My friend. Why this video doesn't have 100,000 views is astonishing. This video should win awards (multiple) for 'Best Instruction' and other categories. Between this video and using OpenCore to upgrade to Monterey, my 2010 is destroying my friend's 2019 MacPro in all numbers. I'm 6' 4" and moonlight as a bouncer but I'm almost crying. I'm so happy that the computer I love and have made so much money from can be used for a few more years. There is a reason that Apple stopped making their MacPros user upgradable. And it's because of videos like this and because of OpenCore.
This is the best video I have ever seen concerning upgrades to the Mac Pro 4,1 and 5,1. That model was in my opinion the pinnacle of computer design. Form factor, connectivity, cooling system--simple, powerful, versatile, reliable. 12 years later computing has come a long way, but the fact is that a well built 5,1 remains a valuable workhorse. I keep one dedicated to running pro tools HD 11 in my recording studio, for me it is as timeless as any great piece of analog audio gear. Twin 2.66 GHz 6-core processors, 128 GB RAM, HDX card, UAudio UAD2 quad card. Soon I will upgrade to SSD drives, 1 boot and 3 in a RAID. I find it deeply satisfying and encouraging to know there are others out there who, like me, appreciate the lasting usefulness of this great computer that was sadly (and perhaps shortsightedly) discontinued over a decade ago. I know that Apple owns the designs and calculated the business metrics of continuing or discontinuing the product according to projections of diminishing profitability, but it is such a sublime piece of hardware, one that really should have enjoyed a longer period of production and support. Thank heavens for third party solutions that continue to make owning and operating our venerable cheese graters possible.
I bought a Mac Pro 3.1 2008 model back around 2017. I've upgraded it a couple times over the years, and I'm just getting done with another refresh, and every time I do it, I am astonished with how well it continues to keep up with current tech. Apple did their best to phase these units out because they were too good and too reliable to convince people to upgrade to a newer model. here, 15 years later, it still keeps up.
I have 2 Mac Pro mid 2012 ,6 cores 64 gigs of ram and 12 cores 128 gigs of ram,both running Monterey,RX580 and nvme raid zero Samsung 2X1tera,both are 3.46. Just bought a Mac mini M1 last year and is running Ventura. All the upgrades bought from OWC Very happy for my purchases
I did this to my 2009 4,1 quad 2.93Ghz to end up with a 5,1 hex 3.46Ghz machine with a generation faster RAM. With a boot SSD, the difference is night/day, at least. It is the heart of a large Pro Tools HD system, using a Magma host card and chassis for HD6 DSP. The speed increase, reduced power and heat, and system stability were all very satisfying and completely changed my work. The old MacPros were the end of a golden era for Apple, when visionaries built hardware targeted to the customer, rather than max profit. I’m constantly surprised how few know the gold that exists in these amazingly forward thinking computers. When I did it 6 years ago, NVME was not available for it, and I thank you for the tip on the Sonnet adaptor. I have just today watched a Thunderbolt conversion for this machine, which I had resigned myself to ‘not possible ever’ acceptance. Looking into it as I write this.
WOW - I've been doing computers for over 40 years ... that was one of the best presentations and explanations of equipment, upgrades, reasons (thought process), etc. I don't even own this computer (have worked on them) and enjoyed the content. Thank you. Glad to see you switched to the 3 bank memory setup. I was worried about the graphics card fan airflow (still worried if using video editing or gaming, not in your application use)
I did the same upgrades a few years ago apart from the NVME drives. Like you I use my machine for DAW. It's been bullet proof and have never run out of horsepower.
19:33 OMG. I am an idiot. I did read about that Y split power cable for GPU but I thought it was other way around. For GPU that needed two 8 pin cables. That changes everything. I use RX 580 and my Mac Pro shuts down under heavy load. But that way I can juice my GPU with double the power. Thank you so much for this. Now I most likely don’t have to do Pixlas mod.
*I've been thinking of switching from Windows to OSX by the end of the year; coming from a computer technician background the Mac Pro seems like the logical system for me to modify and truly make my own.*
Good video but there are some updates to this upgrade and I'd like to share them with you. Mac Pro 4,1 and 5,1 CPU's only support 3 channels of memory. If you put 4 channels in it, it run very poorly. You want to put 6 32GB memory chips in it. The delidded x5690's don't work well on the 2009 models because of heat problems. X5690's run at 130watts and need the lid to help in cooling and a whole bunch of variables and hardware that only are in the 2012 models. The best processor for this upgrade is x5675, they run at 85watts and in some cases out perform the x5690's. I wish I knew all of this before I spent way too much money down this rabbit hole LOL! Hope this helps, let me know if you need help :).
When you run x5690's on a 2009 and load it heavy, the computer will shut down. Do not put any processor in the 2009 models that uses more than 85watts and operates higher than 80°C. Just because you can do it doesn't mean that you should :). Apple didn't do it for a reason.
Thank you so much! I was looking for an affordable way to edit and create graphics, heavy content for music and film. You saved me! I’m definitely gonna build a rig now.
Great Video :) A few thoughts of mine - using all 8 RAM slots actually will give one an inferior performance - tripple channel ie. 6 slots used in a dual xeon is considered the fastest. 1333 DDR 3 Ram is also advisable when going to from 4.1 to 5.1. I would have thought to place the thermal pad of the Sonnett Silent Card on top of the NVMe’s not underneath but I am not certain. The absolute best card out there. The Usb card ought to be 3.1 not 3.2.
I have switched to triple channel for ram. It gets me every last drop of performance. The thermal material is between the board and the nvme, but there is that heat sync on top so there is something on both sides of the nvme drives. The USB naming conventions are a bit tricky. There were three USB3 varieties so far offering 5, then 10, and now 20 Gbps. This card offers the 20 Gbps hence being referred to as USB 3.2. www.cnet.com/google-amp/news/usb-3-2-explained-making-sense-of-current-and-confusing-usb-standard/
This was something I was actually surprised about when I originally bought my 5,1 with only 2 sticks of ram in it. When researching the 5,1 I learned about the triple chanel thing and scratched my head wondering why they had 8 slots. Even so I only used the 6 slots for triple and now glad I did.
@@whitepawrolls I think they have the 4/8 slots for Quad models to maximise their RAM ceiling but I do remember a Dell workstation that I had (T3500) had 6 slots...
