2013 Mac Pro CPU UPGRADE (& fresh thermal paste)

[@ConstantGeekery]

Just noticed an error... the GB5 test that is labelled as "6-core" is actually my old 12-core. Sorry, picked the wrong test from the list. The actual scores for the 6-core were 851 single and 4820 multi. So our upgrade gives us 5% more single-threaded performance, and 35% more multi-threaded performance in this test.

[@Technocrat.]

No one is perfect. Especially Pete. 😂 . Hi Erin.

[@andynormancx]

It really is unfathomable that my iPhone has three times the single core performance and just slightly better multi core than that Mac Pro 🤣 Not that it can actually run at that speed indefinitely without some added cooling though…

[@AndreasHennig]

Cool... the compare with the 12 core is exactly what I was interested in :)

[@savagepro9060]

@@andynormancx Perhaps, but, what CAN your iPohne do with THAT assumed power, even IF it exists?🤭🤭🤭🤣😂😅

[@andynormancx]

@@savagepro9060 what do you mean IF ? There is no doubt here. Sure the iPhone can’t do the same workloads as the Mac Pro due to only 8GB of RAM. But that doesn’t change the fact that it is staggering that the CPU in my phone outpaces a Mac Pro from not that long ago.

[@fmarinosfromafar9512]

Great job! I was quite nervous as well when upgrading a 4-core to a 12-core back in c.2017 when these macs were worth quite a bit more. I placed all the components and screws into numbered zip lock bags, and religiously followed a print-out of the iFixit guide. You made it look simple this time! Looking forward to more instalments of Trashcan Tales!

[@Bucking_Fastard]

I have no expertise in this whatsoever, but as a KZbin commenter, it is my duty to inform you that you have used an incorrect amount of the thermal paste on your CPU!

[@motekm3]

😂

[@JorgeALXNDR]

he was so brave showing how he applied I would just cut off the footage so it would be my little secret

[@JamesTenniswood]

Most dangerous thing you can do on the internet

[@artysanmobile]

Comment of the week.

[@Fred_Raimer]

But but what about the GPU paste?!!!!? Oh the humanity!!!!

[@namakudamono]

Excellent video Dave! Very well shot and edited, with clear, concise narrative.

[@Fred_Raimer]

Yes! This guy is really good!

[@sfperalta]

Makes my 2012 Mac mini upgrades seem like a walk in the park. Fascinating!

[@lovemadeinjapan]

Cramming in 2 SSD's was 10 times more complicated than this.

[@whophd]

I’ve done this - but with the help of a very techy friend who changed CPUs on much bigger computers, and thanked me for the unique experience of trying this one. I couldn’t have bought the parts without his help.

[@SaraMorgan-ym6ue]

why is he doing this because why hell not

[@8anach]

Thanks for the video. Bought the 12-core, D700, 64GB model on eBay. It was working fine from the start, but I could see the dust inside. Tore it all down as per your video, removed as much dust as possible and reapplied the thermal paste. I looking forward to many more years of use from this Mac Pro 6,1.

[@MeinDeutschkurs]

Never in doubt! 😅 Excellent! Great video, I love the fiddling and diddeling videos. Worth every second! Love from Austria!

[@IndyIsVital]

I hold you responsible for what's become an addiction to Mac Pro 2013s. I have bought two so far. The first at 280 quid, I upgraded to an 8 core but it only had D300s. The second was too good a bargain to miss on ebay, Though without SSD or memory at 120 quid. It turned out to be slightly sqaushed somehow (so bad the fan can't spin), but did contain two D700s which I swapped out. Then listed the remaining bits on ebay, untill I couldnt resist and am currenly waiting for bits to use to repair. I'm trying to justify this as a huge saving to my employer to claim the expense. But explaining why I want to replace a 2015 4 core 27inch iMac with an 8 core 2013 Mac Pro is a bit hard. Makes perfect sense to me! I lusted after these when they came out but could never justify thousands for one. But 300 quid.....

[@PiDsPagePrototypes]

Woah,... Makes my 5.1 sound like a gold mine - paid around AU $1500 for it with single 27" Cinema screen (with cracked cover glass), then had to strip out all the drives that had been 'upgraded' to run the version of the OS meant for the M1 hardware. Another $400 for second screen, $1500 for secondhand AJA Kona4 SDI card, then the OCZ card for four Samsung NVMe drives, $160 for magic mouse and keyboard,.... Dual 3.46Ghz Xeons and 64Gb ram. And it doesn't shift Uncompressed Raw fast enough to capture what it was claimed to do new by Apple and AJA. Dropped the Kona and OCZ cards in to a PC that cost about $500 all up, and doubled the data rate.

[@Fred_Raimer]

Right there with you bud! See my other post about mine. Extremely happy!!

[@Technocrat.]

Excellent Video Dave. I'm Still looking at buying one.

[@Fred_Raimer]

Do it!! Now is the time for a bargain before they become "collectible!" He inspired me, and with Open Core and Sonoma I am thrilled with it as a daily driver.

[@Technocrat.]

@@Fred_Raimer I want to but just build a sleeper PC to sell 1wth gen, and rebuilt my old Dell 7775 Ryzen 7 AIO, gonna sell that too. Also have a iMac 27" 2020 5700xt on my desk with 5800xt 16gb on it. So many units around me, lol but I may get one still

[@bruhperson]

currently watching this on my Mac Pro 2013!

