I'll confirm that Apple Watch unlock works with the upgraded Wi-Fi/Bluetooth. More handy than I would have ever imagined. Sit down, click the mouse, feel a quick tap on the back of the wrist, and you're in.
I running the 12 core version and 128 gb of ram, and am running Monterrey on the Martin lo version of the install its a lot more stable than I expected. It runs really well on most tasks and I honestly have zero issues running it in 2024.
My fully upgraded Mac Pro Dual-CPU 5,1 is running MacOS Sonoma 14.4.1 absolutely flawlessly, and is still more than powerful enough to do anything I need it to do everyday which includes rendering large 4K files with DaVinci Resolve.
I have one of these at home. No SSDs (just conventional hard drives), and 96GB of RAM, with dual 2.6GHz 6-core Xeons, running Windows 10. This machine can still hold its own TODAY and, in a pinch, can be used as a back-up workstation should your more modern machine go on the fritz.
love the mac pro content! would love a tutorial video on getting windows running on one that would be cool, please keep coming with the 5,1 content, best youtuber covering it atm
Thanks for watching. I’ll probably do that in the next month or so! I just worry since I’ve already got windows stable and want to keep this partition lol. I’ll find a way… Anyway, you have no idea how much that last part means, thank you!
I upgrade mine to dual CPU 3.46 ghz x5690 6 core, 1TB nvme pcie bootdrive, 1TB nvme pcie for software cache, 4TB HDD for time machine, 4TB SSD for footage and assets, 1TB SSD for software and project structure, 3TB HDD for Office files and accounting, 96 gb of 1333 ddr3 ram in 6 slot, (chose the tri channel for faster execution), and a Radeon VII 16gb with Pixlas mod. It's still work very nicely but it's the end for sure. Since i am a hard Adobe user, i have to keep my 5,1 always to date for the OSX otherwise Adobe won't be compatible with the update. Since Monterey is the last very stable OSX for unsupported mac, it will soon be the time for me to upgrade to the M chips. But it was a hell of a ride. Best computer out there even now for it's capability to go trough time and avoiding the programmed obsolescence that is the world we live in today.
Sad but true! I wish Apple would bring back an updated "Cheesegrater" Mac Pro for 2025, but it's only a dream! Apple is a different company since Steve left us. 😔
What are you guys going to do with 5.1 when you upgrade? I’m still thinking of doing some cheap upgrades to mine, but I hate the idea of it becoming a paper weight in the future. I currently have 3.46 6 core, 64 gb ram, but was contemplating upgrading to Sonoma and getting 1tb nvme boot drive. I just wish I can still use it I. The future even if it’s not my every day driver
@@krizzlec I just upgraded to Sequoia and it's running no problem. Mine's a 4,1 flashed to the 5,1 with Dual 5690's, 96GB of RAM and two NVMe PCIe 1TB SSD drives. Just put a dual port USB3.2 card in it as well. I figure for my usage (mostly music production) I'll get at least another 5 years out of it now that it's on the most modern OS and Logic Pro 11.
Love your videos. I´m still using my 2012 12Core 5,1 for gaming on windows 10. Rock solid! Please keep making more videos. Would love to see how far this machine could go. Have you ever tried Death Stranding Directors cut?
@@montaguebarnabasltd I played the one on the PS4 and I saw the one on M1 Macs, that would be an interesting video on how Apple is selling a game that could already be played on a Vintage machine like ours.
@1:24 I heard that unfortunately switching out the CPU tray to make it a dual CPU system is unfortunately impossible because the logic board and CPU tray must match. However there are dual tray logic boards floating around at the time of writing, so that shouldn't be too difficult a fix. Just switch them both out when you're ready to go dual.
Great video as always! Definitely think that changing the thermal paste on these Mac Pros is a must as when I changed mine the temps went down by at least 10 degrees. Though for yours I would really recommend changing the thermal paste on the Northbridge chip which is under the little heat sink under the cpu heatsink. (I would be super careful with the plastic pegs that hold it down because they can break very easily. Don't ask me how I know.) Since if the Northbridge chip overheats and fries itself it'll take the cpu tray with it. If you've done that already feel free to ignore me haha. And one other thing with Windows installs on these, you've got to be careful since Windows can corrupt the boot ROM on these machines leading to a bricked logic board. If you've got it installed using open core then I've heard that it's fine. That's just going by what I've read and researched about these before I bought mine. Keep the content coming! :)
That’s a lot of info I genuinely wasn’t aware of until now. Thank you. When it comes to windows I guess I’m glad my installation from 2022 hasn’t caused issues. Thermal paste changing is a must, yep. I have been through with that to be fair. Thanks for the kind words!
@@montaguebarnabasltd You're very welcome :) When it comes to the windows situation, I'm not 100% on my info since most of the information out there is very anecdotal and quite unclear. I think it has something to do with the files the windows injects onto the rom chip and from what I've gathered it corrupts the boot rom when too many of these files are injected into it.
I had 4 Mac Pro 5.1 over the years and last two were dual CPU and upgraded them to the MAX but unfortunately AVX supporting Games came out and the Xeon in the 5.1 don't have it, so I sold them and built a regular PC for GAMING and in 2024 bought for $300 a Mac Pro 6.1 also upgraded to max.
I'm currently watching on my 5,1. I just upgraded it to a 650 ti and Mojave, although I have a GTX 680 on the way, Although I will likely put a better card in it in the future. I also have an x5690 on the way to update my quad core model. I'll keep that in mind about the updated wifi card, seems like a good upgrade for me to do.
