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Nearly 11 years ago Apple introduced their infamous 'trash can' Mac Pro. This ended up being ironic, as many pros considered it actually trash. But now, with the rise of Apple Silicon and M2 Ultra, prices for Intel Macs have been crashing HARD. So today let's reexamine this, the most powerful trash can mac pro build, to see if there's an argument to be made for it finally!
time stamps
0:00 Intro
2:32 Why did it fail?
4:05 Upgrades galore!
5:42 They're insanely cheap now
6:26 Should you buy one?
8:22 This thing is weird
11:10 F in chat
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Apple silicon with that design? i say HELL YEAH 😁😁😁
THIS! Update the weirdly tall looking Mac Studio with this design and an ultra chip.
It's only a SOC so totally doable, but, IMHO the current unibody aluminum should be way better for heat dissipation and the smallest possible footprint.
Why would you ever want this design. Do you actually think it looks good?!
Standing ovation! Yes, please.
That's an amazing idea.
The one thing this video missed was RAM. For things like samplers in audio recording, having 64 GB of RAM is good, and having 8-16 Gb RAM in an M1 Mac Mini is simply nowhere near the neighborhood of enough.
same with upgradable storage...
So... maybe someone can put a Mini-PC inside that beautiful case and make it functional 👀
I saw a video some months ago with a guy building an identical case like tis but 3d printed and making it same as functional with same 1 fan but 120mm Noctua If im not wrong and looks amazing
A Ryzen 7840HS mini PC could totally fit on this thing and the latest Ryzen integrated graphics easily beats the 10-year old Radeon Pro GPUs. Just need some USB dongles for the I/O
A Mac Studio would be preferable
@@yeknommonkey according to prices It won't, at least compared with those Ryzen 7/9 soldered tona motherboard that cheap
My thoughts exacly. Already Done that with The infamous iMac lamp from 2001. Why not The bucket😂🤓
Luke, I just bought the 2013 Mac Pro with 12 cores, 64 GB RAM and 1 TB SSD. I love the industrial art of it. It looks so good on my desk. I could not be happier. I am not a maker of videos so it works great! Wishing you all the best, Luke!
You wasted money. Time to upgrade. It’s stuck on Monterey
@@emilsecker7881 No, with Open Core, I can upgrade to Sonoma
@@emilsecker7881 Open legacy Core boom
Same here Haters be hating
@@emilsecker7881you talk like Luke without doing research for speaking. Luke did the same to my 17” MacBook Pro 2011 about pcmcia slot
The trashcan Mac Pro is essentially G4 Cube 2: Electric Boogaloo.
Or Mac Studio Prequel: Studio Xeon
💡 Try to fit the internals of a Mac Studio in there.
since now it's all about a SOC with low power consumption, I guess the current design is fine since it achieves this 2 things: the smallest possible footprint and enough heat dissipation.
Yeah I want that and a g4 cube shaped acrylic stand for a Mac Studio
Cause a square motherboard fits into a sound hole. Not
@@emilsecker7881 Exactly 🤣
But you don’t get 1TB storage and 64GB RAM with that Mac Mini! Just saying!
well you can get 1TB
@@RonanACNH with more money.
external tb3/usb-c SSD's are dirty cheap with (almost) no bandwidth penalty. RIP trash can.
@@techindustries182but I don’t like dongled accessories lol. I like upgrading the actual computer.
@@techindustries182 And the adapters which allow you to use NVME drives on the trashcan Mac Pro are entirely passive and just change the connector from the proprietary one Apple uses to the standard one used everywhere.
I have a trash can Mac that I paid 300 dollars for. I used legacy patcher to get modern OS and I love it.
Same I got the 8c/d700/1tb SSD with 64 gb of ram and dual boot with windows on an 1tb external SSD and it is great! I don’t do video editing just programming so it has been fun to use.
