Trash or Treasure - 2013 Mac Pro Upgrade and Review

[@wertacus]

I always loved this design. It was super expensive and made no sense but I loved that form factor and how they packed everything in.

[@lexwaldez]

The fitment on that case sliding down over the hardware... it's perfect. Stupid expensive? Yes. Did some faculty get them for cuda-computing? Yes. Do they still run well? Yes.

[@RusselGosu]

@@lexwaldez I don't think the answer to "Do they still run well?" is necessarily yes. As noted in the video, the higher end models were prone to GPU failure (and even acknowledged by Apple), and even the lower ends could fail.

[@waynefilkins8394]

same here. Everyone was making fun of them or w/e but I honestly think it was one of those things where most people pretended not to like them because they were so expensive and they knew they couldn't afford them lol. I always thought they were cool af.

[@stephencawker1565]

i have the 12 core model,I love constently improving it..I m waiting for a 970 pro from ebay,but it has a 950 pro samsung right now,, black magic speed...1290 write...1389 read,could get 14,s and 1500 with the 970 pro.Just so you guys know works good, in the Trash can@@RusselGosu

[@stephencawker1565]

The stock ssd is Samsung,,Know what i mean,The trash Can loves!,,the 970 evo,970 evo plus, and the 970 pro...the 970 evo, not evo plus is garenteed 1400 write 15 20 read, no shit, 1600 is max, you cant beat these scores

[@DerekBeins]

Hey Jeff! Just wanted to drop a message to let you know I noticed an issue that cropped up with your audio ducking. Looks like it's all offset by about 20/30 seconds or so, where it gets loud and plays over you while you're still talking on-camera, and gets quiet before the montage is done. This is the second video I've seen this happen to within the last few weeks. Not a huge deal of course, but wanted to make sure you were aware of it. Stuff happens in editing when content is cut but the keyframes aren't updated. Great show otherwise! :)

[@popcorny007]

Glad someone else pointed this out

[@TheBatNaz]

I just presumed he had drank too many beers while editing

[@maarten8373]

Its probably a case of pasting in the sponsor spot last minute and not moving the background audio tracks accordingly. Video editor had one beer to many to notice.

[@rett.isawesome]

@@maarten8373 I think this is it. It ends early too. Because we also have the ad free version on floatplane. I was certain I checked the transitions before rendering. But seems like the wrong music track got muted.

[@maarten8373]

@@rett.isawesome Heh, figures. Glad to hear its Linus' fault and not you having one beer too many (if there even is such a thing).

[@hardknox144]

Recently upgraded mine to 12-cores, 128GB ram, 2TB SSD, and hooked it up to an eGPU. Works fast enough for me. I'm doing mostly Logic Pro for music production and I run full sessions with lots of Wave Plugins and AU instruments. No hiccups, no problems. It's treasure for me. I like the look of the machine and my casing is mint, not even a scratch. Can't stand the cube designs.

[@waynefilkins8394]

tbh that sounds like a beast.

[@richeyrich2203]

Will it work well with an egpu if the inner graphics is fried? How does the set up look? (Imgur plz) Get an egpu setup that looks good?

[@Gastell0]

2010-2015 is crazy time when Apple would screw up thermal settings just for it to be silent, even if it will melt whatever laptop is standing on, whoever was pushing this should have been put into silent room and left there if they like it so much

[@romevang]

Kept going longer than that, my 2019 i7 Macbook pro likes to melt itself down when I'm not using a manual fan curve. The i9 version was made even more infamous by Dave2D when he noticed it performed better in a freezer.

[@Wokiis]

@@romevang What? Almost all modern cpus in laptop enclosures would perform better when put into colder ambient. I hope that wasn't a reveleation to anyone who watches tech-youtubers.

[@romevang]

@@Wokiis Apple didn’t correctly tune the i9 model on launch, so it performed worse than the i7. Once Dave2D placed it in the freezer, it began outperforming the i7 like it was supposed to. The point of the freezer was to highlight the laptop shipped with shitty CPU tuning and that you shouldn’t have to put your laptop in a freezer for it to work right.

