New imac 21.5 or 2008 Mac Pro?

Hey folks,
I am trying to decide between purchasing a new imac, either 21.5 or 27 with maxed out processer and 2 TB hd. I'll upgrade the ram to 16gb or 32gb once I recieve it or a used Mac Pro from a local seller that has the below specs. Any thoughts or advice?
This is a gently used, mechanically sound and tech tested Apple Mac Pro. I am only selling due to our business upgrading, otherwise I love this machine, and would not be selling it. It comes fully loaded (both hardware and software), and is ready for the most robust tasks.
Included with the Mac Pro is 2 brand-new sealed 20.5" Lenovo LCD monitors, Apple Magic Mouse and Apple Wireless Keyboard. Currently, the Mac Pro is setup for dual monitors on the 512mb NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GT video card.
The memory on the Mac Pro has been upgraded to 16GB and an Apple OEM 256 GB Toshiba Solid State Drive (SSD) has been added to increase boot up speeds to mere seconds. The SSD can be configured to run either OS X Lion or Snow Leopard and will also house all of the applications. The combination of 16GB RAM and the applications residing on the SSD enables this machine to perform at amazing speeds. It can seamlessly render video and run other ram intensive applications with ease, making this a perfect addition to anyone's video editing studio.
In addition to the 256 SSD, the Mac Pro has a total of 4 TB of storage space with two separate 2 TB hard drives for storing massive amounts of data. (2 open bays if you wish to add more storage).
LOADED SOFTWARE:
MS Office 2011 (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, Communicator
Adobe CS5 Mastersuite (Photoshop, Encore, Flash, Dreamweaver, Illustrator, FireWorks, Catalyst, Contribute, After Effects, Bridge, and much more!)
Final Cut Pro 7
iLife 2011
Aperture 3
Adobe Acrobat X (PDF Editor)
All applications have been freshly reinstalled with their appropriate activation keys. The machine comes ready to go with no administrative password for either operating system (Lion or Snow Leopard).
Thanks for looking and if you have any questions feel free to ask! This Mac Pro comes with a 30 day warranty against DOA. Buy with confidence.
If you like the machine, I have a little room to work on the price if you do not want the SSD. Otherwise price is FIRM. This machine is a powerhouse!

This looks like it has everything you need, but beware, the seller installed a lot of software onto this Mac.
He makes no mention of including the software discs. So, if something bad really happens with this Mac, at some future time, if you did not backup the Mac and software, you will lose all this software as you'll have no way of reinstalling it.
He is basically selling this Mac with a value added of having all this high end software installed.
Most end user agreements do not allow this so he is, basically, giving you pirated software.
It's a great gesture, but if you do not take extra precaution to back up all your data and software to either disc or another external drive/s, you run the risk of losing all of this software forever.
If you buy this, plan on buying one or two external drives to use a backup drive for everything on the Mac's internal drive/s.

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Which is faster at rendering and compressing hd video... the new iMacs or the 8 core Mac Pro

the new iMacs or the 8 core Mac Pro

the 5770 is listed as 2010 only as well. The "anomolies" are with HDCP copy protected content:
Mac Pro: Using ATI Radeon HD 5770 graphics card with Mac Pro released before 2010
This may be the same story.

Use the new iMac as a display for Mac Pro

The goal is a simple one; use the newest model iMac 27inch as a display for the newest model Mac Pro (desktop tower). The latest Mac Pro has DVI and DisplayPort out and the iMac obviously has thunderbolt, usb, and firewire. I've discovered that there isn't really a way to get thunderbolt on the Mac Pro unless someone knows something I don't. If it's the case that thunderbolt can't be added to the current Mac Pro (be it by a new video card, or otherwise), I'm wondering if I could use a DVI to USB adapter to display it on the iMac.
I guess the takeaway here is that I don't need a virtual solution. Primarily, I use screen sharing via gigabit ethernet to access it. However, when you need a physical hardware monitor (let's say when you restart your machine or need to boot outside of OS X), you can't use the virtual options. I need to be able to use it independantly, like a traditional monitor setup. Any thoughts?