@@troymd2009I have the same setup and I to don’t edit videos. The M1 mac mini isn’t a good comparison because of the limited ram and storage
I bought one of these a year ago for £350 and it’s been brilliant to be honest. I use it for software development day to day as well as some music production. The only reason I can see myself upgrading from it is when software stops working on that last os it supports. And even then I may just switch to Linux! I’ve got seen an m1 Mac mini for as cheap as that in the uk but nice to see prices coming down!
@@mttshw I don’t know what programs you run but I used open core to patch mine and it runs Sonoma fine
@@carson2646 I did try opencore when I originally got it but couldn’t get it to work with Monterey at the time so I’m still on stock Ventura. I guess if it becomes critical I can try again!
It's currently my Plex server, but will eventually make it to my museum of failed Apple products, along with my Newton, G4 Cube, and FineWoven iPhone case.
LMFAO
the true design successor of this thing is in my book the Mac Studio. It's sits somewhere int he middle of the ideas of the trascan and the G4 Cube
Third times the charm I guess lol
@@lelwaniright? I popped my Mac Pro on top of my Mac Studio M1 for a year while I moved my projects over and ran Intel in tandem
Nah, Mac Studio is not at all the design successor to this, it's obviously just a thicc Mac Mini. Don't know how round, black cylinder with a removable lid = a brick that looks like a Mac Mini, but I'm tellin' yah the studio is just Mac Mini daddy.
@@af4396 Looks cuboid enough to me to be the G4 Cube spiritual inheritor. And if the 2013 Mac Pro can be thematically linked to the G4 Cube …
You know what's funny? I Own one of these. Once you do the open patcher and the Ram grade and the SD upgrade, it works great.
great...except for the huge power bill.
@stephfredhall6032 actually no shockingly this machine only has a 400 watt power supply so not bad
To be fair I have a Mac Pro 5,1 and I leave it on 24/7 purely to keep my office warm!
@@yeknommonkey seriously?
@@johnDingoFoxVelocity talk about the 5.1 with the 1000w one, makes my room warm in winter haha
The one place where it still has the lead is multi-monitor support. I think you can hook up like 6 displays to the Mac Pro. It may not be a “pro” computer anymore but for normal browser type things it works great!
One of my friends used it for Bloomberg and that setup was sick!
It is the “Mac Studio” before Apple silicon! A huge difference is that we compare the Studio with Mac Minis instead of Mac Pros
Here's a great idea for you Luke; how about retrofitting your old Mac Pro trash can with the components from an M1 Mac Mini ... the best of both?
This is exactly what I want to do with mine! Some out there must be able to make a guide.
They should definitely go back to this design. In 11~ years I'm sure they would've learnt how to keep it compact yet upgradeable
Compact, yes. Upgradeable? No.
It’s the Mac Studio now.
since now it's all about a SOC with low power consumption, I guess the current design is fine since it achieves this 2 things: the smallest possible footprint and enough heat dissipation.
@@HenryBloggit Mac Studio imo looks like an even uglier and bulkier version of the og Mac Mini
A gold one. It'd be a good consumer design... was never an appropriate 'big server' design. I don't know what they were thinking, really.
Sorry Luke, couldn't disagree more with you on this one. Doing video, not perfect, was perfect at the time. But it's still a photoshop workhorse, and it gave me 8 years or work before I retired it to a file server, which it still operates as, encoding non-essential video in the background while I do other things on Apple Silicon. For the price now, it can't be beaten. In fact, I just bought a newer 2019 model machine four weeks ago, for $300, just to get the D700's that I wanted for my 2013 machine, but decided to leave them in the 2019 computer. I now have two, one maxed 12-core, and one maxed 8-core. The new machine also came with a monitor, keyboard AND a mouse. Considering that just to buy the D700's was $400, I got everything and more. This little trash can NEVER gave me any problems, EVER, and was a solid working investment that paid for itself a thousand times over. It cost me over $5500 to purchase and probably grossed me over $1M in its lifetime, so I'd say it was worth the investment. I would typically burn out the CPU in five years. Sometimes it's not just about the numbers, but about the dollars. Is it perfect, NO. Was it great in my case, absolutely!! Would I buy one now? Well, I just did. And as a media server, I think it will be great. As a backup computer in the event that Apple Silicon will have a problem, I know it will get the job done, but just be a lot slower. LOL.