[@Wokiis]

@@romevang Ah ok sounds like shitty fan tuning, then. The big weakness of those late Intel 15"/16" MBP is that if both GPU and CPU are utilized at the same time, the VRM overheats and forces the CPU to go down steeply below base clock. Really odd we accepted such behaviour on expensive laptops, but since this was most evident in games (sustained combined load) and "mac users don't game", I guess they got away with it.

[@baoquoc3710]

@Marek Borowski ok then melt your laptop and of course, your lap is so innovative, eh?

[@beauslim]

Always loved the *idea* of how this machine cooled.

[@alesksander]

Enginnering nightmare. :D And i love it for quirky idea LOL

[@cubchristoph]

The Mac Studio is very similar in concept: sucking air in from underneath, passing the CPU cooler on its way up, and being pushed out by a fan on the highest section of the case. Also, no internal expansion; everything has to be added via external IO ports.

[@alesksander]

@@cubchristoph Yeah kinda. Most simmilar design in recent times except passive systems is new Xbox. Trashcan had it merits conceptually just not for HW at that time and its perfomance windows and design rules.

[@SgtKilgore406]

Finished paying off an Affirm loan for my 2013 Mac Pro D700. At first I thought the Mac Pro was a dud as it would run terrible and often times crash and restart. Recently narrowed the problem down to a faulty SSD. Replaced with a Samsung 980 Pro 2TB w/Heatsink NVMe and that made all the different in the world. Mac now runs like a champ with no issues at all!

[@spencer5135]

Just a note about the storage, as I just finished working on one of these myself: the pcie slot for the storage is rated for gen 2x2, not just the origi al drive. If you use an adapter and install a gen 3x4 drive, you will not get the 3000mb speeds you discussed in the video (in my testing, it appeared capped out at 1200mb post upgrade, much like what you said the original drive was capable of). That said, it is much cheaper to get an off the shelf nvme and an adapter than it is to get a used original drive if you intend to upgrade, so there still is benefit.

[@catalystguitarguy]

yeah, that's about what I got from using the proprietary adapter on my macbook air from 2015. just about double peak sata ssd speeds. still was worth the upgrade for me based on capacity alone from 128gb to 1TB.

[@RobertBullock]

Same. Adapter plus 2TB (Evo 970 IIRC) gave about a 10% bump maybe over the 1TB which was obv. pretty fast to begin with.

[@hiddenhawk13]

The market that this really shines in is for audio/studio engineers. This video might have me buying one for the studio since I have a 2008 cheese grater

[@dannyknox4314]

And the fact that I want to use my thunderbolt displays with all of the child windows in Logic Pro spread across 2 screens.

[@TinyBearTim]

How just buy a Mac mini

[@eduardocarrasco8830]

Using a 110-115 W TDP Xeon, thermals are a bit better. Disconnecting physically the slave AMD Dxxx card makes thermals much better. Even so, using the opencore gimmick to unlock the use of eGPU using TB2, makes it a bit more current for today's use. Special concerns with the ECC controller on the Xeons that could render you ram useless. There is 3D printed base you can mount this with a noctua fan and improves air flow though the triangular thermal core, makes it better. Repasting everything also helps. You can install different AMD Dxxx cards if one of them fails, but is cheaper to put opencore and use an eGPU, though limited to TB2 20gb/s.

[@ingusmant]

How expensive is to replace the standard card with the top of the line one? Can you just remove the other card or it wont turn on?

[@AwSomeNESSS]

This would've been an interesting form factor if Apple actually offered upgrade boards for it. Like, if in 2015 they released Haswell-E and Firepro W7100 boards, I think they could've gotten some longevity out of this form factor. Instead it never changed until being outshone by the iMac Pro as the stopgap solution till the new tower.

[@eduardocarrasco8830]

@@ingusmant Hi there, at some point when I had this Mac last year, the D500 and D700 card were really hard to find and people would sell them for like 500-700 USD each. When I had mine I didn't remove, just disconnected the slave D300 and the computer started normally. The slave Dxxx card does not have any monitor output wired to it, all is managed through the master one. Only helps on processing that's all. This is why using opencore, using a TB2 to TB3 adapter and an eGPU, goes so much better boosting performance on apps.

[@xcalybur75]

I am an Apple Certified Tech and have taken apart plenty of the trash can Mac Pro and they were always a pain. Especially since the screws for the CPU retention needed to be torqued down to a specific spec according to Apple and we had to use a special tool to do it.

