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Archive 2015 · Help with "new to me" Mac Pro 2008 model?

  
 
Phemanine47
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p.1 #1 · p.1 #1 · Help with "new to me" Mac Pro 2008 model?


I just bought this Mac Pro and would like advice to get it up to speed so I'll have something that I can run Lightroom and Photoshop and my son can do light gaming. The lady I bought it from is leaving the PS5 and older LR software plus Microsoft Office 2011 but I have been using the current versions through CC and have a paid year subscription so I need to upgrade, right I really need opinions and ideas as to what should be upgraded now and what can wait for a while. Also I need to be careful with $$$ as it is I had to sell my 2013 13" MBP w/retina to buy this set-up since I couldn't afford both right now. I'll list the current Mac Pro's specs and what came with it and what I paid please let me know if it was worth it or if I messed up?

Mac Pro (Early 2008)
Processor 2x 2.8 GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon
Memory 14 GB 800 MHz DDR2 FB-Dimm
Graphics ATI Radeon HD 2600 XT 256 MB
Model Name: Mac Pro
Model Identifier: MacPro3,1
Processor Name: Quad-Core Intel Xeon
Processor Speed: 2.8 GHz
Number of Processors: 2
Total Number of Cores: 8
L2 Cache (per Processor): 12 MB
Memory: 14 GB
Bus Speed: 1.6 GHz
Boot ROM Version: MP31.006C.B05
SMC Version (system): 1.25f4
Serial Number (system): G88053UBXYK
Hardware UUID: 2D2091A6-F713-5DB2-9767-8A79714A48A2

30 “ Cinematic Display
Wired Extended Keyboard mouse
Gretamacbeth Eye-one Monitor, printer, and scanner calibrator and profile maker
Software installed - Photoshop CS5, Microsoft Word 2011
Pro 9000 QuIck Cam with Autofocus.

It's all in excellent condition too paid $850.00.

Thank you for your help/advice,
Tina



Sep 29, 2015 at 02:55 PM
DanBrown
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p.1 #2 · p.1 #2 · Help with "new to me" Mac Pro 2008 model?


I just sold an almost identical system. You have enough RAM if you're going to be using Photoshop or Lightroom. If you are going to do video, you might want to increase the RAM to the max of 32 GB. OWC is a great place to buy Mac memory.

You didn't show what storage you have. The Mac Pro can hold 4 hard drives internally. My old system had one 256 SSD drive for the system, and my "home" folder with all my documents was on a second hard drive of 2GB. In addition, I had two more 2GB hard drives for photo storage and backup purposes. The SSD drive is a good buy for the money as it will make the computer boot and run faster.

Finally, it is possible to upgrade the graphics card using a PC graphics card with some restrictions. I'll point you to an excellent article here, which explains the process.

There's a YouTube video that shows a slightly different approach to upgrading, and it also demonstrates how to change the components in the Mac Pro if you want some help.




Sep 29, 2015 at 04:13 PM
OntheRez
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p.1 #3 · p.1 #3 · Help with "new to me" Mac Pro 2008 model?


Tina,

I recently sold a 2010 version of this machine that I'd pretty well maxed out. I'd suggest the following:
1) Go to OWC and buy one of their PCI-e SSD drives (a 240GB is ~$300). Put your system and all applications on this drive and also put Lr/Ps swap space there. It's mind boggling how much it will improve performance.
2) Some folks will suggest that 14GB RAM is enough, but I found filling it out to 32GB really did help across the board.
3) You have 4 drive bays with lots of options. I kept my library and catalog on an older, slower, cheaper SSD. Again disk access speed was never an issue.
4) I used the other three slots as backup drives for various things and also kept one external eSata drive for my tertiary backup.
5) The weak point in your system (and in mine) is the video card. There is a faster 1GB Radeon card out there that can be picked up cheaply used. The Mac Sapphire 4GB is still a mind boggling ~$400. That's part of the reason I moved on to a newer machine.

Obviously you don't need to do all these things at once or really even all of them though I powerfully recommend doing the PCI-e SSD boot drive.

You don't mention what version of OS X you're running, but the machine will support the latest. I have my complaints about parts of 10.10, but there's no reason not to upgrade to it. You may have to fiddle with some 3rd party apps, but your main applications are good. 10.10 is a free upgrade so go for it.

I loved my 30" Cinema monitor and still notice how much smaller a 27" display is. The Mac Pros from 3.1 on are all great machines. Assuming they haven't been broken or abused, you'll get several years of excellent service from it.

Robert



Sep 30, 2015 at 09:36 AM
FLSTCSAM
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p.1 #4 · p.1 #4 · Help with "new to me" Mac Pro 2008 model?


I have 2009 Mac Pro with 2 x 2.26 GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon Processor, Memory 16 GB 1066 MHz DDR3 ECC, Graphics ATI Radeon HD 4870 512 MB.

This system is showing it's age and is on the slow side.

I would definitely recommend more RAM 32 would be good. Your graphics card is not the best and you won't be able to take advantage of the graphics acceleration in LR.
That said I have a SSD as my boot drive. Drive 2 is for documents, etc. The last two internal drives I have two 2 TB rives set as RAID O, this speeds up image access. I also have multiple external drives as back up. I normally keep 4 copies of all image files. I also have a USB 3 add on card.

While your system will be a little slow it should do well and at a bargain price.

Sam



Oct 01, 2015 at 10:48 AM
paparazzinick
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p.1 #5 · p.1 #5 · Help with "new to me" Mac Pro 2008 model?


I probably wouldn't have sold that MacBook pro for this. You could have built a decent hackintosh for cheap or just saved and got a newer machine.


Oct 01, 2015 at 12:06 PM
nijamajo45
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p.1 #6 · p.1 #6 · Help with "new to me" Mac Pro 2008 model?


Just wanted to thank everyone for their advice, suggestions & comments;-) I really appreciate the help, I'm still waiting for everything to ship and am stuck using my phone at the moment or I'd have answered each response. I'll let you know when it comes in.

Tina



Oct 04, 2015 at 09:05 PM
Ian.Dobinson
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p.1 #7 · p.1 #7 · Help with "new to me" Mac Pro 2008 model?


nijamajo45 wrote:
Just wanted to thank everyone for their advice, suggestions & comments;-) I really appreciate the help, I'm still waiting for everything to ship and am stuck using my phone at the moment or I'd have answered each response. I'll let you know when it comes in.

Tina


are you the op?
wha have you created 2 profiles ?




Oct 05, 2015 at 01:49 AM
nijamajo45
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p.1 #8 · p.1 #8 · Help with "new to me" Mac Pro 2008 model?


Yes I'm the OP, I didn't realize I had already created an account from my iPhone I'm gonna close this one. Sorry for any confusion:-)


Oct 05, 2015 at 01:02 PM





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