Have to agree, it's a beautiful design and it can run bootcamp. Pity the Mac Studio isn't in this form factor.
Yep I got a ton of work done on it all the way into early 2021, when I put my first Mac Studio directly underneath it. The cylinder was solid and reliable - and gave me two 4K retina displays at 60fps with the correct Dell monitors.
I agree! I have had mine since 2015 and it worked well for me where I was at the time. I recently bought a Mac Studio and now I am trying to figure out how to best use my Mac Pro?? Any suggestions ?
@@jswebbproductions9785 You can use it as a good media server if you have an apple tv, hosting photos and videos. I also use it to do non-critical video encoding that can just work in the background and be finished when it's finished. From that perspective, it works to do anything you want to do in the background that doesn't need a fast turnaround, but you don't want to tie up you new machine doing it. In the end, I have it also as a backup, I keep all the software I need in the event a newer machine fails, I have a fall back Mac that I KNOW works solidly. There are may things you can to do with it.
I can't disagree more. If Apple built the trashcan into a traditional chassis using a traditional motherboard with slots for addon cards, it would have been much better while costing significantly less.
The trashcan Mac Pro's interior looks like hardware from an alien civilisation.
Indeed, and I always think of Darth Vader's helmet being removed when I open it!
I think Apple should make a Mac Studio that looks like that. It would make so much more sense as an Apple Silicon design than it ever did as an Intel design.
@@ericwood3709Mac Studio looks just like old Mac G4 Cube. Tash Can Mac Pro has some potential to make a comeback.
@@KrzysztofPiwowarczyk I'd say Studio looks like a tall Mac mini. The Cube with its translucent plastics and all looks pretty different, and the cooling in that was vertical like in Trash Can, albeit without a fan. But anyway, yes, I think the trash can would be a great design for a cooler Apple Silicon chip, though come to think of it, it was shaped like that in part to accommodate the CPU + separate GPUs, something an Apple Silicon system simply does not have. Perhaps the Cube would be a better design for it. Apple could make one for some special occasion, perhaps, like an anniversary.
This would be handy for running an older 32-bit compatible OS for longtime creatives, just for opening up older projects. I have Terabytes of 3D & AE projects from that era and before that are currently inaccessible.
Yeah maybe, but you would still probably be better off getting a dual CPU 5,1 Mac Pro since you can put a modern GPU in there. CPU isn't as fast though obviously.
@@gametime2473 You really can't put a modern GPU in a 5,1. Not anything newer than say 5 years old. Needs the apple firmware to get a boot screen, and metal support for anything above Mojave. Sure it will fit, but what's the point?
@@colindewolfe3647 You can put Radeon rx-6xxx cards in them. I have done it. Syncretic patch.
I sold my trash can while it still had good enough resell value. A year later I missed it so much because I like the look, bought a shell off eBay and it's the prop. I somehow still want the Mac Studio to be in this kind of form factor with front ports.
I own a Studio.. I kind of agree.
I keep one around as a Plex Server. One thing it has over the Apple Silicon Mac mini is that it has Error Correcting RAM, and the Xeon is a server processor, so it supposedly is designed to be a server or 24/7 machine. But then Apple Silicon Macs aren't exactly the most unreliable machines ever for leaving on 24/7 either.
I really liked the look of the mac
They look great with no scratches!
@@RockwellAIM65 I agree with that
Still rocking the 2012 Pro here with 64gb RAM, multiple 4TB drives/SSD, and dual processors.
Yeah, I used to build those for people and sell them. Great machines. The CPU is getting a bit long in the tooth at this point but more than fast enough for most uses. Sold my last one about a year ago. It was definitely the best computer Apple has ever made.
@@gametime2473 I can still edit 6K raw video with no problem at all. I had a dual processor tray with the highest spec processors but either the processors or tray died.