[@PS3PCDJ]

Calling yourself an "Apple Certified Tech" and thinking it's impressive is like buying a toy gun and a fake police badge and calling yourself a policeman.

[@stevearkwright]

@@PS3PCDJ: It’s *extremely* impressive - what’s with the negativity?…

[@tenhovergonha8739]

@@PS3PCDJ woooosh

[@TreyMotes]

@@PS3PCDJ Imagine being this much of a douche bag for zero reason to a completely random stranger.

[@richarddib]

@@PS3PCDJ Jesus ... why the hate? You think that working with a PC box is harder? It only shows your ignorance ...

[@gilesl]

still use mine all day everyday for audio post production, I took mine to 10 core which is a really nice compromise for better single core performance.

[@ThaaaaGoat]

Hi Jeff, I've been watching your videos since the Chinese x79 motherboards. You filled the niche of cheap server projects when nobody else did. Keep up the good work and have a nice day!

[@tcnymex]

The tiny little picture, on the tiny little screen, of my tiny little cell phone, made what you were holding look like a tiny little cylinder. as if what you dug out of the trash was a curta mechanical calculator ... Which would definitely be a treasure

[@CraftComputing]

Man, I would love a Curta!!!

[@transitengineer]

Thank you, for an excellent video, and man you got skills. As for myself, this model is a true "treasure". Because earlier this year, I paid about double your cost for a used "trash can" Mac Pro 8-core/D700/64GB/ 1TB SSD and, I paired it with my Apple 27-inch Cinema LED (none thunderbolt) display and everything is working great (smile..smile).

[@lukefilewalker9454]

This is Awesome! I just upgraded my 2010 Mac Pro 5,1 with an AMD RX 570 and Monterey. 👍🏻

[@pcsproshop8972]

Thank you for your time & patience ;) I've only had to repair ONE of these, and I am totally ok with never having to open one again. My repair worked well enough, yet I have yet to be paid~ so the gift that kept on giving. That was 2018, too bad iFixit had little info at the time. Appreciated Jeff!

[@JasonCrosen]

I loved the design concept when these were announced but I hated working on them when I was at Apple. It had a lot of potential but I feel like so many corners were cut to get the design as small as it is.

[@smileyguyz]

Well, it is a circle. They cut EVERY corner ;)

[@efwewfwef1549]

it had the handwriting of a out of control jonny ive all over it!!!

[@greenprotag]

Have you tried Windows or Linux bare metal on this device? I am curious about dual GPU support on this hardware with a different operating system.

[@ThePsychoticWombat]

Crossfire is useless in Linux, maybe if there is some vulkan application that is written for multiple GPUs... In windows and DX11 (older drivers) it should probably be OK if the application support crossfire

[@aztracker1]

That was my curiosity too... Not sure about offloading anything to the second gpu without crossfire. But guessing it may actually perform better in a lot of ways.

[@WolvenSpectre]

It is probably the same as if you put multiple GPUs in a Windows PC with no Crossfire support and no SLI Bridge.

[@ThePsychoticWombat]

@@WolvenSpectre from what I can read up about this it does support crossfire(though never games don't support it) and was quite the gaming powerhouse when running Windows in bootcamp back in the day. Now I can only see like 3D rendering applications being able to use it as vulkan multi-GPU is only supported by a few games(like under 10)

[@drdonesomething]

@@ThePsychoticWombat That's correct -- it does indeed have crossfire support surprisingly (surprising given it's lack of support in Mac OS).

[@MartinBogomolni]

I found and upgraded my 2013 trashcan mac to a E5-2697v2 ( 12 core ) and maximum ram ( 64GB ) ... worked like a charm. Upgrading my nVME drive to a 2TB and everything works.. fine. Better than fine. Totally useable.

[@marilynlucas5128]

Which nVME drive did you use?

[@MartinBogomolni]

@@marilynlucas5128 Samsung 970 EVO Plus SSD 2TB with a Sintech NGFF M.2 nVME SSD Adapter Card

[@marilynlucas5128]

@@MartinBogomolni Thanks :)

[@zoomosis]

The curious thing about these is that despite all their faults and being almost 10 years old, in Australia they still sell for excess of $800 (around US$700).