Great video the only thing I would suggest for myself is writing down the serial numbers of the nvme drives so when you format them and install your software and create your raid you know which one goes to which and in case one fails you don't pull the wrong one or play a guessing game
I upgraded my original Mac Pro 5,1 that I found in a dumpster to almost full spec (only the ram isn’t at the maximum capacity as I don’t need that much ram). On this, I replaced the stock bootloader with OpenCore and got MacOS Monterey working!
un grand merci pour ces explications plus limpides pour moi car ici en Suisse et France personne ne vont aussi loin dans l'évolution des vieux Mac Pro !!merci aà la communauté anglophone !! a big thank you for these clearer explanations for me because here in Switzerland and France nobody goes so far in the evolution of the old Mac Pro !! thank you to the English-speaking community
Just a comment, your cable management and organization in that space is top drawer. Content is also exceptionally well explained. Take me to school! Subscribed.
great vid with a ton of info shared! its a real pity that the nvme card is so expensive, more alone than what ive got in the entire 5,1 dual cpu computer...if they were cheap on the used market, they would be a cool upgrade for many people
I'm in the beginnings of starting this process, watching vids on You Tube. Yours is one of the most complete ... but not spending as much as you are !! (8 x 4gb rams e.g.), the point for me is upgrade within a price that's well below buying an new machine. The tip about flashing the GPU for the Mac startup screen is useful. Thanks.
This exactly what I did. I need 32bit for some legacy Yamaha software for my DM1000, so I new I was going to stay with the cheese grader. Happy for you great video!
Nice video. However, there is one thing you overlooked, and that is the 2032 battery. You put a CR2032 in place of a BR2032. The BR2032 is a rechargeable battery, whereas the CR2032 is not. As a result, the CR2032 will get damaged over time, because the circuitry around it will always attempt to charge it by applying current to it. I don't know if you're still using this machine, but if you are, you should definitely replace that battery with the proper one.
Great upgrades for the mac pro, but you did say one thing wrong, and I have seen a LOT of mac pro 5,1 owners say this "You can't boot from a raid drive" This is wrong. I currently have 2 256gb ssd's in my 2010 5,1 as raid 0 boot. The trick to this is to install your system on a single drive as you normally would (not one of your raid drives). Then install the raid drives you want to use, and in osx set them up as normal. All this is the normal stuff. NOW to get to boot from raid 0 drive use carbon copy cloner to clone your original boot drive to the raid drive. Once that's done shut down, remove the original single drive, and startup. The mac will then boot from the raid 0. One note is if your running strick pure mac pro you probibly don't have the boot rom update to boot from NVME same as me. I'm using SATA based ssd's (dual m.2 based on a single pcie card). I have also duplicated this with 2 180gb mechanical drives just in the drive slots to make sure it booting isn't a fluke with my dual card. Although slow it did boot from the mechanical drive raid 0. If someone has the NVME mod and wants to try this too I'd be curious to see if a raid 0 NVME boot works the same.
True bro...I did same with high sierra and raid 0 BUT whats not mentioned is the raid has to be HFS as you wont be able to boot apfs raid 0...at least, i couldnt LOL .. and i checked all over the web!...issues with raid 0 on hfs is system works fine but no updates or else your system will be unbootable...
@@skip741x3 I don't remember as I quit using that mac shortly after I posted that when I got a 2013 mac pro, but I was running mojave on mine, and didn't have an issue with updates. Not sure how you had yours setup if you were just running drives in the drive bays or not, but I had a dual sata 3 based m.2 card that both my drives were on
I did a similar upgrade with my 5,1. One issue I had was overheating (red blinking LED) on the motherboard when doing renderings with 100% usage of all 12 cores. Would be interesting if your machine does the same as those X5690 CPU's have 130 W TDP. (the fastest 5,1 12-core from Apple had only 3.06GHZ at 95 W TDP.) I had to increase the speed of the fans with Macs Fan Control to cool them down, which makes the computer louder.
I did some research to upgrade this 2010 mac pro, and I try to put 2 GPU into it and I think the final cut pro will use dual GPU and the render time will be reduced. just as you said , extreme upgrade.:) very glad to see you do the same upgrade as me. Cheers!
JAN 20, 2023 ~ Hi, your video is the third I've watch on upgrading a Mac Pro Tower, and THE BEST (most informative) video yet. I really appreciate the extensive explanations. Nothing left out but the approximate total cost spent on your upgrades. Also, it's been a year since you created the video. Are there any NEW editions of cpu, ram or video cards you might install now had they existed a year ago (Jan 2022)? Or anything you wished you had installed instead? There's always new products released and I'd prefer to install the most recent and highest upgrade of components as possible. Or... do you believe that the Mac Pro 5,1 that you upgraded hits the ceiling, upgraded as far it can get? One more thing, wondering if you have had any issues since, or additional firmware, OS upgrades etc. Thanks for any reply or additional, related videos.
One correction. The Mac Pro 2019 will take 128 Gb but only recognize 96. I upgraded two of mine. Also putting the SSD in the slow SATA slots I think is a waste. I think the connectors for the SuperDrives would give you more speed. I am using Iocrest PCIE card With 2 Crucial gen4 2 TB NVME and getting 2800 read and write. Not bad for a 14 year old computer...
Yes me too, it’s a great project and what this old machine can upgrade to is good enough at this time unless you’re trying to animate an entire Disney Movie.
I know this video is 2 years old, but that picture that was shown is not a 5,1 cpu tray, it's a 4,1. The cpu's were de-lidded and there are no cpu clamps. I 5,1 has cpu clamps and uses lidded cpu's.
I am currently running 96 GB of ram to see if the benefits of triple channel are better than the benefits of more ram. As 96 GB of ram is enough for my usage I’m likely to stay in triple channel to get its speed increase. There are two possible areas to explore to go further with upgrades on a similar Mac Pro (that I opted not to pursue) OpenCore on the Mac Pro allows for things like video acceleration, seeing the boot screen with unfleshed video cards, and running even newer OS's. It's widely supported and appears to work well. I tried it for some time but opted against it for my final configuration. More powerful GPUs. There are more powerful video options available, but most also require more power from the computer and the pixlas mod allows you to get the power to run them. If you need more video power it's an option. I opted to stick to a powerful enough video card that doesn't need a mod to get power, and more powerful video cards really jump up in price. So that’s where I drew the line in this one. The firmware update was easy and immediately helpful for general computing. OpenCore and the Pixlas mod were worth mentioning here but not things I’m going to pursue.
When you pull up the about this Mac and look at your ram memory does it say that you are running at 1066 MHz or 1333 MHz? When running in triple channel 96 GB you simply left dim slot number four and slot number eight empty correct?
That ssd card is a very interesting product. holding that many NVME@ ssd's and to put 3 in raid must mean projects load incredibly fast, with 128gb ram.
@@paperstreetaudiocompany So you can use the NVME drive as a boot up disk, I thought there was an upgrade of firmware to make this happen. I want to to use the 4 bays with the SSD drives and use just one NVME drive for my boot drive. Are there are other single NVME adapters that can be used as a boot up drive on a MP 5,1 ?
I have dropped to 96 GB and am running triple channel now in order to eek out every last bit of performance. I’m not sure it’s a huge difference but I’ll take any performance gains.
Thank you for the info! just got a 2012 5,1. Like you doing Audio (light video). This is very helpful. Have you done any benchmark tests, before and after?