@@GearZenChannel Hmmm, haven't seen the tray or CPUs die before. Usually it is the power supply or logic board that go bad. The CPUs are dirt cheap now so upgrading your current system would cost almost nothing. I went to a PC workstation with the W series Xeon. Such a huge bang for the buck.
Yes I have a 2010 also. Same specs.
Time up upgrade that crap. It’s been unsupported for years
I have two I have salvaged from my workplace as I cannot stand the thought of them being disposed of as they are a beauty to behold. I have considered removing the innards and turning them into lamps! Hoping to see your Mac Pro glowing in the background on your shelf soon.
You are overlooking one very very useful function for these. Multi core CPU workloads. I use some tools where they are clock speed limited but get huge speed increases from having up to 12 cores. A 12 core unit on eBay with 1tb ssd and 32 gigs of ram can be bought for $300, way cheaper than even a 12 core CPU can for a modern PC. I run windows on mine compiling light maps for older games and it rips through themes such a great machine I may buy a second.
I have a 2013 Mac Pro that's maxed out... but it's not running MacOS. It's running ProxMox and is my "lab" machine and running all of my server workloads. For this use case it's fantastic - in part because it doesn't make any noise and has to live in my home office. I love it - it's attractive, silent, and (for this specific use) incredibly powerful. The interesting irony: my desktop machine is a Studio M2 Ultra. This machine proves that Apple wasn't wrong, they were just a decade early. Everyone makes fun of the Apple Silicon Mac Pro "why not just buy a Studio?" The studio, like the old trashcan, can't be expanded except outside the box using Thunderbolt, but unlike the Mac Pro, can't be upgraded at all... yet everyone loves it (myself included.) I would argue the trashcan was better looking than the studio, too.
Same here, I have 2 2013's maxed running XenServer. Lots of lab room and doesnt make any noise, its perfect.
Now that these are cheap, I'm going to buy one as a shelf piece. Might just use it to run my Plex server while I'm at it.
really sounds like a waste of electricity to be honest
If only I had that much I daily one it’s my best Mac
@@ardas77 Or a fun dump load for excess solar production ?? (what I do for my servers..)
you could get a kaby lake i5 or an alderlake N100 if you wanted a plex server tbh
@@jtmg11still a waste.
Hey man, I love to see how the production of the show has grown over time. You've stayed true to your formula and your show has done better as a result. Keep doing what you're doing bro
My old Mac Pro tower running Sanoma is just a workhorse. Someday I'll graduate to a Mac Mini.
Another great video, Luke! and I completely agree with you. I love these video's when you alert me that the failed Mac's of the past all a sudden become hidden gems because the prices start to drop to next to nothing and some change. I always was a MacBook user (too annoyed with all those cables of my LC back in the days) but I can always connect an almost free desktop to my tv.
A good video, I must admit I was surprised you had a second look at that device, I think I might have found the perfect use for these old Macs here in the UK, you see in our schools we use Windows OS not Mac OS, so install boot camp you can turn an old Mac into a great windows computer, replace the spinners with SSD and pop Microsoft Office on them and they are good to go, try putting windows on one using boot camp and bench mark it with a modern windows computer and see the difference, also all those lovely 27" 5k iMac can find a use in schools, I would love to see that.
I always thought it was cool and forward looking in terms of not needing the internal slots, at least for most users. But that design theory needed, as you said, USB C to really work. I was excited to use one for multiple projectors for theatre projections but the fact that each pair of ports are shared limits how many you can actually connect. I plan to get one to put on display here in the studio, but don't have a use for one.
I'm a developer and I have a base M1 Mac mini, and a 128GB/1TB SSD Trashcan (which cost half as much). I set up a home lab on a budget. The M1 is fast for compilation, but won't run a decent size Kubernetes cluster. The whopping memory on the trashcan is great for Kubernetes and means that the slower CPU/graphics/SSD doesn't matter. Basically, I wouldn't be without either. Each is the correct tool for a particular job.
Hey Luke! Love ur videos!!! I need ur help in choose which iPad Pro to buy. Whether it’s the iPad Pro M1 2021 or the iPad Pro M2 2022… I just wanna do simple video editing & some games here & there. Help me out.
