I sold my trash can when the resell price was still decent. I do miss the look of that I ended up getting an empty shell off eBay and have it as decor.
I did the same thing, sold mine as soon as the M1s were released. If I'd waited much longer I would have taken a beating on the sale price. I miss the look too.
@@preiter20 the board on the mini's is so small... in theory you could actually fit one on each side of the heat sync... I don't know what you do from that point as I don't think you could tie them together to make a Mac Maxi... but in theory it looks like it would fit.
I bought a Pro with D300s, 16GB and 500GB storage a couple of months ago for $320. I will put Ventura on it via Opencore once that gets more stable. I also bought an M2 mini. My typical workflows don’t need the power of either, and the Pro is kind of just fun to have.
I was very lucky to find brand new sealed trashcan Mac Pro with 6 Core, 32GB RAM, D500 GPU and 500GB SSD on ebay for $700 a year ago. That same configuration MSRP when it came out was $4,699. I always wanted to have these Mac Pro trashcan and very happy that I got one. I'm going to keep mine as stock and not do any actual upgrades, including upgrading the OS and leave it in Monterey installed. If going to do some hardware upgrade, I would rather buy another Mac Pro but in used condition.
bought a 4 core D500 trash can like 6 months ago for around $300 swapped in the 12 core cpu and 64gb of ram for another $60 ish, and for $360 I think its a pretty solid machine. I will probably upgrade to a Apple silicon mini in the next year or two when they get in the refurbished store.
I'm keeping my trashcan as long as it works, got it for so cheap in 2019. It's still a champ for logic pro x, and I can't imagine the annoyance of transferring my plugin/virtual instrument licenses to a new computer.
I bought a base one, but with 64gb of ram and 8 core CPU for 400€. I upgrade to a 12 core CPU and 1 terra storage and I'm pretty happy. I can edit 4k video very easily. Not bad at all!
Revisiting this video because I just bought a new 2018 mfg. pristine Mac Pro, with 24" PC monitor, with mouse, with keyboard, 32GB, 256GB, D700 cards for $300. I have to point out, the configuration you were using was NOT the best one. It was the most expensive, but the RAM upgrade to 128GB actually SLOWED this Mac down. The sweet spot was 64GB running at 1866MHz. When you upgrade to 128GB, the memory actually clocks down. It COULD go that capacity, but for performance, it' shouldn't. I know, this is my second one, I literally bought it for the D700 cards for $300 and got everything else for free. It's a great second machine backup to my original 2013 owner machine. All this said, your conclusions are still the same so it doesn't impact your video, but it's nice to point out the error in your configuration. Keep up the great work Luke. Thanks!
Great comparison, as always! Just thought about the same, gettin an old trash can pro just for the looks. How about modding one and trying to put in M2 mini internals in it? Should be cool I guess
What's far more impressive than the performance gains to me are the efficiency gains over the years. The M2 Pro Mac Mini is impressively fast but you can get the same SOC in a 14" laptop that hardly gets hot under load and gets more than 11 hours of usable battery life to boot. The hardware in the Mac Pro would never have functioned as a laptop.
Enjoyed this video. I bought a "trash can" Mac Pro over the Christmas holiday, and it was probably not the right choice, but I had fun with the upgrades. It is the six core and I upgraded the RAM to 64GB and the SSD to 2TB. I have yet up upgrade the CPU. What drew me to it was the ability to make some upgrades. I enjoy working with the hardware. In these days of "sealed boxes" it is becoming rare to be able to work with the hardware under normal circumstances. The big adventure with mine was that the original SSD had been upgraded without upgrading the firmware, so I actually had to buy an original Apple SSD and go "backward" to upgrade the firmware so that I could get the system to Monterey. This has been addressed in other videos, but something to watch out for if you go this route!
Check the compatible CPU's 10 core is faster most of the time or the 8 core 4Ghz. Also if you add 128 gig ram It runs slower on a 12 core than an 8 core. I have the 8 core ( not the apple 1, the faster one ), 128gb ram, Vega RX 64, D500's. 1TB internal SSD but OWC 4 NVME Box with 4 2TB drives. ( the OWC box is slow ), I have older TB2 PCIe boxes from Akitio that are much faster ...
Well the comparison would be fair if you were at least evaluating some use cases where you actually need some of the specs of the trashcan Pro: if you need ram to do, say, mechanical or thermal simulation, then the 128 GB of the trashcan would be the difference between being able to complete a simulation and not completing it at all. Same for the graphics card, Blender tests are fine, but moving a large assembly in a CAD package with wireframe and dimmed hidden lines would be one scenario where the trashcan will probably win hands down: I've not seen CAD specific benchmarks for Apple Silicon GPUs so I'm not sure how they perform in wireframe, which is the field where most general purpose GPUs fail and where the trashcan GPUs should shine.
@@guyjordan8201 the industry standard for CAD performance comparison has always been SPECviewperf, which uses real cad code for its tests, but its latest update is from the end of 2021 and I think its windows only (which makes sense since AAA CAD packages are more numerous on Windows). That said I can think of Autodesk Fusion and Siemens NX as CAD packages that have a macOS version, not sure if they are Apple Silicon native. On the simulation front, a Comsol benchmark could be interesting, and Comsol is available for macOS
then you hack together a hackintosh and call it a day. You don't buy 10+ years old mostly proprietary hardware in unbelievably proprietary form factor..
I think it's pretty clear to people who require 128GB + of memory that the 16 GB M2 Pro is not gonna cut it. I think this is more for the use cases that-in the past-were pigeonholed into this "pro" space where computers base prices began in the $2000+ range, that can be now satisfied by sub $2000 Desktops.
I've had a couple of Mac Pros and they have all been TANKS. I have owned my current Mac Pro 6.1(Trash Can) since January 2017 when I bought it new. I didn't choose another Mac Pro because of outright speed. There's plenty of other faster options for that. I chose it because it can stay running 24/7 with no issues at all. It always runs consistently- no questions asked. You can't do that with a normal computer without ECC Ram, ECC-ram compatible MotherBoards, and CPUs. I have a Mac Mini i7 that is used as a media center, and MacBook Pros for other portable purposes. I will keep my 6.1 for as long as I can, and if there's a need for something to do a specific task quicker, I'll throw it on my MBP M2. Another thing I forgot to mention- I take my computers apart to clean and maintain them every now and then. With the MP 6.1, I'm always left a little speechless at the quality of machining from all the inner parts. It's like jewelry.
One thing you didn’t mention are the old-school DisplayPort-shaped TB2 ports. But I like that old Mac Pro cylinder design too. It’s surprisingly compact when I saw it in-person at Apple Store. I almost bought one used after the 2019 Intel Mac Pro model came out but before Apple announced the transition away from Intel. Probably a good thing that it was still too expensive for me at that time considering it quickly went from being the latest Mac Pro to no longer supported with current MacOS.
Thank you, Luke for another excellent vintage to modern Apple desktop comparison video. In the Spring of 2022, my original goal was to buy an M1 Pro "mac mini" but, Apple, Inc. surprised everyone buy leaving the M1 "mac mini" as it was and then, they introduced a new desktop model the "Mac Studio" along with the new "Studio Display". However, when trying to order a custom version, I ran into some problems on the "Mac Studio" there was a five (5)- month back-log and on the "Studio Display" it had various issues of its own. At the same time, I noticed the prices of the space gray "trash can" size Mac Pro models had started to drop like a "Rock". So, for about $1,000 picked-up a used 8-core/ D-700/ 64GB/ 1TB SSD model and paired it with my already owned 2010, Apple 27-inch Cinema (none thunderbolt) display and added an Apple DVD super-drive to my set-up. This system makes a great replacement for my 2010, "mac mini" (the last model with a built-in DVD super-drive) and to-date everything has been working great (smile...smile).
I’m still rocking my 10-year-old trashcan and loving it! I look at it this way, any other machine purchase in 2013 would have been replaced years ago. I’m still happily running a supported OS 10 years in. The design is cool. When the time comes, I would love to gut it and shoehorn in an M2.
