I Bought a Cheap Mac Pro (Risk vs Reward)

[@QUANTUMJOKER]

I'd wanted a 2013 trashcan Mac Pro for years, and finally got one from a very friendly graphic designer in December 2022 for a great price ($400 plus postage). This Mac Pro had the base 3.7 GHz quad-core CPU, D300 GPUs and 16 GB of RAM, but I upgraded the RAM to 64 GB and installed a 2 TB NVMe SSD through a simple adapter. Just a couple of days ago, I replaced the CPU with a 3 GHz 10-core E5-2690 v2, which was never offered by Apple and is substantially better-value than the official configurations. You could get a 3 GHz trashcan Mac Pro from Apple, but with only 8 cores. I've upgraded the CPUs in both of my Mac Pros - a couple of weeks ago, I upgraded my 2010 5,1 Mac Pro with two 3.06 GHz six-core CPUs - and I'm incredibly pleased with how my trashcan CPU upgrade turned out.

[@mamumonkan]

well done !!!

[@diegoignacio1444]

@@QUANTUMJOKER nice 👍

[@MrShalvayez]

Bought my Mac Pro thru Mac of all trades. Came in original box, with all the docs, Apple stickers, the right power cable, and pretty pristine condition.

[@GaryED44]

I wanted a 2013 Mac pro the day they came out but was never able to afford one, flash forward to a month ago discovering how cheap they've become i bought one with the 6 core CPU D500 graphics and a 256GB SSD for $99. The Ebay seller had 10 of them and I scored one of last 2. so far I've only added Ram but I hope to upgrade the CPU soon

[@kingneutron1]

I have 2 of them, both 32GB RAM and 1-2TB SSD. They're a bit of a boondoggle. Too much Thunderbolt2, which is getting hard to find, and not enough USB3. The fan is also insufficient to really cool it. And Monterey 12 just went out of support back in Sept 2024. So if you want to run anything MacOS after that, it's OCLP. Or you can throw Linux on it. But there's not a really good 2.5Gbit or 10Gbit networking option for it.

[@kensg]

Hi, bought a used Mac Pro on eBay and it is a basic model but they seller was amazing. Well packaged it was clean as a whistle I mean outside inside I opened it not a speck of dust.The seller was on point.

[@transitengineer]

I had the same experience also, when buying through Ebay my "trash can" size Mac Pro 8-core/D-700/64GB/1TB SSD model. A little ashamed to say this but, mine was was clearer right out of the Ebay seller's shipping box than, it is now being used and sitting on my desk (smile ... smile).

[@sklynexd]

Okay but ebay is not available in europe

[@CtrlAltPrint]

This Mac is the CHEAPEST way to get in to the macOS eco system on an actual MAC hands down. They can be upgraded (watch KZbin videos if you do this) and with OCLP contrary to what some people are saying CAN run Sonoma 14.5 like butter.

[@sirhide-x5y]

interesting . would you recommend eBay refurbished

[@rorywalters1614]

It’s not really worth getting. A maxed out trash can can’t even beat the entry level M1 Mac mini, both in CPU and GPU performance in real usage. You can also boot the M1 Mac mini from an external thunderbolt enclosure+drive, so memory swap wouldn’t brick your Mac.

[@shengyi1701]

Agreed but the insane will fork out US2000 plus foe NVIDIA's RTX 4090 GPU! Compared to refurbished trash can, better to get thrash can or refurbished M3 16-inch MBP!

[@m.hreels9822]

I disagree I like mine. 👍🏻

[@shengyi1701]

I got the same configuration as you in Singapore. The 6-core, with 32 GBs of RAM and with the dual D700s and 512 GB SSD. Cost me about SGD $1900. It was late build in 2018 based on serial number I checked. Pricey still but excellent condition. But you got a real steal. Mine serves as a home theatre computer with external Asus Blu-ray drive attached and with Blu Ray Pro software. Wont beat a Mac Mini but it's got a classy design and something that all PCs and computers should strive. But NVDIA has to come up with massive GPUs in 2023-24 and their RTX 4090 alone costs SGD $2980! A refurbished M3 16-inch MBP goes for only SGD $3079! For once, Apple product is cheaper!

[@m.hreels9822]

I ended up not getting a refurbished one on Amazon I found a fully maxed out model for only $400 on eBay!

[@CezaryTyl-j1q]

hey , it is better to get Mac mini 2018 i7 6 cores 16 GB RAM ddr4 or Mac pro 2013 64 GB RAM DDR Xeon 4 cores . I will use for excel , ( I am economic student). I feel love for Mac pro but i am wondering if this is not too old machine. thanks for answer

[@GarrettCrespo]

The mac mini would definitely be a better option. Not only does it have intel's quick sync function for video work and playback, but it also has thunderbolt 3. This allows for eGPU's for a performance boost. It's also going to get at least one more year of official support. The Mac Pro is already unsupported and needs software modding to run the latest version of MacOS

[@transitengineer]

You may want to check the price of a used M-1 "mac mini" with 16GB because, this might be the best option for you (smile ... smile).

[@songsan807]

I wanted one of these and the Apple Cube. Maybe one day when I find them in garage sales and swampmeets.

[@ladenhudson2458]

the power consumption is crazy. but it is the cheapest way to get a 128gb mac.

[@stephenvalente3296]

Wish they were as cheap here in the UK. Want one for my collection.

[@transitengineer]

Hear you, I missed out of Apple's G4 Cube desktop. So, I made sure two years ago, to add one of these space gray "trash can" size Mac Pro's to my collection (smile ... smile).

[@stephenvalente3296]

@@transitengineer The Cube was the first old Mac I bought. Don’t have a power supply to test it unfortunately.

[@jeffreysmith4304]

i've had good luck on Ebay Buying a Used MacBook Pro several years ago and an LG Monitor more recently

[@hackexpert0003]

I bought one last year, It's not worth it for thw follwng reasons: 1. macOS Monetrey is the last OS (Can be upgraded using Oepncore but you lose stability and performance due to cpu/gpu instrustion are old) 2. Thunderbolt 2 in Windows (BootCamp) is very bad and not hot swappable so if any Thunderbolt peripherals are connected must do a cold boot: which connects the devcie before turning on the mac pro to detect the device-SSD-Thunderbolt Dick etc...) and teh big problem is the computer will not go to sleep 3. Limited upgradability.

[@transitengineer]

All true but, I just love having a "trash can" size Mac Pro, in my collection (smile ... smile).

[@CtrlAltPrint]

Not true, OCLP is a very stable way to get to even Sonoma 14.5, you should upgrade to an 8-12 core and have 64gb of ram for a nicer experience but even when I had 32gb ram and the 6 core Sonoma ran just fine and had zero stability issues

[@hackexpert0003]

@@CtrlAltPrint You can use it with Opencore legacy it will work like native supported Macs, but it's not working with the native latest kext drivers, even some kext files are modefied to work in compatability.

[@another3997]

Perhaps for you, but then not everyone wants one as their everyday machine, and the relative lack of performance and upgradability aren't problems. There are other reasons for buying old hardware.

[@reyvaz2951]

This its only good to look good on your desk top, the cons of using this today, its not worth it, specially on electrical bill.

[@another3997]

Old computers have their place. They don't have to be your main computer, they just have to be something that you want. Maybe it was something that you could never justify buying when they were new, maybe you just want to try something different but don't want to spend huge amounts of money. After all, if you wanted the best "bang per buck", you'd buy a normal x86 PC... economies of scale and the sheer number of them on the used market, make them a better choice.

[@mamumonkan]

+1 on #mazon is sh#t !!!!!!