[@augustinandre-fouet8548]

For your question at the end of the video, I connected my Mac Pro 2013 to a LG ultrafine 5K 27 inch thunderbolt 3 with apple adapter TB 2 to TB 3. It works really well on Mac OS but on windows they are some limitations. I have to restart the Mac sometimes because the Mac does not detect the thunderbolt 3 connection. And after rebooting multiple times, windows won't boot anymore... and I have to restore.

[@chrisdunderdale]

Really great! Question is, do I have the nerves to do this to mine?

[@LoganLayneOffical]

I just bought one with the 6 core and d500s I will definitely use this guide when I upgrade to a 12 core and redo the thermal paste

[@Fred_Raimer]

wow - so did I with same specs! Thrilled with it and Open Core and Sonoma. Upgraded RAM to 64GB for $20!! Not sure of tearing it apart for CPU though. BTW, it seems that 8-core is the "sweet spot" Dave has other videos with this

[@LoganLayneOffical]

@@Fred_Raimer I might have to check that one out

[@AgentsCinematicUniverse]

@@Fred_Raimer10 core is best

[@Fred_Raimer]

Hi - yet another great video! Thanks to you I purchased one of these for a song ($200 shipped for 6 core w/D500 16GB RAM and 256GB SSD), upgraded the RAM to 64GB for all of $20 and with Open Core running Sonoma perfectly as my "daily driver" driving 2 27" Cinema Displays. Got $75 for my 2013 mini and I am totally delighted! However now I am having to resist spending less than $25 for that awesome 8 core Xeon that I really don't need. I can't resist a bargain and have a tinkering compulsion (as do you, I suspect LOL). A funny aside - even though these heavy-duty upgrades are insanely cheap, buying the flippin' Apple power cable with the fitted curve costs *way more* than any of these upgrades! I mean like around $35!!! Sheesh! Oh well, I guess I will set the cash aside for a 2TB SSD in future and stick with my generic cable. Anyway, thanks for all your efforts and entertaining, informative videos! You have a new fan and subscriber, hungry for more!!

[@AgentsCinematicUniverse]

There was no 2013 mini

[@MohammadSalah1979]

The method of explanation and photography is very elegant. Long live the hands

[@DocMacLovin]

Great job. I am eager to see eGPU support in combination with the internal GPUs.

[@TheAppleLab]

just have upgraded another 2013 yesterday, it was the third time for me...works like a charm and have done it in about 1h including cleaning all the dried thermal paste. which i really recommend to every 6,1 regardless of the manufacturing date. pretty happy with that machine which now have the 2690v2 with 10c/20t at 3.0 - 3.4ghz.

[@lovemadeinjapan]

I chose the 2680's as they are really cheap (14€), and a little lower clocked in base, which is a positive thing IMO.

[@BrunodeSouzaLino]

Let's champion anti-static ankle straps as the new trend of PC building.

[@arch1107]

i have been building and fixing laptops and desktops working in it and in my free time, i never build a single pc using that, i have not killed a single pc part in almost 25 years of work i am not saying you dont need them, i am saying that don't worry much about it

[@ssl3546]

@@arch1107 * That you know of. Most ESD doesn't immediately kill the part but it shortens life. You're talking about transistors that are a couple dozen atoms wide. When it takes 10 seconds to put a strap on why would you not do things correctly?

[@Raletia]

Just wanted to add, if you don't have a strap or aren't bothered to put one on for something quick, you can just ground yourself with touching the case as long as you keep the PSU plugged in.

[@JorgeALXNDR]

As long as where I live stays bloody hot and humide I'm never going to use one of those. Never experience static shocks in my whole life. I think it's really relevant to use if static is a thing that you know you are prone to get from your environment.

[@arch1107]

@@ssl3546simple, lack of ground in the wall outlets, lack of the wriststrap that will work as expected, improper grounding can electrocute you, not protect the part, the wriststrap is there for your safety, the part comes second, if it dies, it dies, you must live another day

[@b213989]

i just bought a mac pro 2013, thank you for making videos on such a niche system. It was overall hated when it came out, but I love the design.

[@bryans8656]

I did this on my 2013 Mac Pro after watching your video on the process a few years ago. It was daunting for me too because, like you said, the price of these things was very high at the time.

[@AndreasHennig]

Looking forward to see what your experience with docks is like. Keep the videos coming.

[@jbackes]

Thanks!

[@ConstantGeekery]

Thank you 😊

[@mfmayes]

loved your video, The only hard part is getting the power supply to line up with the top and bottom case parts

[@peterscheepers5780]

Looking at the results of your upgrade I personally do not see so much extra performance over the six core and I have very similar GB 6 results on the six core as you had. Also my machine does not run very hot so I will postpone renewing the thermal paste for the time being the more as I did not see much thermal improvement on some of my other machines where I did replace it. And maybe also because I’m still a bit scared taking it apart 😅. But great video again and looking forward to see further experiments.

[@Fred_Raimer]

Yeah, but seeing how cheap the CPUs are I am having to struggle to resist!!

[@RobKMusic]

I just did this upgrade yesterday. It is rather involved, but if one can follow directions it's not that bad. It took me about 90 minutes going slow and double checking my work. I also had to clean 11yrs of dust and crud out of it. I didn't have a proper mat so I used a daily pill case to hold the screws as I disassembled the unit. Turns out there are exactly 7 different types/sets of screws so that worked out perfectly. I filled it up Sunday to Saturday. So when it was time to reassemble I went Saturday backwards to Sunday and it was dead simple. OWC has a great step by step video that's only 11 minutes long. It also shows what the thermal paste should look like on the CPU after applied!