Yes I have on the GPU and drives. The biggest significant boost if you need that is putting the OS on a 6GB SSD via a PCi card - note not the internal bays on a sled as they are restricted to 3GBs (whatever your SSD does). This gives you a slick boot and fast Finder response. Then for you data get 4 identical HDDs 7200 RPM and reliable (over 10,000 RPM and fragile) and soft RAID them to double the internal 3GBs to 6GBs for data read and write. This will easily be enough for audio and video. If you want to go mental like this fella, you can double this again by using 4 x SSDs on a PCi card, but really, I don't think you will need this unless you are launching a space shuttle. Video card - again, a lot of fluff I find. You are not gaming so a 4 or 8GB RX580 by MSi will be fine. Despite this video, I have never needed more than 32 GB Ram although feel free to add more and have 20 apps open at once. Again, quality over size because if the RAM fails you can have multiple issues including a failure to boot at all... rendering diagnostics etc redundant. Lots of links on the web to help - we have been doing this for 11 years now.
24:58 - Annnd, pauses,... Any special tips on getting the OS to write data at that speed? I have a 5.1, same 3.46GHz processors, system on a SATA SSD, with an OWC Accelsior 4M2 and Samsung M.2 drives, the M.2's are faster as individual disks then they are as Raid Zero. Take the same 4M2 card, drop in to MSI X99A SLI Plus board with i7-5820, and I get faster Raid Zero then what you've shown here. I have a Kona4 card, looking for performance for Uncompressed Raw DNG's for video.
Just Add OpenCore Boot Loader w/ MacPro Config.Plist .. No need to get MacUpgrade GPU ... Boot Screen and GPU acceleration ....also you can install 2 SSD's or HDD's up in the Optical Bay area. ... then Run Big Sur
Hi, I enjoyed watching your video. I see that you are really in the audio. What would you recommend to turn the 5,1 into a high fidelity music platform to get the best sound? I have a lot of FLAC and AICC music. Thank you Andrew
I have a similar setup which I put together a couple of years ago. Your NVME adapter seems to be sitting on top of the fans in your video card, you don't have any problems with it running hot?
Thank you for your fine presentation! Will you be upgrading to Monterey by way of either OpenCore or Clover or will be be keeping your machine OS native at Mojave?
Enjoyed it indeed. So one question I have is, if decided to go this route, would I have any conflict with space for an Avid HDX card? I noticed that you put an UAD card in the last slot. Do you think an Avid HDX card would fit in that same slot on a mid 2012 5.1? Or would I need to put it on one of the first two slots, which would propose a problem. Thanks in advance and thanks for posting such a great video on this.
Surprised you didn't do the pixalus electrical upgrade, to power the graphics card without stressing the motherboard. this involves tapping into the high current 12 volt supply cables before the motherboard, and running high current extensions to the cards 8 pin (or dual six pin) socket. the tap can be done by utilising clip on taps which cut the insulation but not the wire. (solder is not an option due to the current carried -not unless you have very high temp solder and real skill). this protects both the motherboard, and your graphics card. note: the typical graphics card extensions sold by third parties, and Apples own cables are are too thin, have not enough copper to carry the current over the extended length of cable to fully power modern high powered graphics cards. the std. graphics cables off the motherboard headers are only rated to a total of 75W, each which is also the limit of the mother board. Giving a card total (with the power via PCIe slot) of just 300 watts. However the power supply can easily even at 10 years old still supply a total of a reliable 800w (originally 970W), and with modern energy efficient CPUs, and SSDs these items power draw is lowered so you can still put high powered graphics in place some times as much as 600W. Know this electrical hardware mod was not on your list, but it is a good idea to maximise the lifespan of your motherboard. especially for those seeking max graphics power. but maybe the sapphire 580 doesn"t draw that much power. based on your build, the limiting factor for your hardware will now be bus and CPU interconnect. worth considering when you did the CPU upgrade is repasting the Northbridge. if you use a temperature monitor app, check that the Northbridge is sitting at 74ºC. if you do wish to repast your north bridge do make sure to buy replacement sprung mounting pins before attempting to do so. they break very easily. nicely done upgrade. envy those NVMe drives.my 4,1 got most of these upgrades, and mined crypto at 94% CPU, 110% Gpu (gtx1080) for 18 months before it became uneconomic. performance wise it was easily comparable to the base 2018 Mac Pro in some contexts but was limited by the bus and the by then old graphics. I strongly recommend the flashed MAcVidCards if you plan to dual boot the Mac, otherwise booting becomes a weird kind of magic, counting carefully timed keystrokes and hoping.
Hey there, thanks for this video, looking to do some similar upgrades to my mac pro. What kind of speed do you get from your raid nvme now ? It's still only pcie 2 so I'm guessing that has to be the bottleneck, not the drives. 1000Mo/s ? More ?
It’s a big improvement over the original. It’s was reporting something like 3800/s on the M.2 drives and that’s working great for me. I’m sure that the drives themselves can go faster, but it makes working on this machine feel the same as most modern macs.
Hello and what’s the best solution for the fans overload, any fix for a normal behavior after the cpus upgrade, my fans are overload and before the upgrade never did it, so please tell me what’s next to do, thanks a lot great videos
"I have the same cmptr Mac Pro 5,1 mid 2010 w/dual xeon x5690 processors (oc Monterey). My question: is there a way overclock cpu to their maximum turbo-speed of 3.733ghz?"
www.amazon.com/Adapter-Braided-Sleeved-Computer-Graphics/dp/B08FXVDM8S/ref=asc_df_B08FXVDM8S/?tag=hyprod-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=692875362841&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=16852744754816095214&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9014968&hvtargid=pla-2281435177658&psc=1&mcid=c0094acee1fe3a1cba375502a819b32d&hvocijid=16852744754816095214-B08FXVDM8S-&hvexpln=73 I -think- this is correct.
I've got also an old classic Mac Pro from 2009 in standard konfiguration. But I'm just wondering if it really does make sense to upgrade this old machine in 2021?? If I want to upgrade this machine to maximum I've got to spend easily over a 1000 Bucks and maybe in two years Apple don't support Intel Macs with new Updates any more... who knows.. Isn't it better to spend the money on the new Apple Silicon Macs? I'm waiting for the upcoming Macbook Pro 16' M1X and will see if I can replace my cMP with it.
I saw nothing about firmware updating which I understand is ESSENTIAL to the MAC ROM's recognizing the computer as 5,1 instead of 4,1. I already spent a $grand on updating to processors and newer RAM but my ROM still only recognizes my Mac as 4,1 (early 2009). Unfortunately, the upgrade still sticks me at 4,1 and without a firmware update, I can't complete the progression. Such a firmware update risks all sorts of installed cards. It sounds very risky to me to purchase $$$$ new video and network and Bluetooth cards that the old ROM firmware won't support. I'm also concerned about the FAN situation that leaves a lot of upgrades with a situation with cooling fans running amok. I'm still stuck with an online hack that moved me up to High Sierra but that's as high as a I can go with risking the whole thing. I have done a TON of manual upgrades on Macs over 30 + years but several of the things you slide past give me great pause as I risk all the hardware I have and can't afford to lose or replace. I appreciate your videos and I use several macs for DAW as well as programming so I recommend others in my situation take care.