@@RemoteWorkerIndonesia This machine can upgrade to Monterey. That means Xcode 14.x. The current Xcode running on Ventura is Xcode 15.x. Definitely time for a newer machine if you want to run the latest Xcode.
If you want to truly max out a Mac Pro 2013, skip the D500/D700 upgrade and go straight for an eGPU. Even an RX 5700 XT blows the M2 Mac mini out of the water in terms of GPU performance. But I'd advise against buying a Mac Pro 2013 for most people, if you want a pro-level Mac for somewhat cheap, just get a Mac mini 2018. Plenty of power on the i7 model, eGPU upgrade is easy since it is basically designed for that. SSD is soldered on, but thanks to the dual Thunderbolt controllers, you can just use a NVMe SSD in a USB-C or Thunderbolt enclosure. RAM is pretty much the only internal upgrade you can do to it though, unfortunately.
I think it depends on what you are going to be doing. I just bought a 12-core 64GB + 1TB SSD + Dual D500s for $1100 refreshed by OWC. I am using it for full stack web development and not for multi-media workflow. Multi-core and RAM are the big sealers for me for this price.
the recent price crash for the Trash Can Mac Pro turned it from a crappy investment to a half decent machine haha, I'm frankly into buying one just for having it (and maybe use it as a secondary Mac), it's a sick machine :3
I have 2! Just collecting dust lol, I'm using 1 at my tech bench now but that's just because I already had it and didn't want to buy a new mac. The other 1 I keep just in case I need the installed OS to open old client projects (audio mixing/editing)/ Amazing machines, but they get stomped out by Apple Silicon!
Thanks for keeping the Late 2013 MacPro candle flame flickering , I've use my maxed out factory specked model nearly 10 years and it still glides seamlessly albeit not down Ventura Highway .
Their price dropped so much that it makes a great entry level Mac for hobbyists and enthusiasts . Although todays entry level Mac are way more optimised in terms of performance and power consumption they lack any form of upgradeability… It’s a shame spending over 1k on an entry level machine and being stuck forever with 256gb disk (I can at least accept ram memory not being upgradable since it is integrated within the cpu soc)
Apple don't want you to be able to upgrade "old" machines, they make it that you have no choice but to upgrade to NEXT new machine'$🤨😞 It's all for the love of money for Apple🤷♂️🤬
I’m planning on testing the M2 Pro Mac mini against my 2013 Quad-core Mac Pro just for fun. I’d be curious if you ran the test again in FCP but exported to ProRes. The Mac Pro should be significantly better doing that. Great video, Luke!
I have even an older Mac Pro. A maxed out 5.1 and I know that the M2 Mac Mini is 100 times faster but I would keep this legendary machine with the 30" Cinema Display forever. It just looks better and still can do its job.
I just bought a Mac Pro (2013) for $500. 12-core intel Xeon 64gb purely for music production and web surfing… this thing is amazing. My buddy has a silicon Mac Studio and still gets buffering issue messages, I don’t. For me the Mac Pro is a major win.
I got a 64gb 8core model recently to use as a virtualization server. Power consumption is a bit higher than I expected but it doubles as a server in the plain-sight pretty cool.
Regarding the load times…upgrading the M2 pro to 1TB (or larger) will roughly double the SSD performance. For $200 more, it may be a worthwhile upgrade for at least some users.
The base trash can with an LED Cinema Display is a great "starter setup" for any creative that's just starting out, for sure. Imagine if they brought back the trash can design with all its I/O and fitted it with an M2 processor?
I also sold my trash can Mac in late 2018 cost me $6500 new had it 2 years and got $5300 when selling, I was so lucky, just before the current Mac Pro came out !! phew.......
I'm using a trashcan as my daily driver and there is something that needs to be mentioned about the M1/M2 studio and mini. They have a small amount of RAM and you cannot upgrade it in any way (lest you pay through the nose to get a BTO config). They also have a non-upgradable soldered SSD storage. The SSD storage is actually perishable (has limited TBW) and if you don't have a lot of memory you will end up swapping to that SSD, wearing it out even faster. If you want to avoid that you need to get an Apple Silicon mac with way more storage (which is priced with a huge markup) and way more RAM than standard (also a huge markup). Using a trashcan with 128GB of RAM can be useful in some scenarios, and it never swaps! The SSD can be easily replaced with an off-the-shelf NVMe. The CPU can be replaced with an off-the-shelf used Xeon. So as compelling as the new Apple Silicon machines are, I am hesitant to jump ship because I'm just worried about the machine turning into a lemon after just a few years of intensive use - and nothing except the fans is user-replaceable there. The trashcans are a bargain at the moment and if you are worried about the GPUs dying you can grab one extra as a parts donor, as it is possible to take the machine apart. And it also allows usage of Thunderbolt peripherals in large numbers - a Thunderbolt hub will easily run you another 300$ if you want to connect more than the 2 ports the Mini has. Maybe there is going to be an iteration of the Mac Studio which could be more compelling and would be around the $3K-$4K price range, which is what I paid for my trashcan a number of years ago, used. The only thing that I believe the trashcan was missing from the start and should have had, absolutely for certain, is 10g ethernet. The fragile GPUs and that are my only regrets about the little bugger, for the rest it is a superb device, even today.
I actually have quite a contrary opinion on this. I used to use a 2019 16c 96gb ram w6700x(16gb) macpro and traded it for a macstudio with m1 ultra and 128gb. The macpro is nearly 10k € MORE expensive than the macstudio and i have no usecase where it would’ve been faster. Actually apple silicon with its unified memory architecture offers the possibility to have a theoretical 128gb VRAM which is insane. The macpro offers that only with 2 w6900x DUO graphics cards which would be an 11k€ option alone! And if you then consider the lower energy consumption of the apple silicon devices they are dirt cheap in comparison. So just from a financial standpoint i could burn through 2-3 macstudios to compensate just the macpro. Personally i would prefer a customizable and modular system and i find the aesthetic of the studio very uninspiring (which for a designer does matter :D) but i dont see any value in it currently, and i wouldnt call the 2013 macpro very customizable either since it has a very locked set of matching components.
unless you REALLY use those 128gb, benchmarks show that RAM amount has almost 0 influence on performance. I saw multiple videos where 8gb M1 macbook did PS exports, video renders etc as fast as 16gb one, even though it claimed to use 12GB of ram all the time. The SSD is just so darn fast. When it comes to it being perishable, yes. But how often does that happen in reality? Compared to Mac Pro's (cheesgrater and trashcan), you can buy 4 M1/M2 mac minis in a row, which should cover enough time :)
Also consider the TBW rating is really high on the Mac Mini, it would take several years for you to reach the TBW rating, probably longer than you’d keep that Mac Mini for
@@jom1439 Absolutely agree on the 2019 MP, that was just a money extraction device. Same as the trashcan was at launch really, but we are talking used these days.
@@zoruaboy Apparently it still depends on the usage pattern. If you swap a lot, or you render/ingest to the internal drive, the numbers are not that rosy. I don't see the ratings published, but having a ticking time bomb for a component I can't replace (soldered nvme chip) vs. a ticking time bomb I can replace (GPU on the trashcan) is a consideration IMO
I see the video comparisons. Very educational. Wonder how it measures up with audio. I use my Mac pro for audio purposes. Very light video with OBS. Still a very solid machine. I don't want to go past Catalina just yet.
Just bought a 8 core with D500 and 32 gigs ram for $300 mint condition, I love the novelty of it. Will install a 2 terabyte Evo Plus and OCLP then Ventura just for fun.
You are the 2013 Mac Pro comparison king! Thanks for keeping it alive. For regular desktop tasks these machines are trash but what about server workloads? Could you do a video comparing these as servers, as it can still run the most up to date Linux versions like 22.04. It would be interesting to see these 12 core Macs against the lower core M2 Pro as web site, api, or database servers. The main advantage being the additional cores/threads and increased RAM to offset the incredible power of the new Apple Silicon chips.