I have one and I love mine, runs fine, I have it do all my backups, run my Plex Server, use it for light gaming (there's a few games I play that use dual GPU) using bootcamp with a decent SSD it's very useable even now. I think I paid around £200 for it a year or so ago. Plus the design is just really aesthetically pleasing and when anyone sees it they can't seem to figure out what it is
Hello, I still use mine till this day and I love it. Great review.
Time to upgrade
No thank A.I.
4:14 OK I have to comment before I forget. That transparent cutaway overlay shot was top-tier.
If one of the gpu boards has the hard drive port and the otehr doesn't then can you get a second gpu board with the hard drive port and have 2 hard drives?
I remember when they announced this… it was so cool-looking, and I was already hittin the wall with my Mac Pro Cheesegrater. I was ready to call my bank to get paperwork moving for a loan… and then the user reviews started showing up on youtube. I instead got a locally-sourced modded 2010 Cheesegrater that could run 10,11 and (barely) managed to hold on until M1 Studio. I've got a saved search on eBay for the Trashcan-but I just want it for my backgrounds when I'm filming studio videos😂. Great vid. Thanks!
I do enjoy looking at my 2013 Mac Pro. Looking at it is about as much as I enjoy it. Yes it's painfully slow for doing any kind of work now a days. Which is sad because it is gorgeous. Like a rose it has many thorns. We can enjoy it from far but not holding it closely. Good video Luke.
I have one that was kitted out with its midrange specs, and for what i need to use it for, it is still a great little machine, so much so that it has become my daily driver. It does everything i need it to do and a little more with coaxing, and since i work with hd video on an amateur scale, i never needed to ask for anything more powerful from it.
I just love it, the design, the performance and fit in small places. Perfect for me!
i used one of these as my main machine for years. it was rock solid and i had no problems what soever with it.
Great video! In my opinion, the current Mac Studio is a great successor for having a powerful computer in a small form factor with enough ports and costs $2k. Before Apple Silicon, I used to Hackintosh to get the power I needed at a reasonable price. Now going strong on M1 Max MBP!
Question: What if you manage t get one of these and turn it into a cloud gaming device, for use with things like GeForce Now or Boosteroid?? I bought an old Surface Book 2 not long ago, a 7 year old laptop with only 8GB Ram and a Dual-Core CPU but wow is it good at running GFN at 4K120. - The laptop is not that great at other stuff, but as a device I can just hook up to any TV or use on the go for Cloud Gaming, it works great. So would this be the same for the Apple devices, could you find cheaper Apple devices and turn them in cloud gaming rigs??
Good job! The M1-3 are just so good.
Have one, love it. With 2 TB and 64GB it runs very well for most normal applications and especially for running multiple virtual machines. And yes like my G4 iMac Sunflower it does not make sense for power apps but look at the design. Still looking for a cheap G4 cube to complete the Apple design top three.
I recently got myself an 8 core d500 mac pro for about $230, I got mainly cause I really love how they look, and for my day to day stuff its more than enough. so kicking around in macos on it is super nice. I'm glad I got it over a man mini, though I might grab myself a new mini within the year anyway. even then, I'm happy to have one of these super unique little machines. Plus mines a 2019 built model, so that's kinda nice, not really used all that much.
Your trashcan 2013 Mac Pro videos are great. Almost like a series at this point! I think it's pretty clear, from your previous videos, that these are not great personal computers. But how about exploring the data center side of things, since the hardware is workstation class? Maybe these machines are actually better at running web servers or services with the 128gb ram and 12/24 cpus and double ethernet ports than the modern Macs?
I use one as a basic home server. Upgraded to Sonoma with OCLP. Works well for what i need it for and love the design!
