What's the oldest Mac Pro that is still useful for video editing?

Mac
#1

So, I just recently moved into a new apartment, and I am going to be here for another two years, and I’m thinking it might be time to go down to Akihabara in Tokyo where I’ve seen some completely functional Mac Pro towers for pretty low prices.

Considering the expandability of a tower versus my MacBook Pro (which is itself a 13" Non-Retina 2012), I’d look into getting one. I know that 2010 is the cutoff for MacOS Sierra, but I may not even need Sierra, so maybe even a 2009 would be okay… My MacBook Pro is only a 2.5GHz Core i5 with 4 GBs of RAM, and while I could expand the MacBook, I think it might be better to spend the money on a Mac Pro tower, because one of the biggest issues I have lately with editing is that I’m bringing my MacBook on my commute to work each day, and I just can’t leave it set up with my peripherals or storage.

So since a lot of you know more than I do about the relative difference between specs, what specs would I need on a MacPro to equal or better my current MacBook Pro? How do Xeons compare against i5s? That sort of thing?

#2

I would get a 4,1 and flash it to 5,1
If only $100 or so difference between any 4,1 and 5,1’s you’re looking at, then I’d get the 5,1

4,1 Broadcom wifi card doesn’t work in sierra so you have to source one from a 5,1 or get one of the wireless ac/bt4.0 kits from eBay which will give continuity and handoff.

What will you use for video editing? FCPX?
If so then dual AMD/ATI cards are the go. You can easily install dual 5770 using existing power supply in the Mac Pro.

People are starting to try dual RX470 cards although they aren’t officially supported yet.

I have a 4,1 Mac Pro that I flashed to 5,1. It is running dual X5570s (8x2.93GHz).

I also recently picked up a cheap ($800) 5,1 and upgraded its CPUs to dual hex core 3.33GHz. It’s a beast. It was a dual CPU 8 core 2.4GHz that I upgraded to hex 3.33ghz quite cheaply.

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#3

I use Premiere Pro CS5. And I only moved up to that grudgingly when we finally lost legacy support for Premiere 6.5, I pretty much only do stuff that is relatively simple. Cuts/fades/rotoscoping… You can see an example of my work here:

#4

Ok so you’ll want something that supports CUDA and Mercury playback engine, which is Nvidia.

I have an Nvidia GTX 680 that was flashed with the Mac EFI to enable boot screens.

Check out macrumors forum for info on GTX 680 flashing and using with Adobe applications.

Budget system would be a 4,1 quad core, flask to 5,1 and install hex core 3.33ghz CPU. Get a GTX 680 PC Card and flash with Macintosh ROM.

There aren’t drivers yet for the Nvidia 1070 and 1080 but they’ll be monster cards if we ever get Mac drivers for them.

#5

Thanks, this is extremely helpful.

BTW, my God, Sierra is running amazing so far on my MacBook Pro, it’s honestly feels like a whole new machine (or at least new-to-me machine), and I didn’t even do a clean install. It’s so snappy, clean, and smooth. I haven’t felt gains like this except after some kind of major hardware upgrade. I think when I went up to an SSD, it was like this.

I imagine putting Sierra on a tricked out Pro, even if it is years old is going to be ridiculous. We’ll see how it renders the 15 or 16 rotoscoped layers I did in this:

That took hours to render, and I’m old enough to remember late 90s Premiere taking DAYS to render some of my early work.

#6

I’m using a Mac Pro 3,1 with El Cap (can’t run Sierra), and it’ll run the latest Adobe no probs on its 2 x 2.8 GHz Quad-Core Xeons. Was super cheap, and I threw in a 1TB Samsung 850 Pro and an NVIDIA hot GPU (well, two actually for 4 screens) and it’s amazing. If you’re doing Adobe, spend the money on the CUDA video card. If you can find a 6pin GTX680 4GB that’s your best bet. The last one I got was a Zotac. Reason being, the Mac Pro motherboard has PSU power cables by default that are 6-pin (albeit a part you need to order unless your Mac Pro had a card that needed power already).

BTW, unless you care about boot screen options, if you have a laptop you can survive without flashing the card, meaning far more are usable. Just make sure you leave screen sharing is on, and after any major OS update, the machine will boot with a black screen and you need to remote connect and just update the NVIDIA web driver and reboot, and voila you’re off. :slight_smile:

#7

@jaysee, @leon, AU$720 for a 5,1 (2010) with 2.8GHz Quad Core Xeon, good price? There are four of them at the shop in Akihabara, all identical specs, I could have bought it today, but I get paid again on the 8th, so I think with four of them, I can wait.

#8

Can you haggle?
I paid $800 for a dual CPU 5,1 in July.

If you can get it for AUD$650 that would be better.

How much RAM and what GPU is fitted?

#9

…maybe I can haggle? I don’t know. I think it’s one of the few places in Japan you can haggle, but I’ve never haggled in Japanese, and I think I’d find the whole thing embarrassing especially if I was wrong. It might have a dual CPU, I don’t know. I wanted to take a picture of the specs, but I worried that might also be a faux pas. I don’t have an idea on the RAM or GPU.

Also, this is the lowest price I found. AUD$1000 or more was more common for 4,1s and 5,1s.

#10

A 2.8GHz will not be dual CPU. For AUD$720 I would be interested in them perhaps doing a deal for a Xeon X5680 CPU (hex core 3.33Ghz) or perhaps more RAM to sweeten the deal.
Of course, if you are happy paying the equivalent of $720, it isn’t a terrible deal by any means.

Can you easily get your hands on a Mac compatible Nvidia GTX 680 or at least attempt flashing it yourself?

If funds permit, you could try macvidcards.com and they have a good selection of CPUs that are flashed to be Macintosh compatible.

#11

I’ll try to get out there again in the next week or so and surreptitiously take a photo of the specs, that should help you help me. A Mac Pro, even a used one, has long been out of my price range. They’re only now coming into what, as you say, “funds permit.”

Here’s a couple of sneak peeks at my current project:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B09j49uBEYTSS0M5bzJpTU9NQ2s/view
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B09j49uBEYTSVGtTNTJyMjNwcTQ/view
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B09j49uBEYTSMExKZ0x4dnpaM2M/view

Not a spoiler, but needed context: gray haired girl is dead, she drowned as an elementary school student.

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#12

I’m guessing the 5,1 is worth a bit more then the 3,1/4,1 because it’s officially macOS Sierra supported. I have no idea what it’s worth in Japan, but over a couple of hundred bucks it sounds reasonable. Obviously a dual processor will make a significant difference to the speed. And the video card (GTX680s) aren’t super cheap still on eBay, so factor that it.

#13

Japanese people tend to take really good care of our stuff (me too, I ALWAYS manage to get top dollar/yen for my own stuff because I always keep it clean, shiny, in cases, etc), so used prices are much higher than in the States or in Straya, in my opinion.