15 replies to this topic

[Tetsuya]

I just managed to nab one of the new Mini's off of Craigslist for cheap - got the Mini (upgraded HD and RAM to 8GB) and a nice 22" LED Backlit Monitor (1080p) for less than the cost of the 600$ base model.  

So now, the Pro is officially for sale.  

It is the base Quad-core "Nehalem" model, with a single quad-core 2.8Ghz CPU (though it reports at 2.93Ghz in both OSX and Windows 7.)
the Ram has been upgraded to 6GB (to keep the tripple-channel)
the GPU has been upgraded to the Radeon HD 5870 (which, oddly enough, outperforms the 6870 in most benches, and keeps up with the 7870 if you mildly overclock it)

total cost (new) for the machine is 2,900$ and some change.  

I'm looking to get around ~2100$, but im willing to haggle or negotiate within reason (especially if you have a newer iMac or MacBook Pro of the lower-end variety to trade, could do a trade + some cash)

Shipping would be on you, but i *think* it can be fit in the largest USPS Flat-Rate box, if you need it cheap =P

I can ship it out to you clean with a fresh install of Snow Leopard or Lion, your choice.  I'd include the Keyboard and Mouse, but the keyboard was killed by my cat dumping a drink over onto it, and the mouse i never used and i have no idea where it is.  If necessary, i can include a basic USB keyboard and mouse.  

Machine is in great condition and is a real workhorse, i just came to the conclusion that going with a Mini for my day-to-day work (where i dont do anything more stressful than light audio/video editing, light work in the Creative Suite, web browsing, text editing, page layout, etc) and then building a gaming PC would be far cheaper than buying a Mac Pro every 3-4 years and dual-booting (and has the added benefit of having both machines running at the same time).  Sellling the old beast to finance building the gaming PC.  

feel free to message here or email me at Travishamill@gmail.com

[Sneaky Snake]

AMD changed their naming scheme for GPU's starting with the 6xxx series. The x870 used to represent the flashship GPU of that generation, but then they changed it to x970. The 6970 was the replacement for the 5870, and the 5870 performs at the level of the 6950. It's a great card. Should max any game at 1080p that you through at it.

Wish I had $2100 laying around  

[Tetsuya]

Well im open to offers.  Particularly if there's a macbook pro or mini or something in there i can use.  I do have a bottom in the am ount of cash i can take, of course, but if you've got a number you're comfortable with, throw it out there.  Worst thing i can say is "no".  

Checking the benches, the 5870 rolls in like... 4% behind the 6970.  If you OC it, it beats the silly thing.

It's on Craigslist right now, but ive had a lot of people trying to trade me 2009 or 2008 MacBooks for 1500 bucks.

[Tetsuya]

Sold the old girl today for 1750.  Went to a good home at a photo and video firm that does weddings and other events.

[Sneaky Snake]

how much you thinking of spending on your gaming computer??

[Tetsuya]

already priced it out at around ~850.  Microcenter has the new Ivy Bridge Core i5-3570K on sale for cheap, as well as a decent motherboard for it.  The only thing im not going top of the line with is the GPU, because i simply cannot see the sense in spending another 300$ for an extra 15% performance.  Im going with a Radeon HD 7850 (at 229$) instead of the 7970 for almost 600.  It will still run everything i care to play at max or close to max settings at 1920x1080, so it will do fin. and if i need to, it performs extremely well in crossfire and i could just add another in the future when the prices go down.

[Sneaky Snake]

Ya my $180 (6 months ago) 6870 runs every game I own on max settings, except battlefield 3, and I'm running BF3 on a combination of high and ultra settings.

[Tetsuya]

Major issues getting the thing together.  

First was a motherboard snafu (dead on arrival) and a not short trip back to Microcenter.  Thankfully, they had a sale on some decent motherboards and for about 20 more than i wanted to spend i got a very nice ASUS MoBo.  Got everything plugged back in and booted into the EFI/BIOS, went to install windows....

Errors.  Tons and Tons of errors.  Still haven't gotten WIndows to install.  I used my retail Win 7 disk, a burned image that i had downloaded from Microsoft... and one not so legit copy.  Nothin'.  Constant Errors.. never gets past expanding windows files (at the best of times) and having two drives in the system seems to make it go nuts.  

Im thinking it might be a dead or bad DVD drive (a fairly decent LG).  In the (slow, so.. so slow) process of creating a bootable install flash drive on my wifes old Pro under windows.  We'll see if that clears it up...

otherwise, i have no idea how to get Windows onto the damn machine.