If you have a specific use case, like emulation or a specific tool for editing, the cost may not make sense. As it also doesn’t have hard drive bays. It’s both overkill and not enough for many other uses.
I kind of agree but I picked up a single sided 4TB P3 NVMe for £220 today. I have a lot more storage in my 2010 5.1 but I grabbed the trash can for the design and sound output under load for VMware. The drop in prices of Gen 3 4TB does make it more compelling.
When did "binning" start meaning "worse"? In the PC world, it generally meant "sorted" based on tested performance but was usually used to indicate something that the individual component was tested to achieve higher performance....e.g., the 8086k was a binned version of the 8770k that would reliably achieve an all-core 5 GHz boost clock as opposed to only hitting it reliably on a few cores. It's a weird situation where the exact same word used for at least generally the same concept means opposite things in practice. It's odd....
There’s binned lower and binned higher. Which one gets referred to by simply “binned” usually depends on which one is deemed the normal/standard and which one is deemed the odd one.
I didn't realize this Mac had dropped so far. I just got my Costco rebate so might buy one off ebay to add to my collection of old Apple hardware. My first Mac, a Performa 400, is long gone but I still have my Powerbook Ti, an original iBook, the shell of the lampshade iMac along with a variety of very early iPhones and iPods. I also still have a working iSight. The trashcan Mac by itself would be an interesting product to add to my "museum."
@@PappaMike-vc1qv While moving, I found the original Performa box so I cut off the front of the box to keep. Amazing specs, 256 colors, 1.4MB floppy disk, 80MB hard disk 16MHz 68030 microprocessor, 4MB RAM all from 1992. Just realized that's 30 years ago. I'm getting old. This wasn't the first Mac but it was the first small computer ever built, about the size of a medium pizza box.
That 10.000 Mac Pro can be put together for a 1000 now. It is probably the one that can boot the most Mac OS versions without turning tricks. It's a good intel mac If you want one of those hanging around. With an eGPU It is faster than these tests suggest. Also if you need 128GB ram. ( GB's over speed ) It's the cheapest mac option. And the 128GB is very cheap. The 12 core processor is cheap, but the 10 core and faster 8 core are the better processors. It does have the 4 USB 3.0 ports, 6 TB2 ports, 2 ethernet ports, 1 HDMI port. It's still great for music production, because It's mostly silent. And supports a lot of old gear/daw's/plugins. It's also great for photoshop, working with large psb's ... the GB's of ram really count here, the speed less so. Don't give a trashcan intensive graphic tasks ... the GPU's are old/slow ... and they will burn. Doing After Effects makes the trashcan a vulcano. Use an eGPU and don't trash your trashcan. ;) Give It a Vega RX 64, RX6800 or something ...
There's plenty of software that does use those dual AMD graphics chips. DaVinci Resolve is one of them. It performs very well with those two graphics chips. I do agree with Luke. If you are buying one for modern work then I'd look elsewhere. They are good computers if you have a lot of older TB1/2 devices but if not then $300-700 dollars could be better spent on a modern machine.
I am finally upgrading from my Trashcan D700 64g 6core I bought used in 2014 for $4K. I bought it to Run Resolve and while not ideal, it is the engine of a suite with the Advanced Panels! I kept waiting for a compelling machine and the M2 Ultra is on it's way to me, and likely to see 8-9 years of use, like the trashcan pro.
I just picked up an IBM 5160 with the largest hard drive, maxed ram, and even a math coprocessor, it would have cost between $6000 and $8000 new, adjusted for inflation that's somewhere around $20,000 to buy it new. Right now the keyboard that came with it cost around 3x as much as the computer did. I love that the trashcan is so cheap. I’m really enjoying my hobby of collecting retro computers. Fun fact my 2006 gaming setup increased in price over new, mostly due to the asus a8n32-sli deluxe motherboard, CM staker case, and original Logitech G15 keyboard
You are nuts. All I have been telling people since I got my M2 Pro a few days ago is that it's so insanely quiet compared to the Trash Can. The Trash Can did sound like a plane if you were running load on it. Mine is from 2014. You skipped over the biggest problem with the Mac Pro which is the lack of USB-C.
And there's me, still using a classic Mac Pro 5,1 with a couple of X5675 and 5 hard disks connected! 😁 It's a wonderful machine for digital audio and it leads me to the results I need. Apple has yet to create a machine like that.
Luke forgot about the use of e-GPU support which you can use whichever Graphics cards that you'd like to use and it'll blow any D300, D500, or D700 out of the water in terms of graphics performance. And you can use up to a 5K display, and up to 6 thunderbolt displays. It also has dual ethernet ports and all ports light up. Isn't that cool?
The Mac Pro seems to be having a bit of a renaissance of sorts lately. Simply because of the price. eBay is absolutely flooded with base model $300 machines because so many businesses sold them to liquidators due to support being dropped. I purchased one myself and refurbed/upgraded it. I think now is the time to get one just for the collector value. Think of it less as like a real modern computer and more like a collector computer that you can actually use everyday. There will never be a better time to get one than now. In 15-20 years I bet it’s the new G4 Cube.
I’m gonna be honest, I use a trash can Mac Pro with 64GB RAM and a 2TB SSD everyday for videos using FCPX, and I love it. I got it for $375, so, not a bad deal.
Trash Can is so much better… just because of replaceable stuff and no shit lock… You can run Monterey and patch to Ventura, which will be fully released somewhat soon. I would argue that Apple Silicon is "fake" performance because kind of like Intel Arc, even if the performance per dollar seems insane, a GTX 960 can crush it in a lot of games if you don’t have optimization. Then there is the environment, which even if Apple Silicon was perfect, would make it a no go still!
I recently just bought a 6-core, 32G Quad channel, 512G SSD D500x2 Mac Pro in pristine condition for $370. I then upgrade the cpu to e5-2667 v2($17), SSD adapter($5) and my old HP EX950 2T(~$100) to get about 15% better single core performance and 30% better multicore performance due to double the cache on CPU and higher clock
I bought a refurbished Mac pro and dual booted windows, it actually functions really well on Windows and I get access to all my Mac stuff with iMovie too. It was dirt cheap so I'm actually fine with a pretty powerful 200 dollar 32 GB of Ram and 2TB machine.
I wonder how those trashcan MPs maxxed out would work in a modern audio recording studio context. How many plugins could I run? How would the latency be? System stability?
I’ve been using a 2013 Mac Pro in the studio for about 6 years. I bought it as a 6-core and later upgraded it to 12-core. I can do full band tracking sessions at the lowest buffer size in Pro Tools without it breaking a sweat, and for the most part it’s great for mixing. There are just a few CPU-hungry plugins that occasionally cause problems if I run several instances, but then I just raise the buffer and it’s fine. It does struggle with some virtual instruments where single-core performance is more important. It was actually better at that as a 6-core machine! Overall, I would say if you’re on a tight budget, a used trashcan is a decent option, but personally I plan to upgrade to an M2 Pro mini this year.
@@alexmdegroot I'm in a similar boat. My Trash Can 6-core 64GB RAM gets used daily for pro audio recording and mixing, and I generally never run out of power. I don't really use much in the way of virtual instruments though. Debating whether I should upgrade to the M2 Mini Pro now (mostly for portability, partly for lower noise in the room), or spend another year traveling with the Trash Can that performs perfectly fine and wait for the next generation of Mac Mini or Mac Studio.
@@lancepowell8561I don’t know how your Daw would handle the M2 Pro, but Logic with just 16 GB and the base model runs full orchestras now. But it’s strictly because Logic now only uses memory on a track by track basis, so only the tracks that are actually playing at any given moment take up memory as it acts as if they are frozen when they are not being played. For an app that was less optimized I would go for 32 GB. But I was amazed that I could load up a crazy orchestra without any hiccups on the M2 Pro Mac mini base model.