I just upgraded one of my Mac Pros 5,1 Mid 2010 to a Radeon RX Vega 64 8GB after doing the Pixlas Mod. I just ordered two Xeon 3.46GHz CPUs and with 48 GB RAM, this machine will be my go-to for the foreseeable future.
They’re made by OWC and a few others. www.megamac.com/products/owc-mount-pro?variant=339312043¤cy=GBP&Shopify%20Gatsby%20UK&OWC%202.5%22%20Mount%20Pro&gad_source=1&gclid=Cj0KCQjwqpSwBhClARIsADlZ_Tlm7Yd5LVjqdcFCJez3m9-NKiJOgBdvDkg3AxwjvyJnO0KI9BOTNoAaAs1REALw_wcB
Bought a dual cpu 5.1 to capture Raw through an AJA Kona4, dropped in a quad NVMe raid card in Raid zero for speed,.. and found out Apple and AJA lied when they said the combo would do DCI4K 120fps Uncompressed raw back when these were new. Anything above 60fps, half the frames are dropped. Cheap as chips PC on a Z99 M/board with the same Kona4 and Raid, and I've got spare bandwidth, full 120fps all day long. Best use for the 5.1 now seems to be Resolve HD editing and Daz Studio for stuffing around in.
My Frankintosh-SpeXs are the following today []-) 4.1 to 5.1 single tray MacPro with Intel Xenon 5690 @ 3.59 GHz, 6 Core /12 Threads, 32 GB RAM und GTX 1070 8GB . Win10 running in Bootcamp. All gaming is done in Win10 []-) I have good VR legs and therefore great fun playing Alyx (30/45 fps), MSFS (25/45 fps) and GTA5 (38/62 fps) in appealing graphic quality 3D 6dof VR []-) Hey WHAT'S ON YOUR SCREEN thank you for the nice video !!! Keep havin' fun with YOUR Cheesegrater !!! These old machines are amazingly great to upgrade and to have fun even gaming. I am NOT a PC/Mac specialist at all. Still it took me just like a weekend of YT research and I had all info to build my Frankintosh.
Very interesting thanks. You showed a Razer mouse with your MacPro at the beginning: how do you set up? Also which BT-WiFi card from iMac are compatible?
Thanks man. I just plugged the mouse straight in. No setup. The wifi card is the BCM943602CDP I believe. Straight out of a 2015 iMac, but with an adapter. I talk about it in several of my other videos.
Could you talk about the way you powered your rx6600 GPU? I thought that GPU could be powered from the motherboard but on yours it looks like the power is coming from the power supply unit.
Yes. My 6600XT takes some power from the PCIE port, and some from 6 of the 8 mini PCIE power cables that come with the machine. I have an adapter to make those mini cables into regular sized ones, which is at the end closest to the GPU. Hope this makes sense
very rare on my region. I saw dual core 12 core xeon 32 GB ddr3 ram, 2 gb VGA, 500 ssd and 2 TB HDD, bit pricey at 330$ equivalent though. Passed on an hp z820 single core 8 core 16 thread and with 24 GB and a radeon amd 580 8 GB and I regret it
Will something like opencore legacy patcher fix the issue for the mac pro boot screen if it boots first so you don't have to flash a custom firmware for your gpu?
@@montaguebarnabasltd Basically by having something like opencore efi boot first,will you be able to see the mac boot selection?I know that opencore is used mainly to install newer unsupported macos on older mac devices like the mac pro but being able to see the mac boot screen without having a compatible gpu is also a nice feature of opencore.
It will sort of fix the issue with the boot screen. OCLP provides a boot loader that works with non-Mac graphic cards, also providing you an easy way to load the OS you like, if you have multiple OS installed. Running OCLP is kind of a "must have" today in order to run a newer MacOS (which it can just fine). Note that in order to get any AMD RX6xxx to work in the MacPro 4.1/5.1 you MUST flash it to fix an issue in the card's firmware, preventing it from being accepted by the MacPro (it won't boot without the fix). This flash can be done easily if you have another PC (laptop with eGPU also works), but it will not give you native boot screen (still must use OCLP). All this fix does is enabling you to use the RX6xxx card in the MacPro. Be also aware that MacOS only includes drivers to certain RX6xxx cards (i.e. 6600(XT), 6800(XT), 6900XT) with Monterey and newer (not a problem when running Windows of course). All in all it is quite a solid machine still today. I have a bunch of them (all upgraded heavily). However, their age is starting to show, particularly when gaming newer titles where the CPU can't keep up with the demand.
And how to inform Open Core Legacy Patcher developers that now the cost of used 32GB DDR 3 (10600R) memory modules for servers is low? You can buy one module for $20 - and that's great for MP5.1 upgrade !))) What is missing in the Open Core Legacy Patcher settings now is an option - use 1 - 8 32 gigabyte RAM modules (10600R/or other compatible), and instructions on which slots to install the RAM modules in, depending on the number of modules, and depending on the number of slots.
@@montaguebarnabasltd Have you tried to install the OC Sonoma? I tried with my RX570, but without the post-install patch, the GPU is not natïve supported by the OS, not like the Monterey.
@@qianyu1982 I haven’t. Sorry to be so unhelpful right now, but I’m really not sure offhand which GPUs work with Sonoma. I’d suggest you look at Greg Gant’s Complete Mac Pro Upgrade Guide online. It’s really really helpful.