[@a2daj]

I did the 6 to 12 core upgrade based on your previous video a few years ago. It was a great development box with 64 GB of RAM. I needed a number of VMs running simultaneously. I was even able to get it working with an eGPU and Boot Camp. I ended up replacing it with the a final generation 6 core Intel Mac mini for newer OS updates and less tinkering to get the eGPU working after OS updates.

[@giorgio5789]

Rip to that one person ever who fried pc parts for not wearing the anti static strap. Never happened to me in 20 years.

[@ConstantGeekery]

Nor me, but I often get static shocks in the studio, so better safe than sorry...

[@yagoa]

the issue with thermal paste is usually getting bubbles of air, a star shape out to the corners is ideal for it to spread out everywhere without trapping any air.

[@XaviorxXx]

This was amazing and EXACTLY what I needed. Thank you ❤❤!!!!!!

[@mfmayes]

i found out something not on cpu upgrades on you tube, i did the upgrade as you showed. it wouldnt power up and i was upset until i found there the outer case lock that keeps the macpro from powering up unless outer case in and locked/after i did that it powered up fine

[@BrockSuire75]

I really like your content. You’re very calm & you explain everything. Where my expertise comes in is with the AMD GPUs. I’m an engineer at AMD and just wanted to briefly give the latest information on cooling technology. At AMD we use Thermal sheets on both CPUs & GPUs. 1) No mess 2) Good for 10 years 3) Out performs all brands of thermal paste. Thermal Grizzly is what I’ve spent many years testing. Also the pads are reusable. In my testing temperatures were 4-8 degrees (C) in extreme benchmark testing. The only other thing that beats it is Liquid Metal. Cheers

[@ConstantGeekery]

Thanks for sharing. Probably should have left them as is on this one!

[@dancook4993]

Once again you blew it out of the park Showing how easy it is to work on and upgrade these 2013 Mac Pros keep it simple and easy to follow thank you Oh and sexy socks,,,,Lol

[@SauyingHui]

looks like the vram around the gpu need the paste applied also or the d700 may fail.

[@ericwood3709]

Getting that all apart and reassembled looks like a real rite of passage. The worst machine I've done that with, and I've done it several times, is the eMac. I was struggling to get a non-3.5" IDE drive upgrade to work in it. I can't imagine going to all this trouble for one of these old machines, honestly. Even with a better CPU, I doubt it could compete well with a new Mac, and the mini is affordable enough and offers enough advantages that I'd much rather just go with that. I do own one of these, but all I've bothered to upgrade is the RAM and SSD. It's fine for running an older Mac OS and older software, especially anything that needs 32-bit compatibility, so mine is basically an era gaming machine.

[@brcosmin]

It's fun to see you tinkering and all, almost bought one myself recently for how enthusiastically you presented the little thing... but... unless I'm missing something in GB5 it appears an M3 Air achieves a single-core score of 3,157 and a multi-core score of 12,020, so roughly 3x from a fanless ultrabook? But the biggest detractor for me is getting a current modern OS running on it, and it will only get worse from here onwards.

[@ConstantGeekery]

Whilst this is a perfectly usable computer, and the benchmarks don’t paint a true picture, this is just for fun and nostalgia. Apple Silicon has completely changed the game, and these Mac Pros are sporting tech from 11 years ago…

[@brcosmin]

@@ConstantGeekery so I take it this is just a curiosity piece, and not meant for actual work? I'm just thinking if/how easy it is to circumvent the lack of compatibility with a modern OS, from a features and security POV.

[@ConstantGeekery]

@@brcosmin it’s easy to install Sonoma or Ventura with Open Core Legacy Patcher. Monterey got a security update recently. I explained my decision in a previous video, and I’ve been very clear that I do not recommend the Mac Pro as a main machine. However, it works fine and is plenty quick enough for many. There are also niche use cases where it excels.

[@altosack]

I've installed Sonoma via OpenCore; it was not too bad, even for a macOS newbie like me. I'm currently using this as my main machine, and am perfectly happy with it. I'd be hard-pressed to find a better computer with 64 GB of RAM for $220 shipped to my door. Any Apple silicon Mac with even half that RAM is _way_ more expensive, but probably worth it to most others; I enjoy being a little different.

[@thelaserhive3368]

But that’s also 3 or 4 times the price. So if you’re not doing anything too stressful then these old machines can be fun to work on - as well as cheap to swap parts out with if something does fail. Plus they are incredibly 😎.

[@oldfinnishfarmer]

Just did mine two weeks ago! Macpro6,1 temps dropped from 70c to 43c (intensive vacuuming applied too!) and macpro5,1 (which i’ve never done before) went down from 108c!!!!! to 50c 😅😅😅 geez that screaming at me when i ran dante via in it to route dante for main mac 😂 performance was greatly improved and no more kernel panics (it was really going too hot)… now i know :)

[@erickbaka]

It's rather crazy to look at this once magnificent beast of a workstation with a price tag that put it firmly out of reach of us mere mortals... and then run GB6 out of curiosity and see that my 7800X3D scores 2673 in single core and 15 162 in multi-core. I have to admit though, the Dust Bin still looks sexy and is in my opinion one of the coolest Mac designs ever!