@@ghost-user559 i since grabbed a Mac Mini M2 with 16gb RAM and it’s running about the same as the Trash Can, maybe a little better. It’s super quiet and much more portable and pretty cheap so I’m happy with it. I run Pro Tools and just record and mix, no programming.
@@lancepowell8561 Yeah I did the same thing and its been working great so far. Works well for ai, video editing and graphic design too. I also got an OWC thunderbolt enclosure for a 2tb nvme to use as a boot drive and it’s flawless as well. So for not too much money you can get a 2tb external ssd and install the OS on it, and keep the wear and tear off the internal drive.
This says a lot about how much slower the M2 Mac SSDs are. The SSD in my M1 Max absolutely smokes the PCIe gen 4 rocket drive in my PC, however this Mac mini was beaten out by an SSD in a system that can only support PCIe gen 3.
I like Luke because he is sincerely passionate about Mac. There is something about the old mac design that is so appealing. Apple should make a trash can mini !
Honestly I could see this thing being a snazzy little Proxmox server or something. 12 cores, 128GB of ram and you could host a bunch of stuff like Home Assistant, Minecraft (or other game servers), Pi Hole, ect. all at the same time and it would be TOTALLY silent.
Great to see this, especially as I had been pondering this very comparison myself. Would have been interested to have seen a Black Magic speed score for the storage in both. I had understood that the MacPro 2013’s were robust reliable machines; did the stated graphics card failures relate to the top spec (hottest) D700 or also the D500 & D300? Good to have had power consumption mentioned. Do they guzzle the stated 100-150 Watts at low compute loads or at high load? I understood the MacPro power supply was designed for up to 400-500 Watts? A performance comparison with the entry level M2 Mac Mini (£649) against this full spec Mac pro 2013 would have been particularly useful as it is much closer in price today. Thanks for the helpful video.
I added an external graphics card to this Mac Pro with thunderbolt chassis. It is not officially supported, but can be done. Worked well for few years. And now I replaced it with Mac Studio for my sound studio.
It's unbelievable just how much better the Apple Silicon machines are compared to older Intel models. There's so much more performance and overall value with the newer machines. As a commercial photographer and digital artist, I'm able to get my work done much faster and it's definitely improved my quality of life. Having a faster machine allows me to be more creative, experiment more and try new things. This was an interesting comparison. I have to ask though, being that the old Mac Pro is no longer supported, what operating system were you running in this comparison? Ventura on both Macs? If so, were you using an open source patcher in order to get Ventura on the Mac Pro? Cheers!
The Mac Pros are coming down in price, but it's basically the same as my Son's Dell T3610. At least in the T3610, I can upgrade the video card to something relevant. I just upgraded his CPU to the 8c/16t E5 2667 V2. It seemed like the best bang for the buck. It's 3.3 GHz with a 4.0 GHz boost.
Hey Luke, I literally just bought one of these base model trashcans with the intention to upgrade. I am music producer and the external hardware I use can only run on intel so this Mac Pro is actually the best computer for my use case. The trashcan is the original Mac Studio!
“The trashcan is the original Mac Studio!” Well yes, it is… but I'd actually go a few years before the trashcan, and say the G4 Cube was the original Mac Studio. Both the G4 Cube and the trashcan flopped as the industry just wasn't ready for the 'creative appliance' type computer that Apple wanted to build.
try using the thunderbolt connectors on the trashcan for external GPUs (even moser Metal API capable ones), and Davinci Resolve and Capture One pro will smoke the macmini!
Still using my trash can. It does fine for lightroom and photoshop. About the heaviest task I throw at it is importing and exporting large amounts of images and it still flies through that. I do plan on getting a M2 eventually because I cant run Ventura on the trashcan other than that I haven't had any problems.
There is no hope. However, I got a 6-Core Mac Pro the other week for less than $250. A capable machine which beats my 2017 5K i5 iMac for everything I use it for.
I bought a used HP Z640 workstation (circa 2013 or so) - 3 years ago in summer 2020 - for only $1000. It just ran cinebench at 19,000. My conclusion? Mac hardware is always overpriced for the amount of compute power you get. Yes, I know the newer chips would be more efficient. So would a Ryzen.
sadly, the best cpu that can run 10.14 is not the mac pro late 2019. i'd love to run 32 bit software on newer... maybe i'll get a 2018 15 inch macbook pro or something...
Here's another mind-blowing comparison: My M1 iPad Pro has roughly double the computing power of the classic Mac Pro I'm typing on right now and use as my daily driver for music production.
Great comparison. I'll keep my trash can Luke. Can't justify paying over a grand for a MacMini when there's nothing wrong with how my MacPro works today. I have the same configuration as you have.
I still use my MacPro as a workstation and parallel as a server (max processors and memory) since it has double GPUs (double active users). I highly appreciate the silence and the server resulting from good design. Running 24 / 7 for years.
Ultimately you rent your hardware, no matter how many thousands of dollars you are rich enough to spend. The Apple software 'maintenance' period is the only thing you actually 'buy'. The rest is landfill.
I sold my trash can when the resell price was still decent. I do miss the look of that I ended up getting an empty shell off eBay and have it as decor.
I did the same thing, sold mine as soon as the M1s were released. If I'd waited much longer I would have taken a beating on the sale price. I miss the look too.
Now the prices have tanked on those 😹😹
Are those slow by M processor standard or are they still good enough?
Do you use it as an actual trash can? (I would^^)
maybe I should do that too
Put the Mac mini inside of the Mac Pro!!! Make it so you can still use the ports with a hub. that would be crazy!!!
This would be a great project. The Minis are very blah looking.
@@preiter20 the board on the mini's is so small... in theory you could actually fit one on each side of the heat sync... I don't know what you do from that point as I don't think you could tie them together to make a Mac Maxi... but in theory it looks like it would fit.
Yes!!!
Yooo I would love seeing a video of this being done!
There is a mod PCB board for fitting a Mac mini m1 logic board to install in the 2011 27" iMac
I bought a Pro with D300s, 16GB and 500GB storage a couple of months ago for $320. I will put Ventura on it via Opencore once that gets more stable. I also bought an M2 mini. My typical workflows don’t need the power of either, and the Pro is kind of just fun to have.
I was very lucky to find brand new sealed trashcan Mac Pro with 6 Core, 32GB RAM, D500 GPU and 500GB SSD on ebay for $700 a year ago. That same configuration MSRP when it came out was $4,699.
I always wanted to have these Mac Pro trashcan and very happy that I got one.
I'm going to keep mine as stock and not do any actual upgrades, including upgrading the OS and leave it in Monterey installed.
If going to do some hardware upgrade, I would rather buy another Mac Pro but in used condition.
I almost want to buy one to use as a windows computer and gaming.
bought a 4 core D500 trash can like 6 months ago for around $300 swapped in the 12 core cpu and 64gb of ram for another $60 ish, and for $360 I think its a pretty solid machine. I will probably upgrade to a Apple silicon mini in the next year or two when they get in the refurbished store.
was it not difficult to upgrade the cores ?
I'm keeping my trashcan as long as it works, got it for so cheap in 2019. It's still a champ for logic pro x, and I can't imagine the annoyance of transferring my plugin/virtual instrument licenses to a new computer.
Even i had the issue but no worries You can do it without hassle with time machine back-up ❤️
Planning to get one for Ableton 11.
Any tips and recommendations before buying one
Thanks
It takes about a week
I bought a base one, but with 64gb of ram and 8 core CPU for 400€. I upgrade to a 12 core CPU and 1 terra storage and I'm pretty happy. I can edit 4k video very easily. Not bad at all!
