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You are here: MacNN Forums > Hardware - Troubleshooting and Discussion > Mac Desktops > Where to buy used macpro (old style)

Where to buy used macpro (old style)
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phantomdragonz
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Feb 15, 2015, 01:55 PM
 
I have a MacPro 1.1, which is seriously showing its age. I want to buy a newer mac pro, but I don't have the budget for the $3k brand new one.

Craigslist only seems to have 1.1s, and ebay can be hit or miss…

Where should I go for a decent deal on say a 2012 mac pro?
     
OreoCookie
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Feb 15, 2015, 03:26 PM
 
Originally Posted by phantomdragonz View Post
I have a MacPro 1.1, which is seriously showing its age. I want to buy a newer mac pro, but I don't have the budget for the $3k brand new one.
First, let me move the thread to the Desktops sub forum. For most things, the Mac Pro has been replaced by the iMac, any reason you're not looking into getting a 5K iMac, for instance, which is within your budget of $3k?
I don't suffer from insanity, I enjoy every minute of it.
     
Laminar
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Feb 15, 2015, 03:28 PM
 
He said $3k was out of his budget, not that it was his budget.

Is there something wrong with eBay?
     
Mike Wuerthele
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Feb 15, 2015, 04:25 PM
 
I also think the CL postings depend on the area. Here near DC, there's almost always a 3,1 up in one spot or another.
     
turtle777
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Feb 15, 2015, 04:53 PM
 
Originally Posted by Laminar View Post
Is there something wrong with eBay?
Would you buy anything from eBay that costs >$100 ?
I wouldn't.

Sure, as a buyer, you're protected, so you might not lose money in the end. But it's just not worth the hassle IMO. Too many things can (and will) go wrong with expensive items.

-t
     
pffxmacuzer
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Feb 15, 2015, 05:31 PM
 
     
reader50
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Feb 15, 2015, 06:34 PM
 
I bought my upgraded 2009 MacPro off ebay. I'm happy with the transaction.
     
Mrjinglesusa
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Feb 16, 2015, 09:47 AM
 
Originally Posted by turtle777 View Post
Would you buy anything from eBay that costs >$100 ?
I wouldn't.

Sure, as a buyer, you're protected, so you might not lose money in the end. But it's just not worth the hassle IMO. Too many things can (and will) go wrong with expensive items.

-t
Maybe if you buy from people with 0-2 Feedback who joined yesterday, but if you are smart and buy from reputable sellers you won't have a problem.

I've bought (and sold) plenty of expensive items and not once did I have any issues. Then again, I bought from sellers who had loads of positive feedback and were members for years, not scam artists with 0 feedback who joined two days ago.
     
P
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Feb 16, 2015, 12:53 PM
 
Note that unless you're doing something embarrassingly threaded, it is hard to beat a new iMac with a used Mac Pro. Not even the GPUs hold up anymore.
The new Mac Pro has up to 30 MB of cache inside the processor itself. That's more than the HD in my first Mac. Somehow I'm still running out of space.
     
Laminar
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Location: Iowa, how long can this be? Does it really ruin the left column spacing?
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Feb 16, 2015, 11:20 PM
 
Originally Posted by turtle777 View Post
Would you buy anything from eBay that costs >$100 ?
Yes, all the time. Not everyone is 100 years old and terrified of technology.
     
turtle777
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Feb 16, 2015, 11:47 PM
 
Originally Posted by Laminar View Post
Yes, all the time. Not everyone is 100 years old and terrified of technology.
Ah, nice. I was afraid this would end without some form of personal attack.
Thanks for saving this thread.

-t
     
Laminar
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Location: Iowa, how long can this be? Does it really ruin the left column spacing?
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Feb 17, 2015, 12:09 AM
 
You weren't doing your job so I had to pick up the slack.
     
OreoCookie
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Feb 17, 2015, 01:32 PM
 
Originally Posted by Laminar View Post
He said $3k was out of his budget, not that it was his budget.
Sorry, I missed that. Nevertheless, I think a new iMac is going to be faster in any respect -- unless you have some task which allows you to make very good use of more than 4 cores.
I don't suffer from insanity, I enjoy every minute of it.
     
Kensington
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Feb 17, 2015, 02:22 PM
 
MegaMacs still has a couple of the Mac Pros you are looking for.

MegaMacs, Your source for Mega Deals

OWC still has some of the older Mac Pros as well if you scroll down the list in the link below you will see quite a few that seem to fall in the price range you are looking for.

http://eshop.macsales.com/Search/?Nt...15&Ntt=mac+pro
     
mflender
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Feb 17, 2015, 03:26 PM
 
Originally Posted by phantomdragonz View Post
I have a MacPro 1.1, which is seriously showing its age. I want to buy a newer mac pro, but I don't have the budget for the $3k brand new one.

Craigslist only seems to have 1.1s, and ebay can be hit or miss…

Where should I go for a decent deal on say a 2012 mac pro?
Your local computer recycler also likely has some. Mine does.
     
macusertx
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Feb 17, 2015, 06:54 PM
 
     
phantomdragonz  (op)
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Feb 17, 2015, 11:12 PM
 
Thank you all for your help…

looks like ebay wins in the price dept.

I will keep shopping, I had some other expenses come up so this project will get shelved for the time being. maybe next month.
     
pottymouth
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Feb 18, 2015, 10:11 AM
 
I'm guessing you're probably shopping for a Mac Pro tower because you need the expansion, but if that isn't the case, don't rule out the Mini. I bought a Mini to use as a second/backup machine but found that it smoked my Mac Pro in everything I do (print production). I don't just mean that it was noticeably faster; I mean it made my Mac Pro feel intolerably slow. I ended up selling the Mac Pro on eBay and got more than enough cash to buy another brand new Mini.
     
climacs
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Feb 18, 2015, 05:32 PM
 
I would be leery of buying off Craigslist. I got my 2009 Mac Pro from Small Dog Electronics in Vermont. It came with 30 days warranty just in case anything disastrous happened out of the gate. It's been great, had it nearly a year. Incidentally you should check out how a 2009 Mac Pro (4,1) can be upgraded to be identical to a 2010 or 2012 Mac Pro. I don't have the links handy but you can search for it. Basically, it requires a very simple firmware upgrade so your Mac Pro 4,1 thinks it's a 5,1 along with swapping out the CPU. My original quad-core became a 12-core beast running 1333MHz DDR3 RAM. It smokes and it can give the trashcan Mac Pro a run for its money. The part about swapping out the CPU is not easy and I would highly suggest having Pindelski do it

http://www.pindelski.com/MacProTurbo/

he charges a bit for it but if you are not very careful and very precise with changing out the CPU then you are looking at 2K to replace the backplane board (aka motherboard). Good luck.
     
   
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