No that will not work. The iMac will not accept video in on using USB, or anything except Thunderbolt.
Best of luck.

Replacement CD/DVD Drive for 2008 Mac Pro?

I need to purchase a new optical drive for my 2008 Mac Pro 2.8 GHz Quad-Core desktop computer. I checked OWC, but they're out of stock. I currently have a Samsung SH-S222L, which I absolutely hate–mainly because the heads access the drive every 5 minutes or so. Very, very annoying.
Any help or advice is greatly appreciated.

Psst ! Here's a little tip for you. The drive used in Mac Pro's isn't exclusive to the mac. It's an Optiarc model
and I believe you can use any cd/dvd burning drive with an ATAPI plug on the back, Pc or Mac, and chances are it'll work fine, I used a Lite-On drive I snagged from a dying PC in my Mac pro 3,1 as my 2nd dvd drive
and it worked fine for a few years. Replacing it isn't that hard either. There are guides on Youtube or other places that show you how to do it. Just remember to remove the little lip on the front of the dvd drawer before you install it. I don't know about specific brands, but Pioneer seems fine, and I'm sure there are others that are fine, too. macsales might help you out. I know what it's like having to haul your Mac pro into your local Mac place--a pain in the butt, right? and then you have to wait...and wait...
I think you can can do this....
good luck
John B

I recently bought a 2008 mac pro which came with leopard 10.5. I can't load any new programs because it calls for a password, but it won't accept it. I bought new snow leopard 10.6.3 but I can't load it for the same reason. How can I completely reboot.

Help. I recently bought a 2008 Mac Pro from Mac of all Trades. It came with Leopard 10.5 installed. When I set initially started the computer, I followed the instructions on the screen. I was asked to set up a password which I did. Since I'm very forgetful and not too tech savy, I wrote it down as I typed it in. I first went to install Office Mac 2011 but when it asks for a password, it won't accept the one I set up. I was told that if I bought the new Snow Leopard 10.6.3 and installed it, that it would reset everything. Well, it won't allow me to load it without the password. I am new to Apple - this is my first. I have always been able to "reboot" a computer with discs but I'm not sure how to do this one. Is there a way to do it without the password and reset everything? Could somone please email me
Thank You. David Moore
<Email Edited by Host>

If you don't have original install disks for your Mac, you can order replacements disks directly from Apple at a nominal cost. The original install DVDs are required to reset the password.
If you have no data on your drive that you want to keep, you can boot up from the OSX Snow Leopard disk and install OSX SL.
Insert the Snow Leopard DVD and hold the C key during startup. The Mac should boot from the CD/DVD drive into the installer.
Follow the prompts, erase the disk and install OSX Snow Leopard.

Installing OS and Apps on SSD boot drive on early 2008 Mac Pro while keeping all other data from old iMac on hdd

So I've just got myself a early 2008 Mac Pro with a OCZ RevoDrive 80GB PCIe SSD to replace my old iMac which is slowly but surely giving up on me. I want to put my OS (mavericks) and some/all (whichever is possible/easier) apps, both apple and 3rd party, from my old iMac, onto the SSD but keep all my other data on the 2TB HDD, also from my old iMac, in the mac pro. Can anyone tell me how to do this/if its possible? (not massively tech savvy so simpleish language and steps would be handy!) Thanks!

How to use an SSD with your HDD
If you are going to use an SSD as a boot drive together with your existing HDD as the "data" drive, here's what you can do.
After installing the SSD you will need to partition and format the SSD using Disk Utility. Then, install OS X on the SSD. After OS X has been installed boot from the SSD. Use Startup Disk preferences to set the SSD as the startup volume.
Open Users & Groups preferences. Click on the lock icon and authenticate. CTRL- or RIGHT-click on your user account listing in the sidebar and select Advanced Options from the context menu. You will see a field labeled "Home dir:" At the right end you will see a Change button. Click on it. In the file dialog locate the Home folder now located on the HDD (HDD/Users/account_name/.) Select the folder, click on Open button. Restart the computer as directed.
When the computer boots up it will now be using the Home folder located on the HDD.
Another more technical method involving the Terminal and aliases is discussed in depth here: Using OS X with an SSD plus HDD setup - Matt Gemmell. This is my preferred approach because I can select which of the Home's folders I want on the HDD and which I don't want. For example, I like to keep the Documents and Library folders on the SSD because I access their content frequently.
Be sure you retain the fully bootable system on your HDD in case you ever need it.