For music production the Mac Pro is just a dream. With many many tracks running dosens of different VSTs, those 128GB of ram would be incredible
Revisiting this video because I just bought a new 2018 mfg. pristine Mac Pro, with 24" PC monitor, with mouse, with keyboard, 32GB, 256GB, D700 cards for $300. I have to point out, the configuration you were using was NOT the best one. It was the most expensive, but the RAM upgrade to 128GB actually SLOWED this Mac down. The sweet spot was 64GB running at 1866MHz. When you upgrade to 128GB, the memory actually clocks down. It COULD go that capacity, but for performance, it' shouldn't. I know, this is my second one, I literally bought it for the D700 cards for $300 and got everything else for free. It's a great second machine backup to my original 2013 owner machine. All this said, your conclusions are still the same so it doesn't impact your video, but it's nice to point out the error in your configuration. Keep up the great work Luke. Thanks!
Great comparison, as always! Just thought about the same, gettin an old trash can pro just for the looks. How about modding one and trying to put in M2 mini internals in it? Should be cool I guess
I shoved an M2 into an old Victrola. Sounds like crap but it is way more powerful.
Idk if theres room for the Pro logic board but if he can shove an M1 Mini in a Wii im sure he could pull it off.
It is nice to see a comparison of old and new technology and how the old technology can still be used. Great Work!!
Gives me hope that the Mac Studio Ultra can be used for 10 years too.
What's far more impressive than the performance gains to me are the efficiency gains over the years. The M2 Pro Mac Mini is impressively fast but you can get the same SOC in a 14" laptop that hardly gets hot under load and gets more than 11 hours of usable battery life to boot. The hardware in the Mac Pro would never have functioned as a laptop.
Enjoyed this video. I bought a "trash can" Mac Pro over the Christmas holiday, and it was probably not the right choice, but I had fun with the upgrades. It is the six core and I upgraded the RAM to 64GB and the SSD to 2TB. I have yet up upgrade the CPU. What drew me to it was the ability to make some upgrades. I enjoy working with the hardware. In these days of "sealed boxes" it is becoming rare to be able to work with the hardware under normal circumstances. The big adventure with mine was that the original SSD had been upgraded without upgrading the firmware, so I actually had to buy an original Apple SSD and go "backward" to upgrade the firmware so that I could get the system to Monterey. This has been addressed in other videos, but something to watch out for if you go this route!
Check the compatible CPU's 10 core is faster most of the time or the 8 core 4Ghz.
Also if you add 128 gig ram It runs slower on a 12 core than an 8 core.
I have the 8 core ( not the apple 1, the faster one ), 128gb ram, Vega RX 64, D500's. 1TB internal SSD but OWC 4 NVME Box with 4 2TB drives.
( the OWC box is slow ), I have older TB2 PCIe boxes from Akitio that are much faster ...
Well the comparison would be fair if you were at least evaluating some use cases where you actually need some of the specs of the trashcan Pro: if you need ram to do, say, mechanical or thermal simulation, then the 128 GB of the trashcan would be the difference between being able to complete a simulation and not completing it at all. Same for the graphics card, Blender tests are fine, but moving a large assembly in a CAD package with wireframe and dimmed hidden lines would be one scenario where the trashcan will probably win hands down: I've not seen CAD specific benchmarks for Apple Silicon GPUs so I'm not sure how they perform in wireframe, which is the field where most general purpose GPUs fail and where the trashcan GPUs should shine.
Which CAD program would you suggest for a benchmark test?
@@guyjordan8201 the industry standard for CAD performance comparison has always been SPECviewperf, which uses real cad code for its tests, but its latest update is from the end of 2021 and I think its windows only (which makes sense since AAA CAD packages are more numerous on Windows). That said I can think of Autodesk Fusion and Siemens NX as CAD packages that have a macOS version, not sure if they are Apple Silicon native. On the simulation front, a Comsol benchmark could be interesting, and Comsol is available for macOS
then you hack together a hackintosh and call it a day. You don't buy 10+ years old mostly proprietary hardware in unbelievably proprietary form factor..
@@ahmetrefikeryilmaz4432 But is beautiful.
I think it's pretty clear to people who require 128GB + of memory that the 16 GB M2 Pro is not gonna cut it. I think this is more for the use cases that-in the past-were pigeonholed into this "pro" space where computers base prices began in the $2000+ range, that can be now satisfied by sub $2000 Desktops.
That visual effect at 6:29 is really nice (subtle but makes it look so pro)
I've had a couple of Mac Pros and they have all been TANKS. I have owned my current Mac Pro 6.1(Trash Can) since January 2017 when I bought it new. I didn't choose another Mac Pro because of outright speed. There's plenty of other faster options for that. I chose it because it can stay running 24/7 with no issues at all. It always runs consistently- no questions asked. You can't do that with a normal computer without ECC Ram, ECC-ram compatible MotherBoards, and CPUs. I have a Mac Mini i7 that is used as a media center, and MacBook Pros for other portable purposes. I will keep my 6.1 for as long as I can, and if there's a need for something to do a specific task quicker, I'll throw it on my MBP M2.
Another thing I forgot to mention- I take my computers apart to clean and maintain them every now and then. With the MP 6.1, I'm always left a little speechless at the quality of machining from all the inner parts. It's like jewelry.
One thing you didn’t mention are the old-school DisplayPort-shaped TB2 ports. But I like that old Mac Pro cylinder design too. It’s surprisingly compact when I saw it in-person at Apple Store. I almost bought one used after the 2019 Intel Mac Pro model came out but before Apple announced the transition away from Intel. Probably a good thing that it was still too expensive for me at that time considering it quickly went from being the latest Mac Pro to no longer supported with current MacOS.
Thank you, Luke for another excellent vintage to modern Apple desktop comparison video. In the Spring of 2022, my original goal was to buy an M1 Pro "mac mini" but, Apple, Inc. surprised everyone buy leaving the M1 "mac mini" as it was and then, they introduced a new desktop model the "Mac Studio" along with the new "Studio Display". However, when trying to order a custom version, I ran into some problems on the "Mac Studio" there was a five (5)- month back-log and on the "Studio Display" it had various issues of its own. At the same time, I noticed the prices of the space gray "trash can" size Mac Pro models had started to drop like a "Rock". So, for about $1,000 picked-up a used 8-core/ D-700/ 64GB/ 1TB SSD model and paired it with my already owned 2010, Apple 27-inch Cinema (none thunderbolt) display and added an Apple DVD super-drive to my set-up. This system makes a great replacement for my 2010, "mac mini" (the last model with a built-in DVD super-drive) and to-date everything has been working great (smile...smile).
I’m still rocking my 10-year-old trashcan and loving it! I look at it this way, any other machine purchase in 2013 would have been replaced years ago. I’m still happily running a supported OS 10 years in.
The design is cool. When the time comes, I would love to gut it and shoehorn in an M2.
🎉 yep!
Can you develop on latest xcode?
@@RemoteWorkerIndonesia This machine can upgrade to Monterey. That means Xcode 14.x. The current Xcode running on Ventura is Xcode 15.x. Definitely time for a newer machine if you want to run the latest Xcode.
If you want to truly max out a Mac Pro 2013, skip the D500/D700 upgrade and go straight for an eGPU. Even an RX 5700 XT blows the M2 Mac mini out of the water in terms of GPU performance.
But I'd advise against buying a Mac Pro 2013 for most people, if you want a pro-level Mac for somewhat cheap, just get a Mac mini 2018. Plenty of power on the i7 model, eGPU upgrade is easy since it is basically designed for that. SSD is soldered on, but thanks to the dual Thunderbolt controllers, you can just use a NVMe SSD in a USB-C or Thunderbolt enclosure. RAM is pretty much the only internal upgrade you can do to it though, unfortunately.
I think it depends on what you are going to be doing. I just bought a 12-core 64GB + 1TB SSD + Dual D500s for $1100 refreshed by OWC. I am using it for full stack web development and not for multi-media workflow. Multi-core and RAM are the big sealers for me for this price.
"Can't Innovate My 🍑"
the recent price crash for the Trash Can Mac Pro turned it from a crappy investment to a half decent machine haha, I'm frankly into buying one just for having it (and maybe use it as a secondary Mac), it's a sick machine :3
I have 2! Just collecting dust lol, I'm using 1 at my tech bench now but that's just because I already had it and didn't want to buy a new mac. The other 1 I keep just in case I need the installed OS to open old client projects (audio mixing/editing)/ Amazing machines, but they get stomped out by Apple Silicon!