I have one that I use every day. Most of my daily working computing involves using remote desktop to multiple machines that I am managing. I have a 6 screen array that allows me to keep tabs on a half dozen machine at time. Previously I had been using 3 computers each lighting up two monitors. With the Trash Can and some active MDP to HDMI cables I can do all of the screens with a single machine. I get to remove two keyboards and mice from my desk for a couple of hundred bucks. Bonus, my office is nice and toasty all winter. Not as warm as my G5 used to keep the place, but nice enough! That said if I were to build this workflow from scratch I think a couple of 50" 4K TVs and a silicon Mac mini would be the way to go.
Try to use opencore legacy patcher
I went with the 2018 Mac mini because I already have a 16” M1 MacBook Pro. I like the 4 thunderbolt 3 ports plus it can be a part time windows machine in a way M1 cannot. There are some steam games I just want to play that don’t work on Mac. And with the Radeon VII EGPU it still performs great for that. Additionally I can leave a 4tb NVME plugged into the back of the Mac mini and not have to drag it everywhere with me like I would with the laptop.
Too bad Apple has forgotten this lesson. The Apple Silicon machines are all incapable of upgrades. I really don't buy their argument that storage and ram need to be soldered on. I've been an Apple fan since the Apple IIe, but design decisions like that make me wonder.
It's because Apple is such an eco friendly company that they make computers to be disposable. Makes sense.
Nice video! Love the TC alot, but only for basic browsing and email. But the look and feel.. love it. The design would be perfect for the Mac Studio with Apple Silicon!
Hey Luke, please where you found that old webside, where you can configure old Macs?
From the time I used it, Jan 2013 till Jan 2020, the infamous Mac Pro 2013 never let me down, and I managed to sell it for a decent price after 7 years! Sure, the M1 Max MacBook now effortlessly outshines it. But that old trusty trashcan really earned its keep, flawlessly handling all those wedding shoots with finesse. While looking like a piece of art in my space, looked much better than my Macbook on a stand.
I picked up one of these on eBay about four years ago. I upgraded it to the max, and had a lot of fun with it despite its limitations. However, as soon as the M chips released I saw the writing on the wall and sold the trash, purchased an M1 mini, and haven't looked back since.
There were two of these where I worked and neither functioned correctly and were eventually replaced by iMacs. They were mainly used with Premiere Pro for editing and DaVinci Resolve for color grading. Both applications suffered from rendering issues, DV Resolve would have random green frames or random lines on the rendered images. Premiere Pro had similar issues but at least PP could be set to software render and disable GPU acceleration, but the only way to get DV Resolve to work was to lower the render FPS speed to it's lowest setting to prevent the GPU overheating and leave to export overnight. There was even an app installed to manually control the speed of the fan to try and prevent the overheating issue but it wasn't that successful. If I remember correctly one of them had it's GPU replaced but it didn't fix the issue.
Would really enjoy seeing a mod project to change the internals into Apple Silicon. Still love the M1 Mac Wii project. Luke, can we see this build?
Hey Luke , how about getting the iMac Pro ?
I actually currently use a Late 2013 Mac Pro with 3.5GHz 6-Core Intel Xeon E5 processors, 64GB 1866 DDR3 RAM and 1TB of storage. I use FCPX and Logic Pro on it and still think it’s a fantastic computer. And, I bought it for $350!
Would there be a way to get a Mac Studio rehoused in a 2013 Mac pro housing?
I have - and will always keep - a 2013 MacPro Trashcan - I maxed it out with 128Gb of RAM and then a 2Tb SSD (both from OWC Macsales). The only real problem I have with it is it stopped updating at OS Monterey v12.7.4. Ima going to tweak it so it runs Sonoma - by using OpenCore Legacy Patcher 1.4.3. Fingers crossed...🤞🏻
I went back to finish my degree in 2012, by 2014 the university upgraded to this Mac Pros for its communication major classes. I ended up working with them after I graduated and until I left in November 2021, almost all of those Mac Pros were still going strong. I would not be surprised if they are still using them to this day.
About a month or two ago, I had the idea of putting a Mac mini's logic board inside the Mac Pro and I started researching on how hard can it be. I abandoned the idea after I realised I don't have the time nor the expertise necessary to do so. If I remember my research correctly, Mac mini's logic board barely fits in the Mac Pro and while possible, it would be quite hard.
