It's only a 2009 4,1 model - but I finally have my own 8-core Mac Pro.
With a firmware flash and two new hex-core 3.3GHz Xeons, this will be one heck of a beast.
I cannot sit still waiting for this, I'm checking the courier's tracking site every hour 
(some extra specs)
16GB 1066 DDR3 ECC UDIMMs
1x256GB SSD, 1X1.5TB HDD, 2x1TB HDD
ASM1061 SATA3 PCIe card running SSD and 1TB Windows drive. SSD mounted in second optical bay.
LG Blu-Ray burner
512MB Radeon HD 4870 (will replace shortly with 1GB GTX 650 -- when NVIDIA pulls their finger out re: 10.8.5+DRIVERS+CUDA)
USB card reader (external)
USB keyboard and mouse (third-party)
24" Benq LED LCD monitor (Full-HD) + 22" Benq LED LCD monitor (Full-HD)
MacOS 10.8.4, NVIDIA drivers, CUDA, OpenCL
I envy you TMM, thats the real thing to have - 12 cores and 16GB.
May I ask, how much you had to pay?
They go for about EUR 2000 here on flea bay, quite a bit of money for four years old hardware.
Yummy & congrats, tmm. Will this run SL? I'm hoping to get something similar too, but would like Rossetta to be an option as well.
Hi 24bit. This cost me 863 Euro, and 82 Euro for the extra RAM. Think I got a pretty sweet deal (only the 2.26GHz model tho -- the dual 3.3GHz upgrade is ANOTHER 850 Euro!!!)
Hi MTT. Nah, this machine is going to be my "everyday" machine, as I am selling my Core i5 hackintosh a few days after I take delivery of this behemoth. As an everyday machine, it will have 10.8.5 (seems NVIDIA solved the CUDA thing), and I will not get a boot screen using the GTX 650, but everything else should be sweet.
I will test the new NVIDIA Mac drivers on my Hackintosh first, just to see if CUDA/OpenCL work as expected.
It looks like your hackintosh days will be on the backburner for a while 
that is a beast my dad has the quad 2.66 version of it and it flys (even with just the quad)
I was looking at upgrading it to a 8 core, but the dual processor card is like £250 on (and thats without the cpu's or extra heatsink...)
interesting about the nvidia cards, so they work out of the box?
I just put a PC AMD 6670 in my dad's pro and that required me to edit the correct device id's into the drivers (and then i spent a day trying to get video before i realized for some strange reason the card dosen't output a analog signal in the mac)
@ MTT, I think the 4.1 Nehalems could run anything from 10.5.6, 32bit and 64bit.
Enough choices for Rosetta and even HFS support.
this will be one heck of a beast.
It already is. It was 4 years ago and it still is.
And you'll have a spare Radeon 4870 that'll sell for a stack. Or you could send it to NZ for a few bucks
That is a NICE piece of hardware. Now, all you need to do is retro-fit the logic board into a B&W G3 Powermac case, it it will be Mac-cool! ;0)
In any case, i would put a generic PC motherboard inside the G3 case, not the MacPro one. Many people gets into my office and looks at my G5 and think it is a mac pro. That case/chassis is a symbol of power. The G3 in my own opinion looks like a toy. I would hate to lose the "Power" factor. In fact, if i ever buy the new MacPro, i will have to be careful with it because people may want to put off their cigarrettes on it
It's funny, you can always tell the people who had Swatch watches as kids in the 80's - they like plastic! I remember most of my buds in 2005 using terms like "Cheese Grater" for the G5s.
Cheese Grater! great one! Nevertheless, a powerful cheese grater!
@artphotodude - I had a few Swatch watches, but I still yearned for a Cheese Grater!
@bertyboy - If it is a Mac-EFI-Firmware (Mac only) model, I will certainly consider your proposal
@24bit - I think you are 100% correct on this, but this is not my retro machine, I have a G4 iMac flat panel for that!