Hi everyone,I am new to this so please forgive me any mistakes I may make.Early 2008 Mac Pro desktop installed ML ok but next day nothing, reinstall ok restart same problem ML installer remains on my snow leopard disk. Any help appreciated.Kind regards

There I go first mistake straight off. I was wondering how to fit my big long problem in. My fault I am sure but if anyone can help please.
Early 2008 Mac Pro Desk Top, 2 hard drives 1)snow leopard, 2)lion.
I have downloaded Mountain Lion usuing disk 1,selected no.2 as my destination, installed ok everything fine, set my startup as no.2 in preferences, switch off. Next day start up - nothing, my only way to get moving was physcally remove disk 2, and let snow leopard restart.
Reinstalled, everything fine, then same problem on restart next day, remove disk,and so on.
The mountain Lion installer remains in the snow leopard dock.
I know the problem is me, so if anyone is kind enough to be able to offer a solution it needs to be in easy speak (press button a, press button b) because I am not that savvy.
my best regards to all, and thank you.

Where did you get Mountain Lion? Did you download the 4+ GB file from the App Store? If so, then I would try doing the following:
Drive Partition and Format
1. Open Disk Utility in your Utilities folder.
2. After DU loads select your second drive on which Lion is installed (this is the entry with the mfgr.'s ID and size) from the left side list. Note the SMART status of the drive in DU's status area. If it does not say "Verified" then the drive is failing or has failed and will need replacing. SMART info will not be reported on external drives. Otherwise, click on the Partition tab in the DU main window.
3. Under the Volume Scheme heading set the number of partitions from the drop down menu to one. Click on the Options button, set the partition scheme to GUID then click on the OK button. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Partition button and wait until the process has completed.
Install Mountain Lion
Double-click on the Mountain Lion Installer application in your Applications folder. Follow instructions to install Mountain Lion on your old Lion drive - Drive 2. When the installer finally finishes it will restart the computer automatically from Drive 2. At this point there is no need to change the Startup Disk unless you want to boot from your Snow Leopard drive.
You will startup to the Setup Assistant in which you will configure your own admin account. You can, if you want, omit that part and instead choose to migrate your Home folder and other data from the Snow Leopard drive. I would recommend you do that unless you wish to do it manually at a later time. In this case create your new admin account using the exact same username and password that you now use on your Snow Leopard system.

2008 Mac Pro 10.5.8 shuts down after hours of no use, Set to never shut down. Can be resumed pressing any key but all programs not in startup list need to be restarted and unsaved data lost .   New behavior. No system changes.

2008 Mac Pro 10.5.8 shuts down after hours of no use, Set to never shut down. Can be resumed pressing any key but all programs not in startup list need to be restarted and unsaved data lost .   New behavior. No system changes.

2008 Mac Pro 10.5.8 shuts down after hours of no use, Set to never shut down. Can be resumed pressing any key but all programs not in startup list need to be restarted and unsaved data lost .   New behavior. No system changes.

Help with new video card for 2008 mac pro

I was looking to upgrade the speed of my 2008 Mac Pro Video
I currently have a nvidea 8800 512mb
Looking for any suggestions?
I need something that will not block the 2nd 2.0 pci slot?
From my understanding my mac has two 2.0 pci slots and one is used by the video card?

