Early 2008 Mac Pro upgrades

[TheManWhoNeedsHelp]

Hi, I want to buy a 2008 Mac Pro and I was wondering if someone could help me and make a list of all the latest compatible ram, cpu, and duel gpu setups that will work if a you can even do a duel gpu setup on a early 2008 Mac Pro 

[3 Lions]

That's an 11 year old machine, you do realize that? 

[Fasauceome]

two GPUs from 11 years ago is crap compared to a single of the lowest end GPU today.

 

What was the intended purpose of this mac? just to trick it out for nostalgia?

 

this technical spec sheet may help

https://support.apple.com/kb/sp11?locale=en_US

 

[Labeled]

they used socket 771, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LGA_771 . The highest offering at the time was an x5482, the only other option from there is the x5492, and it's only 200MHz faster.

DDR2 ECC, 32GB max *64 seems to be supported as well if you can get them

it came with a Radeon HD 2600 XT, not sure what it supports though as an upgrade.

 

Honestly if this is for anything ofther than nostalgia however, I'd recommend against using this. 45nm xeons and DDR2 ram. You're mileage might not be that great.

 

[TheManWhoNeedsHelp]

4 hours ago, Fasauceome said:

two GPUs from 11 years ago is crap compared to a single of the lowest end GPU today.

 

What was the intended purpose of this mac? just to trick it out for nostalgia?

 

this technical spec sheet may help

https://support.apple.com/kb/sp11?locale=en_US

 

A little bit of gaming and video editing 

[Fasauceome]

6 minutes ago, TheManWhoNeedsHelp said:

A little bit of gaming and video editing 

An antique like that will not deliver a good experience in either unfortunately

[TheManWhoNeedsHelp]

4 hours ago, Fasauceome said:

two GPUs from 11 years ago is crap compared to a single of the lowest end GPU today.

 

What was the intended purpose of this mac? just to trick it out for nostalgia?

 

this technical spec sheet may help

https://support.apple.com/kb/sp11?locale=en_US

 

Also I’m 11 years old and anything is an upgrade from my old early 2008 MacBook 

[TheManWhoNeedsHelp]

15 minutes ago, Fasauceome said:

An antique like that will not deliver a good experience in either unfortunately

My current laptop is from early 2008

[Fasauceome]

5 minutes ago, TheManWhoNeedsHelp said:

Also I’m 11 years old and anything is an upgrade from my old early 2008 MacBook 

Spending $300 would get you a PC that games a little and you can upgrade it.

 

PCPartPicker Part List

Type	Item	Price
CPU	AMD Athlon 3000G 3.5 GHz Dual-Core Processor	$49.99 @ B&H
Motherboard	ASRock B450M/AC Micro ATX AM4 Motherboard	$88.98 @ Newegg
Memory	Patriot Viper 4 Blackout 8 GB (2 x 4 GB) DDR4-3000 Memory	$32.99 @ Newegg
Storage	PNY CS900 240 GB 2.5" Solid State Drive	$26.99 @ Amazon
Case	Rosewill FBM-X1 MicroATX Mini Tower Case	$26.99 @ Amazon
Power Supply	EVGA GD (2019) 500 W 80+ Gold Certified ATX Power Supply	$39.98 @ Newegg
	Prices include shipping, taxes, rebates, and discounts
	Total (before mail-in rebates)	$275.92
	Mail-in rebates	-$10.00
	Total	$265.92
	Generated by PCPartPicker 2019-11-30 21:05 EST-0500

 

 

3 minutes ago, TheManWhoNeedsHelp said:

My current laptop is from early 2008

The important thing is to spend your money wisely so that you can upgrade easy in the future

Edited December 1, 2019 by Fasauceome

[TheManWhoNeedsHelp]

Ya, that’s why I want my next computer to be a tower, you bury $500 laptop and all you can upgrade is the ram and hdd or ssd, but with a tower you can get a new gpu or a cpu upgrade or put in some more ram

[harryk]

Unless you have a source to get the computer and parts for free, any amount of money will be better spent on something newer. There aren't many options to upgrade a 2008 MP and if you spec it out with all the best compatible parts there's nothing left to upgrade down the line. AND you'll still be stuck with 2008-level performance.

[Bombastinator]

4 hours ago, TheManWhoNeedsHelp said:

My current laptop is from early 2008

That won’t do much for gaming or video editing either, for much the same reasons.  Also if it’s a Mac it won’t run modern Mac OSes which means it won’t get security patches and you should probably keep it away from the internet.