@@KC-bi9jw you should sell it to one of these nice people :)
Thanks for keeping the Late 2013 MacPro candle flame flickering , I've use my maxed out factory specked model nearly 10 years and it still glides seamlessly albeit not down Ventura Highway .
Their price dropped so much that it makes a great entry level Mac for hobbyists and enthusiasts .
Although todays entry level Mac are way more optimised in terms of performance and power consumption they lack any form of upgradeability…
It’s a shame spending over 1k on an entry level machine and being stuck forever with 256gb disk (I can at least accept ram memory not being upgradable since it is integrated within the cpu soc)
Apple 10 years ago also thought 256GB was enough fro real Pro users who spend 3k on the Mac Pro💀
Apple don't want you to be able to upgrade "old" machines, they make it that you have no choice but to upgrade to NEXT new machine'$🤨😞 It's all for the love of money for Apple🤷♂️🤬
I’m planning on testing the M2 Pro Mac mini against my 2013 Quad-core Mac Pro just for fun. I’d be curious if you ran the test again in FCP but exported to ProRes. The Mac Pro should be significantly better doing that. Great video, Luke!
How did it go ? 🙂
Great video! Good pro/con analysis. The trashcan looks awesome with its case off. Almost like a Borg-cube, but cylindrical.
It's like a big can of pineapple juice only without the juice.
YES, without case it looks cool, it's beyond me why they never offered it with a (acrylic) glass cylinder.
I have even an older Mac Pro. A maxed out 5.1 and I know that the M2 Mac Mini is 100 times faster but I would keep this legendary machine with the 30" Cinema Display forever. It just looks better and still can do its job.
I just bought a Mac Pro (2013) for $500. 12-core intel Xeon 64gb purely for music production and web surfing… this thing is amazing. My buddy has a silicon Mac Studio and still gets buffering issue messages, I don’t. For me the Mac Pro is a major win.
I got a 64gb 8core model recently to use as a virtualization server. Power consumption is a bit higher than I expected but it doubles as a server in the plain-sight pretty cool.
Regarding the load times…upgrading the M2 pro to 1TB (or larger) will roughly double the SSD performance. For $200 more, it may be a worthwhile upgrade for at least some users.
Those prices are outrageous, for about the same money you could get a 4TB SSD on a custom PC.
The base trash can with an LED Cinema Display is a great "starter setup" for any creative that's just starting out, for sure. Imagine if they brought back the trash can design with all its I/O and fitted it with an M2 processor?
I also sold my trash can Mac in late 2018 cost me $6500 new had it 2 years and got $5300 when selling, I was so lucky, just before the current Mac Pro came out !! phew.......
You very narrowly escaped a nastty depreciation!
I already had a M1 Mac Mini and it's awesome, but I also just bought a "trash can" Mac Pro 6,1 to run VMware ESXi 8 and run macOS VMs on it.
I actually bought that $299 one you showed on the eBay listing screenshot lol bought it yesterday. Excited for it to arrive!
I'm using a trashcan as my daily driver and there is something that needs to be mentioned about the M1/M2 studio and mini. They have a small amount of RAM and you cannot upgrade it in any way (lest you pay through the nose to get a BTO config). They also have a non-upgradable soldered SSD storage. The SSD storage is actually perishable (has limited TBW) and if you don't have a lot of memory you will end up swapping to that SSD, wearing it out even faster. If you want to avoid that you need to get an Apple Silicon mac with way more storage (which is priced with a huge markup) and way more RAM than standard (also a huge markup). Using a trashcan with 128GB of RAM can be useful in some scenarios, and it never swaps! The SSD can be easily replaced with an off-the-shelf NVMe. The CPU can be replaced with an off-the-shelf used Xeon. So as compelling as the new Apple Silicon machines are, I am hesitant to jump ship because I'm just worried about the machine turning into a lemon after just a few years of intensive use - and nothing except the fans is user-replaceable there. The trashcans are a bargain at the moment and if you are worried about the GPUs dying you can grab one extra as a parts donor, as it is possible to take the machine apart. And it also allows usage of Thunderbolt peripherals in large numbers - a Thunderbolt hub will easily run you another 300$ if you want to connect more than the 2 ports the Mini has.
Maybe there is going to be an iteration of the Mac Studio which could be more compelling and would be around the $3K-$4K price range, which is what I paid for my trashcan a number of years ago, used. The only thing that I believe the trashcan was missing from the start and should have had, absolutely for certain, is 10g ethernet. The fragile GPUs and that are my only regrets about the little bugger, for the rest it is a superb device, even today.
I actually have quite a contrary opinion on this. I used to use a 2019 16c 96gb ram w6700x(16gb) macpro and traded it for a macstudio with m1 ultra and 128gb. The macpro is nearly 10k € MORE expensive than the macstudio and i have no usecase where it would’ve been faster. Actually apple silicon with its unified memory architecture offers the possibility to have a theoretical 128gb VRAM which is insane. The macpro offers that only with 2 w6900x DUO graphics cards which would be an 11k€ option alone! And if you then consider the lower energy consumption of the apple silicon devices they are dirt cheap in comparison.
So just from a financial standpoint i could burn through 2-3 macstudios to compensate just the macpro.
Personally i would prefer a customizable and modular system and i find the aesthetic of the studio very uninspiring (which for a designer does matter :D) but i dont see any value in it currently, and i wouldnt call the 2013 macpro very customizable either since it has a very locked set of matching components.
unless you REALLY use those 128gb, benchmarks show that RAM amount has almost 0 influence on performance. I saw multiple videos where 8gb M1 macbook did PS exports, video renders etc as fast as 16gb one, even though it claimed to use 12GB of ram all the time.
The SSD is just so darn fast. When it comes to it being perishable, yes. But how often does that happen in reality? Compared to Mac Pro's (cheesgrater and trashcan), you can buy 4 M1/M2 mac minis in a row, which should cover enough time :)
Also consider the TBW rating is really high on the Mac Mini, it would take several years for you to reach the TBW rating, probably longer than you’d keep that Mac Mini for
@@jom1439 Absolutely agree on the 2019 MP, that was just a money extraction device. Same as the trashcan was at launch really, but we are talking used these days.
@@zoruaboy Apparently it still depends on the usage pattern. If you swap a lot, or you render/ingest to the internal drive, the numbers are not that rosy. I don't see the ratings published, but having a ticking time bomb for a component I can't replace (soldered nvme chip) vs. a ticking time bomb I can replace (GPU on the trashcan) is a consideration IMO
I absolutely love the design of the old trashcan. It would be nice to have a trashcan with a m2 built inn
I see the video comparisons. Very educational. Wonder how it measures up with audio. I use my Mac pro for audio purposes. Very light video with OBS. Still a very solid machine. I don't want to go past Catalina just yet.
Just bought a 8 core with D500 and 32 gigs ram for $300 mint condition, I love the novelty of it. Will install a 2 terabyte Evo Plus and OCLP then Ventura just for fun.
I have seen a few people use the trash Can Mac with a EGPU maybe that would give a better performance boost
definitely!
You are the 2013 Mac Pro comparison king! Thanks for keeping it alive. For regular desktop tasks these machines are trash but what about server workloads? Could you do a video comparing these as servers, as it can still run the most up to date Linux versions like 22.04. It would be interesting to see these 12 core Macs against the lower core M2 Pro as web site, api, or database servers. The main advantage being the additional cores/threads and increased RAM to offset the incredible power of the new Apple Silicon chips.
If you have a specific use case, like emulation or a specific tool for editing, the cost may not make sense. As it also doesn’t have hard drive bays. It’s both overkill and not enough for many other uses.
I kind of agree but I picked up a single sided 4TB P3 NVMe for £220 today. I have a lot more storage in my 2010 5.1 but I grabbed the trash can for the design and sound output under load for VMware. The drop in prices of Gen 3 4TB does make it more compelling.