That's a great idea of a content Very helpful literally because I have had and idea of doing something like that
Wow, I remember when it came out and thought it looks nice but I can still work with my maxed out MacPro 3.2. As you say, the pricing was insane. Design wise it's still a good concept having a chimney to draw heat up and out is efficient. It's so similar to Apple's previous failed concept of the G4 Cube. No fans, using a clear central core to draw the air up. I wish I still had a G4 Cube. Ashamed to say it was skipped.
I own one. Purchased new at end of 2013. Daily driver until the Mac Studio came out. Now it is on the shelf.
I have a 2013 era Trashcan, and I run Fedora on it just fine. Sure, it's not super fast, but for < €300 (maxxed out edition), it's a nice desktop machine, and that's what I use it for.
I dig that sci-fi look definitely 21st century ...and you almost had me sold until you explained the M1Mac mini ...you are dangerous Mr. Miani ...you do a good job of explaining ..thanks.
Great video. The trash an mac book pro was amazing. The first completely silent and cool to the touch Mac book pro I ever used. We have this now with the M series, but before, the aluminium tower Mac’s especially the earlier ones, had cooling issues.
Good video. I feel like the 2013 Mac Pro could have been something way better if a proper dock was made for it then it could have worked but Thunderbolt 2 didn't take off. The big problem is that the M1 Mac and newer versions you must have an internet connection just to install an OS.
I had one, 6-core with dual D700 graphics. I upgraded the RAM to 64GB and I had an external Pegasus array for the bulk of my storage. Overall it was quite a nice setup. I understood the limitations but at the time it was more than enough for photography work. I think they'd make quite a nice little Linux machine these days
Honestly you can get a maxed out 5k iMac from 2015, then you have quick sync, you can have a SATA hdd or SSD *and* an m.2 ssd, faster gpu, draw less power, and get a killer display, and still upgrade to 64gb of ram. It better in almost every way!
Love the look. Price was always insane. I was going to rebuild one but decided to build a PC instead.
I bought two of these from OWC, both used, but still paid too much! A bad lightning strike killed the first one. I loved the design, and they were fine, except for photo processing, which was very, very slow. I have a used, but perfect 7,1 now, which is great, other that trying to lift it! Very fair review. 😁
Does the Intel xeon E5-2697V3 also works ?
Always loved the design. Wonder if a Maxed out Mac Mini or Mac Studio could be put in there🧐
Thanks for this! Until now, I was thinking of getting one to transfer the "brains" of my iMac 2015 into while simultaneously transitioning to an M2-system, but now I feel it could be more straightforward to just keep using the iMac in parallel without the extra hassle (a KVM switching was on my mind, but the lack thereof is no dealbreaker). - Eero
I loved my Late 2013 Mac Pro. I bought the base unit and upgraded the RAM, SSD, and CPU for next to nothing when prices dropped but with Apple silicone the writing was on the wall. I upgraded to a M1 Mac Studio that can never be upgraded. Sad.
When this was released i had a Dual quadcore Mac Pro that I loved, and I still remember that day, when Apple abandoned the mac. What we defined as a Mac back then is just a memory today 😢
I have one, it came with the A700 GPUs, the 12 core CPU, and 64 GB ram from the factory and the serial number indicates it was build in Q2 2019. I paid around $300 for it a few months back, but someone who originally bought it must have paid around $10k and then probably never used it. Anyway I get a little over 7000 in Cinebench R23 running in Monteray. It runs Windows 11 pretty well but when gaming it uses 250 watts, so I don't use it either and it just sits. I have a M1 Mini 16/512 which gets around 6800ish in Cinebench R23 so my trashcan just slightly beats it.
I got one recently, 4 core, 16gb for cheap and am looking forward to speccing it out to 64gb and 12 core. If you are doing serious work then this isn't what you'd be doing, it lacks support and as noted isn't that powerful today, but as a hobby its fun, challenging computer to play with. And it looks awesome, just beautiful.