I am still using my old mac pro its a 4,1 with the 5,1 firmware and the x5690 32GB of ram its still working fine for me but I am stuck on 10.13 titan x pascal gpu being the reason but whats funny to think of is in a few years this will most likely be the 2019 macpro 7,1 I dont know why but I got that feeling
@@montaguebarnabasltd I bought it back in 2017 for $500 for high school I went to a technical high school and people said this was the best machine money can buy so I did and I still love it and the entire adobe suite is on it adobe CC 2018
Just recently found a 4,1 at a car boot sale, gonna flash 5,1 to it and upgrade it... If it works (didnt come with a power cord so im gonna find another one and use that)
I can boot Windows and MacOS, but my default is macOS. It’s a bit tricky actually. I’m gonna have to do a guide at some point but even I can’t fully remember how I did it. I remember I put the windows installer onto an SSD, put the SSD inside the mac, then installed windows onto that same SSD. Hope this helps somewhat!
re: memory; if you like "name-brand" OWC RAM upgrades, you can actually use their MacPro6,1 (trashcan) 1666MHz kits. I've got 6x 32GB, which I found much cheaper than the cheesegrater kits. Technically the 6,1 chipset supports a 1333MHz FSB, so I guess they just have both SPD profiles on there.
How much ram does windows 10 recognize? I got my brother’s mac pro 5,1 for free and i kind of prematurely maxed out the ram at 128gb before realizing a lot of work software i use no longer offers support for mojave :/ so at the very least i think I’ll just run it as a windows machine
Windows 11Pro using 8 х 32GB RAM modules (10600R/or other compatible) - 256GB RAM in Mac Pro 5.1 (2012). macOS Monterey - Sequoia using maximum only 8 х 16GB RAM modules (10600R/or other compatible) - 128GB RAM, because OpenCore Legacy Patcher don't have option setup RAM section for support 32GB RAM modules...
Unless you already have, you should work on creating a hackintosh video. Not a tutorial or anything, but your personal opinion on the process of setting one up and the result. I’d be really interested to see your opinion on them since you are a Mac enthusiast.
I wanted to get one of these for its eclectic nature, but my i7-870 already eats enough electricity. The machine would be overkill for movie streaming and sound editing.
Great video! Anybody got links to where I can get an airport card that'll support all the newer features (handoff, Apple Watch unlock etc). I just bought a 5,1 upgrading from a 2011 iMac
Thanks for watching! www.intriguingindustries.co.uk/product/macpro-4-1-and-5-1-wifi-and-bt-upgrade-kit-including-bcm943602cdp/ This link has both adapter and card. It’s UK based but they might well send to other countries depending on where you live.
This is an urgent call for help! A few days ago I purchased a used Mac Pro 4.1 (late 2009) upgraded to 5.1 (2x 3.46 Xeon5, 64 GB 1333 RAM). I use Ableton live 10, I noticed that the performance is not good, it only uses 8 GB of RAM and the CPU usage indicator in Ableton goes above 100%. How it's possible? High Sierra OS installed. What would you recommend for maximum performance? Do I need to install mojave/monterey operating system with open core? Change daw and work with Avid Pro Tools or Logic Pro? Thanks for your attention, sorry for my bad English!
@@signs.official_yt newer OS might well help, but I’m afraid I can’t be sure what your problem is, sorry. It’s possible Ableton Live is badly optimised for dual CPU use.
I've got a 4,1 flashed and just upgraded to sequoia from big sur. Is your GPU metal supported? Not sure why that might be an issue on a DAW but ya never know. Logic pro works fine for me. It sounds like you have plenty of RAM. What are you using for Hard Drives?
that graphic card from Poland just ripped off people. I got my RX570 mod bios for 35 GBP. you just need to flash it yourself. I think that should be the cost of those things. great video.
Thanks for watching! Yes I did get a bit ripped off… the worst part is I’m looking to sell my Mac Pro in the next couple of years. Gonna be a right pain trying to get even half of what I’ve paid for this over the past year.
@@montaguebarnabasltd at least you enjoy it. :) I upgraded my NVMe SSD and used the SSD I took it out from a broken MacBook. the adapter cost like 5 euro. also duo CPU tray for 50 euros, I think this is the max I can invest in this computer. The Mac Pro I got for free from work.
As far as I know the CPU usage isn’t less, just stays the same, which unfortunately doesn’t help me too much. For some games that’s definitely solid advice though!
My upgraded Mac Pro 5,1 is outperforming yours by at least a factor of 10. Besides being a dual 5690 CPU 12 core machine, I have dual boot PCIe NVMe drives with macOS 12.7.5 Monterey (don't need the bloat ware of more recent editions) and Windows 11 Pro. With a Radeon RX 6800 GPU I do everything I want, including highly demanding tasks, in sound and video editing and more. For example, I can play the graphically magnificent game Red Dead Redemption II with all setting on Ultra, to for a cinematic experience to beat all games. Your machine cannot be described as effectively upgraded. The use of HDDs in SATA bays is not the way to go. Please find out how to make this machine work before posting in the future.
You have no idea what you’re talking about. I’d be grateful if you could provide one benchmark or real-world scenario where your machine might outperform mine by even a factor of 2. I’m glad you’re happy with your 5,1. It seems to be doing what you need it to do! Unfortunately, you’ve spent far too much money on a Mac with one foot in the grave, and perhaps haven’t yet realised. Reading offensive comments like yours is one of the ONLY drawbacks to uploading videos here, and the irony is you have mentions turned off, so there’s a good chance you won’t even see my reply.
@@AristoclesPlaton I’m not sure if you’re joking..? I have never deleted video comments. If replying is glitching out, you’re welcome to leave a new comment or even discuss on Discord.