[Fasauceome]

12 hours ago, TheManWhoNeedsHelp said:

Ya, that’s why I want my next computer to be a tower, you bury $500 laptop and all you can upgrade is the ram and hdd or ssd, but with a tower you can get a new gpu or a cpu upgrade or put in some more ram

You can't upgrade a Mac outside of their verified parts and without verified driver support. A 2008 Mac for "upgradability" is a terrible option. Because again, you're stuck with parts from 2008, which all have the exact same performance in modern games and tasks, there is no difference between a high end and low end Xeon from that era in something like battlefield V. 

 

That's why I recommended a gaming build with a Ryzen CPU, not only will it game pretty much the same, but you can add a modern graphics card and more powerful CPU later.

[tatte]

You'll need to be willing to put in a lot of work to make a 3,1 work to its fullest potential in 2019. Asking us to compose a list of best parts is not a good start. Macrumors.com is full of good content, and r/macpro also sees a decent amount of passing 3,1 posts, albeit at a much tardier pace. Mac Pros' CPUs aren't as straightforward to work with as they are in your typical PC, so I'd strongly recommend looking up some videos before committing to upgrading them (RAM, GPUs, and drives are simple to swap).

 

See this list for CPU compatibility, a 2008 is knows as 3,1. Nothing you can put in a 3,1 is going to be great by today's standard, nor good value, so I recommend looking for the best deal that makes sense with the budget you're working with. It can by all means be perfectly usable, but price certainly has to be right.

 

GPU situation is a bit more complicated. This seems like a decent discussion about the subject. You can Google and read to your heart's content, but I'd frankly suggest just going with the best deal on an nVidia's 6xx you can find. I have a 660 Ti in my 1,1, and it's almost certainly held back by the rest of the system. 3,1 supports a little faster CPUs, but I reckon 660 Ti is still close to the top you'll need for general gaming and whatnot. Running two makes no sense, but if you insist on it, take power cables into account (1,1 has only two 6-pin, I'm not bothering to look up if 3,1 is any different - it's a complete waste of time).

 

Maxing the RAM on the other hand is straightforward and relatively cheap. My 32 GBs cost $40, and you can probably find better deals (just make sure it's compatible). If you don't have any particular uses in mind (namely something to run in RAM disk), 16 should be fine. One thing to note is that without the appropriate heatsinks, server RAM Mac Pros use may run hot enough to ramp up the fans unnecessarily. These heatsinks are likely something people give away for free, so look locally, don't bother paying someone to ship them from China (or just deal with the noise).

 

Cheap SSD is definitely recommended.

 

You need a supported (search term would be "mac flashed") GPU to see the boot stuff. Normal PC cards still work once the OS loads, but you'll want to keep an appropriate GPU around for times you need to do stuff like reinstall, change boot drive, boot older OS X etc. It looks like 3,1 can be made to run even Catalina, but for software support's sake it might be easier to run Windows (defeating the point of buying a Mac).

 

These are beautiful machines that still deliver useable, albeit light, experience. But you have to have the determination and aptitude to see it through. 3,1 may sound like relevant today, but Apple could drop a patch to end them at any moment (just like 1,1/2,1 is held back by software more than anything). Over a decade old hardware is also an obvious liability. Fantastic hobby machines, but not desirable daily drivers by any stretch. If you're looking to tinker and actually want to use macOS, consider going with hackintosh instead. Snazzy Labs has several videos about budget builds, and other great content about macOS as well.

[TheManWhoNeedsHelp]

18 hours ago, tatte said:

You'll need to be willing to put in a lot of work to make a 3,1 work to its fullest potential in 2019. Asking us to compose a list of best parts is not a good start. Macrumors.com is full of good content, and r/macpro also sees a decent amount of passing 3,1 posts, albeit at a much tardier pace. Mac Pros' CPUs aren't as straightforward to work with as they are in your typical PC, so I'd strongly recommend looking up some videos before committing to upgrading them (RAM, GPUs, and drives are simple to swap).

 

See this list for CPU compatibility, a 2008 is knows as 3,1. Nothing you can put in a 3,1 is going to be great by today's standard, nor good value, so I recommend looking for the best deal that makes sense with the budget you're working with. It can by all means be perfectly usable, but price certainly has to be right.

 

GPU situation is a bit more complicated. This seems like a decent discussion about the subject. You can Google and read to your heart's content, but I'd frankly suggest just going with the best deal on an nVidia's 6xx you can find. I have a 660 Ti in my 1,1, and it's almost certainly held back by the rest of the system. 3,1 supports a little faster CPUs, but I reckon 660 Ti is still close to the top you'll need for general gaming and whatnot. Running two makes no sense, but if you insist on it, take power cables into account (1,1 has only two 6-pin, I'm not bothering to look up if 3,1 is any different - it's a complete waste of time).