I ran an eBay search for a great price on a trash can Mac for over 4 years, and never got the price I wanted. I cancelled that search and bought an M1 MacBook Air as soon as they announced the M series chips. I still have 3 cheese grater Mac’s at home. Very pumped up. But I mostly use them as DLNA servers now. I do run some legacy software on my 12 core.
I have one in my collection it works and it looks great. Visitors are always saying what is that pointing at the Trash Can. When you explain what it is they say they have never heard or seen one. I love the looks and would never consider getting rid of my trash can.
I bought a used one a few months back... 8 core, 1 Tb, 64 GBs... and it was a great deal. I don't make videos and don't need super performance. I am really happy with it. Sure I could have gotten a Mac mini, but the design just does it for me.
If they get a further price cut, then they will become useful for things like a cheap lab machine. I don't know how well GPU pass through on Proxmox may work or similar, and it would be good if better usage of the GPUs could be found..
Had eight of them at my job..they were not good but were quite fast exporting from Premier at the time
Whats the newest OS you can have on it?
I had one from new and ran it 10 years. I quite liked it for most of that time. I bought it as an 8core /16GB/1TB/D500 and changed it to a 12 core/64GB/2GB machine and it was quite quick. The main boost was the SSD. But compared to an M1 it's still slow. and the Trash Can won't run current OS. So ultimately was glad to see the back of it.
I have the trashcan allmost all maxed out 64gb ram 1TB storage, using it everyday for photo editing. My favor machine. Just love the design on it. Using legacy patcher and latest Os. Works like a charm.
Time to upgrade that version
I used to have one of those back in 2014-2016. Honestly it worked really well for me as I was doing a ton of audio engineering at the time and I was helping a bunch of my friends record their music projects. Due to the size of the thing it was super easy for me to just kinda load up all my gear in a backpack or duffle bag, go to their houses, and we could get some really, really great recordings done in bedrooms and basements. Now, obviously i could have just as easily done all of that with a laptop but for some weird reason the mac pro convinced everyone I worked with that my set up was somehow less janky than it actually was lol. I guess the "Pro" in the name had them convinced that I was some kind of "Professional" lol.
My first generation G5 cheese grater is still working. It is now just a word processor [running Claris] with about 75,000 documents in the files. But knowing it’s age I just got a M3 iMac running pages and do all work in Pages. If I really need need a document to be sent over to the new platform, I print it from the G5, scam it into Pages. Love them both.
I utilized my previous device until I acquired my MacBook Pro M2 Max, which offered significant upgrades. I enhanced its capabilities with a 128GB OWC Kit and a 2TB OWC Kit, complemented by the 12 Core version featuring dual D700s. Throughout its use, the device performed admirably, requiring only occasional restarts for updates. Regrettably, I had to part ways with it due to Apple discontinuing security updates. Interestingly, I retained my 2012 Mac Pro Tower, repurposing it as a capable Win 11 gaming PC. Great Video by the way, keep them coming.
It's pretty sad that the 2009 Mac Pro can beat many of the new macs to this day in gaming performance. With a modern AMD card, you can game at 1440p quite well.
Luke, what about using it for a home lab & virtualization? How does it hold up & how much power does it actually draw "on IDLE"?
Would love to see how this model of mac pro performs as a home file server or media server. That would be pretty neat.
I feel you Luke. I bought a trash can Mac Pro for $120. The only non-upgraded component was the graphics (D500 instead of D700). But while I loved it, I ended up putting OpenCore on it and selling it for $200 on eBay to make a bit of cash, because with my many Apple silicon machines it just didn’t make sense. Thinking of buying a for parts trash can Mac Pro and using it as a flower pot or something the way you can with dead HomePod minis.
Bought a 12/1/64 one year ago, running plain Monterey. Still a fantastic machine for home use. And, gosh, that look, so much cooler than any MacMini…
Just really happy I skipped that and got the 1st 5K imac instead a little later
I had one till very recently. I'm an editor it was quite decent, but of course no match with the M2 chips nowadays. It was a nice try. Same design with M generation chip and modern I/O would be a killer