Ultimate Mac Pro 5,1 2024?

This video includes all the hardware I have installed in and out of my Mac Pro 5,1, why I still use it. #itsfastenoughforme
Sonnet McFiver (requires opencore and Montery for the 10gigabit to work)
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RX6800 non XT (make sure to measure the card to see if it will fit and it needs to be flashed with
RX6800XT
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Minisopuru Powered USB C Hub, 10Gbps
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AORUS FO48U 48" 4K OLED Gaming Monitor
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Mac Pro 6,1
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Midas M32R digital mixer
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Samsung 970 Evo Plus
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SAMSUNG Electronics 870 EVO 2TB
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Seagate BarraCuda 6TB Internal Hard Drive
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ORICO 3.5 Inch Hard Drive Case Protective Box
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Genuine Apple WiFi 802.11ac Bluetooth 4.2 Upgrade Kit Mac Pro 4,1 5,1
dqupgrade.com/products/genuin...
PlayStation DualSense Wireless Controller
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USB C to USB Adapter [2-Pack]
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Apple Magic Trackpad
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Contour Design Shuttle
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AC Infinity MULTIFAN S5
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OWC Mount Pro 2.5" Drive Sled Compatible with 2009-2012 Mac Pro
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Satechi Keyboard
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Apple Magic Trackpad
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Mackie Big Knob
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Bullshark Bond Black 3M Heavy Duty 0.5 Inch Double Sided Tape
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#macpro #opencore #ultimate

[@MichelangeloVisconti]

As always Lance thanks for keeping alive the Classic Mac Pro culture for everyone! I love the love you put in this machine and the fact that you point what Is matter! I have almost the same setup you have and my Mac Pro Is still my main workstation. I don't have enough budget at the moment for buy and M series but the more Is that i hate the fact that all the new Mac are NOT UPGRADABLE as you well explain. People doesn't understand the real power of these old wonderful cheesegrater, with mine i primary use Davinci Resolve for edit and color, latest 18 version and.. It.. work.. like a charm!!! For now, who cares of M series Mac! Apple fuc.. you 🤬😅

[@kenmunozatmmrrailroad6853]

Last sentence the best!

[@bogdannistor1785]

I bout 1 still waiting to upgrade

[@emmettkeyser1110]

It’s wild to me that people keep handing over money to a company that absolutely does not care about its users. Just wild.

[@gateofdreams]

Forgive me if I get a little off-topic ... I am a pro Mac technician with over three decades of experience. I used to bleed the Apple rainbow colors if I got cut ... Now, seeing how Apple has turned into the biggest two-faced corporate greedy company it is ... with engineered obsolescence and anti-repairability, I can no longer stand it. My MacPro 5,1 continues to give me ALL I need & I am not going to buy a new Mac ever again ... I'll just build a Hackintosh when I outgrow my cheese grater.

[@MacSoundSolutions]

I hear you, I do wish they would just keep one Mac Pro going that is upgrade able including GPUs for the pro community. I wonder if Steve was still around where we would be in 2024 and if he would have let it go this way.

[@deanshull4063]

Wasn't Woz the one fighting for modularity and expandability? Anyway, I love this video, thanks for taking the time to make this and share your knowhow and passion.

[@djredline25]

It's fast enough for me too ! 5,1 Monterey, lite mods, close to 20tbs of storage. A work horse for my video, photo & music making needs. Old school stuff is always better !

[@brunogaspar3977]

I fell your pain and done the same

[@SteveAaron]

I couldn't agree more. I've been using my Mac Pro 5,1, and I'm planning on still using it for years to come, until OCLP can't support it anymore. It's plenty powerful for what I need (which is pretty much like you), and I don't play games. To be honest, a few months ago, I built a i9-14900K/6900XT based hackintosh so powerful that the it puts the latest Mac Pro to shame, especially for more than 1/10th of the price. But I still find myself using my 5,1 all the time. To be honest, I will never, ever again buy anything Apple, and I've been an Apple fan since 1984. Now I hate their policies and all the things they do to make their customers' life miserable. And if it comes down to it, I'd rather switch entirely to Windows. The only thing I'll miss, is Logic Pro.

[@MrCooper83]

Great video. Here are my specs: Mac Pro 5.1: Dual CPU 2x Xeon 5690, 128 GB RAM, RX 580 with EFI, with 1 TB NVMe, 1TB SSD, 1 TB HDD. Thats more than enough at the moment. I wont buy M. series MAc as they are ridiculously expensive.

[@stevensonrf]

This is what a true Mac power user looks like. You, Sir, are a real inspiration. I’m thinking about taking a second or third look at my Mac Pro five, one tomorrow. Thanks for a great video.😊

[@JeffTiberend]

Exactly! It's a shame how Apple has just kicked these folks in the ass and ignore them.

[@stevensonrf]

@@JeffTiberend Apple makes great products, so much so, that they seem to have a very long shelf life. The problem is that Apple kills them off after a few years. Very sad. I am grateful to you and this gentleman in the video who are showing us how to get more life out of these wonderful products.

[@mamam7743]

Show me a company that is happy to sell a product once every 15 years.

[@gateofdreams]

I have been using my MacPro 5,1 since 2012 until right now (I am writing these lines on it). I have 128 RAM and 54tb scattered among the four hard drives. With an 8GB video card and two 27" LG 4K monitors ... I see NO REASON to replace it. It does EVERYTHING I need and some ... I run macOS Sonoma 14.2.1 without ANY issues. You, Lance, are the poster child of the savy Mac user. I love this channel. ❤

[@VincentPolisi]

I just bought a 5,1 on eBay to upgrade that is actually coming with 128GB of RAM already, surprisingly. Which video card did you get and I assume you had to flash it to get the EFI and boot selector screen?

[@MacSoundSolutions]

Thanks man.

[@MacSoundSolutions]

@@VincentPolisi my next video is how to flash your Mac Pros bootrom to get native boot screen.

[@gateofdreams]

Awesome! @@MacSoundSolutions

[@aironwhite6533]

What open core did you use to get it on there?