[@Wokiis]

Btw pretty sure DaVinci Resolve Studio supported utilizing both GPUs on this device. As well as Apples own Final Cut Pro. Sucks to be in pretty much any other professional field than video production, though :D

[@ryanzmuda3167]

Is there a way to get the new thunderbolt or usbc on there.

[@Saampson85]

Great video. FYI: Background music was all over the place. Sometimes during the montage and sometimes during vocal parts. It was just strange.

[@williamwinslow8807]

Also threatened to drown out the vocals at times.

[@puretrack06]

Okay I thought I was going crazy

[@asdf51501]

The music did succeed in that I totally felt like I was in an elevator.

[@MrBunet1900]

I did buy one and I am happy with it. I love the design and I am using it as a basic mac. You also can turn it in to a Linux box and that is also good. This computer has many uses and it is cheap.

[@TheMactrix]

jeff, I bought a second hand 8 core, 64 GB Twin D500 Graphics card and 2 x 1 TB NVmE drives. Aside from the fact that it was finally orphaned, as far as the new version of MacOS goes, it has been good for a general purpose machine. Some of my video tools have support for running on the 2nd GPU... which helps a lot. I got some older Thunderbolt two hardware... like a Thunderbolt 2 hardware Hub... USB-A, Firewire, and Thunderbolt 2... which makes things rock. I also have a 6 GB OWC RAID CAGE as it were... that is Thunderbolt 2 and that works great. I think you are helping a lot of people put together a nice machine that will serve them well once they updated it. Thanks so much!

[@sbrazenor2]

I collect old Macs; at least the ones that have interesting designs. I have one of these and while I don't use it for anything crazy, I do have to say it's aged well for basic functions.

[@rahulchandra152]

Does it work well as a trash can, without a seal I could see bugs going into it... do you get bugs?

[@TheHoldenmcgroin]

Its on OSX, it doesnt get Bugs. ;)

[@abdullahnawaz298]

Did you dug this out of the trash or did you dug the trash out of it 😂

[@CraftComputing]

Yes

[@kurtpena5462]

@@CraftComputing Kinda neat how the GPU's can heat up the CPU's and vice versa. Does it sound as much like a HEPA filter as it looks? Would love to hear that fan running at constant speed!

[@CraftComputing]

It sounds almost EXACTLY like an air filter when the fan is topped out.

[@saiyantwan]

Hi Jeff, I think you guys should check your audio settings. there were a good number of times where the music would over take you then times when you went really loud. You had another video do that a bit ago as well.

[@technicallyme]

I have one of those and I upgraded it to 12core and I love it 😅 Couple things I ran into. The torque on the processor to the heatsink needs to be spot on! Because of the lack of traditional socket retention. And I thought I had a video board problem but it turned out to not get along with a Dell monitor with hdmi 2.0

[@RobertBullock]

Same-ish, I have a Dell that it blanks black for a second then comes back. TB to HDMI-DV adapter plugged into the Dell's DVI.

[@covrtdesign5279]

If you ever felt the need to give this one away to a disabled Air Force veteran that needs an updated machine for graphic design work... Great video!

[@billgates3699]

This is the ‼️ONLY‼️ time I have ever seen somebody make a video about a Mac and didn’t use Chipmunk Trap music in the background. Thank you for not driving us insane with screeching chipmunks and horrible drum loops.

[@tommihommi1]

It's funny how the mounting solution for the CPU in the socket looks *a lot* like what people like der8auer have been developing for 12th/13th gen Intel now

[@ingusmant]

So when is apple dropping all intel support? Next year? Can this even run win11 or the CPU is too old?

[@transitengineer]

Nobody knows the answer to that question. Apple Inc.,still sells two Intel based desktop systems the Tower Mac Pro, and the "space gray" Intel mac mini.

[@TheBlackFoxMaster]

Я так понимаю туда можно поставить любую видеокарту, просто нужно распаять разъём подключения и питание. Наверняка эти схемы ежу давно есть в интернете.

[@daeric]

Interestingly enough, it’s still on the HCL for the current version of ESXi!

[@DarkRavenProductions]

i loved my mac pro then one day it started up but wouldn't display anything i can only assume the graphics card went now its just an expensive paperweight, i miss it and wish it could be fixed

[@bryans8656]

I had one of these and upgraded the cpu, storage, and RAM. I really loved that thing despite its shortcomings, but finally sold it when the M1 Macs came out.