@@montaguebarnabasltd Look up my iFixit guide with the title: "Mac Pro 2009-2012 Dual CPU Service & Upgrade." It is quite an old guide. However, at the end there are three documents that give updated information, including instructions on how to make the BB northbridge heatsink mod. Another document shows the details of my current 5,1 fully updated. I did undergraduate work in the 1970s on the Digital PDP 11s machine, on which I learned programming: That was in the days of punched paper tape. After that I went to Apple, and have used Apple all my working life since. I wrote my masters thesis in 1982 on an Apple //+ , the original 8 bit machine. I built my own machine using the SDK 8080 from Intel with wire wrap pins. Later in my professional life I was lead programmer in a Java shop, building server-side applications when the IBM RISK Apple machines were the best available. I purchased the 3,1 machines for myself and my staff as soon as they were available, and moved to the 5,1 when they were released. In those days we were using Free BSD for our workstations and our office server, and BSD under the hood was just one more reason to stay with Apple. At the end of my professional life I was teaching and doing research at university, but am now retired. Today we still have three 5,1 machines in our household. These have been updated step by step over the years, and any cost that went into upgrading has long ago paid for itself many times over. We continue to use the 5,1 machines without trouble on current software. I am hesitant to get the new Apple Silicon machines, as contrived obsolescence has been built into them. That, I think, would be money thrown away. When the day comes and these machines are no longer adequate (but I might be dead before then) I will probably go for a Windows PC, or I might go back to Free BSD. Using a light weight UNIX OS would certainly extend the life of these machines, perhaps for decades. I have a youngster living at home. He is a student at the University of Utrecht, not far from here, just starting on his masters thesis in theoretical physics. He does a lot of programming in Python, and runs heavy mathematical modelling software for quantum field theory simulations. He has the identical 5,1 machine that I have. They are, indeed, old machines, but they continue to do everything we want of them. I know enough about these machines to see at a glance that your machine is no where near the maximum possible upgrade. I do not agree with your negative judgement on these machines.
I guess people can spend money however they want, but with all of the upgrades & time don't help. AMD 6600XT is Pcie 4.0x 8 only. The poor card will be unhappy with the old Xeons, DDR3, Resizable BAR is also not supported. As one of the Engineers at AMD I'm so used to new hardware when I'm using my Mac Pro I just shake my head at it wishing Apple would have kept the AMD Powered Mac Pros we were working on before Apple killed off X86-64 processors. Note: Anyone running Windows 11? Microsoft will software kill your system in May of this year. Any system that went around the Specs of Windows 11 will get cut off. When it happens you will turn your system on to a blank screen without a fix!
The 6600XT doesn’t struggle in the 5,1’s slot. I’ve benchmarked it and the performance is similar to that in a new PC. Good to have some insight from an AMD insider, though. Sounds spot on about Windows 11 unfortunately. Also a good point about resizable bar. Thanks for watching!
blows my mind that you people think this is oh so slow. you need to have used computers from the early 90's back then, to have some perspective. you hear reviewers of a machine like this say, oh, it's ok for basic word processing and web browsing... smh.
Context is key here, as is perspective, of course. For a 90s machine this thing is crazy fast. Why would anyone compare this to 90s machines, though? I wouldn’t in a million years consider editing my videos on anything pre-2006. It would make my life a pain, and double the effective work needed to start a career on UA-cam. Same goes for many other industries… anything relating to audio production, photo stuff, ETC. You might be okay writing documents, but web support for such old machines is scant when it comes to sharing said documents. I was editing another of my videos today and it hit me - if I just used my M1 Mac for video editing instead, I’d probably get the job done twice as fast. I love my 5,1, but you truly have to value using old tech to keep one of these.
I'll confirm that Apple Watch unlock works with the upgraded Wi-Fi/Bluetooth. More handy than I would have ever imagined. Sit down, click the mouse, feel a quick tap on the back of the wrist, and you're in.
Good to have that confirmed actually. Thanks!
Left the Apple Watch life behind these days, though.
I running the 12 core version and 128 gb of ram, and am running Monterrey on the Martin lo version of the install its a lot more stable than I expected. It runs really well on most tasks and I honestly have zero issues running it in 2024.
My fully upgraded Mac Pro Dual-CPU 5,1 is running MacOS Sonoma 14.4.1 absolutely flawlessly, and is still more than powerful enough to do anything I need it to do everyday which includes rendering large 4K files with DaVinci Resolve.
what graphics card do you use?
Please tell us how did you proceed ? Thank you
Excellent content
Thank you very much mister Stern. Much appreciated
I have one of these at home. No SSDs (just conventional hard drives), and 96GB of RAM, with dual 2.6GHz 6-core Xeons, running Windows 10. This machine can still hold its own TODAY and, in a pinch, can be used as a back-up workstation should your more modern machine go on the fritz.
love the mac pro content! would love a tutorial video on getting windows running on one that would be cool, please keep coming with the 5,1 content, best youtuber covering it atm
Thanks for watching. I’ll probably do that in the next month or so!
I just worry since I’ve already got windows stable and want to keep this partition lol.
I’ll find a way…
Anyway, you have no idea how much that last part means, thank you!
All of that said, what a beautifully crafted case. Not a drop of glue in sight.
You can do the Enable GOP mod to the Mac firmware to get boot screens for any Mac OS supported gpu, without flashing!
How to enable GOP mode?
I upgrade mine to dual CPU 3.46 ghz x5690 6 core, 1TB nvme pcie bootdrive, 1TB nvme pcie for software cache, 4TB HDD for time machine, 4TB SSD for footage and assets, 1TB SSD for software and project structure, 3TB HDD for Office files and accounting, 96 gb of 1333 ddr3 ram in 6 slot, (chose the tri channel for faster execution), and a Radeon VII 16gb with Pixlas mod. It's still work very nicely but it's the end for sure. Since i am a hard Adobe user, i have to keep my 5,1 always to date for the OSX otherwise Adobe won't be compatible with the update. Since Monterey is the last very stable OSX for unsupported mac, it will soon be the time for me to upgrade to the M chips. But it was a hell of a ride. Best computer out there even now for it's capability to go trough time and avoiding the programmed obsolescence that is the world we live in today.