 

Maxing the RAM on the other hand is straightforward and relatively cheap. My 32 GBs cost $40, and you can probably find better deals (just make sure it's compatible). If you don't have any particular uses in mind (namely something to run in RAM disk), 16 should be fine. One thing to note is that without the appropriate heatsinks, server RAM Mac Pros use may run hot enough to ramp up the fans unnecessarily. These heatsinks are likely something people give away for free, so look locally, don't bother paying someone to ship them from China (or just deal with the noise).

 

Cheap SSD is definitely recommended.

 

You need a supported (search term would be "mac flashed") GPU to see the boot stuff. Normal PC cards still work once the OS loads, but you'll want to keep an appropriate GPU around for times you need to do stuff like reinstall, change boot drive, boot older OS X etc. It looks like 3,1 can be made to run even Catalina, but for software support's sake it might be easier to run Windows (defeating the point of buying a Mac).

 

These are beautiful machines that still deliver useable, albeit light, experience. But you have to have the determination and aptitude to see it through. 3,1 may sound like relevant today, but Apple could drop a patch to end them at any moment (just like 1,1/2,1 is held back by software more than anything). Over a decade old hardware is also an obvious liability. Fantastic hobby machines, but not desirable daily drivers by any stretch. If you're looking to tinker and actually want to use macOS, consider going with hackintosh instead. Snazzy Labs has several videos about budget builds, and other great content about macOS as well.

Thanks, if I got one I would probably use a patcher to get  a newer os but will something like that have enough power to do some GameCube and ps2 emulation or some old pc games?

[TheManWhoNeedsHelp]

31 minutes ago, TheManWhoNeedsHelp said:

Thanks, if I got one I would probably use a patcher to get  a newer os but will something like that have enough power to do some GameCube and ps2 emulation or some old pc games?

 

19 hours ago, tatte said:

You'll need to be willing to put in a lot of work to make a 3,1 work to its fullest potential in 2019. Asking us to compose a list of best parts is not a good start. Macrumors.com is full of good content, and r/macpro also sees a decent amount of passing 3,1 posts, albeit at a much tardier pace. Mac Pros' CPUs aren't as straightforward to work with as they are in your typical PC, so I'd strongly recommend looking up some videos before committing to upgrading them (RAM, GPUs, and drives are simple to swap).

 

See this list for CPU compatibility, a 2008 is knows as 3,1. Nothing you can put in a 3,1 is going to be great by today's standard, nor good value, so I recommend looking for the best deal that makes sense with the budget you're working with. It can by all means be perfectly usable, but price certainly has to be right.

 

GPU situation is a bit more complicated. This seems like a decent discussion about the subject. You can Google and read to your heart's content, but I'd frankly suggest just going with the best deal on an nVidia's 6xx you can find. I have a 660 Ti in my 1,1, and it's almost certainly held back by the rest of the system. 3,1 supports a little faster CPUs, but I reckon 660 Ti is still close to the top you'll need for general gaming and whatnot. Running two makes no sense, but if you insist on it, take power cables into account (1,1 has only two 6-pin, I'm not bothering to look up if 3,1 is any different - it's a complete waste of time).

 

Maxing the RAM on the other hand is straightforward and relatively cheap. My 32 GBs cost $40, and you can probably find better deals (just make sure it's compatible). If you don't have any particular uses in mind (namely something to run in RAM disk), 16 should be fine. One thing to note is that without the appropriate heatsinks, server RAM Mac Pros use may run hot enough to ramp up the fans unnecessarily. These heatsinks are likely something people give away for free, so look locally, don't bother paying someone to ship them from China (or just deal with the noise).

 

Cheap SSD is definitely recommended.

 

You need a supported (search term would be "mac flashed") GPU to see the boot stuff. Normal PC cards still work once the OS loads, but you'll want to keep an appropriate GPU around for times you need to do stuff like reinstall, change boot drive, boot older OS X etc. It looks like 3,1 can be made to run even Catalina, but for software support's sake it might be easier to run Windows (defeating the point of buying a Mac).