Hello, congratulations for sharing your experience with the mac pro 2009, I just want to update mine, I would like to ask you about the processor, I see that the link you shared on ebay mentions that they have removed IHS to avoid damage from over-squeezing since it is very dangerous, my question is how was your experience the processor does not affect the operation because they have removed the IHS ??????
Does having the Sonnet so close to the Video card plan cause heating issues? I was thinking of doing this with my mac but I'm worried about having them so close to each other.
The only way to get Thunderbolt seems a bit dicey. Here is some info on that. www.pro-tools-expert.com/production-expert-1/2020/2/28/thunderbolt-3-on-mac-pro-51-cheese-grater-one-step-closer?format=amp
If you install OpenCore then you can run Big Sur. It’s not officially supported but it’s possible. I opted to stop at Mojave as that’s fine for my audio production computer.
For just Audio Protools and Virtual instruments does upgrading a video card really make a difference? I have the original video card. However, I upgraded my 2009 through OWC ( I sent it in for the processors) and it seems to work great. I'll have to look into upgrading the firmware and OS to utilize Nvme. It works great with the upgrades but maybe it can be even better? Currently I have 2 x 3.32 Quad Core, 128G ram, PCIe 2TB 2.5 Mercury Extreme start up + 1TB Accelsior Pro Q 2x as fast as the 2.5 ssd PCIe. + 2TB backup in tray 3G 2.5 + 1TB backup for Accel in tray 2.5 SSD. Still on OS El Cap 10.11.6 to work with my Protools / interface set up. I wonder if upgrading the firmware would make a difference or just keep working this for 3 more years then do a full upgrade?
I got a new video card for metal support in order to run Mojave, but a more modest card would be fine for me and anyone else doing audio. I was able to get the 580 at a good price but they seem to be far more expensive today so I can understand the reluctance to pay the weird prices for them. It doesn’t effect my audio work at all really. I’m using a 34 inch 4K tv as my video monitor and running it at 2k resolution as that suits me. Plenty of video cards can do that.
Yes. It’s great too. My NVME drives are for my System (boot) drive and for my working projects drive. Completed projects and backups are other physical drives. It’s a nice speed boost. Some of my biggest improvements in this machine came from the NVME drives.
Stupid question... You do all this with the same system, next time you turn on the machine everything will be OK and "reckognize ? Or, you will have to re-install the system after having made such huge modifications ? I ask because, I'm going to receive mine, I'm not Apple friendly... With a PC you can change everything on the fly and it boots up again, but with a Mac ? Such an old Mac ???
It’s the same as with any computer, I put in a faster processor, more ram, and bigger faster SSDs and M.2 drives. I didn’t need to reinstall the OS, it just runs like a fairly modern machine despite its age.
The description links should have the cost of each item there. I’m afraid I’d lost track of total cost. I can say that the Sonnet M.2 card and the Samsung NVME drives were the most expensive parts by far. I allowed that expense knowing I could move them into a new machine in the future. Running audio is what that computer does most of the time. Currently I have 6 Metric Halo 3D audio interfaces which gets me 128 actual real physical channels of IO. I’m using that many inputs, but far fewer outputs. I can run big sessions handily but I notice that new smart plug ins that I like a lot use more computer power than my older plug ins. For instance using the Leapwing DynOne multi band compressor plug in on a few busses east up a lot of computer power. I’m sure the Apple silicon will be a welcome change, but this machine gets the job done. I just finished mixing a couple of two hour long multi tracks from live jazz shows and it worked very well. Plenty of tracks, edits, and plug ins and the results were great. This is the first edited video I’ve put together for UA-cam and I expect audio topics will become the bigger focus, so we just might see this computer doing a real session.
This is probably a dumb question... Could you run 4 32gb sticks to get 128gb of RAM while retaining triple (quadruple?) channel for a performance boost?
![The Ultimate 2010 Mac Pro Upgrade in 2020 [Part 2]](/img/n.gif)
My friend. Why this video doesn't have 100,000 views is astonishing. This video should win awards (multiple) for 'Best Instruction' and other categories. Between this video and using OpenCore to upgrade to Monterey, my 2010 is destroying my friend's 2019 MacPro in all numbers. I'm 6' 4" and moonlight as a bouncer but I'm almost crying. I'm so happy that the computer I love and have made so much money from can be used for a few more years. There is a reason that Apple stopped making their MacPros user upgradable. And it's because of videos like this and because of OpenCore.
48k not so bad 😂
This is the best video I have ever seen concerning upgrades to the Mac Pro 4,1 and 5,1. That model was in my opinion the pinnacle of computer design. Form factor, connectivity, cooling system--simple, powerful, versatile, reliable. 12 years later computing has come a long way, but the fact is that a well built 5,1 remains a valuable workhorse. I keep one dedicated to running pro tools HD 11 in my recording studio, for me it is as timeless as any great piece of analog audio gear. Twin 2.66 GHz 6-core processors, 128 GB RAM, HDX card, UAudio UAD2 quad card. Soon I will upgrade to SSD drives, 1 boot and 3 in a RAID.
I find it deeply satisfying and encouraging to know there are others out there who, like me, appreciate the lasting usefulness of this great computer that was sadly (and perhaps shortsightedly) discontinued over a decade ago. I know that Apple owns the designs and calculated the business metrics of continuing or discontinuing the product according to projections of diminishing profitability, but it is such a sublime piece of hardware, one that really should have enjoyed a longer period of production and support. Thank heavens for third party solutions that continue to make owning and operating our venerable cheese graters possible.
I bought a Mac Pro 3.1 2008 model back around 2017. I've upgraded it a couple times over the years, and I'm just getting done with another refresh, and every time I do it, I am astonished with how well it continues to keep up with current tech. Apple did their best to phase these units out because they were too good and too reliable to convince people to upgrade to a newer model. here, 15 years later, it still keeps up.
I have 2 Mac Pro mid 2012 ,6 cores 64 gigs of ram and 12 cores 128 gigs of ram,both running Monterey,RX580 and nvme raid zero Samsung 2X1tera,both are 3.46.
Just bought a Mac mini M1 last year and is running Ventura.