[@LetrixAR]

Where does the sound from the outro cames from? For a moment I thought Echo would start playing.

[@VladyslavKudlai]

Hello dear "Craft". Thank you for your videos. Watching them is like watching how fire burning. With such pleasant music and you reassembling something. For me it is like meditation.

[@DanielLopez-uk9ql]

i wonder if the cards would work in crossfire on bootcamp if this mac supports it.

[@liaminwales]

eGPU works on the MP 2013.

[@transitengineer]

However, it using an external GPU would prefer for my Apple desktop to be a "space gray" Intel mac mini (smile...smile).

[@itsdeonlol]

This design was great! It's still nice!

[@MacSoundSolutions]

Just got a mint 8 core for 300 which I think is the sweet spot with D500. Installing a 2 Terabyte Samsung 970 for 89 bucks. Will test out OCLP and Sonoma. Because…. why not?

[@CraftComputing]

I'd recommend disassembling and reapplying thermal paste to both the GPUs and CPU, just to hedge your bets on it lasting.

[@MacSoundSolutions]

@@CraftComputing will I will ask the seller if he did it lately but the main reason I went with the 8core was so I don’t have to upgrade the cpu and take the whole thing apart. It looks risky to me. Already have iStat and it’s running much cooler than my repasted 5,1

[@timbathras2660]

As support for Intel MacOS wanes, that seems like it could make a nice Linux workstation or small scale hypervisor host.

[@YTHandlesWereAMistake]

Exactly my thoughts. There are users around me who like running multiple vms at home and don't mind slower single thread performance because the systems are isolated, which this would be a perfect candidate for.

[@JuliePGUK]

That heatsink is so inefficient they could of easily doubled the fin count and increased the surface area for heat dissipation

[@tenhovergonha8739]

And put some options to put the fans louder and faster

[@computernerdinside]

@@tenhovergonha8739 3rd party apps allow you to do this, I believe.

[@computernerdinside]

While true, it probably would have also increased the cost of the heatsink considerably, as smaller, closer fins in a shape like that, I can't imagine were made in a cheap-cut fashion like most others.

[@Malc180s]

Would've made it noisy. Pointless.

[@computernerdinside]

@@Malc180s With the low fan speeds, maybe not so much. I'd imagine a much greater fin density in a heatsink like that would drive the cost way up though.

[@adamw9764]

i always thought this design was neat, kind of want to get one to mess with. Cool video!

[@tenhovergonha8739]

And it is ...

[@waffleman1832]

still one of the best looking trash cans ever made

[@blendpinexus1416]

i really liked the design of this mac pro. apple never updated the hardware to give it more speed but it really was just cool.

[@digitalclips]

I have the middle version from 2013 with 64 GB, and once I moved on with Apple hardware I installed Windows, not as boot camp, but as the only bootable OS. It is great for Windows 10 machine and runs Catalyst no problem.

[@billlodhia5640]

Hey Jeff, I think this machine would make a bomb virtualization machine given the twin NICs and the very capable Broadcom wireless chip. Turning this into a silent LXC host with Proxmox with a virtualized firewall would be pretty dope!

[@thedevhow]

it will pull 150W at idle though with this 12 core CPU.

[@JethroRose]

pretty much what i’m going to buy one for. that and the fact that they’re the coolest looking mac ever made and will be collectible like the g4 cube

[@jordanmartinetti8224]

I recognize that silver toolkit, i have the same one! It's great kit for all those smaller bits.

[@stefsmurf]

What's with the audio? I thought I was imaging things for a bit, but I reran it back, and it did the same thing.

[@lesthelegendofficial]

Will this not run windows would that not fix crossfire?

[@darylcheshire1618]

I saw a youtube of a whole server farm totally out of trashcan macs. Was amazing to see rows and rows of trashcans in racks. Not sure if it’s still in operation. It will probably be expensive to maintain.