It’s so frustrating to have built a powerfully upgraded 5,1 but know you’ll need to leave it behind in the near future. Good luck
@@montaguebarnabasltd It is my friend, it is !! Wish you the best as well !
Sad but true! I wish Apple would bring back an updated "Cheesegrater" Mac Pro for 2025, but it's only a dream! Apple is a different company since Steve left us. 😔
What are you guys going to do with 5.1 when you upgrade? I’m still thinking of doing some cheap upgrades to mine, but I hate the idea of it becoming a paper weight in the future. I currently have 3.46 6 core, 64 gb ram, but was contemplating upgrading to Sonoma and getting 1tb nvme boot drive. I just wish I can still use it I. The future even if it’s not my every day driver
@@krizzlec I just upgraded to Sequoia and it's running no problem. Mine's a 4,1 flashed to the 5,1 with Dual 5690's, 96GB of RAM and two NVMe PCIe 1TB SSD drives. Just put a dual port USB3.2 card in it as well. I figure for my usage (mostly music production) I'll get at least another 5 years out of it now that it's on the most modern OS and Logic Pro 11.
I Iove my Mac Pro 5,1
Love your videos. I´m still using my 2012 12Core 5,1 for gaming on windows 10. Rock solid! Please keep making more videos. Would love to see how far this machine could go. Have you ever tried Death Stranding Directors cut?
Thanks a lot for a lovely comment! I certainly will be doing so.
Never tried Death Stranding at all… would you recommend?
@@montaguebarnabasltd I played the one on the PS4 and I saw the one on M1 Macs, that would be an interesting video on how Apple is selling a game that could already be played on a Vintage machine like ours.
@@OsoDeAnteojos I’m going to come back to this comment and have a think about making that video… could be a really good idea.
@1:24 I heard that unfortunately switching out the CPU tray to make it a dual CPU system is unfortunately impossible because the logic board and CPU tray must match. However there are dual tray logic boards floating around at the time of writing, so that shouldn't be too difficult a fix. Just switch them both out when you're ready to go dual.
Great video as always! Definitely think that changing the thermal paste on these Mac Pros is a must as when I changed mine the temps went down by at least 10 degrees. Though for yours I would really recommend changing the thermal paste on the Northbridge chip which is under the little heat sink under the cpu heatsink. (I would be super careful with the plastic pegs that hold it down because they can break very easily. Don't ask me how I know.) Since if the Northbridge chip overheats and fries itself it'll take the cpu tray with it. If you've done that already feel free to ignore me haha.
And one other thing with Windows installs on these, you've got to be careful since Windows can corrupt the boot ROM on these machines leading to a bricked logic board. If you've got it installed using open core then I've heard that it's fine. That's just going by what I've read and researched about these before I bought mine.
Keep the content coming! :)
That’s a lot of info I genuinely wasn’t aware of until now. Thank you. When it comes to windows I guess I’m glad my installation from 2022 hasn’t caused issues.
Thermal paste changing is a must, yep. I have been through with that to be fair.
Thanks for the kind words!
@@montaguebarnabasltd You're very welcome :)
When it comes to the windows situation, I'm not 100% on my info since most of the information out there is very anecdotal and quite unclear. I think it has something to do with the files the windows injects onto the rom chip and from what I've gathered it corrupts the boot rom when too many of these files are injected into it.
You can get replacement holder pegs for the Northbridge heatsink, but they're getting harder to find.
I had 4 Mac Pro 5.1 over the years and last two were dual CPU and upgraded them to the MAX but unfortunately AVX supporting Games came out and the Xeon in the 5.1 don't have it, so I sold them and built a regular PC for GAMING and in 2024 bought for $300 a Mac Pro 6.1 also upgraded to max.
I'm currently watching on my 5,1. I just upgraded it to a 650 ti and Mojave, although I have a GTX 680 on the way, Although I will likely put a better card in it in the future. I also have an x5690 on the way to update my quad core model. I'll keep that in mind about the updated wifi card, seems like a good upgrade for me to do.
I've got the 680 in mine and I just recently upgraded to sequoia from big sur. It's running great.
I just upgraded one of my Mac Pros 5,1 Mid 2010 to a Radeon RX Vega 64 8GB after doing the Pixlas Mod. I just ordered two Xeon 3.46GHz CPUs and with 48 GB RAM, this machine will be my go-to for the foreseeable future.
@@jpreza excellent!
Where did you get the ssd adapters that are holding the ssds in the OEM slide out disk trays?
They’re made by OWC and a few others.
www.megamac.com/products/owc-mount-pro?variant=339312043¤cy=GBP&Shopify%20Gatsby%20UK&OWC%202.5%22%20Mount%20Pro&gad_source=1&gclid=Cj0KCQjwqpSwBhClARIsADlZ_Tlm7Yd5LVjqdcFCJez3m9-NKiJOgBdvDkg3AxwjvyJnO0KI9BOTNoAaAs1REALw_wcB
Very nice.