[@Epicgamer_Mac]

At the time that Luke Miani made his “most powerful Mac Pro in the world” video, it really was the strongest one you could build (at least with an AMD GPU so you could still run macOS). With dual X5690’s, a Radeon VII, NVME SSD, and 96 GB RAM, you could build an equivalent Mac Pro but you couldn’t build one to beat it. But now, thanks to you, Martin Lo, OpenCore, and your upgraded GPU setup, you have surpassed it and shown how we can do the same! It really speaks to the upgradability of these old machines and how valuable that is for a pro desktop.

[@nico96gmail]

You could have beaten it. There is way to stick 160gb of RAM. And he wasn’t using something like the Mac fiver where you can get more than 1800mb/s drive speed.

[@MacSoundSolutions]

At the time he built it I had a rx5700xt and a NVMe running Catalina and Opencore, not saying his was not well upgraded but Luke was not the first person to build out the Mac Pro to those specs, he got the info from others before him and claimed it for his own on KZbin.

[@Epicgamer_Mac]

@@nico96gmail Is that right, 160 GB RAM!? I didn’t know that! The only thing is that 160 GB, not being divisible by 3, wouldn’t give the extra boost from the triple channel memory of the 5,1. However, depending on what your goal is (if you’re willing to sacrifice a bit of CPU speed for a whole lot more RAM) then yeah that would be a win. Very interesting!

[@Epicgamer_Mac]

@@MacSoundSolutions Are you saying that the 5700XT was considered more powerful than the Radeon VII? If so, I didn’t know that. I know in certain cases it is faster, but I thought the VII was still the raw power king for awhile after his video. But if not, that’s interesting 🤔 Personally, on the topic of Luke Miani, I hope he gives the 5,1 (or 4,1 flashed, whatever) another shot. Rather than just leaving it at his last video “Is the 5,1 still good in 2023?” As you showed in your response video, his was based on outdated info - it’s just not a great look. Additionally, except for your channel, his was the channel I most remember influencing me to pick one of those up, so it’s kinda sad in a way. I hope he watches one of your vids and sees what you can actually do with these machines still.

[@MacSoundSolutions]

@@Epicgamer_Mac the VII squeaks past the rx5700xt but not by much and the cost was way higher. Not trying to say mine was faster at the time but my point is give credit where credit is due, he did not come up with it on his own, upgrading the CPUs etc, in my original CPU upgrade video which is like ten years old I credited the guy who wrote the blog that I got the info from and provided a link to it.

[@None-vg1qw]

Absolutely love this. I definitely need to pick up a 5.1 to use as a secondary machine. The fact that it’s still 100% useable over 10 years later is really a testament to how far Apple has fallen, at least user serviceability wise.

[@Dave102693]

This system is like 15 years old. lol Apple is so pathetic and I hate that Windows has followed them to that eol perfectly good hardware bs because hardware requirements for an os

[@orestes1984]

I took my M1 Max Macbook Pro in for a service after two years, they told me my keyboard was too dirty and that I created the fault. The mighty have fallen. The thing is there are still iSheep lining up around the block who will buy a Mac regardless. If push comes to shove I'll just abandon everything and go back to pure BSD though. The expectation is rich that people will buy a $2000-$3000 Mac every two to three years in Australia. They will price themselves out of the market with their core users if they keep up this behavior.

[@mamam7743]

@@orestes1984 The truth is that the number of users is increasing. You should wash your hands more often.

[@pierrelebreton7634]

« It’s fast enough for me » 100% agree. I love mine, I wont stop using it. I got it an RX570 that is faster than all the M1 chips variants, I have a sonnet usb c card for connectivity, a random pcie m2 SSD card + 1TB 970 Pro. That computer with its 12 cores & 96 GB of RAM is perfect for my photography processing needs, music recording needs & all daily life needs. I will keep it for the years to come. We dont have to change just because something new and shiny is out.

[@Gl1tchDeclined]

My brother recently gave me his 5,1. He was convinced that when he went into our local Mac dealer at the time that when he said “i don’t care what the price is, I want a maxed out Mac Pro” that they’d actually jump on the opportunity to make a quick buck. Unfortunately they sold him a base model essentially. For under $500 I’ve essentially maxed out a machine that would’ve cost at least $10k had I done so at time of release 😎 I’m using it for radio production and the occasional multitrack session set up before exporting to a professional studio. This video has been extremely helpful regarding other suggestive upgrades I didn’t consider

[@QUANTUMJOKER]

A really thorough, engaging and even-handed video. I have a 2010 5,1 Mac Pro, which I received in early January 2023 as a late Christmas present from my parents. I've upgraded it with a 3.46 GHz six-core CPU tray (up from the stock 2.8 GHz quad-core), 48 GB of RAM, an RX 580, a 1 TB NVMe SSD running Mojave in a glowing RGB PCIe card, a USB C and 3 combo card, and a FireWire 400 card. I also purchased a dual-CPU, 12-core tray from a Mac repair/refurbished store in Carlton, and installed 96 GB of RAM. Since I mostly use this Mac Pro for gaming - I keep it and many of my vintage Intel Macs at Mojave for the 32-bit application support, by the way - I still use the 3.46 GHz single CPU tray, as I'd rather have a fast six-core CPU than two slower (2.4 GHz) six-core CPUs. But the beauty of the later cheesegraters is that if you want to upgrade or replace the CPU, it's as easy as sliding out the tray and sliding in a new one. :D

[@penguinlust6749]

My 5,1 is now 14 years old (it's a converted 4,1). Still works great and I still use it for print production work. I've since upgraded to a 7,1 which I suspect will also last me as my main machine also for 10 years (4 so far). Apple's days of true professional workstations are probably done (by their own choice), unfortunately, but I'll worry about the replacement in 5 years or so. The M2 Mac Pro is a joke, and they know it. Hopefully they fix a lot of its problems in the M3 or M4 version.

[@Epicgamer_Mac]

The M2 Ultra Mac Pro is basically the definition of “Oops, we missed the deadline, I don’t care what you ship just get something out the door”. Here’s hoping the M3 machine steps it up otherwise the Mac Pro is all but dead for 99% of people and the Studio is the no-brainer.

[@ted356]

Great video! Love all the details. Just shows how solid the cMP design was, that it’s still relevant in 2023/2024.