All the upgrades bought from OWC
Very happy for my purchases
Are you doing audio recording on Monterey was looking to go that way any complications
@@Facedamuzik hi there,for photoshop I use Mac Pro and for audio I use Mac mini M1
I did this to my 2009 4,1 quad 2.93Ghz to end up with a 5,1 hex 3.46Ghz machine with a generation faster RAM. With a boot SSD, the difference is night/day, at least. It is the heart of a large Pro Tools HD system, using a Magma host card and chassis for HD6 DSP. The speed increase, reduced power and heat, and system stability were all very satisfying and completely changed my work. The old MacPros were the end of a golden era for Apple, when visionaries built hardware targeted to the customer, rather than max profit. I’m constantly surprised how few know the gold that exists in these amazingly forward thinking computers. When I did it 6 years ago, NVME was not available for it, and I thank you for the tip on the Sonnet adaptor.
I have just today watched a Thunderbolt conversion for this machine, which I had resigned myself to ‘not possible ever’ acceptance. Looking into it as I write this.
Nice Roland Space Echo!
WOW - I've been doing computers for over 40 years ... that was one of the best presentations and explanations of equipment, upgrades, reasons (thought process), etc. I don't even own this computer (have worked on them) and enjoyed the content. Thank you. Glad to see you switched to the 3 bank memory setup. I was worried about the graphics card fan airflow (still worried if using video editing or gaming, not in your application use)
I did the same upgrades a few years ago apart from the NVME drives. Like you I use my machine for DAW. It's been bullet proof and have never run out of horsepower.
19:33 OMG. I am an idiot. I did read about that Y split power cable for GPU but I thought it was other way around. For GPU that needed two 8 pin cables. That changes everything. I use RX 580 and my Mac Pro shuts down under heavy load. But that way I can juice my GPU with double the power.
Thank you so much for this. Now I most likely don’t have to do Pixlas mod.
*I've been thinking of switching from Windows to OSX by the end of the year; coming from a computer technician background the Mac Pro seems like the logical system for me to modify and truly make my own.*
@FroggyChef I am afraid we are seeing the end of these wonderful Macs.
I have one 2009 Mac Pro & one 2010 Mac Pro!!
very nice apple workstation.
I install MacOS ventura 13.4 sucessfully on my 2010 Mac Pro by using OCLP.
Good video but there are some updates to this upgrade and I'd like to share them with you.
Mac Pro 4,1 and 5,1 CPU's only support 3 channels of memory.
If you put 4 channels in it, it run very poorly.
You want to put 6 32GB memory chips in it.
The delidded x5690's don't work well on the 2009 models because of heat problems.
X5690's run at 130watts and need the lid to help in cooling and a whole bunch of variables and hardware that only are in the 2012 models.
The best processor for this upgrade is x5675, they run at 85watts and in some cases out perform the x5690's.
I wish I knew all of this before I spent way too much money down this rabbit hole LOL!
Hope this helps, let me know if you need help :).
When you run x5690's on a 2009 and load it heavy, the computer will shut down.
Do not put any processor in the 2009 models that uses more than 85watts and operates higher than 80°C.
Just because you can do it doesn't mean that you should :).
Apple didn't do it for a reason.
Man, this Sonnet Nvme card !!! Thanks for the video
Thank you so much! I was looking for an affordable way to edit and create graphics, heavy content for music and film. You saved me! I’m definitely gonna build a rig now.
I would put that SSD on the first slot and video card on the second. You are killing the video card airflow with that card on top.
Great Video :)
A few thoughts of mine - using all 8 RAM slots actually will give one an inferior performance - tripple channel ie. 6 slots used in a dual xeon is considered the fastest. 1333 DDR 3 Ram is also advisable when going to from 4.1 to 5.1. I would have thought to place the thermal pad of the Sonnett Silent Card on top of the NVMe’s not underneath but I am not certain. The absolute best card out there. The Usb card ought to be 3.1 not 3.2.
I have switched to triple channel for ram. It gets me every last drop of performance.
The thermal material is between the board and the nvme, but there is that heat sync on top so there is something on both sides of the nvme drives.
The USB naming conventions are a bit tricky. There were three USB3 varieties so far offering 5, then 10, and now 20 Gbps. This card offers the 20 Gbps hence being referred to as USB 3.2.
www.cnet.com/google-amp/news/usb-3-2-explained-making-sense-of-current-and-confusing-usb-standard/
This was something I was actually surprised about when I originally bought my 5,1 with only 2 sticks of ram in it. When researching the 5,1 I learned about the triple chanel thing and scratched my head wondering why they had 8 slots. Even so I only used the 6 slots for triple and now glad I did.
@@whitepawrolls I think they have the 4/8 slots for Quad models to maximise their RAM ceiling but I do remember a Dell workstation that I had (T3500) had 6 slots...
best video on this. Thank you. No flubbing around !
Great video the only thing I would suggest for myself is writing down the serial numbers of the nvme drives so when you format them and install your software and create your raid you know which one goes to which and in case one fails you don't pull the wrong one or play a guessing game
Good suggestion!
I upgraded my original Mac Pro 5,1 that I found in a dumpster to almost full spec (only the ram isn’t at the maximum capacity as I don’t need that much ram). On this, I replaced the stock bootloader with OpenCore and got MacOS Monterey working!
un grand merci pour ces explications plus limpides pour moi car ici en Suisse et France personne ne vont aussi loin dans l'évolution des vieux Mac Pro !!merci aà la communauté anglophone !!
a big thank you for these clearer explanations for me because here in Switzerland and France nobody goes so far in the evolution of the old Mac Pro !! thank you to the English-speaking community
Cool name, reminds me of a thing I can’t discuss due to rule #1 and rule #2…
Sweet !! Great video … I’ve done 5-6 of these and record with garage band … just got a 2008 A1180 EMC 2180 for 20$ from neighbors garage sale
Just a comment, your cable management and organization in that space is top drawer. Content is also exceptionally well explained. Take me to school! Subscribed.
one of the greatest tech videos that is extremely helpful to people. Thank you fine sir.
Brilliant presentation and so comprehensive
I use a dual Xeon Computer as DAW, too. 👍
Thanks times ten. Used your advice on what I could afford. Great looking studio.
Great video.
Cheers
Thank You. Great Video and response. Someone should go into business updated these Macs to top current specs.
great vid with a ton of info shared! its a real pity that the nvme card is so expensive, more alone than what ive got in the entire 5,1 dual cpu computer...if they were cheap on the used market, they would be a cool upgrade for many people
I'm in the beginnings of starting this process, watching vids on You Tube. Yours is one of the most complete ... but not spending as much as you are !! (8 x 4gb rams e.g.), the point for me is upgrade within a price that's well below buying an new machine. The tip about flashing the GPU for the Mac startup screen is useful. Thanks.
This exactly what I did. I need 32bit for some legacy Yamaha software for my DM1000, so I new I was going to stay with the cheese grader. Happy for you great video!
Nice video. However, there is one thing you overlooked, and that is the 2032 battery. You put a CR2032 in place of a BR2032. The BR2032 is a rechargeable battery, whereas the CR2032 is not. As a result, the CR2032 will get damaged over time, because the circuitry around it will always attempt to charge it by applying current to it. I don't know if you're still using this machine, but if you are, you should definitely replace that battery with the proper one.