@Max1zzz - Without Mac-EFI-Firmware, there is no Boot screen - nothing until login screen or Desktop 
I may just have to accept this, although my GTX 650 is only about 5% faster than the 4870 in benchmarks. I also hear the Radeon is very quiet. I might stick with the 4870 for the full Apple Mac experience, and save the upgrade if I really need it?!
@MikeTomTom - Yeah, with 3 real Apple Macs in the house, and no PCs, it will be difficult. 
@bertyboy -- it looks like the Mac-EFI-Firmware graphics cards have no problems running under Windows.
Update: Shipping has stalled in Melbourne (sigh).
Update: Now will be 18GB RAM, didn't realise the original 6GB was 3x2GB (thought it was six slots with 1GB each).
Radeon HD 4870 is benchmarking about 25% faster in GFlops. Not as good in 3D fill rates/triangles etc., but only by a small factor.
The GTX uses about 60 Watts less under load, but the 4870 only uses 150W anyway, well under Apple's maximum. I am going to start saving up right away, and in another year, I might afford a MacVidCards flashed GTX 780 Mac Edition.
Whatever happened to HDMI? This Display Port thing is getting out of hand.
congrats! thats a nice looking machine:)
GOT IT! I have spent two days getting it organised. Even using SATA2, the computer goes from first Apple screen visible to usable Desktop in 3 to 4 SECONDS... I'm not kidding. I have a SATA power adaptor cable coming, as I have a supported SATA3 card installed (240MB/s will become ~550MB/s)
And it WAS 6 x 1GB DIMMs 
Maximum 17GB now!
Also, these are hyperthreading cores, so 16 threads (WOOT!)
Just a matter of getting my software installed, and configured (STEAM!!!)
I have some photos which I will post soon.
Cheers.
Steady on. I've got some drool to mop up
Congrats TMM, Glad you got this safely into your hands OK.
@bertyboy - check your email
Boy, did that computer "fill up" quickly. I have SSD dual-boot (currently from optical SATA2 #2) with 127GB each for ML and Win7-64. I managed to "fool" Steam into running its 70GB of games off my 1TB OSX drive (previous hackintosh install). WIN!
All 4 HDD bays are used (1TB OSX STORAGE, 1TB NTFS STORAGE, 1.5GB NTFS STORAGE, 500GB Encrypted Storage) and I have installed my LG BD-Burner. The sliding drive-cover was a bit "sticky", but after some strategic kinetic manipulation (slid it up and down repeatedly for about 30 seconds), it is now working sweetly. I may lubricate the mechanism next time I am inside the case.
The machine is surprisingly quiet, and temperatures are very low (lower than my Core i5). There is a "rattle" somewhere in the case randomly, and I fear it is the graphics card vibration (as it is very close to touching the CPU/RAM cover shroud). If I can find a self-adhesive thermal pad, I will put it under the graphics card (or maybe just use Blu-Tac).
I have ordered the SATA power adaptor (male->female) which fits the Apple proprietary crap, and lets me run my SSD from my SATA3 card (bootable). I also have ordered the 5.25" -> 2.5" mounting bracket for the second optical bay. RAM arrives soon too. PHEW!
POSTSCRIPT: Getting Windows 7-64bit installed was a NIGHTMARE!!! All USB and DVD installs resulted in the "black screen of death". I swapped graphics cards, created an IMAC Win7 install USB (on purpose), and ALSO inserted the Win7 DVD at the same time. I replaced the mouse/keyboard with my G4 iMac ones (the keyboard doesn't work in Win7 installer). Boot Camp Assistant got confused (thank goodness), repartitioned the USB stick, and booted the DVD (with no issues after that). The partition needed to be formatted from the Win7 installer, so the BOOTCAMP name was lost. I fixed this once it was running.
Well done. I don't remember 64-bit XP being such an issue to install for BootCamp, but you're done now.
I remember thinking how fast it was with Mac OS, and then my first video encode with VisualHub, 3 minutes instead of 9 hours on my dual G4.
And then I booted it into Windows - faster than any Windows PC I'd even seen before, or since.
Checking email ....