[@moritzschwertner5025]

What I'd love to see is how this exact system would compare to a new M2 (or by the time M3) baseline Mac Mini in productivity tasks (Lightroom, Premiere, X-Code - the works) as well as general web-usage. Maybe even with a watt-meter to really test if there's a real (measurable) difference on the electricity bill after a year of usage. Any chance of that happening?

[@ConstantGeekery]

I might do some comparisons to show how things have moved on, but I'm mainly looking for the few edge cases where the Mac Pro can actually win... there won't be many! 😁

[@CtrlAltPrint]

the little stand-off that got stuck and came out while removing the CPU is normal,, not sure apple thought that part through with how they chose to only use blue loctite on a stand-off that would have something else torqued to hell. when I repasted mine they all stayed in place but on both of my GPUs I had more than one come out. had to use a a tiny wrench to get them unstuck but I made sure to tighten them down and then go back and make sure the CPU stand-offs where tightened down also. im currently debating on swapping out the GPUs thermal pads now

[@rgarlinyc]

Very helpful, thank you. And thanks for all the links as well.

[@ws13bf]

Beautiful machine.

[@Fred_Raimer]

Sure is! It really has a "presence" on my desk that makes me smile every time I see it there

[@artysanmobile]

I recommend spreading the thermal paste manually with a plastic spatula to a consistent thickness before applying pressure to finish the job.

[@scratchanitch]

Finally someone using a static strap! Easy thumbs up.

[@fox.9879]

in my opinion you only need one if you work in a carpeted area

[@scratchanitch]

@@fox.9879back in the day before ESD flooring and good humidity control were common, static straps were mandatory for working on anything in a data center. Certain clothing can also be a risk. Having zapped a few CMOS chips in my youth, I tend to err on the side of caution now.

[@LightWaIker]

My favorite part.

[@Fred_Raimer]

@@fox.9879 Or wear way-cool socks!

[@jorge57121]

Been working on pcs for 30 years, carpet, dry, moist whatever, never have I ever had an issue with static. Never met anyone in 30 years either who had. It is one of those ideas from 50s and 60s electronics repair that seemingly will live on forever with basically zero value.

[@Junmarvi]

we've just upgraded my MAC Pro 2013. quadcore to 12core. and it's working, and we're upgrading it to MACOS Sequoia the only issue now is that we can't exceed the RAM to 128gb.

[@breezlee59]

Would you ever consider using a graphite thermal pad instead of thermal paste for the cpu?

[@AlanW]

Nice, you made it look easy!

[@russ.tech2you]

That was great, not as hard as I would have thought.

[@glynwilliams4204]

I am tempted to buy one just so I can do this.

[@alexf7p61]

Hi friend, can you tell me what software for fan air control you use? Thanks, regards

[@ConstantGeekery]

Hi 😊 I like TG Pro.

[@HAL.2024]

Hey @ConstantGeekery! Can you do a “how to” tutorial on how to clone my original SSD into an upgraded one for this Mac Pro? I have hundreds of plugins and software that need to just work

[@ConstantGeekery]

It's not a complete how-to, but I did explain themprocess in this video: kzbin.info/www/bejne/jZyYi2SclM6AbJI

[@Fred_Raimer]

"Explaining Computers" has a great guide

[@TheBobruub1]

Going to be doing just this, this weekend so a timely video. Have you considered upgrading the bluetooth/wifi card? I wanted to get universal control using Monteray (via OCLP) but the hardware is sub par :(

[@MACMASTER01]

Do you just tighten the screws until they stop but no past that? I’m having sluggish performance with mine. I haven’t event gotten past the install Mac os because it has been so slow. It stops at 12 minutes and just hangs there. I think the fan ramps up to full after a few seconds of being on.

[@ConstantGeekery]

If you try to tighten them beyond the stop you risk shearing the heads, and it won’t actually make a difference - once they stop the thermal assembly is tight enough. Try the diagnostics: support.apple.com/en-gb/102550 Try downloading the Monterey installer again, or try an older version of macOS. If you’re doing the install over Internet, it takes a long time to download (2+ hours in my case). Could be any number of things causing the installer to hang.

[@NathanGulick-uy2oc]

My friends! Man I just upgraded to a 10 core 3ghz... all was well, then the fan started getting funny. Ramping up all the way. Reporting as zero RPM in TG Pro. I pulled the fan, inspected the connector, and reinstalled it. For a while things seemed ok. Fan reported correct RPM in TG.... Then, out of the blue 0 rpm again. It spins but does not report. Tried different fans and different daughter boards (where the smc is) and still no dice. You think I may have bent a pin in the fan connector?

[@KrishnaDraws]

Curious to know what makes better use of performance, if you were to install Linux on the Mac Pro vs. MacOS.

[@arch1107]

well, in mac all depends on the apps, the software, the os matters very little tbh

[@PiDsPagePrototypes]

MacOS is a Unix based OS, but optimised for the Mac hardware. Linux is a Unix-like OS, that runs on many different flavors of hardware. I'd expect the Apple OS to have the performance edge on Apple hardware.

[@troymd2009]

Just did this for mine. 😊

[@mechpilotace123]

Do you know what the largest supported SSD is in this machine? I have a 1TB 970 in there but need to upgrade the storage and my 4TB 990Pro didn't seem to work.

[@ConstantGeekery]

I thought OWC used to offer 4TB drives (can't see them on their website any more), though those are designed to replace the proprietary Apple SSDs - it might be different for NVMe. I've not personally tested anything above 2TB.