Great upgrades for the mac pro, but you did say one thing wrong, and I have seen a LOT of mac pro 5,1 owners say this
"You can't boot from a raid drive"
This is wrong. I currently have 2 256gb ssd's in my 2010 5,1 as raid 0 boot. The trick to this is to install your system on a single drive as you normally would (not one of your raid drives). Then install the raid drives you want to use, and in osx set them up as normal. All this is the normal stuff. NOW to get to boot from raid 0 drive use carbon copy cloner to clone your original boot drive to the raid drive. Once that's done shut down, remove the original single drive, and startup. The mac will then boot from the raid 0. One note is if your running strick pure mac pro you probibly don't have the boot rom update to boot from NVME same as me. I'm using SATA based ssd's (dual m.2 based on a single pcie card). I have also duplicated this with 2 180gb mechanical drives just in the drive slots to make sure it booting isn't a fluke with my dual card. Although slow it did boot from the mechanical drive raid 0. If someone has the NVME mod and wants to try this too I'd be curious to see if a raid 0 NVME boot works the same.
True bro...I did same with high sierra and raid 0 BUT whats not mentioned is the raid has to be HFS as you wont be able to boot apfs raid 0...at least, i couldnt LOL .. and i checked all over the web!...issues with raid 0 on hfs is system works fine but no updates or else your system will be unbootable...
@@skip741x3 I don't remember as I quit using that mac shortly after I posted that when I got a 2013 mac pro, but I was running mojave on mine, and didn't have an issue with updates. Not sure how you had yours setup if you were just running drives in the drive bays or not, but I had a dual sata 3 based m.2 card that both my drives were on
I did a similar upgrade with my 5,1. One issue I had was overheating (red blinking LED) on the motherboard when doing renderings with 100% usage of all 12 cores. Would be interesting if your machine does the same as those X5690 CPU's have 130 W TDP. (the fastest 5,1 12-core from Apple had only 3.06GHZ at 95 W TDP.)
I had to increase the speed of the fans with Macs Fan Control to cool them down, which makes the computer louder.
I installed my gpu in a breakout box to offload the power and heat from it. same cpu's with a radeon 64 gpu. no overheating.
I did some research to upgrade this 2010 mac pro, and I try to put 2 GPU into it and I think the final cut pro will use dual GPU and the render time will be reduced. just as you said , extreme upgrade.:) very glad to see you do the same upgrade as me. Cheers!
JAN 20, 2023 ~ Hi, your video is the third I've watch on upgrading a Mac Pro Tower, and THE BEST (most informative) video yet. I really appreciate the extensive explanations. Nothing left out but the approximate total cost spent on your upgrades. Also, it's been a year since you created the video. Are there any NEW editions of cpu, ram or video cards you might install now had they existed a year ago (Jan 2022)? Or anything you wished you had installed instead? There's always new products released and I'd prefer to install the most recent and highest upgrade of components as possible. Or... do you believe that the Mac Pro 5,1 that you upgraded hits the ceiling, upgraded as far it can get? One more thing, wondering if you have had any issues since, or additional firmware, OS upgrades etc. Thanks for any reply or additional, related videos.
I just looked and some of the things I choose got even more expensive with parts shortages and such. Wow
One correction. The Mac Pro 2019 will take 128 Gb but only recognize 96. I upgraded two of mine. Also putting the SSD in the slow SATA slots I think is a waste. I think the connectors for the SuperDrives would give you more speed. I am using Iocrest PCIE card With 2 Crucial gen4 2 TB NVME and getting 2800 read and write. Not bad for a 14 year old computer...
using my 5,1 now, got it in 2011. And now is maxed out to 128gb.
Very nice thorough install video!! Starting my build soon and will be referencing this video repeatedly!
Yes me too, it’s a great project and what this old machine can upgrade to is good enough at this time unless you’re trying to animate an entire Disney Movie.
I'd also changed the BT antennas to external versions. May not look sexy, but BT performance is way better.
I know this video is 2 years old, but that picture that was shown is not a 5,1 cpu tray, it's a 4,1. The cpu's were de-lidded and there are no cpu clamps. I 5,1 has cpu clamps and uses lidded cpu's.
I dont know why the vid was titled 2009 5,1... should have been 4,1 if 2009... probably just a slip up.
I am currently running 96 GB of ram to see if the benefits of triple channel are better than the benefits of more ram. As 96 GB of ram is enough for my usage I’m likely to stay in triple channel to get its speed increase.
There are two possible areas to explore to go further with upgrades on a similar Mac Pro (that I opted not to pursue)
OpenCore on the Mac Pro allows for things like video acceleration, seeing the boot screen with unfleshed video cards, and running even newer OS's. It's widely supported and appears to work well. I tried it for some time but opted against it for my final configuration.
More powerful GPUs. There are more powerful video options available, but most also require more power from the computer and the pixlas mod allows you to get the power to run them. If you need more video power it's an option. I opted to stick to a powerful enough video card that doesn't need a mod to get power, and more powerful video cards really jump up in price.
So that’s where I drew the line in this one. The firmware update was easy and immediately helpful for general computing. OpenCore and the Pixlas mod were worth mentioning here but not things I’m going to pursue.
When you pull up the about this Mac and look at your ram memory does it say that you are running at 1066 MHz or 1333 MHz? When running in triple channel 96 GB you simply left dim slot number four and slot number eight empty correct?
@@trelstudios3068 it’s definitely running at 1333
This is an outstanding video! Super Solid in every way
That ssd card is a very interesting product. holding that many NVME@ ssd's and to put 3 in raid must mean projects load incredibly fast, with 128gb ram.
You should also probably also use the nvme as startup disk runs everything a bit faster
Yes
My startup drive and projects drive are NVME and that's where it made a big difference
@@paperstreetaudiocompany So you can use the NVME drive as a boot up disk, I thought there was an upgrade of firmware to make this happen. I want to to use the 4 bays with the SSD drives and use just one NVME drive for my boot drive. Are there are other single NVME adapters that can be used as a boot up drive on a MP 5,1 ?
Not sure how that Sapphire card is supposed to stay cool when you put a full length card next to it blocking the fans.
ditched the 5,1 and switched to PC, best move ever til avid are fully M1 native (ca 2099)
incredibly helpful, thank you!
Excellent video
You list the Mac Pro as starting in 2009. It was actually first available in 2006.
Thank you so much we all appreciate your presentation it’s wonderful
Thank you sir. Propz from germany
What about a thunderbolt card?
19:20 I know for a fact on a 5.1 those ports are MINI six pin not six pin, but I don’t know on the 4.1 cmp
professional presentation, great and smooth content, well done sir
" Super Video Bro !!! "
run tripple channel memory. Its way faster than running all 8 slots
I have dropped to 96 GB and am running triple channel now in order to eek out every last bit of performance. I’m not sure it’s a huge difference but I’ll take any performance gains.