When did "binning" start meaning "worse"? In the PC world, it generally meant "sorted" based on tested performance but was usually used to indicate something that the individual component was tested to achieve higher performance....e.g., the 8086k was a binned version of the 8770k that would reliably achieve an all-core 5 GHz boost clock as opposed to only hitting it reliably on a few cores. It's a weird situation where the exact same word used for at least generally the same concept means opposite things in practice. It's odd....
There’s binned lower and binned higher. Which one gets referred to by simply “binned” usually depends on which one is deemed the normal/standard and which one is deemed the odd one.
I didn't realize this Mac had dropped so far. I just got my Costco rebate so might buy one off ebay to add to my collection of old Apple hardware. My first Mac, a Performa 400, is long gone but I still have my Powerbook Ti, an original iBook, the shell of the lampshade iMac along with a variety of very early iPhones and iPods. I also still have a working iSight. The trashcan Mac by itself would be an interesting product to add to my "museum."
Yes, another performa user. I thought I was the only one person alive that ever used one.
I had the “pizza box” 410 with an accelerator card. Lol
@@PappaMike-vc1qv While moving, I found the original Performa box so I cut off the front of the box to keep. Amazing specs, 256 colors, 1.4MB floppy disk, 80MB hard disk 16MHz 68030 microprocessor, 4MB RAM all from 1992. Just realized that's 30 years ago. I'm getting old. This wasn't the first Mac but it was the first small computer ever built, about the size of a medium pizza box.
That 10.000 Mac Pro can be put together for a 1000 now.
It is probably the one that can boot the most Mac OS versions without turning tricks.
It's a good intel mac If you want one of those hanging around.
With an eGPU It is faster than these tests suggest.
Also if you need 128GB ram. ( GB's over speed ) It's the cheapest mac option.
And the 128GB is very cheap. The 12 core processor is cheap, but the 10 core and faster 8 core are the better processors.
It does have the 4 USB 3.0 ports, 6 TB2 ports, 2 ethernet ports, 1 HDMI port.
It's still great for music production, because It's mostly silent. And supports a lot of old gear/daw's/plugins.
It's also great for photoshop, working with large psb's ... the GB's of ram really count here, the speed less so.
Don't give a trashcan intensive graphic tasks ... the GPU's are old/slow ... and they will burn.
Doing After Effects makes the trashcan a vulcano.
Use an eGPU and don't trash your trashcan. ;)
Give It a Vega RX 64, RX6800 or something ...
I dig the trash can Mac Pro design. They should bring it back but with souped up Apple Silicon specs for sure!
There's plenty of software that does use those dual AMD graphics chips. DaVinci Resolve is one of them. It performs very well with those two graphics chips.
I do agree with Luke. If you are buying one for modern work then I'd look elsewhere. They are good computers if you have a lot of older TB1/2 devices but if not then $300-700 dollars could be better spent on a modern machine.
I am finally upgrading from my Trashcan D700 64g 6core I bought used in 2014 for $4K. I bought it to Run Resolve and while not ideal, it is the engine of a suite with the Advanced Panels! I kept waiting for a compelling machine and the M2 Ultra is on it's way to me, and likely to see 8-9 years of use, like the trashcan pro.
I just picked up an IBM 5160 with the largest hard drive, maxed ram, and even a math coprocessor, it would have cost between $6000 and $8000 new, adjusted for inflation that's somewhere around $20,000 to buy it new. Right now the keyboard that came with it cost around 3x as much as the computer did. I love that the trashcan is so cheap. I’m really enjoying my hobby of collecting retro computers. Fun fact my 2006 gaming setup increased in price over new, mostly due to the asus a8n32-sli deluxe motherboard, CM staker case, and original Logitech G15 keyboard
You are nuts. All I have been telling people since I got my M2 Pro a few days ago is that it's so insanely quiet compared to the Trash Can. The Trash Can did sound like a plane if you were running load on it. Mine is from 2014. You skipped over the biggest problem with the Mac Pro which is the lack of USB-C.
And there's me, still using a classic Mac Pro 5,1 with a couple of X5675 and 5 hard disks connected! 😁
It's a wonderful machine for digital audio and it leads me to the results I need. Apple has yet to create a machine like that.
Yes, the 5,1 is the *real* MVP!
Luke forgot about the use of e-GPU support which you can use whichever Graphics cards that you'd like to use and it'll blow any D300, D500, or D700 out of the water in terms of graphics performance. And you can use up to a 5K display, and up to 6 thunderbolt displays. It also has dual ethernet ports and all ports light up. Isn't that cool?
The Mac Pro seems to be having a bit of a renaissance of sorts lately. Simply because of the price. eBay is absolutely flooded with base model $300 machines because so many businesses sold them to liquidators due to support being dropped. I purchased one myself and refurbed/upgraded it. I think now is the time to get one just for the collector value. Think of it less as like a real modern computer and more like a collector computer that you can actually use everyday. There will never be a better time to get one than now. In 15-20 years I bet it’s the new G4 Cube.
I’m gonna be honest, I use a trash can Mac Pro with 64GB RAM and a 2TB SSD everyday for videos using FCPX, and I love it. I got it for $375, so, not a bad deal.
Any chance you could put the mini components into a trash can Mac Pro? That would be fun to see.
Love to see a video adding an external GPU to the trash can Mac Pro and compare with M2 Pro Mac Mini.
Kind of makes the name "trash can" work well now. I'd like to see the Mac Mini VS the last iMac 27 Pro machine.
Trash Can is so much better… just because of replaceable stuff and no shit lock…
You can run Monterey and patch to Ventura, which will be fully released somewhat soon.
I would argue that Apple Silicon is "fake" performance because kind of like Intel Arc, even if the performance per dollar seems insane, a GTX 960 can crush it in a lot of games if you don’t have optimization.
Then there is the environment, which even if Apple Silicon was perfect, would make it a no go still!
Still rocking a 2013 MacPro here. Waiting for an M3 Mac Studio...
Wild to see a machine called unupgradable next to a machine thats actually unupgradable haha
I recently just bought a 6-core, 32G Quad channel, 512G SSD D500x2 Mac Pro in pristine condition for $370. I then upgrade the cpu to e5-2667 v2($17), SSD adapter($5) and my old HP EX950 2T(~$100) to get about 15% better single core performance and 30% better multicore performance due to double the cache on CPU and higher clock
It really is the most beautiful trash can ever built; the cover even rings like a fine-quality bell when you pull it off! 😉
I bought a refurbished Mac pro and dual booted windows, it actually functions really well on Windows and I get access to all my Mac stuff with iMovie too. It was dirt cheap so I'm actually fine with a pretty powerful 200 dollar 32 GB of Ram and 2TB machine.
Oh hey that’s my listing! The $750 one with the Cinema Display hooked up 🤩
I wonder how those trashcan MPs maxxed out would work in a modern audio recording studio context. How many plugins could I run? How would the latency be? System stability?
I’ve been using a 2013 Mac Pro in the studio for about 6 years. I bought it as a 6-core and later upgraded it to 12-core. I can do full band tracking sessions at the lowest buffer size in Pro Tools without it breaking a sweat, and for the most part it’s great for mixing. There are just a few CPU-hungry plugins that occasionally cause problems if I run several instances, but then I just raise the buffer and it’s fine. It does struggle with some virtual instruments where single-core performance is more important. It was actually better at that as a 6-core machine! Overall, I would say if you’re on a tight budget, a used trashcan is a decent option, but personally I plan to upgrade to an M2 Pro mini this year.
@@alexmdegroot I'm in a similar boat. My Trash Can 6-core 64GB RAM gets used daily for pro audio recording and mixing, and I generally never run out of power. I don't really use much in the way of virtual instruments though. Debating whether I should upgrade to the M2 Mini Pro now (mostly for portability, partly for lower noise in the room), or spend another year traveling with the Trash Can that performs perfectly fine and wait for the next generation of Mac Mini or Mac Studio.