[@MayPolBeats]

I suppose you already know this, but be careful when you connect TB3 devices to the Mac Pro. This is because the TB2 to TB3 adapter works, so long as the device you're using has it's own power source. On TB3 computers, the computer provides the power to activate the device or hub. On TB2 tho, you need a device that already has its own power source, which applies when using TB2 to TB3 adapters as well.

[@montex66]

So gotta ask... after all that careful disassembly, upgrades and new thermal paste, why did you not replace the motherboard battery? That thing doesn't last forever. I had to replace mine to correct the issue where it would hang up during sleep and require a hard reboot.

[@ConstantGeekery]

I didn’t remember until after I’d put it back together, but mine was manufactured in 2019, so it’ll probably be fine until I redo the thermal paste.

[@montex66]

@@ConstantGeekery Yeah yours is quite new and didn't not need one. Mine was made in 2015 and a 9 year old battery had to be replaced, and I mention it because I've watched several upgrades of the Mac Pro 6,1 and nobody replaces the mobo battery despite it being so difficult to get to.

[@PiDsPagePrototypes]

Really makes the 5.1 design look so much more elegant and well thought out. No wonder so many production houses went to PC's when this design launched - they needed the PCIe slots for all the SDI cards, GPU cards,Raid Array cards and network expansion cards, let alone the drive bays. When Apple launched this version, they nearly killed companies like AJA that were Mac focused, and had to rush out PC drivers for those of their broadcast SDI cards that only ran on Mac before. This chassis really was Apples raised middle finger to the Pro user market.

[@ConstantGeekery]

They could have done a new cheesegrater and this one - like we have the Mac Studio and Mac Pro now. Apple went all in on the dual GPU computing thing, but then didn't give enough support to developers to make sure the software came... or think ahead to the inevitable hotter and faster chips which wouldn't work in this chassis. At the very least, they could have done a mid-term update to Thunderbolt 3 when that got released, since all the Xeon E5 v2 chips have support for it.

[@PiDsPagePrototypes]

@@ConstantGeekeryKZbin ate my reply with a link in it,... Search out Sonnets "xMac Pro Server" product in their Legacy Products section of their website, then look at all the Partner Companies at the bottom of that page. Most you'll see are from suppliers of PCIe hardware like SDI and HDMI capture cards, audio interfaces, RAID Arrays, GPU cards and Accelerator cards, that were used by the largest Mac Pro Customer Base sector, Broadcast and Film Production. With those buyers looking for places to use those PCIe cards, the Trashcan's sales died, which is what happens when you make a product that doesn't match what your buyers require. Sonnets product provided a stop gap measure for those that were willing to risk lower performance to stay in the Apple ecosystem, with TB1 and TB2 being slower then multilane PCIe. Meanwhile, to stay in business, companies like AJA, OWC etc, that had been Apple-centric, rushed out new drivers for their hardware to be used in Windows PC's, so they could retain the customers that Apple lost.

[@PiDsPagePrototypes]

KZbin ate my reply, twice so far,... Search out Sonnets "xMac Pro Server" product in their Legacy Products section, then look at all the Partner Companies at the bottom of that page. Most you'll see are from suppliers of PCIe hardware like SDI and HDMI capture cards, audio interfaces, RAID Arrays, GPU cards and Accelerator cards, that were used by the largest Mac Pro Customer Base sector, Broadcast and Film Production. With those buyers looking for places to use those PCIe cards, the Trashcan's sales died, which is what happens when you make a product that doesn't match what your buyers require. Sonnets product provided a stop gap measure for those that were willing to risk lower performance to stay in the Apple ecosystem, with TB1 and TB2 being slower then multilane PCIe. Meanwhile, to stay in business, companies like AJA, OWC etc, that had been Apple-centric, rushed out new drivers for their hardware to be used in Windows PC's, so they could retain the customers that Apple lost.

[@PiDsPagePrototypes]

@@ConstantGeekeryKZbin ate my reply with a link in it,... Search out Sonnets "xMac Pro Server" product in their Legacy Products section of their website, then look at all the Partner Companies at the bottom of that page. Most you'll see are from suppliers of PCIe hardware like SDI and HDMI capture cards, audio interfaces, RAID Arrays, GPU cards and Accelerator cards, that were used by the largest Mac Pro Customer Base sector, Broadcast and Film Production. With those buyers looking for places to use those PCIe cards, the Trashcan's sales died, which is what happens when you make a product that doesn't match what your buyers require. Sonnets product provided a stop gap measure for those that were willing to risk lower performance to stay in the Apple ecosystem, with TB1 and TB2 being slower then multilane PCIe. Meanwhile, to stay in business, companies like AJA, OWC etc, that had been Apple-centric, rushed out new drivers for their hardware to be used in Windows PC's, so they could retain the customers that Apple lost.

[@mc127]

If you want to do ESP correctly your desk mats would need to be conductive and attached to earth!

[@mamumonkan]

at how many RPM is everybody running their Macs Fan Control ????

[@bekim137]

I have the same cpu on my pc at it work great

[@anothervisionofthings]

Hi, i'm looking to do this upgrade, can you please link a source to get the cpu ?

[@ConstantGeekery]

You can usually find them on eBay.