@bertyboy - hope my message got through. It involves an 'off-the-cuff' remark you made in this thread
Apparently, booting off the ASM1061 SATA3 card has the downside of adding 5-10sec to boot time (I might be able to fix this by "blessing" the drive). Still, once it has 12+ GB of RAM, I will never be shutting this thing down anyways.
CPU and RAM both benchmarking 7.7 in WEI - Win7-64bit.
That is faster than my way faster Core-i5 quad-core. NICE!
I should have all my Steam games installed under Windows by tomorrow, so will be relocated to my room.
@bertyboy - what happened?
Photos as promised
Nice Packaging!!
Very Clean!
Oh Yeah!
I replaced that PCI-e slot cover
Well on the way
Looks VERY nice, tmm. In your "I replaced that PCI-e slot cover" pic; What is the port to the right of the DVI monitor plug (is that a port too)?
Also, the two ports(?) below the 2 firewire ports?
Two ethernet ports! That's awesome.
That does look perfect TMM, not even a scratch on it.
Mint condition it seems. I only wish I could make such a deal here.
@MTT - That is a mini-display port, this was the 4870, which is now replaced with a GTX 650 OC. It now has mini-HDMI, DVI and something else (can't remember offhand).
Yup, dual gigabit ethernet ports!!! WOOT!
I'm currently using TosLink optical out to a Kenwood 5.1 surround receiver and Sony speakers. Great sound. Using Pro-Logic Music for everyday stereo sources, Auto for DD, DTS etc.
I need to set up SoundFlower or similar to get 5.1 channel output (aggregate device?) for 5.1 in Source games from Valve etc. Can anyone help me with that?
It does have a few scuffs and smudges (not bad ones), but the side cover has been bashed into something, and has a small section (two inches) of the edge a bit munged up. Not visible until removed really, but you can really see/feel it when it is removed.
Updates arriving shortly:
12GB (3x4GB) ECC 1066MHz UDIMMs.
5.25" -> 2.5" optical drive adaptor (for SSD)
It's running very nicely with 6GB RAM. I can't even imagine what I will do with 12GB+
Ah, Lotsa RAM leads to VM possibilities, so mine currently runs (24/7/365) iTunes, previously web server, MySQL, Oracle 10g, a Mac OSX Server 10.5 and a Server 10.6 environment in VMs, currently a Win XP environment in a VM and two RedHat (well Oracle Enterprise Linux red hat equivalent) environments in VMs, some had 2GB RAM, some had 4GB. I could VNC / Remote Desktop to each when required. My Xserve has taken over all the "previous" stuff.
Nothing is out of your reach now.
@bertyboy -- that just SCARES ME, what you just said. I will probably run a Plex server (or Serviio or PS3 Media Server) serving 2 TB of movies/tv. On top of that, it will share my iTunes playlist and iPhoto library.
I have never used more than 8GB RAM (and that almost seemed like too much). If I ever upgrade to a Mac graphics card, I will try out Linux as a full install on one of my 1TB storage drives. I will also try Chameleon bootloader to try and reinstate a startup screen of sorts.
Mac Pro is the excellent choice, it runs whisper quiet with all that stuff going on.
Just to re-iterate, VM's is the answer, whether you use Parallels, or Oracle's Virtual Box, or the other one that's popular on Mac (but I've never used). All offer bridged networking so each VM appears as a separate machine on your LAN.
Yes berty, very quiet nearly all the time. Fans seem slightly louder under Win7, but I have (free) MacFansControl now for Mac and Win7, and it lets me set these up to be quieter if needed.
12GB RAM arrived today. Pictures to come. I think I will install 3x4GB on one bank, and 4x1GB on the second bank, and see what happens
EDIT: does not say ECC anywhere, but I am almost certain that it is... almost...
RAM installed
My old Hackintosh Core i5 benchmark
My new Mac Pro 4,1 benchmark
dunno where that second pic came from? Maybe just a glitch?
I now have a triple boot system, all OSes booting nicely from GRUB2.
