samples drive to SSD over the period of one year for example..Buy the Caviar Drives in three batches.. In the meantime use my existing 7 drives..
waves break, but somehow it all makes sense.

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I think I'm going to go for this setup. I've researched the tech, I guess these intel X5690 3.46 Ghz 6 core are solid performers, that cost around $1500 each at release, now a pair can be had for about a third that.

I've found a Mac Pro 5.1 with 2 processors that could be had for an okay price.. I would be able to go and check it out physically, seems in mint condition...

I've found a source for the PCIe slot SSD, I think I might end up getting two 480 Gb. Plus use a smaller capacity SSD for the System. My idea is to use the 480 Gb as working disks, where I copy the needed samples or photos to the one disk, recording and project files to the other. These SSD's will be backedup every day to the main photo/video or audio disk, in the Mac Pros normal hard drive bays. The OWC Mercury Accelsior PCIe SSD cards have eSata out which I can use with my existing OWC Mercury Elite Pro external for off site back up.

It seems I'll be able to get this setup for around 18000 Dkr..

I'll likely pick up a used Cinema Display, and keep my iMac separate, when I'm not using the firepower of the Mac Pro 5.1 I can save power.

The Mac Pro 5.1 12 core enables working with big projects with CPU heavy plugs, and will be used as an intelligent backup server. So even if in 3 or 4 years time I upgrade to a used Cylinder Mac Pro 6.1 or 7.1 12 core I can keep using the Mac Pro 5.1 as a backup server..through the eSata, After all 18000 Dkr. is sizable investment, and I want to keep getting use out of it as long as possible say 7 years...

I think my coming modus will be to acquire my gear at about 3 or 4 years behind on Hardware and 2 years behind on Software.. Savings are considerable, and most of the bugs are worked out too.

A 2015 Mac Pro 7.1 in 2019 at 40% of release price anyone?
waves break, but somehow it all makes sense.

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I have the money for a MacPro but personally I'm waiting till they release a new one with the new i7 Cores. I think one is due this year.

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aMUSEd wrote:I have the money for a MacPro but personally I'm waiting till they release a new one with the new i7 Cores. I think one is due this year.
I hope you are right!

I find that actual performance gains rise rather incrementally from Hardware generation to generation. It's the added functionality battery usage, power consumption etc that sees improvements every generation, then maybe after 3 or 4 generations we real significant performance improvements.

As my interests are so broad(Music Gardening, photography, carpentry travel I feel I just can't sustain the outlay in always getting new tech..

I'm still aware of and concerned that I get a system that is just too far behind so I loose basic functionality..

Still anything is better than going into debt for a hobby!
waves break, but somehow it all makes sense.

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Just spent a couple of days research on a new tack trying to design and research a windows audio workstation PC to do the same or better than a Mac Pro 8 core with the new chips that have been out for about 6 months now. Here's what I picked out.

Intel Xeon E5 single CPU 8 core E5-2687 running at 3.1 Ghz for sixteen virtual cores.

Be Quiet mid tower case.

Asus X99-A ATX LGA2011-3 Motherboard 2011-A v3 single socket

32 Gb DD4 ram 8x4 crucial 1.2v

Fractal Designs 750 w modular PSU

a Dell 27 inch monitor relatively high end.

AMD firepro 1 Gb card. passive cooling

I would use my existing hard disks of which I have 7, 3pcs 1 tb 4pcs 500 for data, and a PCIe or M .2 SSd 120Gb for the system.

This will be a killer system if I could get it to work for about 10% less than the price of the new Retina iMac.

One plus is that all my storage gets contained in one midtower, where there been given a great deal of attention to making it silent.

I would have a speedy eight core, that could be totally self sustained with no external clutter. All components would have the 3 year guarantee and are supported during the period where it will see most use..

Only question really is the Xeon E-2687 8 Core 3.1 Ghz processor really is the right choice. Expensive yes but for massive arrangements with CPU heavy plug ins I'd like to get the most powerful solution..

I know that Cubase and Reaper on the PC kan take advantage of the 16 cores..

I could actually just go out and buy it in a month and have the processor that the Mac Pro 2015? will get in the eight core model..

I think I'd use the optical from the Assus motherboard out to my motu traveller mk3 and just send midi from Logic X or Numerology over ethernet to the PC. the returning audio from the PC into logic a for effects and mix down. This way I don't have to introduce an extra layer of complication with Vienna Pro. On the PC I can either Run Cubase Artist or Reaper, I'll do any synth automation on the PC.. Mix volume and Pan and effects automation in Logic.
waves break, but somehow it all makes sense.

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Yeah a new Mac Pro is overdue... But the last one was more overdue...

I waited for an Apple 4K display. It never came. Then Apple came out with the retina imac. Surely an Apple display is forthcoming... Oh, nope. Saw the news about Mac Pro not supporting 5K displays.

Perpetually waiting on these Mac Pro models to be comparable in display capability to the all-in-one computers. I want retina. I don't want a third party display for the same cost as a Mac Pro. I don't want an all-in-one because of heat death of components and the non-modular repairs. Mac Pro is more repairable. Just doesn't have a complete Apple solution.

:-/
- dysamoria.com
my music @ SoundCloud

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Jace-BeOS wrote:Yeah a new Mac Pro is overdue... But the last one was more overdue...

I waited for an Apple 4K display. It never came. Then Apple came out with the retina imac. Surely an Apple display is forthcoming... Oh, nope. Saw the news about Mac Pro not supporting 5K displays.

Perpetually waiting on these Mac Pro models to be comparable in display capability to the all-in-one computers. I want retina. I don't want a third party display for the same cost as a Mac Pro. I don't want an all-in-one because of heat death of components and the non-modular repairs. Mac Pro is more repairable. Just doesn't have a complete Apple solution.

:-/
ya, I'm on my second iMac and it is vexing that it's hard to maintain and upgrade.. The problem with Apple is it's often so far ahead with new connectors Firewire 800, Thunderbolt 1 and 2, and now now 5k compatible out solutions that you end up playing an expensive waiting game...
waves break, but somehow it all makes sense.

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does anyone know what the last mac pro year/model was that caould run osx 10.6.8 ?

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