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The Mac Pro is a 4,1 flashed to a 5,1 and uses Westmere 3.3 GHz CPUs, but your point of power consumption is taken. As I can't possibly afford a $1500 PC, I'm s

The Mac Pro is a 4,1 flashed to a 5,1 and uses Westmere 3.3 GHz CPUs, but your point of power consumption is taken. As I can't possibly afford a $1500 PC, I'm still happy with what I've got. A multiseat desktop/server I could afford that is pretty happy with whatever I've thrown at it is a lot better than a bare CPU sitting idly on my desk.

dragontamer 7y ago
If $600 or $700 is your budget, my main point was to look for Haswell (2014-era) systems. For example, the Dell PowerEdge R630 (2014-era) server is in and around $600 to $1000 on Ebay, and will be more power-efficient and faster than any 2009-era system. I think 2014-era servers are where the price/performance point is for the home-server enthusiast, especially if we're talking about sub $1000 price points. https://www.ebay.com/itm/Dell-Poweredge-R630-2x-Xeon-E5-2640-v3-2-6ghz-16-Cores-64gb-H730-DVD-iDrac-Ent/293189690610?hash=item444377a4f2:g:9CsAAOSwjSpdI6jE https://www.ebay.com/itm/Dell-Poweredge-R630-2x-Xeon-E5-2640... 2x8 core dual socket Intel Xeon E2640 v3 (Haswell) with 64GB of RAM. Its an auction, so it will probably go up another $100 or $200 from there, but I would expect it to sell well south of $1000. 2014-era equipment is the current price/performance king for home hobbyists. Obviously, a modern desktop with all the bells and whistles is a bit more expensive at $1500, but for $6oo to $700, you can get a pretty good 2014-era system. ------- My rule of thumb is to buy something 5-years out of date. That's roughly the time when businesses get rid of old equipment and upgrade. So 5-years old equipment tends to win in price/performance.
- cptnapalm 7y ago
  I did, oddly enough, look at used PowerEdge servers, but I wanted a multiseat desktop too, so the step-son and I could play games together at the same time. Less than $700 bought the Mac Pro, 2 video cards, 48 GB of RAM (3 sticks) and, not included in my original equipment tally, a 4 TB SSD and 24" AOC monitor. The bare Mac Pro was $250. As I got it early last year, the 5 year rule of thumb almost applied as a 2009 and a 2012 Mac Pro are nearly identical, the former being able to just be flashed to the latter. In another couple of years, if I have any cash to spare, I'll likely get a used PowerEdge, though. The cost of those things, for what you get, is exceedingly good.
  - dragontamer 7y ago
    Ah right, multiseat desktop. Well, I guess the Mac Pro is fine for that, as long as you're fine with the Mac OSX operating system. The Mac Pro line hasn't really had many updates, so maybe the 5-year heuristic doesn't really apply.
    - cptnapalm 7y ago
      Linux all the way! OSX doesn't actually do multiseat. So, have a Linux Mac Pro that I can ssh into, or if that's blocked, get a shell or even my desktop in a web browser among other things. All in all, rather happy with it, though I really would like one of those Raptor Power9 boards for the hell of it.

dragontamer 7y ago

If $600 or $700 is your budget, my main point was to look for Haswell (2014-era) systems. For example, the Dell PowerEdge R630 (2014-era) server is in and around $600 to $1000 on Ebay, and will be more power-efficient and faster than any 2009-era system. I think 2014-era servers are where the price/performance point is for the home-server enthusiast, especially if we're talking about sub $1000 price points. https://www.ebay.com/itm/Dell-Poweredge-R630-2x-Xeon-E5-2640-v3-2-6ghz-16-Cores-64gb-H730-DVD-iDrac-Ent/293189690610?hash=item444377a4f2:g:9CsAAOSwjSpdI6jE https://www.ebay.com/itm/Dell-Poweredge-R630-2x-Xeon-E5-2640... 2x8 core dual socket Intel Xeon E2640 v3 (Haswell) with 64GB of RAM. Its an auction, so it will probably go up another $100 or $200 from there, but I would expect it to sell well south of $1000. 2014-era equipment is the current price/performance king for home hobbyists. Obviously, a modern desktop with all the bells and whistles is a bit more expensive at $1500, but for $6oo to $700, you can get a pretty good 2014-era system. ------- My rule of thumb is to buy something 5-years out of date. That's roughly the time when businesses get rid of old equipment and upgrade. So 5-years old equipment tends to win in price/performance.

cptnapalm 7y ago
I did, oddly enough, look at used PowerEdge servers, but I wanted a multiseat desktop too, so the step-son and I could play games together at the same time. Less than $700 bought the Mac Pro, 2 video cards, 48 GB of RAM (3 sticks) and, not included in my original equipment tally, a 4 TB SSD and 24" AOC monitor. The bare Mac Pro was $250. As I got it early last year, the 5 year rule of thumb almost applied as a 2009 and a 2012 Mac Pro are nearly identical, the former being able to just be flashed to the latter. In another couple of years, if I have any cash to spare, I'll likely get a used PowerEdge, though. The cost of those things, for what you get, is exceedingly good.
- dragontamer 7y ago
  Ah right, multiseat desktop. Well, I guess the Mac Pro is fine for that, as long as you're fine with the Mac OSX operating system. The Mac Pro line hasn't really had many updates, so maybe the 5-year heuristic doesn't really apply.
  - cptnapalm 7y ago
    Linux all the way! OSX doesn't actually do multiseat. So, have a Linux Mac Pro that I can ssh into, or if that's blocked, get a shell or even my desktop in a web browser among other things. All in all, rather happy with it, though I really would like one of those Raptor Power9 boards for the hell of it.