[@stevearkwright]

That’s right - they were installed in special server rack trays which looked unbelievably futuristic (flat, matt black front plates with circles in them for the bases of the MacPro’s showing). Stacked up in racks, they looked like something off the Death Star (!). Those alone would’ve been super-expensive. I wonder if they’re still in use somewhere?…

[@ghost-user559]

Yeah I read an article that they bought millions upon millions of dollars worth of them right to until they discontinued them. I think they still use them for renting out Apple virtual machines for application developers

[@prep0wer]

So does it run Windows XP, Debian or Ratatouille?

[@transitengineer]

As an Apple desktop with an Intel processor it supports Windows, Linux, and Mac OS (smile...smile).

[@CheeseBallsMcGyver]

Not sure why the algorithm decided this was the video to send to introduce me to your channel, but damn it I’m hooked

[@Cooper3312000]

They support boot camp and VMware esxi they still make great little silent 24/7 servers without out of band management of course.

[@ironhead2008]

I wonder if Crossfire is usable on that thing if you install Windows on it.

[@desilence_]

yes it is

[@marcusedvardsson5505]

Can I use it for Proxmox? The installer dies after a while.

[@ranvierion]

hehe...i'm kinda disturbed that you did not clear away the dust that remains on the vent...It will get introduced back into your circuit board...:P

[@SethWhaley]

Hey Jeff, do you think if they released this today with their own silicon that it would be as hated of a product?

[@efwewfwef1549]

a cooler looking mac studio

[@rBennich]

Is that band-in-a-box with built in soloists that you used as music?

[@johnbrooks7350]

A used Mac Studio is honestly a killer deal right now. I’m currently clocking a 128GB M1 Max Mac Studio got $2800. Only reason I’m waiting is because I’m hoping the M3 comes out for Mac Studio and the M2’s drop price

[@bigbubba0439]

I feel like now with the more efficient m-series processors, the 2013 mac pro form factor would be more appropriate (considering the lack of upgradability and expandability and little need for fans)

[@TheBennyDee]

Any idea if these GPUs are any good for video transcoding in Jellyfin or Plex? I’m assuming they can’t assist with AI workloads… I just think this would be a cool looking AI chassis 😅

[@andrewcolville4551]

What can you say on-air to your squadron

[@hishnash]

Would be really interesting to see if someone did a thermal mod of the trashcan macPro, replace the heatsink with a copper fin stack and modern heat pipes they might well be able to cool the power draw of all those parts, there are modern gaming laptops that pull back close to that power levels.

[@stevearkwright]

Maximum Continuous Power: 450w.

[@martinclark1411]

Im only getting between 800 and 900 mbps, 1tb apple ssd ?

[@jbrandt7]

I wonder if you could use it (or a couple of them) as a video / blender render farm ?

[@pavlovsky0]

clean the dust on the top fan???

[@billyhatcher643]

that cpu bracket for that intel processor almost looks like what alot of 12th gen cpu users have to use if they want proper cooling apple was ahead of the game back then

[@cts006]

Not sure if it is ironic that the standard lga2011 mounting system is far less susceptible to the issues with retention force and substrate bending found with the lga1700 system due to the dual latch design.

[@constantinefotiadis]

Is it worth buying it right now? I do like that amazing design! But in which Mac OS is discontinued? In easier words, can I pair it with my iPhone, and have iMessage, FaceTime and compatibility each other? And which iPhone? 11, 12, 13?

[@divontagillespie4712]

What's the last macOS n can I use xcode n StreamLabs

[@GreenCinco12Official]

Others already pointed out the audio issue. But I wonder if you cleaned the fan in the top? At 12:41 it looks like there is a ton of dust in it. ^^

[@maritrunks]

Why is the BG audio randomly going up and down???

[@angeluzdraco3851]

Puedo poner 128gb de ram a mi macpro late 2013m

[@liarus]

10:53 the music decreases for some reason from there

[@soberhippie]

Can one stick some water cooling into it?

[@KingdomChronicles-p9q]

I would love to see how it performs under Linux Mint for example.

[@icraftcrafts8685]

Is this the same as a 2011-R aka socket R?

[@Arch_Dude]

Mine worked great until upgrading to the second version of Big Sur. There was a memory hole that apple finally patched caused by Safari. I still have one of the GPU's showing one of the GPU's memory being maxed out in iStat. I'm having sluggish performance. Any ideas on a fix?

[@nkillick]

3:15 NVME but not a standard socket. Doesn't sound like Apple at all!