Some of the errors seem to indicate driver issues, but given that there's nothing installed, i dont see how that can be the case.  Urgh.

[the Battle Cat]

I went through something like that a while ago, not installing windows but a similar problem with weird and unexplainable, almost random errors when all my equipment tested OK.  I had crashes, DVD failures to read or sometimes even to be detected, and tons of error messages.  Turns out there was a deep seated and undetectable problem with my hard disk and when I replaced it, all the problems went away.

[Sneaky Snake]

Tetsuya, on 23 May 2012 - 11:29 PM, said:

Major issues getting the thing together.  

First was a motherboard snafu (dead on arrival) and a not short trip back to Microcenter.  Thankfully, they had a sale on some decent motherboards and for about 20 more than i wanted to spend i got a very nice ASUS MoBo.  Got everything plugged back in and booted into the EFI/BIOS, went to install windows....

Errors.  Tons and Tons of errors.  Still haven't gotten WIndows to install.  I used my retail Win 7 disk, a burned image that i had downloaded from Microsoft... and one not so legit copy.  Nothin'.  Constant Errors.. never gets past expanding windows files (at the best of times) and having two drives in the system seems to make it go nuts.  

Im thinking it might be a dead or bad DVD drive (a fairly decent LG).  In the (slow, so.. so slow) process of creating a bootable install flash drive on my wifes old Pro under windows.  We'll see if that clears it up...

otherwise, i have no idea how to get Windows onto the damn machine.

Some of the errors seem to indicate driver issues, but given that there's nothing installed, i dont see how that can be the case.  Urgh.

So when you press the power button, it boots into the bios completely fine, and just sits there at the black screen after? If so that means you assembled everything correctly. As for your errors, I've built dozens of gaming pc's for people, and never seen that error. Very odd

[Tetsuya]

Sorry it took so long to get back to you, but i was away for the holiday weekend on business.  

It finally installed windows when i removed 4GB of RAM (went down to a single DIMM).  No idea why this worked.  The RAM tested fine after a 24 hour memtest, so it wasnt bad RAM.. it just didnt want to install with 8GB of RAM.

Okay, so, Windows installed.  Yay.  

Then... bad video card.  ( - check that out).  Replaced with another video card (Thankfully Microcenter has a painless exchange policy).

That issue seems to be cleared up...


and now i get a strange refuse-to-wake issue.  I have the computer set to never sleep and never hibernate, but the monitor is set to sleep after 20 minutes.  Well, about three times now ive had a strange refuse-to-wake problem.  Hit a key on the keyboard and.... nothing.  The monitor wont wake up.  I cant hear windows making any sounds in the background, so maybe the whole thing crashed, i dunno.  Have to hard restart the computer. I have no idea how to even diagnose what is causing this.  

Have i mentioned yet how much i detest windows?

[Eric5h5]

Maybe you can buy your Mac Pro back.  

--Eric

[Tetsuya]

So i *think* i found the problem - Windows 7, regardless of your overral power settings, TURNS OFF THE USB CONTROLLERS to save power unless you go into the device manager and tell it not to.. for each one.

So, it wasnt waking up because the keyboard and mouse were both plugged into a USB controller that was OFF.  

.../facepalm. Way to work, windows.  Way to work.

[The Liberator]

Tetsuya, on 03 June 2012 - 04:09 PM, said:

So i *think* i found the problem - Windows 7, regardless of your overral power settings, TURNS OFF THE USB CONTROLLERS to save power unless you go into the device manager and tell it not to.. for each one.

So, it wasnt waking up because the keyboard and mouse were both plugged into a USB controller that was OFF.  

.../facepalm. Way to work, windows.  Way to work.

…so you must have your power settings turned to ultra saver or something? Mind you I am using Win7 on the '09 iMac, but I found the only way to get out of hibernation mode was to shut the computer down and boot into the bios launcher again to wake it up.

Lib.

[Tetsuya]

The Liberator, on 03 June 2012 - 07:38 PM, said:

…so you must have your power settings turned to ultra saver or something? Mind you I am using Win7 on the '09 iMac, but I found the only way to get out of hibernation mode was to shut the computer down and boot into the bios launcher again to wake it up.

Lib.

Nope, the computer was set squarely to performance.  

Doesn't matter *what* you set your power settings to, WIndows sets the USB Devices to power off unless you go into Device Manager and change them manually.  Seems to depend on your motherboard wether it does it or not.

[The Liberator]

Ahhh, I see. How curious...

...and pretty darn annoying.

Lib.