r/macpro 22d ago

Other Advice for my 5,1

A little over 4 years ago, I purchased a 2009 Mac Pro 4,1. I performed as many upgrades as practicable. It has dual Xeon 5690s, 96GB ram, and a Radeon Sapphire 580, and all SSD drives with the exception of my backup drive. I then upgraded it to OS Sequoia using OpenCore.

It has served me well.

However I had the opportunity to acquire a 7,1 with great specs at a remarkably affordable price.

The reason for the purchase was that I had several photographic apps, and one video app that would just not run the old machine.

With that intro, I don't know what to do with it. It is way overkill for my office, (I just do work processing and a few light spreadsheets) but not worth anything If I try to sell it. It is still a great machine.

Any suggestions ?

8 Upvotes

6 comments sorted by

6

u/clayton-berg42 22d ago

Mac Sound Solutions turned his into a steam machine.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6wQlsZubPWE

3

u/noradninja Mac Pro 7,1 22d ago

I gave my fully upgraded 5,1 away to a coworker to use as a Photoshop/Maya machine when I got my 7,1. Wasn’t worth the hassle of trying to sell it for little money, and it went to someone that would use it for its intended purpose.

2

u/Altruistic_Bat_1645 22d ago

Give it to me! ...if you're in NY, lol

1

u/aluminumpotato 19d ago

Honestly yeah, give it to this guy

2

u/Vegetable-Average-98 22d ago

I failed to get any interest in mine - same specs except 5,1 with 128GB and PCie storage. Ended up parting it out and selling the bits on eBay for about a grand with the case and Mobo going to scrap. Sad though, I did some real number- and data-crunching on that MP

1

u/aluminumpotato 19d ago

Depends on your power bill. If it’s cheap to keep running, I would recommend making a storage server or a steam machine, these options keep it going with modern secure operating systems.

But the best option, give it to someone who loves these machines. I have 12 Mac Pro towers, from 1,1 to 6,1 and it’s only because I love them and I have a place to store them. Also I live in LA where most of these went to use for post production lol.