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Nvidia-GTX-780-3-GB-for-Apple-Mac-Pro-/331071998403?n ma=true&si=TLQfb78DRSdpDaz0cZAp4FFlvP8%253D&orig_cvip=true&rt=nc&_trksid=p204767 5.l2557
this Nvidia GTX 780 is the best your mac can handle safely, the card can work on 1 slot at around 95% according to another site:
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Intel/Ivy_Bridge_PCI-Express_Scaling/3.html
this is what i plan to use in my mac pro 3,1

My 2008 Mac Pro running Lion will not play HDV1080i60 footage in FCP 7. When I open the sequence settings, all HDV codecs are hdv1, hdv2, hdv3, and so forth. Anyone have any idea how to fix this?

My 2006 - 2008 Mac Pro running Lion will not play HDV 1080i60 footage in FCP 7. When I open the sequence settings, all HDV codecs are hdv1, hdv2, hdv3, and so forth. However, when I open the project on my other Mac Pro running Snow Leopard and FCP 6, the footage works fine as it does on my newer Imac running Mavericks and FCP 7. I have tried a Quicktime update on the Mac Pro that the footage doesn't work on but it says that I already have the newest version of Quicktime installed. I have also tried reinstalling the Final Cut Pro Studio twice, still no fix. I'm completely out of solutions and need to be able to edit HDV footage on this machine. Any help would be great. Thanks.

there was a recent software update that seemed to screw HDV up. Do some searching here over the last month or 2 and you'll find a bunch of posts and some possible solutions.
Worst case scenario, do as Shane suggests. But might I suggest you take a look at the user tips section of the forum. there are some great tips on how to prevent these sorts of problems by cloning your startup drive, etc.

Apple's ink preference option, randomly appears 2008 Mac Pro???

Ink or inkwell. Is Apple's own handwriting recognition program It is included in leopard and is only available if your mac detects the presence of a wacom tablet.
I don't have a wacom tablet, nor have I ever used one. Yet the ink icon has just recently began appearing randomly. A small menu icon, appears next to the volume control in the menu bar. It also appears under system preferences between keyboard and mouse and the print and fax preferences.
The ink icon and preference option will just mysteriously also disappear within a few minutes.
I don't have a wireless card in my mac pro. I also double checked to see if all bluetooth options are turn off. I have two hard drives both with separate installations of OS X. This has happened on both installs.
The only thing new is a airport extreme base station. The airport is being used by only two computers my 2008 mac pro and a imac out in the living room. Both are using ethernet no wireless.
At first I suspected the airport was picking up a stray signal from a neighbor using a wacom tablet.
But I think thats unlikely since any wireless tablet would be using bluetooth.
I did also upgrade to ilife 09. Again I don't see how ilife 09 could cause trouble like this.
I have googled to see if anyone else may have experienced anything like this. I have found nothing helpful.
Any one have any ideas To what might cause this?

Anyone?
Just today at the early A.M. my mac pro woke from sleep
May 6 03:23:38 johns-mac-pro kernel[0]: Wake reason = UHC3 EHCI
May 6 03:23:38 johns-mac-pro kernel[0]: System Wake
May 6 03:23:38 johns-mac-pro kernel[0]: Previous Sleep Cause: 5
May 6 03:23:38 johns-mac-pro kernel[0]: USB (EHCI):Port 6 on bus 0xfd connected or disconnected: portSC(0x101803)
May 6 03:23:38 johns-mac-pro kernel[0]: USB (UHCI):Port 2 on bus 0x5d connected or disconnected
May 6 03:23:38 johns-mac-pro kernel[0]: IOBluetoothHCIController::terminateWL .. done
+See how it mentions bluetooth?+
+Here is what a normal wake from sleep looks like for me+
May 6 05:39:51 johns-mac-pro kernel[0]: System Sleep
May 6 12:50:54 johns-mac-pro kernel[0]: Wake reason = EHCI
May 6 12:50:54 johns-mac-pro kernel[0]: System Wake
May 6 12:50:54 johns-mac-pro kernel[0]: Previous Sleep Cause: 5
May 6 12:50:54 johns-mac-pro kernel[0]: USB (EHCI):Port 5 on bus 0xfd has remote wakeup from some device
All bluetooth options are turned off. I have no bluetooth devices nor have I ever used one with this mac. I also have wake for ethernet administrator disabled. I also checked to see if their were any scheduled wake events.
Just before this morning on the advice from Apple care I did both a PSM and PRAM reset. To see if that would element the random appearing ink icon. From My first post.
I think Their is a problem with my bluetooth chip receiving signals when is not sopped to. The chip is not turning off?
Ant ideas
Message was edited by: rpaloalto

Early 2008 Mac Pro to run Yosemite?

