01-10-2012, 05:40 PM

I am thinking about buying a Mac Pro 1.1 (with two 2.0 dual core Xeons, 1 gb ram, 250 and 500 gb HD) and wasn't sure what I should offer. The owner says it is in great shape, but I can see it before purchase since it is local. They listed at $800 (Cdn), but I can't spend that on this Mac. I feel I will need to upgrade the ram, etc.
I was hoping this might be a good start for me into the world of Mac computers, but maybe I would be better off getting a Mac mini, Macbook, or something. How much would be too low to offer for this?
Thanks.

01-10-2012, 05:55 PM

personally if you just want to try out mac os and what not i would get a refurb mac mini. i have only about 450 into my mini with a monitor,mini,mouse,keyboard.

if you want portability try out the macbook.

either one would be good.

what are you trying to do on the new to you Mac?

01-10-2012, 05:57 PM

Go with the Mac Pro and upgrade it. $500.00 and toss in X5355 quad core processors, SSD and update graphics and can run up to four hard drives. Up to 32GB memory

01-10-2012, 06:06 PM

Originally Posted by RustProofCorn

personally if you just want to try out mac os and what not i would get a refurb mac mini. i have only about 450 into my mini with a monitor,mini,mouse,keyboard.

if you want portability try out the macbook.

either one would be good.

what are you trying to do on the new to you Mac?

I actually don't need anything too wild. I like the fact that the Pro would be upgradable down the road a little bit. It might be fun to try some editing and that too, since the Mac Pro has Final Cut, but that would be more recreational.

Originally Posted by harryb2448

Go with the Mac Pro and upgrade it. $500.00 and toss in X5355 quad core processors, SSD and update graphics and can run up to four hard drives. Up to 32GB memory

I wasn't sure how upgradable it would be to be honest. I know from everymac.com that it will take lots of ram, and there are some graphics choices, but didn't really think about the processor too much.

Compared to a 2008ish Core 2 mini, would this Mac Pro be a more capable machine? Also, I guess you meant an offer of $500 for the Mac as is would be fair?

Thanks for the input BTW!

01-10-2012, 06:12 PM

Mac2sell.com says it is worth aprox $680

01-10-2012, 06:58 PM

Not to disagree but a 2GHz is a bottom of the line machine and $500 would be a fair price but be prepared to pay more, particularly if it comes with the originals system install discs, OS X.4.7 and manuals. MacTracker shows Geekbench scores. A 2009 2.26GHz Mini comes in at 3008 and the 2GHz Mac Pro 1.1 at 3714, some 20% faster.

Placing Intel X5355 CPUs in my Mac Pro 1.1 with an SSD the score came in at 9214!

Go to Mac Rumours they have a special Mac Pro forum which deals with all sorts of upgrades, processors, graphics, EFI Firmware etc.


http://forums.macrumors.com/forumdisplay.php?f=1

My Mac Pro was a 1.1, upgraded with the X5355 CPUs, SSD, ATI Radeon HD4870 1GB graphics card, 22X superdrive and 16GB memory and has the Mac Pro 2.1 EFI Firmware upgrade.

01-10-2012, 07:44 PM

Originally Posted by harryb2448

Not to disagree but a 2GHz is a bottom of the line machine and $500 would be a fair price but be prepared to pay more, particularly if it comes with the originals system install discs, OS X.4.7 and manuals. MacTracker shows Geekbench scores. A 2009 2.26GHz Mini comes in at 3008 and the 2GHz Mac Pro 1.1 at 3714, some 20% faster.

Placing Intel X5355 CPUs in my Mac Pro 1.1 with an SSD the score came in at 9214!

Go to Mac Rumours they have a special Mac Pro forum which deals with all sorts of upgrades, processors, graphics, EFI Firmware etc.


Mac Pro - MacRumors Forums

My Mac Pro was a 1.1, upgraded with the X5355 CPUs, SSD, ATI Radeon HD4870 1GB graphics card, 22X superdrive and 16GB memory and has the Mac Pro 2.1 EFI Firmware upgrade.

I did a quick search online for those processors, and came up with this. Is there any way that this is legitimate? I assume not.

Also, from those benchmarks, the 2.0 Mac Pro looks like it would probably keep up with a newer Mini too. I wasn't totally sure if it would.

My thing is, I could ask for $400-500, and see what happens. Then if I get it, use it for a while, upgrade if/when needed....or I could get a new Mini, with an i5 for ~$690ish with tax.....I just don't know

01-10-2012, 11:07 PM

That price looks great. For comparison do a search on eBay entering 'Intel X5355 CPU' Do not know the company selling the X5355 but $180 for a pair is a good price. Even Down Under there are quite a few on eBay Australia at differing prices. Best to get a matched pair if possible. There are a lot about as the same processor was used by Apple, Dell, HP etc. PC Machines generally were single processors, so it is better to use the matched pair with the same serial number. Having said that have read unmatched processors still work:-


http://www.ebay.com.au/sch/i.html?_f...All-Categories

The second item on the list shows the serial number, the bottom line of print.