Bought a dual cpu 5.1 to capture Raw through an AJA Kona4, dropped in a quad NVMe raid card in Raid zero for speed,.. and found out Apple and AJA lied when they said the combo would do DCI4K 120fps Uncompressed raw back when these were new. Anything above 60fps, half the frames are dropped. Cheap as chips PC on a Z99 M/board with the same Kona4 and Raid, and I've got spare bandwidth, full 120fps all day long. Best use for the 5.1 now seems to be Resolve HD editing and Daz Studio for stuffing around in.
my setup:
Model Identifier: MacPro5,1
Processor Name: 6-Core Intel Xeon
Processor Speed: 3.46 GHz
Number of Processors: 2
Total Number of Cores: 12
Hyper-Threading Technology: Enabled
Graphics: AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT 8 GB
Memory: 128 GB
oh, so pro.
My Frankintosh-SpeXs are the following today []-)
4.1 to 5.1 single tray MacPro with Intel Xenon 5690 @ 3.59 GHz,
6 Core /12 Threads, 32 GB RAM und GTX 1070 8GB .
Win10 running in Bootcamp. All gaming is done in Win10 []-)
I have good VR legs and therefore great fun playing
Alyx (30/45 fps), MSFS (25/45 fps) and GTA5 (38/62 fps)
in appealing graphic quality 3D 6dof VR []-)
Hey WHAT'S ON YOUR SCREEN
thank you for the nice video !!!
Keep havin' fun with YOUR Cheesegrater !!!
These old machines are amazingly great to upgrade and to have fun even gaming.
I am NOT a PC/Mac specialist at all. Still it took me just like a weekend of YT research and I had all info to build my Frankintosh.
Very interesting thanks. You showed a Razer mouse with your MacPro at the beginning: how do you set up? Also which BT-WiFi card from iMac are compatible?
Thanks man. I just plugged the mouse straight in. No setup. The wifi card is the BCM943602CDP I believe. Straight out of a 2015 iMac, but with an adapter. I talk about it in several of my other videos.
Could you talk about the way you powered your rx6600 GPU? I thought that GPU could be powered from the motherboard but on yours it looks like the power is coming from the power supply unit.
Yes. My 6600XT takes some power from the PCIE port, and some from 6 of the 8 mini PCIE power cables that come with the machine. I have an adapter to make those mini cables into regular sized ones, which is at the end closest to the GPU.
Hope this makes sense
very rare on my region. I saw dual core 12 core xeon 32 GB ddr3 ram, 2 gb VGA, 500 ssd and 2 TB HDD, bit pricey at 330$ equivalent though. Passed on an hp z820 single core 8 core 16 thread and with 24 GB and a radeon amd 580 8 GB and I regret it
Will something like opencore legacy patcher fix the issue for the mac pro boot screen if it boots first so you don't have to flash a custom firmware for your gpu?
I don't quite understand your question? Sorry
@@montaguebarnabasltd Basically by having something like opencore efi boot first,will you be able to see the mac boot selection?I know that opencore is used mainly to install newer unsupported macos on older mac devices like the mac pro but being able to see the mac boot screen without having a compatible gpu is also a nice feature of opencore.
It will sort of fix the issue with the boot screen. OCLP provides a boot loader that works with non-Mac graphic cards, also providing you an easy way to load the OS you like, if you have multiple OS installed. Running OCLP is kind of a "must have" today in order to run a newer MacOS (which it can just fine). Note that in order to get any AMD RX6xxx to work in the MacPro 4.1/5.1 you MUST flash it to fix an issue in the card's firmware, preventing it from being accepted by the MacPro (it won't boot without the fix). This flash can be done easily if you have another PC (laptop with eGPU also works), but it will not give you native boot screen (still must use OCLP). All this fix does is enabling you to use the RX6xxx card in the MacPro. Be also aware that MacOS only includes drivers to certain RX6xxx cards (i.e. 6600(XT), 6800(XT), 6900XT) with Monterey and newer (not a problem when running Windows of course).
All in all it is quite a solid machine still today. I have a bunch of them (all upgraded heavily). However, their age is starting to show, particularly when gaming newer titles where the CPU can't keep up with the demand.
And how to inform Open Core Legacy Patcher developers that now the cost of used 32GB DDR 3 (10600R) memory modules for servers is low? You can buy one module for $20 - and that's great for MP5.1 upgrade !)))
What is missing in the Open Core Legacy Patcher settings now is an option - use 1 - 8 32 gigabyte RAM modules (10600R/or other compatible), and instructions on which slots to install the RAM modules in, depending on the number of modules, and depending on the number of slots.
The RX6600 wasn't supported under Mojave (not until Monterey, I think), so can you boot into Mojave okay? Or does the card flash take care of that?
That’s a good point actually. Hadn’t tried booting into Mojave since I have no reason to use it. I would say it more than likely won’t boot Mojave.
@@montaguebarnabasltd Have you tried to install the OC Sonoma? I tried with my RX570, but without the post-install patch, the GPU is not natïve supported by the OS, not like the Monterey.
@@qianyu1982 I haven’t. Sorry to be so unhelpful right now, but I’m really not sure offhand which GPUs work with Sonoma. I’d suggest you look at Greg Gant’s Complete Mac Pro Upgrade Guide online. It’s really really helpful.