[@Will-sc3hw]

might be better to use it as a cool case and use a modern mini Pc mainboard inside

[@richardschembri3538]

After watching your video, I bought a Mac Pro 2013 with a 6-core CPU and 32 GB RAM with a 128GB SSD. (I always wanted one of these trash can Mac Pros.)I paid 218 for it it arrived in very good condition and clean, so I have nought a 1TB Apple SSd and 64 GB ram, which arrive in a few days. Do you think that I should use an NVME PCIE SSD instead of the original 1TB Apple one? Do you recommend updating to Sonoma using the boot loader OpenCore Legacy? Keep up the good work. We love watching your videos.

Ahora que estan mas baratos son ideales para estudiantes de diseño y trabajo para redes😊

[@AlexandreLollini]

I did the same mistake, I have both a 2013 with THE "better" 150w 8 cores and one with the "regular" 12 cores, and the 12 cores is better in every way (even with sheepshaver where I thought the single core performance would help) but the answer is NO : the 12 cores is BETTER. I agree that re-pasting is a must, and I have to re-paste my 8 cores this year. The slower 12 cores is faster to boot, faster in response, and also give more fps in when using the same D700. Mono thread performance seem to be useless with mac os Monterey, and Mojave.

[@ConstantGeekery]

In my research, I collated a lot of real-world benchmark data, and studied Intel's spec sheets and Turbo Boost Available Bins data. The conclusions were surprising, and I explain here: kzbin.info/www/bejne/Y5rJip6FrtFnhZIsi=dbzrGqf3dWjUGZQN I've owned and tested the 12-core, and it only out performed the 8-core in heavier multi-threaded workloads, and even then, not by much. Not sure the exact reason for your different results, but it's safe to say that your 8-core couldn't have been performing as it should have done. No two CPUs are identical, even if they are the same model, so it could just have been a poor performing copy 🤷🏼‍♂️ but, RAM has a big impact too, and there are all sorts of other potential bottlenecks in the system - this is why you can see such a wide range of results in places like the Geekbench browser. If your CPU was 150w then I'm guessing you were using the E5-2687W v2. The 2013 Mac Pro wasn't designed for 150W CPUs - it wants a 130W model. They will work, but it's not optimal. The E5-1680v2 and E5-2667v2 are the safe 8-core choices. None of this matters if you are happy with the performance you're getting from the 12-core. Enjoy! 😊

[@bitcrafter]

TB2 to TB3 is easy. Just use the Apple adapter, A1790. I've been using it for years to connect to an OWC ThunderBay 4 drive bay with 4 drives. Easy enough, no issues.

[@PiDsPagePrototypes]

That will also work with TB1 devices, mind you, the TB1 and TB2 devices don't work at TB3 speeds, and it's amazing the number of people who expect the older devices to suddenly be faster with a cable dongle 😂

[@bitcrafter]

@@PiDsPagePrototypes You only get TB2 speeds max, but you can at least utilize a TB3/USB-C device if you choose to buy one that works with newer computers. USB-C is backwards compatible, which is nice. At least with a dongle, you're not restricted to purposely purchasing/owning a TB2 only device that's going to work slower on a newer computer. You can use a fast drive with a slower Mac, but you can't boost the speed of a slower drive on a faster Mac.

[@PiDsPagePrototypes]

@@bitcrafterIt's not just the hardware side that needs to be right to work for thunderbolt, the companies have to get the certification done too,.... I got my one of those dongles to connect my AJA Cion's TB1 connection to the TB3 connection on an Intel NUC, to record uncompressed raw 4K,... only to find AJA never got the Cion camera certified for Thunderbolt on Windows, only on Mac. :) This why I now have a 2012 Mac Mini Server, and a MacPro 5.1. The Mini is good for 30fps, where TB1 maxes out. The MacPro doesn't do the 120fps claimed by AJA and Apple. Back to PC,.. dongle goes unused for now.

[@bitcrafter]

@@PiDsPagePrototypes But what you're saying is not a dongle limitation. The dongle is a passthrough, allowing up to 20Gbps, the rated speed of TB2. If you're not pulling those speeds, then it's not the dongles fault. I've used it very successfully with many different HD enclosures, using the the fastest 4 ATA drives I can get, simultaneously, and I pull great speeds. Admittedly, Mac only. Especially since the dongle is designed an Apple chipset and most likely a Mac only product. It sounds to me like your bottleneck is AJA support. If you're pulling 4K uncompressed raw from a TB1 device to a TB3 device (Are you pulling 4K60 or 4KUHD?), as you state you're trying to pull 12Gbps through a 10Gbps pipe if your trying 4K60.

[@PiDsPagePrototypes]

@@bitcrafter You may have misinterpreted what was written. I did state that the dongle will only pass through data at the speed of the device that's hooked up to it. Then I gave my use case and what I found was that AJA never got the Camera certified for Thunderbolt on PC, only on Mac. Vision is not 'pulled' by the TB3 device, it's output by the TB1 device, at TB1 speeds, in this case the bandwidth is suffcient for uncompressed raw DCI4K up to 30 frames per second. Aside: for DCI4K at 60fps, the Cion and Kona4 PCIe card use a Dual 3G SDI connection. For the full 120fps DCI4K Uncompressed Raw, it uses Quad-SDI, but Apples claims of the MacPro5.1 being able to pass that data through from the Kona4 to a Raid Array (in my case, OWC Accelsior 4M2) appears to be false.

[@Technocrat.]

Were you going to keep this permanently or sell it off eventually?

[@ConstantGeekery]

I'll probably keep this one... probably... !

[@Technocrat.]