[@szszg]

You have my thumbs-up, good Sir. I have worked with Macs for twenty years, I enjoyed that part of my life. Since I converted to Windows and Linux fully, but I like your setup. I'm not missing the current M-series non-upgradeable, non-repairable Macs. I appreciate you using "old" tech. All my PCs and laptops are second hand units, and they still serve very well.

[@mamam7743]

"non-repairable Macs" This is NOT true.

[@JoshBootz]

Glad you’ve kept it going. I stopped using mine this fall, but kept it. I like the idea of turning it into a PC gaming rig. Thanks for the video and all the tips!

[@Epicgamer_Mac]

I’ve heard the Power Mac G5 is even easier to turn into a hackintosh, inverted ATX motherboard and compact power supply will require modifications to the case but nothing TOO extreme is required (unless enlarging the I/O slot area falls under that category for you). I plan to try this project but I’ll also enlarge the fan exhaust and add an AIO as well as keep the current door latching system in place which a lot of people seem to not do. Now, I’ve *heard* the G4 case is even easier to mod, but I haven’t seen the results so I can’t speak to that for sure

[@superimportant]

Props to you. Thankyou for the drive explanation and OC on its own drive. Had a real hard time getting dual boot to work.

[@Cushmar]

Thanks for your content as always, Lance! Love this Video.

[@juebaitube]

Thanks for sharing. Great tour 🎉.

[@joshkny]

Hey man glad to see it's still going. I have a resolve server hooked up to my 5,1 with an NVME boot. Still on Big Sur...glad I still have a little more time with her.

[@lavinchi6709]

Thank you so much for this very interesting and helpful video! Happy new year

[@Chad-jx1jm]

Same!!! im also wait for the M3, still have the 5.1 under my desk :)

[@skip741x3]

mine's a 5,1 with dual 5690's , 96gb ram and an rx570 4gb card...single samsung evo plus 500gb nvme...plenty fast, dual booting win 11 and 4 other mac os systems on one nvme...I only web surf and like the h264/hevc decode/encode capabilities these have with the RX series cards..using 1% cpu for 1080p or 3% for 4k playback is pretty cool! I ran 48gb for a time and 64gb as well..Having 96gb really doesnt add anything as far as speed ,snappiness or even geekbench scores which are around 3050/28500 with GB4...these do triple channel with Each cpu memory controller and 6 channels with the dual 6core cpu's...multicore perf is decent, its the single core perf that is way overshadowed by todays machines...I love mine, its a nostalgia thing..its a piece of high end history that is beautiful in design and can still hold its own after all this time...This was The One to get if you were a mac lover...

[@JohnScherer]

Great video man. Makes me nostalgic for my old 5,1 I had a few years back.

[@melmakath]

Glad to hear im not the only person still using an old Mac. I have a power mac g5 using it for protools 8 & logic 9. Recently i replaced the graphics card & shes still ticking

[@DoctorBadvibes]

Thanks for your videos and to the rest of the community that keeps these things chugging. I recently did some minor upgrades to my 5,1. I mainly use mine for video capture, streaming, and editing. I may eventually get a Studio, but not yet. I'm currently running: Dual 6 core 128 gb of RAM Upgraded Bluetooth+Wifi eSATA port Radeon RX 6600 XT Blackmagic Intensity 4K capture card PCI SATA SSD for Monterey (Main OS) SSD for Win 11 (gaming and streaming) Spinning HDDs for an extra 8 TB of storage - Storage space pricing is my hangup on the current Mac lineup 2 x Apple LED Cinema Display 27" The only thing left on my wishlist is the McFiver

[@sneakypeo]

This is awesome to see! Nice work thanks

[@user-tq8pi8vq3f]

I've been sitting on a Mac Pro build for 3 years at least at this point.... I think this video will help me actually get over the hump and finally put it together

[@SkylarKelly]

Man, I’ve been on the fence about further upgrading my 5,1 or getting a new Studio. Thanks for saving me money!

[@JuanAndresMontero]

Gracias, I agree 100% with you. Great videos!

[@umbrollo]

Really great little video. I am rubbish at making the right choices. Good to see a blueprint of the kit you use

[@trulyshocking]

Really enjoyable content, keep up the great work 👍🏽

[@frankstehl9722]

You talking from the bottom of my heart Lance. Thanks for your informative and enjoyable videos! I’m still using my 4,1>5,1 MacPro from when I bought it new in 2009. That’s 14 solid years of usages mainly as Logic workhorse. The 4,1 and 5,1 MacPro are probably the most sustainable PCs ever built while the 2019 MacPro is the opposite unfortunately. Running Monterey happily and looking to run sonoma in a point to be ahead for hopefully another couple of years since there are no hardware alternatives I’d like to jump on…

[@deshawn4077]

How can you still use Logic?

[@frankStehl]

@@deshawn4077 Sorry I meant Logic Pro 10.7.9 running OCLP 1.3.0 and Monterey 12.7.2

[@steampunkstar_raisin]

I have the same machine and I will be doing upgrades to it soon...

[@GAMECLOSET]

Your setup is amazing on the Mac Pro. I’d often wondered if I could do just that. I’m a graphic designer and KZbin creator and I could easily get by with less than what you’ve got going on there but with of some similar upgrades. The last Mac Pro I had was a dual 2.0 Ghz I believe. It’s been a while since I sold it and I’ve considered getting another. Thanks to this video, I may consider it.

[@clivesaunders5576]

nice breakdown!

[@MacawAviculture]

Wow, incredible video! I want to hire you to build me a 5,1! No gaming, no bluetooth, no WIFI needed. Using Logic ProX, FCP, Lightroom 6, and Photoshop CS6. Need to run Mojave 10.14.6 so my 32 bit Adobe products work. You are truly a master builder/designer! I currently use 2 MacPro trash cans, never have any issues with either, and a 2015 iMac, all running Mojave and never having any issues. Thank you for sharing your amazing work!

[@marcusgideon4022]

Great vid bro ...... Keep 5.1 Alive !!