[@z_polarcat]

Didn’t those cost more than 15k when max out at the time?

[@Holdeenio]

Hey Jeff, thanks for the insight - have always loved the aesthetic of this weird but wonderful machine. Are you selling yours now? 👀👀👀

[@ms1595]

Is it possible to use purge wrangler to make a external graphicscard work? I used purge wrangler to make an eGPU work on a 2015 iMac with only Thunderbolt 2. Sure the transferspeed is lower than TB3, what means lower performance but maybe worth a try.

[@bangdollarsign]

I feel your pain, getting that far and having to break it back down and reassemble because you forgot one little non-standard part that made no sense being there... sub'd!

[@DouglasWalrath]

i bet if they had added more fins to that heat sink it would've been more capable of cooling the higher end GPUs, the fin gaps on that thing looked like they were a mile wide

[@SciFlyGal]

Out of curiosity, how does it work as a windows machine?

[@CoPoint]

Two thoughts: - The screws: Just _how many_ different sizes of screws are on that thing (plus, possibly, how many different lengths of the same size...)? Even if this isn't exactly designed for end user maintenance - boy, they _really_ must hate their maintenance techs at Apple... - The common heat sink: Yup, that must be about the absolute worst idea of the whole system - the CPU heating (and over time killing...) the GPUs. Why not give each of the three sides their own (unconnected) baseplate plus fins, all reaching into the same common air channel (all in the same end shape as the original heat sink)? That way, every side of the triangle can heat up for itself - plus, going by the angles the fins are going off from the CPU side, pointing at the GPUs, the GPUs don't seem to get nearly enough fins to achieve adequate cooling when getting under any kind of higher load...

[@nilswegner2881]

The combined heatsink thing is what makes my Thinkpad T410s basically useless. The nvidia NVS3100 makes the i5 520M overheat in no time...

[@HeyItsJonny]

The cooling fins could have been a rolled finned aluminum cut for each part that would neatly slide in without touching each other

[@3dduff]

One small correction to your video. The "Trashintosh" DID support external GPUS through Thunderbolt. I ran mine for almost 2 years with an external Nvidia 980ti. I know, as shocking as that sounds, it was actually a perfect setup. Then Apple had a major MacOS update come out that PURPUSLY killed the external GPU function. I was constantly in contact with the support team that made my External CPU enclosed, and they informed me "Apple didn't just not include the drivers needed they REMOVED the APIs that the drivers depended on to communicate with the OS." just a couple weeks later Nvidia offishaly ended Mac Support, and I was left with a $1500 Brick dongle. But even after all that. I was a VERY early adopter for this computer...I was on the phone ording one at 2am when they started to sell them. In retrospect, yes I paid WAY too much for it. But I am a 3D freelancer and took it with me to 3-4 different studios that I was working with. So in my case it was my work horse for almost two years, and it DEFINETLY payed its self off. In fact Its still up and running as my Storage and license server.

[@brostenen]

Sounds a bit like when Sony screwed up "Other OS".

[@TypeOneGuy03]

So my Dell poweredge R720 is running same cpu but dual. 128gb DDR3 ecc ram. Gtx 1070. With does that mean i basically have a mac pro??!?!?

[@DKGCustom]

Just retired my Trash Can for Mac Studio. Loved every moment of using it, and it performed perfectly in 8 years of use

[@cristolate]

Hello! My Mac Pro has 3.7 GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon E5! Do you think I can upgrade that?

[@JuanCAraujoS]

How will it perform if you install Ubuntu or Pop!_OS? Since it will fall from Apple long-term support pretty soon, extending it's life is a rational chioce.

[@thedavidj1996]

I think it is one of the most beautiful computers ever made. Along side the Macintosh 128k and the iBook Clamshells. I’d say the current MacPro is also quite beautiful, and the current M1 iMac.

[@MarcWeavers]

so some Windows install cant save that system?

[@jaredphillips6655]

Hello Jeff. How about upgrading the video cards and install steam os or windows on that mac?

[@djw1091994]

So what about Windows? Maybe liquid metal thermal? I know you shouldn't with copper but would be interesting to see. I suppose either way you can't get around the hard coded 100watt limit.

[@bezandros]

Wondering how this machine performs when running windows (bootcamp) . Mostly for gaming