Screens of the specs are posted below. I know nothing about Macs and I haven't decided whether to sell it or keep it. I gather from a little research that despite its age it can still perform. How well it can perform is the question I'm hoping you guys can answer. I haven't done much with it yet because I'm still waiting on a usb wireless interface for it, and I'm too lazy to sneaker net . If I decide to sell do any of you have any idea what I could expect to sell it for? The case is pretty scratched up though there are no dents in it.





Thanks in advance for any advice.

 

Last edited: Nov 10, 2021

Sincere commiserations to you on the passing of your brother.

Even by todays standards, the specs on that are fairly good. However, given how image-conscious mac users are, i'd have thought that if it looks a bit scrappy then you probably won't get a fair price for it.

If it were me i'd keep it for my own studio as an excellent fall-back machine, in case of emergency.

 

That's a beast of a Mac Pro, or at least it was. But I'm sure you still can do nice things with it.
Dual processor, 96G of RAM, PCI SSD's, RX580.. Must have cost a small fortune.
Only downside, it will be quite costly on the power bill

 

Perfectly usable for recording/mixing. HDD for storage is okay if not very old. An all SSD system would greatly improve read/write access. NVMe could be added using a single mount PCIe x4 or x16 card (least expensive route).

Warren Huart (Produce Like A Pro), still uses his 2009 Mac Pro. There are others who still use older Mac Pro up to the last towers before the trash can was released. The older HP & Lenovo systems that meet the Avid Pro Tools approval fall into the same category as the Mac Pro. Well built, well designed Xeon based systems, solid performance.

My best wishes to you & yours after the loss of your brother.

 

Last edited: Nov 11, 2021

Commiserations on you Brother..

Thats a beast of a machine there are options for Later software if you're so inclined
https://www.reddit.com/r/BigSurPatcher/

 

96gigs of mem, what??? How can u fit that in a MacBook pro, dual memory slots, yes? What the hell was ur bro doing with it, lol? And Radeon RX 580 from 2009? Is that even correct? I have a 580x in my tower now, It can be that old, can it??

But in seriousness, sorry for ur loss.

EDIT: I'm an idiot, somehow I read a MacBook pro, instead of a Mac tower.

 

I use a mid-late 2010 Mac Pro dual-Xeon on High Sierra with tb SSD, 64gb RAM, Powercore PCI Express, Logic 10.4, and it is very stable and there are plenty of old 32 bit scene releases you can run, as well as audiogridder. Main logic runs on much newer mbp though. you edited after I started reply. I was going to say, pretty sure I still have room for some more memory.

 

Thanks. I'd rather have him back than to have to be going through his stuff and deciding on what to sell and what to keep.

 

Thanks for the condolences. He was a sound guy at his church and they gave it to him as a show of appreciation, so I have no idea what this thing was used for, but I think he was using it to learn video editing. He had Premiere on it and a Premiere overlay for his keyboard.

 

Having recently loss my mother, I can sympathize with you loss.

Given the state of the world at this point in time, his spirit is free of the daily chaos and, to rejoin our ancestors.

 

Agreed. And thanks so much, and I'm also sorry for your loss.

I also lost my mom last year to cancer and my late brother had lost his wife to cancer a few years before that. My family's been through some rough times, but in spite of our losses we are learning to cope and to be grateful for what we have and for having our late family members be a part of our lives. They live on in our hearts.

 

Last edited: Nov 11, 2021

Someone over at gearspace told me I can get 4-500 dollars for the video card and 500 dollars for the 12 core cpu tray (and about 70 for each ssd) but selling the entire unit itself would be difficult (!). I'm kinda torn because I've always wanted a Mac but could never afford one and I'm so sick of Windows (and I've always wanted to try Numerology sequencer). You all have given me much to think about. Thanks for the advice and the love for my late brother. You guys are awesome!

 

Yeah I hear ya. I've had to do the same for my parents and farther in law. Just go easy on yourself and take all the time you need.
Maybe, hang onto the Mac. Upgrade the OS and build yourself a system. Plant of peeps here to help you on that journey.. Take care.

 

Great as an audiogridder server.

