New posts

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="avner" data-source="post: 1546970" data-attributes="member: 312903">Sound advice, as always<img src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7" class="smilie smilie--sprite smilie--sprite1" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)" loading="lazy" data-shortname=":)" />What threw me off and caused me to order a PCI sound card is the fact that the PCI-e slots were the same size and all the PCI-e cards seem to bea fraction of the length so I was thrown off.So for the sake of eliminating confusion I will try and best explain the situation since I can see why it seems so odd that I am going through all this trouble when I can simplyget any pc to do the job. I started a new job a few weeks ago and I was allowed to use this A1186, My boss told me that he paid 1200$ for it just a few months ago thinking he got an incredible deal. Knowing well that although the Mac Pro chassis has not changed in almost a decade my first instinct was to look up the model number and the average retail worth. It has an Ati x1900 video card / 14gb ram / 1tb hdd / 2.66 ghz Intel Xeon .Ebay's completed listings show that these can sell for as little as 260$, which is prettydemoralizing considering my boss paid 1200. He said the guy installed a bunch of "software" that was worth a small fortune,Anyone with any intelligence knows thats worthless. Not to mention that the entire chassis was absolutely obliterated both the top and bottomhandles are completely smashed, twisted and bent out of shape to the point where I couldnot even open the chassis to access the internal bay without bending all the metal out of the way. So in short it is not my personal computer to keep and so the very sound choice of selling it, adding cash and stepping up to a better one is not in my hands.I am however allowed to upgrade it as it is so I ordered a A1186 chassis from ebay which was 79$ shipped. I received it and although it hand no dings or dents whatsoever it was heavily scratched. Still being the eyesore that it was, I decided to have it powder coated since the mac pro chassis is pure aluminum and can withstand the powder coating oven temperature of 400 degrees.I absolutely adore Apple products, they are simply quality pieces.I really like to use the Windows Operating System with Mac hardware, plus I really enjoy the Xeon CPUs, its just fun having so much power even if they are old.Which is why I am happy to put in the effort to get this little one back into running condition.I feel that I owe you an explanation since you so graciously answered all my questions so quickly & accurately and this whole situation just seems weird. So in short I more or less have to make do as best as I can with what I have. At this point though I cannot even upgrade to OSX mavericks due to the lack of a 64 bit efi, which is most frustrating. Unless I upgrade the video card and use Chameleon loader to emulate a 64 bit efiwhich I will have to re-hack after every update, which would be a nightmare.I would really like to sell the Mac Pro and buy a new one.Nick in your expert opinion could you direct me to the absolute best value of a Mac Pro. Assuming I could get about 500-600$ for this current one and I add about 500-700 moreWhat do you think is the absolute best value of a Mac Pro that I can buy. Its just there are so many iterations of the Mac Pro Multiple amounts of Cores, Different generation CPUs etcit is so very difficult to determinewhat is a good value as well as being future proof. I would really like to be able to run OSX Mavericks I sincerely appreciate all your help<img src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7" class="smilie smilie--sprite smilie--sprite1" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)" loading="lazy" data-shortname=":)" /></blockquote>

Verification: Name this item. 🍎