 

These are beautiful machines that still deliver useable, albeit light, experience. But you have to have the determination and aptitude to see it through. 3,1 may sound like relevant today, but Apple could drop a patch to end them at any moment (just like 1,1/2,1 is held back by software more than anything). Over a decade old hardware is also an obvious liability. Fantastic hobby machines, but not desirable daily drivers by any stretch. If you're looking to tinker and actually want to use macOS, consider going with hackintosh instead. Snazzy Labs has several videos about budget builds, and other great content about macOS as well.

What about gpu for a 2010 model?

[Zando_]

On 12/1/2019 at 8:26 AM, Fasauceome said:

You can't upgrade a Mac outside of their verified parts and without verified driver support. A 2008 Mac for "upgradability" is a terrible option. Because again, you're stuck with parts from 2008, which all have the exact same performance in modern games and tasks, there is no difference between a high end and low end Xeon from that era in something like battlefield V. 

 

That's why I recommended a gaming build with a Ryzen CPU, not only will it game pretty much the same, but you can add a modern graphics card and more powerful CPU later.

You need a slight mod to get power to it, but it's a common practice to put a 980 Ti in old Mac Pros. Those are the dual socket LGA1366 or newer ones though. The OG 2008 is preeeeetty dang slow compared to modern PCs. If you got one for around $100 and if there's actually decent GPUs that are compatible with it, then it would actually be a decent option. Just doing normal computer shit is fine on them, but if you wanna edit or game then yeah nah. With a Mac Edition 5770 they'll run something like Dirt Rally at all low at what's almost but not quite playable (I had one). 

If you want a Mac Pro, you really need to be a Mac enthusiast willing to overpay a bit for lower performing hardware just because you like it. If you're looking for value, they're usually not the best. Especially for gaming, Macs have never been good at that. Much better off building a PC if you want value. 

[TheManWhoNeedsHelp]

7 minutes ago, Zando Bob said:

You need a slight mod to get power to it, but it's a common practice to put a 980 Ti in old Mac Pros. Those are the dual socket LGA1366 or newer ones though. The OG 2008 is preeeeetty dang slow compared to modern PCs. If you got one for around $100 and if there's actually decent GPUs that are compatible with it, then it would actually be a decent option. Just doing normal computer shit is fine on them, but if you wanna edit or game then yeah nah. With a Mac Edition 5770 they'll run something like Dirt Rally at all low at what's almost but not quite playable (I had one). 

If you want a Mac Pro, you really need to be a Mac enthusiast willing to overpay a bit for lower performing hardware just because you like it. If you're looking for value, they're usually not the best. Especially for gaming, Macs have never been good at that. Much better off building a PC if you want value. 

Would a 2010 Mac bro work with dual gtx 560’s or 1 gtx 1060?

[Zando_]

Just now, TheManWhoNeedsHelp said:

Would a 2010 Mac bro work with dual gtx 560’s or 1 gtx 1060?

Some of the 2010s may be able to run two X5690s (around a $120 or so upgrade last I checked, plus the time it takes you to install them without breaking your mac). That'd give you 12c/24t at around 3-3.4Ghz depending on boost, and they're Westmere-EP from 2011. Not very good in newish games, decent for rendering and such considering their age. They can do well in newer games if you OC them to 4.5Ghz or so, buuuuuut Macs don't support OCing so you can't do that.

 

Pretty sure macOS doesn't support SLI. 

 

IIRC MacOS hates Pascal and Turing, you need a 900 series or older Nvidia card, or most AMD cards. 

Like I said before: 

13 minutes ago, Zando Bob said:

If you want a Mac Pro, you really need to be a Mac enthusiast willing to overpay a bit for lower performing hardware just because you like it. If you're looking for value, they're usually not the best. Especially for gaming, Macs have never been good at that. Much better off building a PC if you want value.

I don't understand why you're set on a Mac Pro if you want to game? Most games won't even run on macOS anyways, even if you did manage to get one with a decent spec. 

[TheManWhoNeedsHelp]

2 minutes ago, Zando Bob said:

Some of the 2010s may be able to run two X5690s (around a $120 or so upgrade last I checked, plus the time it takes you to install them without breaking your mac). That'd give you 12c/24t at around 3-3.4Ghz depending on boost, and they're Westmere-EP from 2011. Not very good in newish games, decent for rendering and such considering their age. They can do well in newer games if you OC them to 4.5Ghz or so, buuuuuut Macs don't support OCing so you can't do that.

 

Pretty sure macOS doesn't support SLI. 

 

IIRC MacOS hates Pascal and Turing, you need a 900 series or older Nvidia card, or most AMD cards. 

Like I said before: 

I don't understand why you're set on a Mac Pro if you want to game? Most games won't even run on macOS anyways, even if you did manage to get one with a decent spec. 