@@paperstreetaudiocompany its noticeable
Thank you for the info! just got a 2012 5,1. Like you doing Audio (light video). This is very helpful. Have you done any benchmark tests, before and after?
Yes I have on the GPU and drives. The biggest significant boost if you need that is putting the OS on a 6GB SSD via a PCi card - note not the internal bays on a sled as they are restricted to 3GBs (whatever your SSD does). This gives you a slick boot and fast Finder response.
Then for you data get 4 identical HDDs 7200 RPM and reliable (over 10,000 RPM and fragile) and soft RAID them to double the internal 3GBs to 6GBs for data read and write. This will easily be enough for audio and video. If you want to go mental like this fella, you can double this again by using 4 x SSDs on a PCi card, but really, I don't think you will need this unless you are launching a space shuttle.
Video card - again, a lot of fluff I find. You are not gaming so a 4 or 8GB RX580 by MSi will be fine.
Despite this video, I have never needed more than 32 GB Ram although feel free to add more and have 20 apps open at once. Again, quality over size because if the RAM fails you can have multiple issues including a failure to boot at all... rendering diagnostics etc redundant.
Lots of links on the web to help - we have been doing this for 11 years now.
Perfect upgrade! Do you get 2 icons on a desktop (boot drive and storage) or only one?
24:58 - Annnd, pauses,... Any special tips on getting the OS to write data at that speed? I have a 5.1, same 3.46GHz processors, system on a SATA SSD, with an OWC Accelsior 4M2 and Samsung M.2 drives, the M.2's are faster as individual disks then they are as Raid Zero. Take the same 4M2 card, drop in to MSI X99A SLI Plus board with i7-5820, and I get faster Raid Zero then what you've shown here.
I have a Kona4 card, looking for performance for Uncompressed Raw DNG's for video.
Just Add OpenCore Boot Loader w/ MacPro Config.Plist .. No need to get MacUpgrade GPU ... Boot Screen and GPU acceleration ....also you can install 2 SSD's or HDD's up in the Optical Bay area. ... then Run Big Sur
I have a question? So you purchased the video card from Mac vids and they also flashed it for you.
Yes, it was the appeal of buying from them as it came ready to rock right from the box
Hi, I enjoyed watching your video. I see that you are really in the audio. What would you recommend to turn the 5,1 into a high fidelity music platform to get the best sound? I have a lot of FLAC and AICC music. Thank you Andrew
I have a similar setup which I put together a couple of years ago. Your NVME adapter seems to be sitting on top of the fans in your video card, you don't have any problems with it running hot?
Thank you for your fine presentation! Will you be upgrading to Monterey by way of either OpenCore or Clover or will be be keeping your machine OS native at Mojave?
Enjoyed it indeed. So one question I have is, if decided to go this route, would I have any conflict with space for an Avid HDX card? I noticed that you put an UAD card in the last slot. Do you think an Avid HDX card would fit in that same slot on a mid 2012 5.1? Or would I need to put it on one of the first two slots, which would propose a problem. Thanks in advance and thanks for posting such a great video on this.
thanks any new updates
Surprised you didn't do the pixalus electrical upgrade, to power the graphics card without stressing the motherboard.
this involves tapping into the high current 12 volt supply cables before the motherboard, and running high current extensions to the cards 8 pin (or dual six pin) socket.
the tap can be done by utilising clip on taps which cut the insulation but not the wire. (solder is not an option due to the current carried -not unless you have very high temp solder and real skill). this protects both the motherboard, and your graphics card. note: the typical graphics card extensions sold by third parties, and Apples own cables are are too thin, have not enough copper to carry the current over the extended length of cable to fully power modern high powered graphics cards.
the std. graphics cables off the motherboard headers are only rated to a total of 75W, each which is also the limit of the mother board. Giving a card total (with the power via PCIe slot) of just 300 watts.
However the power supply can easily even at 10 years old still supply a total of a reliable 800w (originally 970W), and with modern energy efficient CPUs, and SSDs these items power draw is lowered so you can still put high powered graphics in place some times as much as 600W.
Know this electrical hardware mod was not on your list, but it is a good idea to maximise the lifespan of your motherboard. especially for those seeking max graphics power. but maybe the sapphire 580 doesn"t draw that much power.
based on your build, the limiting factor for your hardware will now be bus and CPU interconnect.
worth considering when you did the CPU upgrade is repasting the Northbridge. if you use a temperature monitor app, check that the Northbridge is sitting at 74ºC. if you do wish to repast your north bridge do make sure to buy replacement sprung mounting pins before attempting to do so. they break very easily.
nicely done upgrade. envy those NVMe drives.my 4,1 got most of these upgrades, and mined crypto at 94% CPU, 110% Gpu (gtx1080) for 18 months before it became uneconomic. performance wise it was easily comparable to the base 2018 Mac Pro in some contexts but was limited by the bus and the by then old graphics.
I strongly recommend the flashed MAcVidCards if you plan to dual boot the Mac, otherwise booting becomes a weird kind of magic, counting carefully timed keystrokes and hoping.
Thank you for this information!
Hey there, thanks for this video, looking to do some similar upgrades to my mac pro.
What kind of speed do you get from your raid nvme now ? It's still only pcie 2 so I'm guessing that has to be the bottleneck, not the drives. 1000Mo/s ? More ?
It’s a big improvement over the original. It’s was reporting something like 3800/s on the M.2 drives and that’s working great for me. I’m sure that the drives themselves can go faster, but it makes working on this machine feel the same as most modern macs.
Hello and what’s the best solution for the fans overload, any fix for a normal behavior after the cpus upgrade, my fans are overload and before the upgrade never did it, so please tell me what’s next to do, thanks a lot great videos
Wait, why you say, you can not use a RAID drive as a start ( boot ) drive ?
"I have the same cmptr Mac Pro 5,1 mid 2010 w/dual xeon x5690 processors (oc Monterey).
My question: is there a way overclock cpu
to their maximum turbo-speed of 3.733ghz?"
I can’t find the dual 6pin to 8pin power cable for my 580 graphics card.
www.amazon.com/Adapter-Braided-Sleeved-Computer-Graphics/dp/B08FXVDM8S/ref=asc_df_B08FXVDM8S/?tag=hyprod-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=692875362841&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=16852744754816095214&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9014968&hvtargid=pla-2281435177658&psc=1&mcid=c0094acee1fe3a1cba375502a819b32d&hvocijid=16852744754816095214-B08FXVDM8S-&hvexpln=73
I -think- this is correct.
I've got also an old classic Mac Pro from 2009 in standard konfiguration. But I'm just wondering if it really does make sense to upgrade this old machine in 2021?? If I want to upgrade this machine to maximum I've got to spend easily over a 1000 Bucks and maybe in two years Apple don't support Intel Macs with new Updates any more... who knows.. Isn't it better to spend the money on the new Apple Silicon Macs? I'm waiting for the upcoming Macbook Pro 16' M1X and will see if I can replace my cMP with it.