 

[QUOTE="quadcore64, post: 595290, member: 329"
Warren Huart (Produce Like A Pro), still uses his 2009 Mac Pro. There are others who still use older Mac Pro up to the last towers before the trash can was released. The older HP & Lenovo systems that meet the Avid Pro Tools approval fall into the same category as the Mac Pro. Well built, well designed Xeon based systems, solid performance.

My best wishes to you & yours after the loss of your brother.[/QUOTE]

Thanks, and yeah I've seen Warren's videos. If it's good enough for him it'd be good enough for me!

 

Sorry someone you love died. I have lost more close friends than my fair share, but no family yet. I am sure it is unimaginable, yet there's nothing to do but imagine. I hate hearing all the shite that relative strangers feel pressured to say, so I'll spare you the condolences and acting like its hard for me. I do not envy your situation, but I do envy that sweet ass rig.

man, really, that's a sick box. I know apple well - have been using them my whole life, work for AASP, spent most of my adult life working on apple/for them (hypothetically) too. That said this is the internet, who knows if I'm lying. I'm certainly not reflecting anything other than personal opinions, but:

Granted I don't know what you're accustomed to, but that machine would lap most macbook pros that are being used for music production, as is. No need to do anything besides maybe like an earlier comment said, transition to an entirely static storage (HDDs are nice in price but not much else, imo).

I am a masochist who enjoys the posix compliant, linux-esqueness of apple computers, but also needs to do things using proprietary software, so you may not enjoy these things, but If you really want to waste some time making it "just work", like someone else said - audiogridder is fantastic and that device would love it, like you could really get some use out of it.

Above any other thing, I recommend learning a little bit of command line, it is not as hard as it's made out to be. Try installing + configuring https://github.com/koekeishiya/yabai (fantastic window manager) and https://github.com/koekeishiya/skhd (essential hotkey daemon allowing kb shortcuts for WM) over a weekend with two monitors, if you really intend on paying some respects to this computer. You'll also save yourself a TON of time producing music once you get it all together.

I may be jaded, or maybe too used to being poor while fixing the newest mac, but I think there is an immensely gratifying element, something very fulfilling, within finding a way to make something decrepit and broken to most people light up and serve a purpose for you. At best, it's a hobby that will certainly have numerous benefits - given you post here, I assume you may use a computer for music?

I know you didn't ask to be told what to do, but I feel so strongly I'll tell you anyway: I think you should make multiple backups of the drives and erase them and start fresh, or better yet, invest a little bit into your own storage so you don't have to worry about it, and then reclaim the device. Love it and treat it well, and make a point of learning how to do what you want with it. Your brother clearly did, to get it to where it is today. It's not immensely difficult to get an old mac pro running a modern OS, but it isn't done by accident.

If you hold option while clicking on the apple logo, about this mac turns into system information. That's where the good info lies, I'm not sure which FW it's running but you can figure it out yourself. For more info on the firmware stuff; https://thehouseofmoth.com/turning-a-2009-41-mac-pro-into-a-2010-2012-51-mac-pro-2021-edition/

Join rossmann group's discord, if you pursue this route - I self-learned a lot of electrical engineering and SMT reflow with this resource, if I can do that, you can probably use it learn to make that mac pro work better for you than a box that cost 10x as much. https://discord.gg/8Mk9J9E

Sorry for the text wall, I feel passionately about this, and I've bought numerous post-2012 macs and to be honest, they suck. They break faster, they aren't really light years ahead, the software is the same, the only okay thing is AppleCare but i'd rather have something I don't need it for. I'm typing this essay out on a 2011 macbook pro, because my 2016 just failed because I looked at it funny. i bought it used, so only $800 (hahahahahah) down the drain. It should be covered under a REP program, but due to one technicality they denied coverage. It was replacing my 2015, which has a similar story. You'll find that as computers become less user-serviceable, they tend to break down faster, and repairs become more expensive. You have something fucking sweet now, and if you don't see it for what it is it will never be used to it's potential. Good luck, if you have any questions reply or dm - I made an account just to type this out lmao. Hope you're well, OP

 

On second thought, forget everything in my previous post. I can offer you a reduction in difficulty and an increase in simplicity - sell it to me. nobody else wants it, and the asshole above me doesn't know what he's talking about. it's garbage hahaha the kind of garbage i want. and you probably don't, so i will do you the favor of taking the whole unit off your hands, once and for all. act quickly, and ignore the asshole above me. total idiot