[@aminutetomidnite2406]

Great video. I am still running a 5,1 that has a few upgrades from about 3 years ago. Nothing near as fast as yours though. You have made a great compilation of possible alternatives to bring it up to spec for maybe a few more years. I would love a Midas M32, but I make do with a Behringer X32 running to the Mac pro.

[@cgriggsiv]

Young man Thank you very much For showing people that a computer can last as long as you upgraded to what it is able to be upgraded to So I can get the maximum performance later on in life and still perform exactly the way you need it My opinion and yours from what I'm gathering off this video is a computer can last for about 10 to 15 years before you need a full upgrade I mean a full full upgrade an entire new PC build Believe me I am the exact same mindset a computer should last anywhere between 10 and 15 years before you have to do a full swap with a few small tweaks a ram maybe extra hard drive maybe swap out a video card or two before the the 15 years

[@MeroxNorway]

those are still great machines, reliable as hell, and still going. Never regretting selling a computer as much as that one. Now i have a mac mini.. and well, its gone in a month if anything goes like planned.

[@dmug]

Thanks for the shout out!

[@lyndon9210]

I switched from Mac Pro 5,1 to iMac M3 two months ago. Feeling very satisfied with Apple Silicon performance + it makes no noise and almost no power consumption. But I regret the expandability. And base model has only 8 go + 256 gb ssd, it's a shame and I had to pay 2500 euros for 1 tb ssd and 16 gb of ram. I also added a USB-C enclosure with 1 tb of NVME. So I finally have 2 TB of storage ... But I still regret the upgradeability of Mac Pro. What a great machine it was !

[@TheMilkMan-1995]

Looks good

[@kmarkusaurelius]

I snagged a single CPU 2010 Mac Pro with an upgraded RX580 that had been decommissioned by my previous company a few years ago. I just ordered a dual CPU tray to run two x5690s and I plan to use it as long as OpenCore can support newer versions of macOS. It's just too nice, beautiful, and well-designed of a machine NOT to continue to use in 2024 and beyond. Appreciate your videos!

[@rrcoster]

Thanks for sharing i just started using Opencore and very glad there are wonderful developers out there try keep are old Intel Mac going. My old 5.1 with Monterey running smoothly. Not sure if worth add Sonnet McFiver yet but time tell if keep using it years on as Plex server i will

[@hugoalejandro27]

This is the type of videos that grab my attention!!!! :)

[@stephentucker7717]

It annoys me that so many people mindlessly upgrade coz it's "new", even when their workload is basically in-browser. I'm a senior dev who runs multiple virtual machines daily - a power user, you might say - and I still get the job done on my 2015 15" macbook pro, 9 YEARS after release. Well done for sticking to what works and keeping these old machines alive

[@newlook1969]

Lance, I really love your videos on the Mac Pro 5.1. Like you, I use Martin Los OpenCore on my 5.1 I've since switched to the Mac Pro 7.1 16core 4TB with an RX 6900 XT I upgradet myself. For me at the moment the sweet spott to boot MacOS and Win11.

[@MacSoundSolutions]

Nice I’m thinking the same way get a cheapish 8 core 7,1 and drop a 16 core in it and be able to move everything from my 5,1 without having to reinstall it all. Then get a Mabcbook pro or air for M chip Mac.

[@RichardJohnson-GW]

Definitely don't rush to my a new Mac. I have an M1 Studio, and I am pretty disappointed with it. I run into all kinds of weird bugs that my Intel Macs never experienced. The lack of upgradability is a real crusher since you don't know what you may need next month or next year yet you've invested thousands into it. Lastly, while the benchmarks look good, I find that it is slower in many day-to-day tasks than my Intel Macs. I think part of the problem is inefficient memory management in the current OS. It's like 32 GB of RAM isn't enough for simple document and photo editing. Seriously thinking about going back to a Hackintosh.

Thanks for this comment.... Important to hear from real world users! I've got 4) 5,1s in 4 different audio studios and they ALL just work! And work great!

[@ladeluff_]

Great Show and tell Lance! a particular tour of your gear. I yes I agree, upgraded 5.1 is "fast enough for me" swell :D I game I do all kinds. even Linux

[@HOLLYWOODUNAPOLOGETIC]

“It’s fast enough for me.” Hey man. Thanks for sharing with us. I myself have 2-5,1 boxes alive and kicking. Although I’ve burned out over a dozen of them over the years, they are, in the most part, stable and keep going. One I use as my main production workstation for motion graphics, visual effects, and coloring book designs. The other is awaiting some upgrades for a film that’s in the pipeline. To update everything I have when Adobe made users buy into a subscription business model and use the cloud for stuff I didn’t need, nor do today was far too cost prohibitive. It just didn’t make any sense to me. For what I use them for is very memory intensive. That has always been the main issue. But for the reasons you mentioned, I’m staying put. It’s getting harder to find compatible hardware and that will just keep getting worse. But you know, as long as I have enough RAM, and drive space, I’m ok. I’m rocking 3 Cinema Displays on my main workstation, and 11 TB internally with another 12+ externally. I have more than that on the second machine. I’m good. Plus, I have thousands of albums on here too. I just have to have my music. Thanks again for sharing with us and for what you do man.

[@marcevo3540]

Great Video Lance. I thinking seriously of getting a McFiver card. I just find it a bit on the expensive side.

[@nicolasviviani3730]

Hey ! Thank you very much ! Yeah the 5.1 is still rock solid nowdays ! Got two of these ! And i have one with MLo and saphhire nitro + 5700 xt and monterey 12.3 because its the latest you can use for the original BT WIFI to work ! I have catalina for old softs ! Mainly for video editing with bmpcc4k and resolve 18 ! A bit of 3d compositing with blender too !

[@MacSoundSolutions]

Nice thanks for posting

[@petermckenzie580]

Got a Studio - and it is awesome - but keeping the 5,1 as a backup system. And yes, part of it is I guess I am just sentimentally attached.

[@dominicpascal5512]

Oh boy, I put my 5,1 on ebay the other day and took it off cos I got so annoyed by all the low ballers. Thank god I didn't sell it. Filled up all the drive bays with HDDs and two SSDs, maxed out the RAM and now it's the best looking, most powerful NAS in town.