Have you taught about using the new m1 mac's 🤔 they essentially best all thee 5,1 Mac pros. In most cases
I saw nothing about firmware updating which I understand is ESSENTIAL to the MAC ROM's recognizing the computer as 5,1 instead of 4,1. I already spent a $grand on updating to processors and newer RAM but my ROM still only recognizes my Mac as 4,1 (early 2009). Unfortunately, the upgrade still sticks me at 4,1 and without a firmware update, I can't complete the progression. Such a firmware update risks all sorts of installed cards. It sounds very risky to me to purchase $$$$ new video and network and Bluetooth cards that the old ROM firmware won't support. I'm also concerned about the FAN situation that leaves a lot of upgrades with a situation with cooling fans running amok.
I'm still stuck with an online hack that moved me up to High Sierra but that's as high as a I can go with risking the whole thing. I have done a TON of manual upgrades on Macs over 30 + years but several of the things you slide past give me great pause as I risk all the hardware I have and can't afford to lose or replace. I appreciate your videos and I use several macs for DAW as well as programming so I recommend others in my situation take care.
thehouseofmoth.com/turning-a-2009-41-mac-pro-into-a-2010-2012-51-mac-pro-2021-edition/
Yes, firmware updating to 5,1 is important and easy to do
hola realize todo los cambio pero al colocar el cable poder se enciende luz led OVTMP CPU A and OVTMP CPU B y no prende ayudaaaaaa
Hello, congratulations for sharing your experience with the mac pro 2009, I just want to update mine, I would like to ask you about the processor, I see that the link you shared on ebay mentions that they have removed IHS to avoid damage from over-squeezing since it is very dangerous, my question is how was your experience the processor does not affect the operation because they have removed the IHS ??????
thehouseofmoth.com/the-differences-between-the-41-and-51-mac-pro/
Are you still using this machine and how is or did it perform so far? Thanks for sharing
Great video !!!
Does having the Sonnet so close to the Video card plan cause heating issues? I was thinking of doing this with my mac but I'm worried about having them so close to each other.
Good video! How can I downgrade back to a 4,1 machine?
you can't - and why would you want to?
So the 970 Evo Plus didn't give you any issues ? In the Definitive Mac Pro user guide, it says that 970 Evo Plus was incompatible.
My sonnet hit the fan blades. It was a bummer 👎
I've never heard the older Mac Pro systems called Cheese Graters. I thought was just the new ones. Hmm.
How much was the budget here? The sonnet nvme card is $400! Love my Mac pro though
No thunderbolt upgrade!
The only way to get Thunderbolt seems a bit dicey. Here is some info on that.
www.pro-tools-expert.com/production-expert-1/2020/2/28/thunderbolt-3-on-mac-pro-51-cheese-grater-one-step-closer?format=amp
Amazing vid! Could this old Mac Pro run Big Sur or only Mohave?
If you install OpenCore then you can run Big Sur. It’s not officially supported but it’s possible. I opted to stop at Mojave as that’s fine for my audio production computer.
@@paperstreetaudiocompany Thanks
forums.macrumors.com/threads/opencore-on-the-mac-pro.2207814/
For just Audio Protools and Virtual instruments does upgrading a video card really make a difference? I have the original video card. However, I upgraded my 2009 through OWC ( I sent it in for the processors) and it seems to work great. I'll have to look into upgrading the firmware and OS to utilize Nvme. It works great with the upgrades but maybe it can be even better?
Currently I have 2 x 3.32 Quad Core, 128G ram, PCIe 2TB 2.5 Mercury Extreme start up + 1TB Accelsior Pro Q 2x as fast as the 2.5 ssd PCIe. + 2TB backup in tray 3G 2.5 + 1TB backup for Accel in tray 2.5 SSD.
Still on OS El Cap 10.11.6 to work with my Protools / interface set up. I wonder if upgrading the firmware would make a difference or just keep working this for 3 more years then do a full upgrade?
I got a new video card for metal support in order to run Mojave, but a more modest card would be fine for me and anyone else doing audio. I was able to get the 580 at a good price but they seem to be far more expensive today so I can understand the reluctance to pay the weird prices for them. It doesn’t effect my audio work at all really. I’m using a 34 inch 4K tv as my video monitor and running it at 2k resolution as that suits me. Plenty of video cards can do that.
Love your video. Am doing the same. Are you booting on the NVME since its faster?
Yes. It’s great too.
My NVME drives are for my System (boot) drive and for my working projects drive. Completed projects and backups are other physical drives. It’s a nice speed boost. Some of my biggest improvements in this machine came from the NVME drives.
Stupid question... You do all this with the same system, next time you turn on the machine everything will be OK and "reckognize ? Or, you will have to re-install the system after having made such huge modifications ?
I ask because, I'm going to receive mine, I'm not Apple friendly... With a PC you can change everything on the fly and it boots up again, but with a Mac ? Such an old Mac ???
It’s the same as with any computer, I put in a faster processor, more ram, and bigger faster SSDs and M.2 drives. I didn’t need to reinstall the OS, it just runs like a fairly modern machine despite its age.
@@paperstreetaudiocompany This Mac pro is awesome, that's why I chose this one... ;). Thx for your reply.
awesome.
How much was the upgrade cost, can you show running audio ? Great video btw
The description links should have the cost of each item there. I’m afraid I’d lost track of total cost. I can say that the Sonnet M.2 card and the Samsung NVME drives were the most expensive parts by far. I allowed that expense knowing I could move them into a new machine in the future.
Running audio is what that computer does most of the time. Currently I have 6 Metric Halo 3D audio interfaces which gets me 128 actual real physical channels of IO. I’m using that many inputs, but far fewer outputs. I can run big sessions handily but I notice that new smart plug ins that I like a lot use more computer power than my older plug ins. For instance using the Leapwing DynOne multi band compressor plug in on a few busses east up a lot of computer power. I’m sure the Apple silicon will be a welcome change, but this machine gets the job done. I just finished mixing a couple of two hour long multi tracks from live jazz shows and it worked very well. Plenty of tracks, edits, and plug ins and the results were great.
This is the first edited video I’ve put together for UA-cam and I expect audio topics will become the bigger focus, so we just might see this computer doing a real session.
Interesting...what OS are you running and how upgradeable is it... Catalina or later ?
Those cheese grater are bulletproof.
well done ! Thank you
Sonnet Sonnet. Can i use the first nvme as the system drive with big sur and the second nvme as a raid drive?
This is probably a dumb question... Could you run 4 32gb sticks to get 128gb of RAM while retaining triple (quadruple?) channel for a performance boost?
Can I do this on a Mac Pro (Early 2008)? 2 x 2.8 GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon, 12 GB 800 MHz DDR2 FB-DIMM, ATI Radeon HD 5770 1024 MB