Mac Pro: "New" (for me) Computer

[neil poulsen]

I don't know if this will be of any interest, but I just purchased a mid 2010 Mac Pro computer. I'd been using a years (and years) old Mac Book Pro, and the drive finally gave out.

So, why old hardware? I'm using legacy software for color management (the old PM5 by Gretag) and for a ColorBurst RIP and needed to run Snow Leopard (10.6). It was also inexpensive at $600. It would cost me $1000'nds to replace this software with current versions, and both meet all of my needs.

Being easy to customize a Mac Pro, I'm running High Sierra on one disk drive, and Snow Leopard on another. I can choose either environment at boot. It was a bit tricky getting this all set up. For example, we had to find a copy of 10.6.4 or later just to get it to boot with the latest firmware updates. 10.6.3 that Apple still sells on a bootable disk didn't work. (Etc.)

I'm very pleased with this setup. Each drive is 500GB, and the system came with 16GBytes of core memory. I purchased this system from Free Geek, a local non-profit, and they provide a 6 month warranty. It's all "refurbished" stuff. After the warranty expires, I'll likely replace the two drives with new.

[Peter De Smidt]

Consider ssds.

[Luis-F-S]

I’ve got 3 Power PC G5 duals running 10.4.11, so I have a backup to the backup to the backup. Running an ancient Omnis database on system 9. Just need to last until I retire or die whichever comes first!

[sanking]

Consider ssds.

There are four internal bays for hard drives on all Mac Pros through 2012. I recommend an SSD of about 500 GB for the boot drive, and then 1-3 regular spinning hard drives of 6TB - 12TB in the other three drives, depending on how much storage space you need. Replacing the drives is quite easy.

https://everymac.com/systems/apple/mac_pro/faq/mac-pro-how-to-upgrade-hard-drives-what-type-supported.html

RAM upgrades are also very easy with the Mac Pros through 2012. Late 12 core 2012 Mac Pros allow up to 128 GB. You can check upgrade potential for your exact model at the EVERYMAC site.

Sandy

[neil poulsen]

. . . Just need to last until I retire or die whichever comes first!

So, no digital after you retire?

You may have to rely on your Durst enlarger and all your Deardorffs. Well, we all have to cut back at some point. (I forget, do you have more than one Durst?)

:)

[neil poulsen]

There are four internal bays for hard drives on all Mac Pros through 2012. I recommend an SSD of about 500 GB for the boot drive, and then 1-3 regular spinning hard drives of 6TB - 12TB in the other three drives, depending on how much storage space you need. Replacing the drives is quite easy.

https://everymac.com/systems/apple/mac_pro/faq/mac-pro-how-to-upgrade-hard-drives-what-type-supported.html

RAM upgrades are also very easy with the Mac Pros through 2012. Late 12 core 2012 Mac Pros allow up to 128 GB. You can check upgrade potential for your exact model at the EVERYMAC site.

Sandy

Thanks Sandy,

I'll check out the site. My mid-2010 system is Version 5.1, with twin Xeon, 4-core processors.

What do you think about Google-Drive for image backup?

[neil poulsen]

Thanks Peter,

I should. But, I probably need to wait for the warranty to expire.

[sanking]

What do you think about Google-Drive for image backup?

Google Drive would be good if your digital archive is not large, and if you have a fast internet service.

My archive is quite large so back-up with the time machine to an internal hard drive of 8 TB, and back that up to an external hard drive that I keep in a secure location off site.

Mid-2010 5,1 is a very good machine and you can do significant upgrade in memory and/or storage if you ever need it.

Sandy

[Luis-F-S]

So, no digital after you retire?

You may have to rely on your Durst enlarger and all your Deardorffs. Well, we all have to cut back at some point. (I forget, do you have more than one Durst?)

:)
I shoot commercial work on digital now. Only 1 Durst an SM-183 which is stored but do have two DeVere 5108’s though. Does that count?

[jp]

If you are handy with those macs, save parts now.. The whole spare computers are useful and inexpensive. I've seen power supplies fail (not too often) which are hard to find. Video cards sometimes have fans seize up; fans are easily replaced so long as the video card is not damaged. Hard drives are always possible to fail. They are generally reliable computers for machines built in that era. We help a few musicians keep old computers like this going since they also have software which they don't want to upgrade or can't upgrade.

SSDs are worth every penny. On my PC I have a SSD boot/OS drive, another 1TB SSD for the current year's photos, and a larger mechanical drive for previous years' photos. The SSD for current year's photos has made LR and PS work so quickly.

[Luis-F-S]

Yup, had a Radeon video card fail on a Mid 2010 MacPro which I replaced. Good think that's all it was. Getting hard to find people to work on older Macs. Need to pick up a complete spare machine so if this one dies, I can just swap drives and start up again. L