[@dizx1982]

I am also waiting for the mac studio m3 max or ultra depending on my budget at that time. Upgrading from my mac mini 2018 i7

[@winecountryfilms1]

I have an early 2009 Mac Pro 4,1 that I upgraded to 5,1. I run Mojave 10.14.6. I have a Radeon RX580 in it. I keep it around because I'm able to run Adobe CS6 which contains "Encore"which I feel is the best software out there for authoring DVDs (Bluray included). Contrary to popular belief, DVDs are not dead as I still have many clients that want them.

[@GuillaumeLortie]

Hi 👋 Live FOH guys here! Great to see a 5,1 still kicking. I hope you’ll enjoy the M3, it’s gonna be world apart

[@Himegw]

I have watched your vids for years. ❤ love them. Unfortunatelly my maxed out 51 wasnt os compatible for me, i was scared of using oclp, so now it is only used for my scanner and parallels with windows xp/8/10. Also to durn backups to bd discs. My main mac is top of the range mac mini m2 pro. The studio m2 wasnt there yet and i had gpu problems in 51. You are you’re right that it suxx that the new macs dont have upgradable ram and storage. At least storage. I love the mini and i hate its price tag. Its so quiet and fast, with almost no power draw.

[@MacSoundSolutions]

Yea the Mac mini M2 Pro is a good choice, I’m still holding on. Might buy a 8 core 2019 but on the fence on just go M3 studio when they come out. But unlike the idea of just moving my Mac OS and windows drives and GPU and I’m up and running on the 2019.

[@Himegw]

@@MacSoundSolutions I think studio m3 max is the best choice in your case, or any. We dont know how long the 71 will be supported, not long probably.

[@MacSoundSolutions]

@@Himegw Yeah its a tough call, but a M2 Max with 64 gig ram would most likely be enough power for me, I don't like buying the newest release as the depreciation is pretty high.

[@sirena7116]

I'm also using a 5,1 with 12core cpu and 32gb ram. No idea what SSD I installed, but I'd love to do the McFiver and add around 4-8 TB of space, and better bluetooth. Of course a new GPU would be wonderufl as well.

[@plextoob]

Thanks very useful videos. I am running a 5,1 with Monterey and Reaper. I need to extend my bluetooth antenna. One thing, I hear a lot of plosives in your videos. I am particularily sensitive to plosives. Thanks again.

[@MacSoundSolutions]

Yeah I hate plosives as well, but I film parts late at night and too close to the mic cause my kid is sleeping nearby. Should have put a hi pass filter and if you listen on a phone or iPad not an issue 😊 I was in a hurry to get it up before 2024.

[@shephusted2714]

build a hackintosh and get twice the power might be advisable but you get better value as well, of course you need to vet all the hw and components - it could work out for you

[@arthurswart4436]

Nice video. Running my single CPU 5,1 with an X5679 (6c/12t, 3,2-3.6GHz, 115W), RX6700 XT 12GB, 48GB ECC (3 x Hynix 16GB PC3-12800R), 2 x 2TB Lexar MN790 in RAID0 on an OWC Accelsior 4M2 card, with a Crucial P3 Plus 4TB scaled into two 2TB mirror partitions on a 'no name' NVME->SATA adapter in a drive bay and 3 x 6TB 7200rpm SATA in the remaining slots. This setup serves me very well, the main reason to buy something else would be that it's nice to get new gear. I nearly went for a 7,1 when the AS version didn't arrive and an AS slot-in card for the 7,1 was mentioned. That made sense, Apple wouldn't abandon buyers that recently spent $30K+ on their system... I'm glad I waited, probably the only positive effect of the 2020 lock down. My most resource intensive applications are AutoCAD, OnShape and Mathematica. I'm considering moving to Linux, but that will be a process taking several years. Some upgrades and tweaks are still possible. - I could go for a dual CPU setup, the prices these trays go for are still too high for my taste. - The X5679 could be upgraded to an X5690, not sure if the 0.26 is worth bothering. - I might move the 4TB NVME to the OWC card. I never figured out if it is possible to have both a RAID0 for two drives and a single 4TB drive on that card simultaneously. Nor if mirroring to the 4TB drive would be possible on the card itself, in stead of using pcie lanes and other system resources. How three 4-lane drives on an eight lane card perform, or if the RAID0 pairing means those two cards only need four lanes for full speed functionality is another unanswered question. I find testing RAID setups somewhat unnerving, I'll probably leave the NVME situation as is. - I might use one of the SATA 6TB drives for mirroring the RAID0, in stead of the NVME 4TB drive. Mirroring might eat heavily into the TBW budget the Crucial P3 has, while there is no speed benefit when used in a SATA bay. - I could add a Thunderbolt 2 or 3 card and use that to connect the Crucial NVME drive to the system. That reopens the question about available PCIE lanes, this time for Thunderbolt in stead of the NVME drive. - I could do the internal power mod for the RX6700 XT. At the moment, I use a second 600W power supply for only the GPU and that performs very well. It would look better (if you knew where to look) and it probably saves a couple of KW. I see no real need to change this. - I could add a SAS controler. That would allow me to use faster, larger and more reliable mechanical drives. On the other hand, I could go for two SATA Toshiba X300 8TB drives to replace the three 6TB drives (

[@mcdjchandler]

Hi Mac Sound Solutions. Thanks for the great videos. I was a long time pro tools user (5.1 and 6.41) PPC and still have a very old PCI MIX plus system with a PowerBook G4 /Magma chassis. I also have a 12 core 3.46 Mac Pro running Ableton Live as my main computer. With the price of PCIe HD core /accel cards these days, I was entertaining the idea of putting two of these old cards (with a 192 interface) in my 5,1 Mac Pro and running Lion with pro tools HD 8 or 9. … but I’m not sure if I can ALSO use these cards in high sierra as a basic core audio (very low latency) interface with Ableton. I don’t need the onboard DSP TDM in high sierra, nor do I want to run pro tools in high sierra. Do you know if I can get basic functionality and have a dual boot system, Lion (pro tools HD) and High Sierra (Ableton) I need both for my workflow! I hope you, or someone can answer this question. Thanks

[@RichardSchletty]

My 2009 Mac Pro 5,1 runs Catalina with 48 GB RAM. It is plenty fast for me and I am running several Pro apps including Cubase 12, Dorico 5, Final Cut Pro, Logic Pro, and Creative Cloud.