@@ConstantGeekery Lol 😆😂. Let me know if you decide to sell it. Might of made up my mind by then. 😁

[@fn1633]

If you were doing it today ..... and you have a 10 core and an 8 core which would you choose ???? I wish we had more numbers on the 10 vs the 8 ; The ten is "faster" but is it faster for everyday computing ....... Can't stand when they call it the "T" ; this truly is a work of art & engineering !!! With best wishes.

[@ConstantGeekery]

I think either is a good choice. 8c probably has the edge in day-to-day compute. The 10c will show its edge if you can push all the cores (e.g. large Logic Pro files, virtual machines etc.).

[@fn1633]

@@ConstantGeekery Thank you so much for taking the time to reply ! So very kind and appreciated - I am sure you had more important things going on :) I have a feeling " someone" (me) will be analyzing allot of Geekbench results soon lol . Both were 18$ and starring at me ( can you believe the affordability ) . I couldn't even afford to look at the pictures of this computer when it was released lol . Great video series !!!!

[@ConstantGeekery]

@@fn1633 I try to read and respond to as many comments as I can - it's all part of the fun 😁 Thanks for supporting the channel. I'm sure you'll enjoy whichever model you choose!

[@Jon-s8y]

Can I ask, I have a old hp z240 with a E5-1650 V2. The card I have is a GTX 1660 which is held back by the CPU. If I upgraded to the Intel Xeon E5-2667 v2 (slightly lower single core speed) would I see a % improvement (as there is not much more I can do with this older PC for games) cheers all

[@wheisenberg559]

Really depends on the game. I think the E5-1650 v2 is really the sweet spot for gaming. I have them in most workstations.

[@ConstantGeekery]

The 2667 v2 should be slightly faster in single core as it has a marginally higher boost clock. I measured 5%. The real benefit of the 2667 is the higher cache RAM per core. It may not make much difference to your situation, but they are cheap on eBay and a used 2667 will most likely have been pulled from a server, which is ideal (no stress from shutdown and boot up). Easy to swap on the Z too.

[@Jon-s8y]

@@ConstantGeekeryI've gone with a e5-1660 V2 as that has a higher base clock 3.9 vs 3.7ghz) According to some comparison sites, this should give me around 10% increase in fps. For a total of £15 (if I can sell the e5-1650 v2) thats not bad for the money!

[@AnonIllumi]

if you guys dont have the lates macOS open core legacy patcher...

[@justinvalentin8983]

Hi, is anyone able to help me by any chance? I've followed this guide to replace the thermal paste, but did not remove my CPU. Now whenever I start up a game, my D300s are quickly reaching 96 degrees C and the fan runs at full speed. Cinebench is fine with my 6 core CPU reaching 75 degrees, so the GPUs are the issue. Does anyone have any experience with this? Added context,, I do have experience with other PCs and graphics cards. This is the first temperature issue I've encountered aside from a dead waterpump in another computer. I am willing to give more information if needed.

[@ConstantGeekery]

I think I would re-apply the paste. Make sure everything is cinched together tight - probably teaching you to suck eggs here, but tighten the screws a little at a time then move to the one opposite so that the force is applied evenly. Consider installing TG Pro. It doesn't cost much and it allows you to set temperature triggers so you can spin the fans up earlier. Apple's default fan curves are too conservative, and since everything shares a heatsink, things can get out of control quickly.

[@justinvalentin8983]

@@ConstantGeekery Thank you for your advice. I repasted both GPUs and tightened them evenly. Unfortunately the problem wasn’t fixed, but I did take a closer look at the vapor chamber that connects with the one GPU. It’s corroded a bit; not where the GPU die connects with it but it still may impact how the heat transfers. Your advice did make a difference though; my GPU now gets to 92 degrees instead of 96 so there’s some progress :)

[@ConstantGeekery]

@@justinvalentin8983 pleased there’s some progress. Wonder if there might be a background process causing the heat up. Simple way to rule that out would be to create a new user account in macOS, restart and log into that then check the temps again.

[@RobertFixit]

You sir, have a 2013 Mac Pro problem. The only issue is... Now, so do I :) :) :)

[@daveh6356]

Are the ribbon card connectors custom PCIE? The CPU card seems to be PCIE bus (shame all Mac Pros don't use this). I'd love Apple to release discrete GPU/SoC cards for legacy Mac Pros. I'm sure it would fit in with their green policy.

[@john_hind]

Wow! A KZbinr who knows (and cares) about ESD! As a bit of an old time electron pusher, I wince every time I see a bare circuit board or component being pawed by some galvanically floating, synthetic fibre clad content provider! Also project nicely timed, given the revelations about the M chip security flaws!

[@Technocrat.]

I have an opportunity to buy a 2017 model 12 core d700 2013 mac pro for $450cad, is that a good deal.

[@ConstantGeekery]

Sounds pretty reasonable

[@readtedium]

I own an HP z420 which uses the same Xeon chips. It’s much easier to upgrade. :) (Side note: Curious if someone is going to get bold and offer an aftermarket I/O board upgrade, along the lines of some of the esoteric upgrades we’re seeing for the 2011/2012 MacBook Pros. Something tells me it would theoretically be possible to upgrade the Thunderbolt 2 ports to Thunderbolt 3 or at least USB-C.)

[@starbuck1776]

Everytime I get the itch to upgrade mine, I watch a video about the process and quickly lose interest, lol!

[@DrGrooveBeat]

“Some of our staff” aka his kids playing pool 😂

[@alwaysbadboy]

why dont you take 2967 ? its less than 20 dollars.....