Mac OS X Mountain Lion 10.8.5 (Supplemental update)
Windows 7 Ultimate 64bit
Xubuntu 13.04 -- AMD64
Update: With the new 600MHz iMac SE, I have 4 real Apple Macs in the house
Holy CR*P !!!
I need an Apple EFI-firmware graphics card for the MacPro 4,1 -> 5,1 firmware update to work
Can anyone recommend a PC card flash? I have a 6800GT, a 6600 and a 7900GT from memory (all PCI-e).
I will go and check the models, and then I will research the ROM flash options I have... I have Windows7 installed under BootCamp as the default boot, so hopefully I can use this for the flash?!
Help me pls somebody (particularly someone with previous Mac graphics card flashing experience)!!
PLS NOTE: I have NO other Windows PC available for the flash, just the Mac Pro 4,1 running Win7 (cannot run anything less, but might boot into a live rescue disc/USB)
Update: YEAH BABY!!!
One of my cards is a PCI-e 7600GT 256MB, of which there is an Intel Mac ROM!!!
Namely 7600GT_IMAC_EFI.rom.zip
Wish me luck!!!
This is for a PCI-e MXM iMac... hmmm, not sure if this will work, but I will backup the original ROM, so should be fine.
DAMMIT! DAMMIT! DAMMIT!
This card does not function under Mountain Lion (64-bit only). This card has a 32-bit EFI, so it is a loss.
The Mac Pro will run Leopard/SL/Lion, all of which have 32-bit modes... I think I will go for a WINDOWS ONLY install for a while, see if I can get full 550MB/sec out of my SSD (which I am NOT getting under OSX from what I can discover). I will do a full backup of my entire SSD first, so should be able to switch back to Mac OS X in a matter of hours.
Dang it, who would have thought that not having a Mac graphics card would stop you upgrading your Mac's firmware?!?!
I guess I will have to borrow a Mac card off someone, or better still, convert a Radeon 7750 PC (or similar) to Mac.
that gpu is bottlenecking the hell out of your cpu. Maybe spring for a radeon 7970 or GTX 670? It's a nice Mac!
Just borrow a card, don't convert anything.
It's too late to go back. got a 5870 on the cheap, and successfully flashed the BIOS ROM to EFI-firmware
I'm picking up a second-hand 1GB 9800GT tomorrow, might try flashing that to an 8800GT (many online say it is possible). It isn't a reference design card, but it might be a good backup for the 5870.
I just don't have the money to drop on 7970's or 670's
Buys Mac. Spends more time hacking it than with a hackintosh.
Anyone who says hardware hacking isn't an addiction is in denial
Congrats. That's a really nice Mac. Over here they still sell older models for way more money. I ended up building a new hack earlier in the year because I couldn't justify spending that kind of money on a second-hand machine.
Yeah, when I saw this for about 1/2 the average price (including postage), I snapped it up.
I've nearly reached a point where I am happy with it. Need to do two things tho.
1. Fix annoying fan noise on 5870 (new fan ordered)
2. Install new XL HDD to replace 500GB one.
That's about it.
Yeah, when I saw this for about 1/2 the average price (including postage), I snapped it up.
I've nearly reached a point where I am happy with it. Need to do two things tho.
1. Fix annoying fan noise on 5870 (new fan ordered)
2. Install new XL HDD to replace 500GB one.
That's about it.
Ah. Congrats! My hackintosh died (it was quite old). I put an FX 6300 and a new ASUS board in it. Lost everything. Hackintoshes don't like being upgraded. Now I've got a Windows 8 setup. Maybe its time to get my Windows and OSX setup going again.
I've got the FX Overclocked to 5 Ghz, its amazing. My GTX 680 eats through everything thats thrown at it.
OSX Lion/ML works on "Bulldozer" FX chips, and I believe the 6300 qualifies as one of those (Requires SSSE4 or something ridiculous). Head over to the OSX86 forums, and you will find many success stories with AMD (you may be stuck on Lion due to an issue with 64-bit kernels + GPU incompatibilities).
Geez, a 3TB internal HDD wouldn't go astray.... sigh