[@NachosPixie]

great video, i wonder if you experience the good ol' cpu spikes in logic prox. or anyone here have that issue. i have a fully upgraded mac pro 5,1 and that single core just can't handle certain plugins like keyscape stuff. Tried all the typical stuff nothing seems to work.

[@douglas_edward]

Thanks for another well put together and on target video. Luke Miani's videos (including the one claiming he built he most powerful 5.1) got me into the Mac Pro as a hobby, so I have to credit him. But, he does get sucked into that typical out-of-touch KZbinr, "Why would you buy an old Mac Pro? The Ms have faster CPUs!", thinking without ever explaining that most of us, for most tasks, are served well by one or two X5690s and can't meaningfully use faster CPUs. But then, he does feature a lot of older Macs on his channel. I think I told you that I moved the RX 6800 into a Z440 and had dropped back to RX 580 on the Mac Pro. I recently put in a Radeon Pro W5700 and am back to gaming on the Mac Pro again! Played through Plague Tale Requiem at 3440 x 1440 resolution and it plays above 60 FPS! Keep the good work!

[@_emjaywlz_]

Love your channel! I've learned a lot! (Video Production is my bag.) I don't use Martin Lo's, but do use OCLP. Do you get a boot picker using Martin Lo's for your W11 install? I did use Syncretic's patcher, and the Pixlas Mod, but alas, no boot picker as I was fore warned. I'm running an AMD 6900XT. How do you access your W11 install? Much thanks and all the best to you and yours in 2024!

[@MacSoundSolutions]

Thanks, Yes I get the bootpicker, so can choose to boot from Windows 11 or Monterey. I also installed OCLP on my Trashcan and could get the bootpicker and was able to install windows as well and it shows up in the bootpicker. I know there is a way to turn the bootpicker on or off in the OCLP app. Open thhe app and look at the options / prefernces not sure what its called as I am not looking at it at the moment but it's in there. You may have had it turned off when you first installed it.

[@locovidepro]

Mine is still powerful as well. I do multicam editing and works fine.

[@cashuuu]

Great video. Currently my 5,1 has a single Xeon X5690, 16GB RAM, RX 580 8GB, a 4TB Hitachi server drive, and two SSDs running Windows 10 LTSC and macOS Mojave respectively. As for future upgrades I'm thinking that a USB 3 card and a second CPU are in order.

[@OMNITEK]

RESPECT !

[@laurencejohnson4106]

It's definitely a classic computer!👍👍 I'm retired and restoring and upgrading old computers is one of my hobbies and today I upgraded a Dell Inspiron 9400 laptop from 2006, it's only a 32 bit core duo, so two 1.83 GHz., (not core 2 duo) and 2 gig., of ram., is it's maximum, I installed 128 gig., SSD., and LMDE 6 and the laptop is currently working well for it's age, browsing the web and checking e-mail and doing other basic tasks are not a problem, YT., videos are best played 360p though. So in my opinion it's doing okay for a laptop which is over 17 years old and my point is this, will the current range of Macs still work 17 years time.

[@camiloymw]

Quick question, I have an 2009 4,1 flashed to 5,1 Im using it for audio mixing and mastering and some occasional 4k video editing. What OS do you suggest I upgrade to to make sure i dont have any issues running stuff like Pro Tools, Logic, and premiere?

[@georgekelsey6348]

Lance: Another great video for maintaining our 5,1's. I noticed you stated that you have Martin Lo's Open Core Package installed in the 2TB SSD in bay #1 w/o an OS. Is there anything else on the SSD or is it partitioned ? Seems it would be a waste of storage space if only Open Core. Any particular format for the drive before loading Open Core to it ? I assume you have Monterey installed on one of the 2TB NVMe's.

[@MacSoundSolutions]

The EFI is a hidden partition, hence why you need Clover to mount it, every drive has a hidden efi partition, so the Samsung 2T SSD is formatted in APFS and I use it like any other drive for storage and audio projects. And the EFI has opencore installed on it. So no storage waisted, you just don’t need to have opencore on a boot drive if you don’t want to.

[@DontGetHit648]

Can’t wait to take my 5,1 into 2024! Edit with more of my experience: granted this isn’t a computer that I use for any professional applications. It’s my main computer for coding for my CS classes and it’s a funny hobby computer that I like adding too. I haven’t even upgraded it past Mojave (although I might soon). I think it’s a great choice if you want a Mac that’s cheap and fun to tinker with.

[@PatrickDSimpson]

I love that there are still people using the 5,1 (and earlier) Mac Pros, I've been tempted to build one myself, but the performance per dollar is just hard to beat with Apple Silicon. I'll be very curious to hear your take on Apple Silicon if/when you make the leap since you're someone who knows the Intel Mac Pro's performance so well.

[@mustaqimarifin3820]

It does seem like video and audio guys are the last holdouts of an era long gone lol . Mac def ain't the company it used to be . Love the video!

[@genepintor3876]

Not doing even half of what you are doing, but this Mac Pro is fast enough for what I do and it's still expandable. I think I'll take some of your suggestions and improve my driver.

[@asyourlipslounge]

Thanks for all of the content, I'm building up a "fast enough for me" 5,1. Do you need that large of a drive for JUST the open core boot loader?

[@MacSoundSolutions]

No opencore goes on the drives EFI which is small it can go on any size drive or even usb thumb drive, I prefer to have it in sata bay 1.

[@sbarneaionut]

I still have my 4,1 which was flashed to 5,1 which runs Sonoma, with an RX580 8GB which is enough anyway as there are not many games out there. Anyhow, still a very usable machine. Dual boot for windows still just for games. Still a versatile machine to be honest. I was planning to make it a home server as it is perfect for it but the power consumption was way more higher that it served the purpose. The best Mac Pro in my eyes, mine was bought in 2009 and is still very usable :D

[@Alex4SiliconValley]

I have (3) 2010 Mac Pros and (2) HP z440 workstations. The Main reason I keep them is for Cheap Hard drive Storage. I have them loaded with 6 or 8 Cheap 6tb Sata hard drives and Nvme SSD boot drives that I purchased at Discounts. They all have been upgraded to the Fastest Xeon's CPU's and 64gb of ECC RAM. They are ROCK Solid reliable and Stable computers. Works for me. Someday I will switch over to Mini-PC but like Maverick said "Not Today, Not Today". I have at least 2 more years left on these computers before I even think about switching.