@@montaguebarnabasltd thanks. I did, maybe something wrong with the installation I did. I will check again. :)
I am still using my old mac pro its a 4,1 with the 5,1 firmware and the x5690 32GB of ram its still working fine for me but I am stuck on 10.13 titan x pascal gpu being the reason but whats funny to think of is in a few years this will most likely be the 2019 macpro 7,1 I dont know why but I got that feeling
Very nice setup. Yeah the 2019 Mac Pro is already on its way out… bit of a shocker considering the price they still sell for
@@montaguebarnabasltd I bought it back in 2017 for $500 for high school I went to a technical high school and people said this was the best machine money can buy so I did and I still love it and the entire adobe suite is on it adobe CC 2018
Just recently found a 4,1 at a car boot sale, gonna flash 5,1 to it and upgrade it... If it works (didnt come with a power cord so im gonna find another one and use that)
Best of luck
@@montaguebarnabasltd Good news: The computer works! I'm gonna test fully once i can move it to my home (and figure out if its a 4,1 or 5,1)
But nothing that needs a AVX2 cpu is running on the 5.1 or is there a workaround?
When you boot your computer do you booot windows ? I’d like to have a 2nd SSD in the SATA drive to run windows for steam but not sure how
I can boot Windows and MacOS, but my default is macOS.
It’s a bit tricky actually. I’m gonna have to do a guide at some point but even I can’t fully remember how I did it. I remember I put the windows installer onto an SSD, put the SSD inside the mac, then installed windows onto that same SSD. Hope this helps somewhat!
@@montaguebarnabasltd how do you switch back and forth ?
@@Vcg108 on all Macs, pressing and holding the Alt button at startup lets you choose between your OSes. So I can choose at startup.
re: memory; if you like "name-brand" OWC RAM upgrades, you can actually use their MacPro6,1 (trashcan) 1666MHz kits. I've got 6x 32GB, which I found much cheaper than the cheesegrater kits. Technically the 6,1 chipset supports a 1333MHz FSB, so I guess they just have both SPD profiles on there.
@@macintoshkeyboardhacking didn’t realise they could be used in the 5,1. Thanks!
How much ram does windows 10 recognize? I got my brother’s mac pro 5,1 for free and i kind of prematurely maxed out the ram at 128gb before realizing a lot of work software i use no longer offers support for mojave :/ so at the very least i think I’ll just run it as a windows machine
Windows 11Pro using 8 х 32GB RAM modules (10600R/or other compatible) - 256GB RAM in Mac Pro 5.1 (2012). macOS Monterey - Sequoia using maximum only 8 х 16GB RAM modules (10600R/or other compatible) - 128GB RAM, because OpenCore Legacy Patcher don't have option setup RAM section for support 32GB RAM modules...
Unless you already have, you should work on creating a hackintosh video. Not a tutorial or anything, but your personal opinion on the process of setting one up and the result. I’d be really interested to see your opinion on them since you are a Mac enthusiast.
Honestly I appreciate you valuing my opinion! That sounds like a good video. I’ll start on a script today most likely.
@@montaguebarnabasltd
Oh Yus! I’ve successfully manipulated a content creator to create a video I want
I wanted to get one of these for its eclectic nature, but my i7-870 already eats enough electricity. The machine would be overkill for movie streaming and sound editing.
actually the CPU turbo peak is 3.733 ghz the default is 3.46
On my Mac Pro 5,1 with Radeon RX 5700 xt video card on Windows 10 Bootcamp I'm not able to play Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 and also Nba 2k24.
Very decent, very decent
Great video! Anybody got links to where I can get an airport card that'll support all the newer features (handoff, Apple Watch unlock etc). I just bought a 5,1 upgrading from a 2011 iMac
Thanks for watching!
www.intriguingindustries.co.uk/product/macpro-4-1-and-5-1-wifi-and-bt-upgrade-kit-including-bcm943602cdp/
This link has both adapter and card. It’s UK based but they might well send to other countries depending on where you live.
This is an urgent call for help! A few days ago I purchased a used Mac Pro 4.1 (late 2009) upgraded to 5.1 (2x 3.46 Xeon5, 64 GB 1333 RAM). I use Ableton live 10, I noticed that the performance is not good, it only uses 8 GB of RAM and the CPU usage indicator in Ableton goes above 100%. How it's possible? High Sierra OS installed. What would you recommend for maximum performance? Do I need to install mojave/monterey operating system with open core? Change daw and work with Avid Pro Tools or Logic Pro? Thanks for your attention, sorry for my bad English!
@@signs.official_yt newer OS might well help, but I’m afraid I can’t be sure what your problem is, sorry. It’s possible Ableton Live is badly optimised for dual CPU use.
I've got a 4,1 flashed and just upgraded to sequoia from big sur. Is your GPU metal supported? Not sure why that might be an issue on a DAW but ya never know. Logic pro works fine for me. It sounds like you have plenty of RAM. What are you using for Hard Drives?
I have a Mac Pro 5.1 dual graphics and 24 GB o memory and 4 x 1 TB hardrives and dual xenons cpu if you är interested ?? Love the video Bro
@@alexsevo6 unfortunately not after another one. Thanks, though.
that graphic card from Poland just ripped off people. I got my RX570 mod bios for 35 GBP. you just need to flash it yourself. I think that should be the cost of those things. great video.
Thanks for watching! Yes I did get a bit ripped off… the worst part is I’m looking to sell my Mac Pro in the next couple of years. Gonna be a right pain trying to get even half of what I’ve paid for this over the past year.
@@montaguebarnabasltd at least you enjoy it. :) I upgraded my NVMe SSD and used the SSD I took it out from a broken MacBook. the adapter cost like 5 euro. also duo CPU tray for 50 euros, I think this is the max I can invest in this computer. The Mac Pro I got for free from work.
@@qianyu1982 yeah these days it’s spending a fair amount of money for limited returns.
With that modular of a CPU tray, they could have released an upgrade for DDR4 ram, newer socket. But apple is apple, and that doesn't make money
Cheesegraters still rule!