01-10-2012, 11:39 PM

How much "can" you spend if you need to? It would also help if you indicated what your needs are in a computer. Bear mind that, although you appear hesitant to spend over a certain amount since you are new to Macs and just feeling things out, the reality is that all Intel Macs will run Windows also. Some people buy MacBooks in particular and run only Windows. Even if you find you don't like OS X or it doesn't meet your needs, you simply can't go wrong buying a Mac.

Personally… I wouldn't consider the first-gen Mac Pro. I had one and though it was baseline model, I had upgraded the graphics card and bumped the RAM to 8GB before getting a mid-2010 iMac. The iMac is much faster all around, and I have the i3 with the upgraded GPU option… far from the fastest model available then or now. On the other hand, if you need portability, you can't go wrong with a MacBook.

01-11-2012, 08:11 AM

Originally Posted by lifeisabeach

How much "can" you spend if you need to? It would also help if you indicated what your needs are in a computer...
Even if you find you don't like OS X or it doesn't meet your needs, you simply can't go wrong buying a Mac.

Personally… I wouldn't consider the first-gen Mac Pro. I had one and though it was baseline model, I had upgraded the graphics card and bumped the RAM to 8GB before getting a mid-2010 iMac. The iMac is much faster all around, and I have the i3 with the upgraded GPU option… far from the fastest model available then or now. On the other hand, if you need portability, you can't go wrong with a MacBook.

I would be able to spend $400 or so now (maybe a bit more soon), but would prefer to spend less (as we all would). I don't think that the Mac Pro seller was interested at all; the add is off, and after mentioning that I could only justify a "few hundred" (I asked what her bottom dollar was, not wanting to go higher than she would take...) she mentioned that for that much, she would "rather donate it to someone who needs it."

There is a 2008 Macbook listed locally for $500, but the Mac2sell (thanks RustProofCorn) site has it at about $410 (2.4 Ghz Core 2, 2 gb ram, 320 gb HDD). This might be an option...

I really don't need an extremely powerful computer. I will be using it for basic needs [internet, audio/HD video playback (maybe as a media center/server depending on what I get), data entry/processing, possibly some games if capable]. I just love the look of the Mac Pros, and I assumed the 1.1 would be more than capable for what I need. Would the 2008 Macbook be able to handle HD vids with ease also?

01-11-2012, 07:59 PM

Bump.

01-11-2012, 08:24 PM

Originally Posted by nick_ville

Bump.

It's very irksome, and quite frankly rude when people do that. Especially after only a few hours since the last post.

01-11-2012, 08:39 PM

Originally Posted by lifeisabeach

It's very irksome, and quite frankly rude when people do that. Especially after only a few hours since the last post.

I apologize. I'm new to the forum, and don't know how active it is. This thread was quite active last night, so since it was about 12 hours I thought I would give it a try...

01-11-2012, 10:16 PM

Originally Posted by nick_ville

There is a 2008 Macbook listed locally for $500, but the Mac2sell (thanks RustProofCorn) site has it at about $410 (2.4 Ghz Core 2, 2 gb ram, 320 gb HDD). This might be an option...

$400-$450 (US dollars) would be better (I'm not sure if the figures you quoted are US or Canadian $$$).

Originally Posted by nick_ville

I really don't need an extremely powerful computer.

Would the 2008 Macbook be able to handle HD vids with ease also?

Remember...you can't expect to get $1500 performance with a $400-$500 budget. So a 2008 MacBook won't be able to do as much as a 2011 MacBook Pro.

But with that said...a 2.4ghz MacBook can do a lot (my wife used to have one & did pretty much anything she wanted to do with it)...modest gaming, internet videos (Hulu, YouTube, etc.)...and of course it will play DVD's & videos downloaded from Amazon, etc.

HTH

01-12-2012, 07:26 AM

Originally Posted by pigoo3

$400-$450 (US dollars) would be better (I'm not sure if the figures you quoted are US or Canadian $$$).



Remember...you can't expect to get $1500 performance with a $400-$500 budget. So a 2008 MacBook won't be able to do as much as a 2011 MacBook Pro.

But with that said...a 2.4ghz MacBook can do a lot (my wife used to have one & did pretty much anything she wanted to do with it)...modest gaming, internet videos (Hulu, YouTube, etc.)...and of course it will play DVD's & videos downloaded from Amazon, etc.

HTH

Thanks for the input! I do realize that it won't be able to do everything a new computer would be able to do, but I want something that would be somewhat capable, you know. It sounds like something like this might serve me well enough, so it may well be the route I take.