[@nicolasviviani3730]

The other is for music production only protools on Yosemite paired with apogee interface And logic for creating ! Old 7950 3gb and 96gb ram ! Still Rocking…

[@oterotube13]

Good video!

[@michaelcallummayaka]

Awesome video!! I am hoping to soon get such a Mac Pro and do all the upgrades. I'm about to start studying BA (Hon) Music Production and DJ Performance at Point Blank Music School's London campus, and hope one day to achieve some of the music related successes and endeavours you talked about in the video. As an aspiring KZbinr with several new/underutilized channels I think I would benefit from the power of the Mac Pro for that and music production. I currently use a Late 2012 iMac 21.5" upgraded with an SSD and running OpenCore and Sonoma, and it does 2x 4K Multicam but struggles a bit and probably wouldn't do more, though rendering time is a lot better then when I first did KZbin on an i3-2600 Hackintosh, and several orders of magnitude better than the Pentium 4 Windows XP (with Windows Movie Maker) I first edited a video on. Anyway, you've gain a subscriber and I look forward to seeing more of your videos.

[@MacSoundSolutions]

Good luck with your musical endeavors and thanks for the sub!

[@Epicgamer_Mac]

My 5,1 has dual X5690 (Liquid Metal or Kryonaut really do improve benchmarks a lot btw), NVME SSD + SATA HDD, 24 GB RAM, and Vega 64 with Pixlas mod (but 6600XT on the way). I’m running Sonoma with OpenCore Legacy Patcher which means I get hardware GPU acceleration, boot screen, boot picker to dual-boot Windows (Win11 works thanks to a tool called Rufus to bypass TPM restriction, Lance has a vid on that) and even new stuff like Universal Control after I do a few upgrades to WiFi and Bluetooth hardware I have planned.

[@mikiotty]

You won’t be able to use the 6600XT in Ventura or Sonoma

[@randomrojektit]

What does this really mean? I use Mac OS Sonoma on my mac pro 5.1 (2012) RX 6800 XT perfectly running with opencore legacy patcher @@mikiotty

[@jimrogers7425]

While I replaced my cheese grater Mac Pro dual processor unit with a trash can Mac Pro, I did so more for size constraints and power. Seeing this video makes me realize that I could’ve continued using it with no real problem, but I didn’t have the time to set it aside and do the upgrades. However, I still have it if anybody wants it.

[@a_mouse6858]

12:14. When you installed the Blue Ray, why keep the Superdrive? (Most BDRs can do CDs and DVDs.) This is where I put the OC EFI and recovery drive.

[@MacSoundSolutions]

No need to move it, I actually never use either :) plenty of storage and discs are slow dogs.

[@troyraines7160]

Awesome to see old ones still being used. However adding at least another grand into one of these older machines does not make sense. But still glad to see it.

[@cesarhuitron9557]

My Liege (courtesy bow) Once again, you have educated we mere commoners into the hanging onto this 10+ year old machine!

[@TruenorthmtGod]

I have 2 of these one at work. One at the studio.

[@stephenhopes634]

Hi Lance, new to your channel and love what i see… I’m a 5,1 user and have had various storage setups over the past few years…. Mainly work on Adobe Premiere Pro which is working well but i need to upgrade to a larger compatible storage solution for a long form multicam 4K project and my question is will the OWC Thunderbay8 112Tb raid work plugged into my Sonnet Allegra USB-C pci-e card on the 5,1 - all of my SSD ext HD’s work but I’m wondering if the owc will work - I can’t find any specific answers online but maybe my basic knowledge is lacking would appreciate any help…. Cheers Steve

[@MacSoundSolutions]

Not sure but if your USB-C drives work that are non-thunderbolt with the card then I would guess the raid would as well. I’m sure they have some kind of return policy so you could try it out but I would call their support I’m sure they could answer the question. I’m trying out a new NAS which takes 12 NVMEs and now that they have come down in price it’s kind of a cool option but I have a 10GbE Sommer McFiver pcie card to connect it to, but not a 10GbE router. Just got it yesterday and I’m experimenting with. It will be doing a video on it soon, but I plan to be editing my multicam 4K shows off it.

[@BILLY-px3hw]

The 5.1 is just a beautiful machine it is so satisfying the way everything clicks into place, the main reason to use a 5.1 is because it is the best engineered product of the last 100 years. It is truly a work of art and will be in every industrial art museum for the next 1000 years long after the new throw away boxes have turned to dust. It is a statement of human capibilities

[@aiconic10]

My 2009 is on the last project. It's time to get rid of the cheese graters. New technology is here! Mac Studio rocks!

[@Taras-Nabad]

I love these machines. Definitely the best design Apple has made. It will eventually be obsolete but hopefully has few more years left. BTW, mine is running, 2 x 6 core, RX580, 128G ram, 1TB NVME, OCLP with Sonoma, 30" Cinema display.

[@elminero49]

Hey Lance, Awesome system. Yup....We all love the 5,1. I maxed out my RAM only because I found them 2nd hand on eBay for cheap. With the help of your videos I upgraded from El Capitan to Monterey. It's been a great journey. I knew nothing about Apple when I found the 5,1 in an alley and it took forever just to do a reinstall of El Capitan on a new hard drive. Not knowing what to do I turned to KZbin and found your videos. For 2024 the plan (as said before) is to run Linux Ubuntu on a homebuilt PC. I'm not a gamer (expect for Tetris ). I will prob'ly look into OpenCore for Linux. Still I will always keep my 5,1 up and running for Mac apps. I think Windows sucks, but I got an old laptop that runs Windows 10 collecting dust just incase I need a Windows app.