Hey, the bigger the res the less cpu Intensive the game become, so if you play in 4K you could get rid of the botttleneck and even buy a 6800xt maybe
As far as I know the CPU usage isn’t less, just stays the same, which unfortunately doesn’t help me too much. For some games that’s definitely solid advice though!
True.
not how it works
My upgraded Mac Pro 5,1 is outperforming yours by at least a factor of 10. Besides being a dual 5690 CPU 12 core machine, I have dual boot PCIe NVMe drives with macOS 12.7.5 Monterey (don't need the bloat ware of more recent editions) and Windows 11 Pro. With a Radeon RX 6800 GPU I do everything I want, including highly demanding tasks, in sound and video editing and more. For example, I can play the graphically magnificent game Red Dead Redemption II with all setting on Ultra, to for a cinematic experience to beat all games. Your machine cannot be described as effectively upgraded. The use of HDDs in SATA bays is not the way to go. Please find out how to make this machine work before posting in the future.
You have no idea what you’re talking about. I’d be grateful if you could provide one benchmark or real-world scenario where your machine might outperform mine by even a factor of 2.
I’m glad you’re happy with your 5,1. It seems to be doing what you need it to do! Unfortunately, you’ve spent far too much money on a Mac with one foot in the grave, and perhaps haven’t yet realised.
Reading offensive comments like yours is one of the ONLY drawbacks to uploading videos here, and the irony is you have mentions turned off, so there’s a good chance you won’t even see my reply.
@@montaguebarnabasltd Why do you keep deleting my reply?
@@AristoclesPlaton I’m not sure if you’re joking..? I have never deleted video comments.
If replying is glitching out, you’re welcome to leave a new comment or even discuss on Discord.
@@montaguebarnabasltd Look up my iFixit guide with the title: "Mac Pro 2009-2012 Dual CPU Service & Upgrade." It is quite an old guide. However, at the end there are three documents that give updated information, including instructions on how to make the BB northbridge heatsink mod. Another document shows the details of my current 5,1 fully updated.
I did undergraduate work in the 1970s on the Digital PDP 11s machine, on which I learned programming: That was in the days of punched paper tape. After that I went to Apple, and have used Apple all my working life since. I wrote my masters thesis in 1982 on an Apple //+ , the original 8 bit machine. I built my own machine using the SDK 8080 from Intel with wire wrap pins. Later in my professional life I was lead programmer in a Java shop, building server-side applications when the IBM RISK Apple machines were the best available. I purchased the 3,1 machines for myself and my staff as soon as they were available, and moved to the 5,1 when they were released. In those days we were using Free BSD for our workstations and our office server, and BSD under the hood was just one more reason to stay with Apple. At the end of my professional life I was teaching and doing research at university, but am now retired. Today we still have three 5,1 machines in our household. These have been updated step by step over the years, and any cost that went into upgrading has long ago paid for itself many times over. We continue to use the 5,1 machines without trouble on current software. I am hesitant to get the new Apple Silicon machines, as contrived obsolescence has been built into them. That, I think, would be money thrown away. When the day comes and these machines are no longer adequate (but I might be dead before then) I will probably go for a Windows PC, or I might go back to Free BSD. Using a light weight UNIX OS would certainly extend the life of these machines, perhaps for decades.
I have a youngster living at home. He is a student at the University of Utrecht, not far from here, just starting on his masters thesis in theoretical physics. He does a lot of programming in Python, and runs heavy mathematical modelling software for quantum field theory simulations. He has the identical 5,1 machine that I have. They are, indeed, old machines, but they continue to do everything we want of them.
I know enough about these machines to see at a glance that your machine is no where near the maximum possible upgrade. I do not agree with your negative judgement on these machines.
Why are you being an asshole? Guy made a video. Don't like it? Don't watch it. He has every right to post whatever he wants.
I have four Xeon X5680 cpus. If anyone has a good dual cpu Mac Pro it would be greatly appreciated.
I guess people can spend money however they want, but with all of the upgrades & time don't help. AMD 6600XT is Pcie 4.0x 8 only. The poor card will be unhappy with the old Xeons, DDR3, Resizable BAR is also not supported. As one of the Engineers at AMD I'm so used to new hardware when I'm using my Mac Pro I just shake my head at it wishing Apple would have kept the AMD Powered Mac Pros we were working on before Apple killed off X86-64 processors. Note: Anyone running Windows 11? Microsoft will software kill your system in May of this year. Any system that went around the Specs of Windows 11 will get cut off. When it happens you will turn your system on to a blank screen without a fix!
The 6600XT doesn’t struggle in the 5,1’s slot. I’ve benchmarked it and the performance is similar to that in a new PC.
Good to have some insight from an AMD insider, though. Sounds spot on about Windows 11 unfortunately. Also a good point about resizable bar.
Thanks for watching!
1 CPU? 48G Ram? Get a mitt and get in the game!
blows my mind that you people think this is oh so slow. you need to have used computers from the early 90's back then, to have some perspective. you hear reviewers of a machine like this say, oh, it's ok for basic word processing and web browsing... smh.
Context is key here, as is perspective, of course. For a 90s machine this thing is crazy fast. Why would anyone compare this to 90s machines, though? I wouldn’t in a million years consider editing my videos on anything pre-2006. It would make my life a pain, and double the effective work needed to start a career on UA-cam. Same goes for many other industries… anything relating to audio production, photo stuff, ETC. You might be okay writing documents, but web support for such old machines is scant when it comes to sharing said documents.
I was editing another of my videos today and it hit me - if I just used my M1 Mac for video editing instead, I’d probably get the job done twice as fast. I love my 5,1, but you truly have to value using old tech to keep one of these.
what a weird comment. Times change dude.