@@lancepowell8561I don’t know how your Daw would handle the M2 Pro, but Logic with just 16 GB and the base model runs full orchestras now. But it’s strictly because Logic now only uses memory on a track by track basis, so only the tracks that are actually playing at any given moment take up memory as it acts as if they are frozen when they are not being played. For an app that was less optimized I would go for 32 GB. But I was amazed that I could load up a crazy orchestra without any hiccups on the M2 Pro Mac mini base model.
@@ghost-user559 i since grabbed a Mac Mini M2 with 16gb RAM and it’s running about the same as the Trash Can, maybe a little better. It’s super quiet and much more portable and pretty cheap so I’m happy with it. I run Pro Tools and just record and mix, no programming.
@@lancepowell8561 Yeah I did the same thing and its been working great so far. Works well for ai, video editing and graphic design too. I also got an OWC thunderbolt enclosure for a 2tb nvme to use as a boot drive and it’s flawless as well. So for not too much money you can get a 2tb external ssd and install the OS on it, and keep the wear and tear off the internal drive.
This says a lot about how much slower the M2 Mac SSDs are. The SSD in my M1 Max absolutely smokes the PCIe gen 4 rocket drive in my PC, however this Mac mini was beaten out by an SSD in a system that can only support PCIe gen 3.
I can't believe they sold the trashcan up until 2019....seems like ancient history now.
I love the trashcan, it is very unique in design and for that alone, I bought two of them.
That trash can certainly is special. After 10 years, nobody will look at M2.
Another reminder that as you drool over the new shiny 4000 computer today, tommorrow it's a door stop.
Are you running the Mac Pro through an iMac or a dedicated Mac monitor
This is the “you live better than a medieval king” of technology.
Thank you for taking the time to create this video!
Max tech said the M2 Pro Mac Mini outperforms his $15,000 later generation Mac Pro. There was no hope for the trash can to match the M2 mac mini
Are you using a 1st generation 27" iMac in Target Display mode? I suspect so, but it makes the video look a bit confusing.
Exactly. I want to buy one specifically so I can run Windows natively and use it for CPU intensive stuff. So it's not a bad deal at all.
I like Luke because he is sincerely passionate about Mac. There is something about the old mac design that is so appealing. Apple should make a trash can mini !
Lol how many videos have you done with the trash can configured with 128G? With the 12 core cpu, 128G memory runs super slow!
Honestly I could see this thing being a snazzy little Proxmox server or something. 12 cores, 128GB of ram and you could host a bunch of stuff like Home Assistant, Minecraft (or other game servers), Pi Hole, ect. all at the same time and it would be TOTALLY silent.
Great to see this, especially as I had been pondering this very comparison myself. Would have been interested to have seen a Black Magic speed score for the storage in both.
I had understood that the MacPro 2013’s were robust reliable machines; did the stated graphics card failures relate to the top spec (hottest) D700 or also the D500 & D300? Good to have had power consumption mentioned. Do they guzzle the stated 100-150 Watts at low compute loads or at high load? I understood the MacPro power supply was designed for up to 400-500 Watts?
A performance comparison with the entry level M2 Mac Mini (£649) against this full spec Mac pro 2013 would have been particularly useful as it is much closer in price today.
Thanks for the helpful video.
I added an external graphics card to this Mac Pro with thunderbolt chassis. It is not officially supported, but can be done. Worked well for few years. And now I replaced it with Mac Studio for my sound studio.
@Official_Luke_Miani Hi. what do you mean i won?
Luke, what happened to you Mac pro 5,1 your upgraded one? A better comparison as you can still use a modern GPU.
It's unbelievable just how much better the Apple Silicon machines are compared to older Intel models. There's so much more performance and overall value with the newer machines. As a commercial photographer and digital artist, I'm able to get my work done much faster and it's definitely improved my quality of life. Having a faster machine allows me to be more creative, experiment more and try new things.
This was an interesting comparison. I have to ask though, being that the old Mac Pro is no longer supported, what operating system were you running in this comparison? Ventura on both Macs? If so, were you using an open source patcher in order to get Ventura on the Mac Pro? Cheers!
The Mac Pros are coming down in price, but it's basically the same as my Son's Dell T3610. At least in the T3610, I can upgrade the video card to something relevant.
I just upgraded his CPU to the 8c/16t E5 2667 V2. It seemed like the best bang for the buck. It's 3.3 GHz with a 4.0 GHz boost.
thanks a lot for this video ;) it is exactly what i needed to see to decide what to buy to replace my trashcan
I upgraded the base Pro 2013 to the 12 core CPU, 64GB RAM, 1TB SSD, and the D5 GPUs. It was a sweet machine until the M1s were released.
Hey Luke, I literally just bought one of these base model trashcans with the intention to upgrade. I am music producer and the external hardware I use can only run on intel so this Mac Pro is actually the best computer for my use case.
The trashcan is the original Mac Studio!
“The trashcan is the original Mac Studio!” Well yes, it is… but I'd actually go a few years before the trashcan, and say the G4 Cube was the original Mac Studio. Both the G4 Cube and the trashcan flopped as the industry just wasn't ready for the 'creative appliance' type computer that Apple wanted to build.
Yes great point!
Couldn't agree more
Apple burn all their bridges AMD, Intel , Nvidia, software and game developers. I’m stay with my AMD and intel
try using the thunderbolt connectors on the trashcan for external GPUs (even moser Metal API capable ones), and Davinci Resolve and Capture One pro will smoke the macmini!
Yes, my point exactley! A e-GPU is powerful
I need to invest in a video editing MacBook or mini Mac. Should I go new or look at something used? My mid 12 isn’t cutting it anymore, sadly.
I use the "trash can" with my VM Fusion hypervisor to run every possible OS (Mac, Windows, Linux). Great machine. Thanks for this valuable info
Still using my trash can. It does fine for lightroom and photoshop. About the heaviest task I throw at it is importing and exporting large amounts of images and it still flies through that. I do plan on getting a M2 eventually because I cant run Ventura on the trashcan other than that I haven't had any problems.
You can run Ventura on it with Opencore legacy patcher
It was a similar story back in 2007 - a new Core 2 Duo Mac Mini could best a top-of-the-line Power Mac G5 in many tasks.
There is no hope. However, I got a 6-Core Mac Pro the other week for less than $250. A capable machine which beats my 2017 5K i5 iMac for everything I use it for.
Luke, now you're just making fun of my old work computer. You are correct, but it still hurts. LOL
I like the Sound of opening the "Trashcan"
A $10,000 computer from 4 years ago, that’s already unable to run the latest MacOS. Where do I sign ?
I bought a used HP Z640 workstation (circa 2013 or so) - 3 years ago in summer 2020 - for only $1000. It just ran cinebench at 19,000. My conclusion? Mac hardware is always overpriced for the amount of compute power you get. Yes, I know the newer chips would be more efficient. So would a Ryzen.
sadly, the best cpu that can run 10.14 is not the mac pro late 2019. i'd love to run 32 bit software on newer... maybe i'll get a 2018 15 inch macbook pro or something...
Here's another mind-blowing comparison: My M1 iPad Pro has roughly double the computing power of the classic Mac Pro I'm typing on right now and use as my daily driver for music production.
Great comparison. I'll keep my trash can Luke. Can't justify paying over a grand for a MacMini when there's nothing wrong with how my MacPro works today. I have the same configuration as you have.
How does the Mac mini i7 with eGPU stack up against the Mac mini M2 Pro? Is there a significant difference, when an eGPU is present?
I still use my MacPro as a workstation and parallel as a server (max processors and memory) since it has double GPUs (double active users). I highly appreciate the silence and the server resulting from good design. Running 24 / 7 for years.
Ultimately you rent your hardware, no matter how many thousands of dollars you are rich enough to spend. The Apple software 'maintenance' period is the only thing you actually 'buy'. The rest is landfill.
Specially with arm computers they design for landfill and Tim Cook he cares for the planet