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This is a very real problem. I am still running an early 2009 Mac Pro that is slowly beginning to resemble the 1970 Mustang Mach 1 I drove in high school. I hav
by slr555 11y ago
This is a very real problem. I am still running an early 2009 Mac Pro that is slowly beginning to resemble the 1970 Mustang Mach 1 I drove in high school. I have replaced the original graphics cards with an upgraded unit to get GPU support in Photoshop. I have installed a couple of SSD's to get away from spinning iron. Hunted high and low to finally find a USB 3.0 card that would work. Have been thinking about a swap to move from an 8 core tray to a 12 core unit.
It's really hard to justify buying a "new" Mac Pro that is a 4 year old design at this point. I keep hoping that Apple will announce a revamp but the days since the last release keep climbing and best guesses have the inside date at mid to late 2016 at best.
Since my creative applications are mostly subscription based and cross platform, software costs aren't so much of an issue anymore....
I have been using the Mac since '85. I have not used Windows since XP (job required) but I still get hives when I am around an MS box. Still this may be the future.
Sad Mac. No happy gong.
- fuzzywalrus 11y agoI'm still on a Mac Pro 2008, and I've written several articles about upgrades which drives the majority of my blog's traffic. I've done everything from jam in a nVidia GeForce 760 GTX, to SSD, to mini-PCIe wireless A/C card + Bluetooth 4.x The legs the Mac Pros had are incredible pre-2013. As someone who's contracted for four TV shows for some visual effects on the side, it hurts that I may have to switch to windows. I love OS X and dislike the desktop hardware.
- pier25 11y agoCould you post the link of your blog? I'd love to read about that.
- fuzzywalrus 11y agoHere you go, I imagine some of these are underhand pitches for the HN crowd, but here you go. There's a few that most users are simply unaware of, such as replacing the Airport card with one that supports ant continuity and handoff and Airdrop support. 7.5 years later, and my 2008 Mac Pro is still going strong. http://blog.greggant.com/post/58331227038/recommended-mac-pro-upgrades http://blog.greggant.com/post/58331227038/recommended-mac-pr...
- pier25 11y agoThanks, there are plenty of great tips! I'm in the market for a powerful desktop and I considered getting a 2012 Mac Pro. It would be awesome if the 2016 Mac Pro was a tower design. Alas, we can only dream.
- fuzzywalrus 11y agoYou and me both. 2012 Mac Pros have retained their value quite a bit because of Apple's 2013 debacle. The Firmware upgrade (if you can score CPUs) makes the 2009 the best bang for buck.
- slr555 11y agoThanks for posting this. Perhaps I will have to screw up my courage and try to do the firmware upgrade and go to twelve cores. If anyone knows a really good source for a tray swap please post here.