[@Epicgamer_Mac]

It’s funny, but I struggled with upgrading macOS, well, actually OS X, on my 5,1 many months ago, so much so I almost gave up. I knew nothing about OpenCore and just wanted to go from Mountain Lion to Mojave but it wouldn’t work (2013 servers no longer online lol) and it wouldn’t boot from NVME. I was a whiz with modern stuff but old stuff just wasn’t my thing till that project. In hindsight, it wouldn’t have been hard at all, had I known what I was doing. Now I would do it the fastest way, from scratch, by using Terminal on my MacBook to create a bootable USB installer of macOS High Sierra, and then I would upgrade to Mojave following Apple’s instructions. The issue is, on top of being a bit of a weird (tho not hard) process, you have to have a Metal-supported GPU (I didn’t), and can’t boot from NVME because support for that was only added in Mojave! Once that’s done, and the firmware update flashes the BIOS to support NVME booting, then you can go to OpenCore Legacy Patcher or Martin Lo’s package and upgrade to whatever modern macOS lol

[@elminero49]

@@Epicgamer_Mac I tried, tried and tried ....and never gave up. I took forever just to figure out that I needed to reset NVRAM. I went to an independent Apple repair shop and they wanted $80 for a bootable USB of Mojave. They offered no help or advice except to say that I should consider buying a newer system from them. I bought bootable USB of El Capitan on eBay for $25. After many snags, I finally got it working. To make things more confusing I was using a PC Keyboard and mouse. The 5,1 that I found in the alley didn't come with those items. I leaned a lot.

[@tobiasrossnagel342]

@Lance: I got a technical question...Why Do you take a 2TB SATA-SSD in your first SATA-Bay (O.C.) You said only for Opencore and your other OSes (Monterey and W11) work on separate others drives. Would the 2TB SSD on SATA Bay 1 not to big for that case...even for Opencore (EFI booting) ?

[@MacSoundSolutions]

Opencore can live on any drive but sata bay 1 is where the Mac looks first for boot info, so you get the quickest boot chime to boot loader time. As far as the 2 terabyte drive, size of drive doesn’t matter for opencore, I use the drive for my audio projects etc, it’s just a drive, it could be 250gig or 8 terabyte, it doesn’t matter.

[@Jhn_Freeman]

What a great video! I also have a 2010 5,1 Mac Pro and runs smoothly for basic audio mixing. My only question is how do you get to select and run any of your OS (MacOS and Windows) with that graphics card? At first sight you shouldn’t be able to see the boot screen in order to chose the OS, right? Do you have a work around to achieve this? It’s thanks to Martin Low’s Patcher? Currently I have not installed windows on my Mac yet because of this issue and I only can “choose” the default OS that is only macOS. Also good to know I’m running BigSur with Open Core and a AMD RX 580, maybe that’s the problem 🤷🏻‍♂️

[@MacSoundSolutions]

Yes I am using Martin Lo's opencore package and that gives you the bootloader to select the OS you want to boot into. You can also do this with OCLP but the install of Windows is always a bit tricky. I just did it on my 6,1 with OCLP with Sonoma and Windows 11. Watch my video on installing windows and sub to my channel I have a lot of videos on this stuff. You need to use Rufus to install Windows because it bypasses the TPM which normally will not allow you to install Windows 11 on a 5,1. If you are just booting directly into Mac OS that means the bootloader is turned off, look into how you turn it back on, but you will need to hit enter to boot into the OS everytime the mac boots, or wait 10 seconds.

[@randomrojektit]

Flash Mac Pro motherboard rom & get boot screen any videocards@@MacSoundSolutions

[@_emjaywlz_]

Lance, thanks for the great advice on Mac upgrades and peripherals, but I have to ask, off topic, what Studio Monitors would you recommend. I’m looking at the Yamaha hs5’s or the hs8’s, or the KRK Rokit 5’s. Thoughts? Time to move up from tiny Logitech speakers. 😂 This is for video editing/sound mixing. You would be the man to ask! Also, I’ll be picking up your usb-chub recommendation. Thanks for that! All the best! ~ MJ

[@MacSoundSolutions]

As much as I love the look of the Yamahas and used to use NS10s for years and all the studios had them, I honestly hate them. I like speakers that don’t pump the upper mids like the Yamahas do, when you listen on normal home stereo speakers or in your car your mix will sound dull and flat, I like the JBLs I have now, they are powered and and a pretty flat eq curve not over hyped. What I hear on these is close to what I get on other systems. I don’t really like KRKs either. A friend sent me some high end studio monitors to try and keep for free and they cost like 2500 for the pair, but they were so edgy I hated them and sent them back. So I may not be the best guy to ask about speakers, but I like my JBLs and have mixed a ton of shows on them and when I hear the broadcast later it sounds the same on my Polk audio AC setup no surprises. I have never spent a ton of money on speakers, JBL updated the ones I use but I don’t think they sound that different, I like to look of the older ones. amzn.to/48FiQDy amzn.to/48PvmA8 I did try the Neumann Monitors and really liked them but had to return them as they were test loaners but I liked them better than the JBLs. amzn.to/3Hf0NYU For low budget I think these are pretty good. amzn.to/41VSXNe and you get the pair as apposed to one. These are affiliate links 😉 hope this helps you can always buy two pairs and return the ones you don’t like.

[@_emjaywlz_]

Thank you Lance! @@MacSoundSolutions I appreciate your two cents on this, and I'm a-okay with affiliate links! Especially if it can send a few cents back you way, for your time! Much appreciated! All the best! ~ MJ

[@ncavis]

my 4,1 upgraded to 5,1 is running 2x3.33 Xeon (which were a pain to delid), Vega 56, OWC PICE SSD, 80 GB of ram, and a blueray player, oh and I though in a sonnet usb3 card. I love this thing... the new Mac Pro is great but I am very happy with this machine. I might pick up a trash can... they are cheap enough now to pick up for dirt cheap but this thing still screams.

[@MacSoundSolutions]

I got a 8 core D500 trash can and installed Sonoma to use mainly with Logic Pro. Added 2 terabyte Samsung 970 Evo plus and 64 gigs. Total cost 440.00 not bad, might be able to find one with 64gigs already installed. I think the 8 core is the sweet spot for the 6,1

[@acidtechno]

5,1 Turbo ❤