[@ConstantGeekery]

I had one on my last Mac Pro. For most things, the 8 core is faster. I explain my thinking in this video: kzbin.info/www/bejne/Y5rJip6FrtFnhZI

[@LazerDon271]

Lovely pieces of engineering but can't help but feel they spent a lot of time over-engineering a PC and the prices reflect that.

[@darrenhankner5282]

12 core cpu performs the best. even though it is rubbing at just 2.7 ghz. the gpu even the best 700 pair is the weak part of that machine. using a gpu external enclosure yields best results.

[@MFEeee]

Hmm. I thought the 8 core was 3.0 GHz

[@ConstantGeekery]

The E5-1680 is. I have the E5-2667.

[@BrandonMeyer1641]

Apple was doing Intel contact frames before it was cool

[@EmmanuelMayor]

Didn't know Darth Vader replaced Jony Ive

[@edmn]

(Constant Feetery!)

[@composimple364]

I think u forgot to disassemble the fan and clean the dust inside😂😂😂

[@ConstantGeekery]

It was so clean I decided it wasn’t worth doing yet. 🤷🏼‍♂️

[@Naudia93]

Never plug yourself into the mains! Derp

[@arch1107]

the connector you saw connects the ground part of the wriststrap only to that ground you do not connect yourself to the power lines remember that the wall sockets have 3 parts, two have electricity and the third one is ground

[@JoshuaEatonCA]

going from 6 core is 8 core is bad value. the anti static thing is just silly

[@richardjbattyjr]

Never plug yourself in to ground, if some device had an issue you'd die

[@ConstantGeekery]

The grounding plug has a 1 megaohm resistor built in, which I believe is a requirement under UK legislation. But also, nothing within touching distance was plugged into the mains.

[@max5250]

"Never plug yourself in to ground, if some device had an issue you'd die" Never try to repair sensitive electronics without grounding yourself first, or static electricity from your body might fry that electronics the moment you touch it (although you will be safe). A "device having an issue" is not a problem since common sense tells you to not to repair devices if they are powered, and if you forget that, not being grounded (by this device) will not help you much, since you are always grounded for electric current.

[@MisterFhenix]

and i thought i had parkingsons

[@MeinDeutschkurs]

Dust-Bunny? How cute! In German we call these literally “wool mouse” 😂😂

[@ws13bf]

Yeah, wool mouses usually come in groups..

[@arch1107]

it is a shame that apple abndoned ythis idea and design, no gpu upgrades, at the apple style, using proprietary gpu cnnectors so it couldnt be upgraded after the only gpu upgrade offered the design still looks good, the trashcan idea was abandoned so fast by everybody, only the square itx cases using the vertical approach still exist the dual gpu idea is now a thing of the past

[@mendodsoregonbackroads6632]

I wish they would bring this design back for the Mac Studio. I think it would work quite well this time with the lower amount of heat that Apple silicon brings.

[@PiDsPagePrototypes]

They abandoned the design because the core customers abandoned Apple. There's no way to drop in all the PCIe boards that are used in Film and TV production to interface with the cameras and decks SDI connections, let alone Raid Array cards or places to put extra Raid drives, and the Thunderbolt connections just were not fast enough compared to multilane PCIe connections. Even with the Intel Cheesegrater MacPro, they haven't recovered the customer base, and the Apple Silicon based units still get killed on price vs performance when doing multi-threaded operations found in Non Linear Editing applications, often passed off to workstation Quadro GPU cards. The comment suggesting the Mac Studio could work well in the trashcan layout,.. yes, probably correct, but it won't fit in to the current design, which is still following the Johnny Ives products and needs a refresh.

[@jorge57121]

Apple made literally all the wrong technology decisions with the trashcan design in favor of the ridiculous trashcan shape. It was incredible in terms of how many things they managed to get wrong.

[@jorge57121]

The dual gpu system has never worked properly or taken off in the past 30 years. It still exists as a useless and basically overpriced and not cost or performant choice for weirdo and niche customers.

[@PiDsPagePrototypes]

@@jorge57121 Yup, the cult of Johhny Ives struct hard with the trashcan, and still won't accept that he was wrong. Now, dual GPU can work, but it depends on how the software applies things - one card running displays while the other does the render math for things like CG image generation or Live Streaming video decompression and recompression, or the way DaVinci Resolve applies it, seeing all the Cuda core across multiple GPU cards as one big GPU, sharing out the workload to the cores. The problem there is that most software design teams don't provision for it, so most of the workload ends up going on one GPU only.

[@sandsack123]

Why would you invest time and money into a quite expensive paper weight? No current OS is running on this machine and GPU always has been bad. Genuine question, as I have more than one of these TrashCans, collecting dust.

[@ConstantGeekery]

For fun? I come from a time when people played about with computers for entertainment. It’s also demonstrably more than a paperweight and you can easily install more recent OS releases with OCLP.

[@MacAir-cx9ol]

347

[@ShadowBoss0001]

Yeah except apple corps incompatible processor systems failed to boot that'll be 4000$ we have to replace everything inside your Mac pro motherboard 1000$ cpu$1500 then memory 1000$ can't forget that labor $500 gotta get Uncle Sam's cut 600$ 4600$ you owe us

[@ryfr1702]

I bought it in 2017 and I need to replace the thermal paste!!!

[@ZeroCool396]

If you have a Anti static mat you don't need the bracelet.I have yet to in-counter an issue with static and i don't use either of them items.I have taken apart and built at least 10 desktops in my time.