Hello all.
I have an early 2008 Mac Pro 3.1 with quad-core Intel Xeon and I am trying to do a clean install of Yosemite with a bootable USB flash drive. When I power up the machine (while holding option key) I see the Yosemite installer. I double click it. I get the apple logo with the progress bar across the bottom, but it only gets about 25% of the way and then I get the circle with a line. Any ideas? I have upgraded the EFI per (EFI and SMC firmware updates for Intel-based Macs - Apple Support)
Thank you!

The installer flash drive is defective or you don't have a 2008 MP.
Upgrading to Yosemite
You can upgrade to Yosemite from Lion or directly from Snow Leopard. Yosemite can be downloaded from the Mac App Store for FREE.
Upgrading to Yosemite
To upgrade to Yosemite you must have Snow Leopard 10.6.8 or Lion installed. Download Yosemite from the App Store. Sign in using your Apple ID. Yosemite is free. The file is quite large, over 5 GBs, so allow some time to download. It would be preferable to use Ethernet because it is nearly four times faster than wireless.
    OS X Mavericks/Yosemite- System Requirements
    Macs that can be upgraded to OS X Yosemite
         1. iMac (Mid 2007 or newer) - Model Identifier 7,1 or later
         2. MacBook (Late 2008 Aluminum, or Early 2009 or newer) - Model Identifier 5,1 or later
         3. MacBook Pro (Mid/Late 2007 or newer) - Model Identifier 3,1 or later
         4. MacBook Air (Late 2008 or newer) - Model Identifier 2,1 or later
         5. Mac mini (Early 2009 or newer) - Model Identifier 3,1 or later
         6. Mac Pro (Early 2008 or newer) - Model Identifier 3,1 or later
         7. Xserve (Early 2009) - Model Identifier 3,1 or later
To find the model identifier open System Profiler in the Utilities folder. It's displayed in the panel on the right.
     Are my applications compatible?
         See App Compatibility Table - RoaringApps.

Multiple graphics cards on 2008 mac pro, won't work

Hi, I have a 2008 Mac Pro 2 x 2.8 GHz Quad Core Intel Xeon with 14 GB 800 MHz DDR2 FB-DIMM. I have used a ATI Radeon HD 2600 Graphics card connected to 2 x BenQ E2400HD screens. Now, I want 4 screens so I bought a NVidia Geforce 8800 GT graphics card as I found these to be compatible with my setup on Ebay (only place I could find it). Got it in a brand new condition in a Apple graphics card box so should be all good. Put it in PCI-E slot 2. Now when I started my Mac after installing I could hear a loud fan noise (fan going on max speed) and tracked it to the new graphics card. When I open the system profiler it shows up as a display. The screen connected to the graphics card with a DVDI-cable does not show an image and the screen indicates that it does not have an input. Any ideas what's wrong here? Is my graphics card broken?

More than likely you got wrong verion.
1,1 and 2,1 Mac Pros are EFI32, and for Nvidia cards need proper version.
If your machine is a 3,1 or later you need an EFI64 version.
Contact the seller and clarify.
If you install "ATY_Init" and are running 10.6.8 you will find the card will work once machine boots all the way.
You could then flash the card into proper version if you were especially clever with things like that.
But your seller should help you.
You need to know "Model Identifier"
http://macvidcards.com/macpro/which-mac-pro-do-you-own/

I have a pre-2008 Mac PRO how do I upgrade to Mountain Lion?