I love the look of the case, (and my parents think Windows is krap and won’t let me get a pc)

[Zando_]

4 minutes ago, TheManWhoNeedsHelp said:

I love the look of the case, (and my parents think Windows is krap and won’t let me get a pc)

If you're gaming, Windows is the best OS for that though, so try and convince the parents I guess? From a gamer perspective, macOS is crap. I work on a Mac (better multitasking, more dependable OS IMO), at home I run PCs (gaming), sometimes a Mac if I have one at the time, and every now and then I dabble in Linux. All the OSes are good for certain things. 

The cases are cool, but it's not worth overspending for unless you can afford to do that and already have good hardware to fall back on. I've had a PowerMac G5 and 1st gen Mac Pro, but I had powerful PCs to fall back on, so those not performing very well didn't really effect me. If it's your only PC, they're a bad choice for your workload. 

You can always build a PC now, and hunt around for someone with a PowerMac or Mac Pro they're giving out for free or a really low price (my PowerMac G5 was just in a relative's shed and she said I could have it for free). Then carefully remove the internals (if it's working, people who love these macs and want to keep them working will pay for parts in good condition), and transplant your PC inside. Though that does require some modding, you're probably too young for a Dremel/grinder tbh. Good project to keep in mind for when you do have access to tools though. 

 

[TheManWhoNeedsHelp]

15 minutes ago, Zando Bob said:

Some of the 2010s may be able to run two X5690s (around a $120 or so upgrade last I checked, plus the time it takes you to install them without breaking your mac). That'd give you 12c/24t at around 3-3.4Ghz depending on boost, and they're Westmere-EP from 2011. Not very good in newish games, decent for rendering and such considering their age. They can do well in newer games if you OC them to 4.5Ghz or so, buuuuuut Macs don't support OCing so you can't do that.

 

Pretty sure macOS doesn't support SLI. 

 

IIRC MacOS hates Pascal and Turing, you need a 900 series or older Nvidia card, or most AMD cards. 

Like I said before: 

I don't understand why you're set on a Mac Pro if you want to game? Most games won't even run on macOS anyways, even if you did manage to get one with a decent spec. 

I love the look of the case, (and my parents think Windows is krap

 

1 minute ago, Zando Bob said:

If you're gaming, Windows is the best OS for that though, so try and convince the parents I guess? From a gamer perspective, macOS is crap. I work on a Mac (better multitasking, more dependable OS IMO), at home I run PCs (gaming), sometimes a Mac if I have one at the time, and every now and then I dabble in Linux. All the OSes are good for certain things. 

The cases are cool, but it's not worth overspending for unless you can afford to do that and already have good hardware to fall back on. I've had a PowerMac G5 and 1st gen Mac Pro, but I had powerful PCs to fall back on, so those not performing very well didn't really effect me. If it's your only PC, they're a bad choice for your workload. 

You can always build a PC now, and hunt around for someone with a PowerMac or Mac Pro they're giving out for free or a really low price (my PowerMac G5 was just in a relative's shed and she said I could have it for free). Then carefully remove the internals (if it's working, people who love these macs and want to keep them working will pay for parts in good condition), and transplant your PC inside. Though that does require some modding, you're probably too young for a Dremel/grinder tbh. Good project to keep in mind for when you do have access to tools though. 

 

I love windows and hate Mac, I would get a new laptop but those aren’t very upgradable 

[TheManWhoNeedsHelp]

19 minutes ago, Zando Bob said:

If you're gaming, Windows is the best OS for that though, so try and convince the parents I guess? From a gamer perspective, macOS is crap. I work on a Mac (better multitasking, more dependable OS IMO), at home I run PCs (gaming), sometimes a Mac if I have one at the time, and every now and then I dabble in Linux. All the OSes are good for certain things. 

The cases are cool, but it's not worth overspending for unless you can afford to do that and already have good hardware to fall back on. I've had a PowerMac G5 and 1st gen Mac Pro, but I had powerful PCs to fall back on, so those not performing very well didn't really effect me. If it's your only PC, they're a bad choice for your workload. 

You can always build a PC now, and hunt around for someone with a PowerMac or Mac Pro they're giving out for free or a really low price (my PowerMac G5 was just in a relative's shed and she said I could have it for free). Then carefully remove the internals (if it's working, people who love these macs and want to keep them working will pay for parts in good condition), and transplant your PC inside. Though that does require some modding, you're probably too young for a Dremel/grinder tbh. Good project to keep in mind for when you do have access to tools though. 

 

Thanks for the advice