I have a pre-2008 Mac PRO how do I upgrade to Mountain Lion? On the Apple's site on upgrading (http://www.apple.com/osx/how-to-upgrade/), I see that "Mac Pro (Early 2008 or newer)" is required for the upgrade. What's up with that?
Will upgrading of the GPU do the trick?
I'm curretly on Snow Leopard, will I be limited to Lion?
Kamal
my system info:
Hardware Overview:
Model Name:          Mac Pro
Model Identifier:          MacPro1,1
Processor Name:          Dual-Core Intel Xeon
Processor Speed:          2.66 GHz
Number Of Processors:          2
Total Number Of Cores:          4
L2 Cache (per processor):          4 MB
Memory:          13 GB
Bus Speed:          1.33 GHz
Boot ROM Version:          MP11.005C.B08
SMC Version (system):          1.7f10
Serial Number (system): xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Hardware UUID:          00000000-0000-1000-8000-00xxxxxxxx
ATI Radeon X1900 XT:
Chipset Model:          ATY,RadeonX1900
Type:          GPU
Bus:          PCIe
Slot:          Slot-1
PCIe Lane Width:          x16
VRAM (Total):          512 MB
Vendor:          ATI (0x1002)
Device ID:          0x7249
Revision ID:          0x0000
ROM Revision:          113-A52027-140
EFI Driver Version:          01.00.140

I have the following Mac Pro which I have upgraded the GPU to an ATI Radeon HD 5770:
Hardware Overview:
Model Name:          Mac Pro
Model Identifier:          MacPro1,1
Processor Name:          Dual-Core Intel Xeon
Processor Speed:          3 GHz
Number of Processors:          2
Total Number of Cores:          4
L2 Cache (per Processor):          4 MB
Memory:          8 GB
Bus Speed:          1.33 GHz
Boot ROM Version:          MP11.005C.B08
SMC Version (system):          1.7f10
Serial Number (system):          G86334VTUPZ
Hardware UUID:          00000000-0000-1000-8000-0017F20153D2
Mountain Lion won't install.
Will this change or do I need to further upgrade the GPU.
Thanks In Advance!
--Dave K.

Why are there so many problems with the early 2008 Mac Pro ???

Hi everybody out there using Mac Pro's early 2008,
I found out there is a lot of problems with the early 2008 Mac Pro.
My early 2008 Mac Pro has been repaired ones under warranty and now it stopped working again ! Also see under: Mac Pro early 2008 no chime and does not start up. Why is this ????
It worked well for about 2 years and then it just fails and i had this failing issue twice already !!! Is this just a BAD Apple product or how do you think I need to approach this. Let’s face it, these machine don’t come cheap and you at least expect them to work without problems for 4-5 years. What is happening here ???
Cheers, Kavango

go to a black screen after 15 minutes or a couple hours
That is probably an indication that you need to find a new graphics card.
RE: Mac Pro Replacement Graphics cards
1) Apple brand cards,
2) "sold in the Apple store" cards, and
3) "Mac Edition" cards ...
... show all the screens, including Boot up screens, Safe Mode, Installer, Recovery, debug screens, and Alt/Option boot screens. At this writing, these choices include:
1) Apple brand cards:
• Apple-firmware 5770, about US$250** works near full speed in every model Mac Pro, Drivers in 10.6.5
• Apple-firmware 5870, about US$450
2) "sold in the Apple store" cards
• NVIDIA Quadro 4000, about US$1200
• NVIDIA Quadro 5000, about US$2500
3) "Mac Edition" cards -- REQUIRE 10.8.3 or later:
• SAPPHIRE HD 7950 3GB GDDR5 MAC Edition, about US$480** Vendor recommends Mac Pro 4,1
• EVGA GTX 680 Mac Edition, about US$600
The cards above require no more than the provided two 6-pin aux power connectors provided in the Mac Pro through 2012 model. Aux cables may not be provided for third-party cards, but are readily available.
If you are Meet ALL of these:
• running 10.8.3 or later AND
• don't care about "no boot screens" etc AND
• can re-wire or otherwise "work out" the power cabling, THEN:
You can use many more cards, even most "PC-only cards"

New imac 21.5 or 2008 Mac Pro?

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