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Comment by dvfjsdhgfv | Hacker News Reader

I'm still using the tower version of Mac Pro with High Sierra and it rocks. I upgraded RAM to 32 GB and the Xeon processors handle everything I throw at them. Opening it and changing drives is a pure pleasure. I really, really don't understand why Apple gave up on these towers and came up with something as inflexible as the current design.

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From the beginning...

"[Steve Jobs] decreed that the Macintosh would remain perpetually bereft of slots, enclosed in a tightly sealed case, with only the limited expandability of the two serial ports."

https://www.folklore.org/StoryView.py?project=Macintosh&stor...

There is a trailing asterisk in your link, breaking the pointer.
https://www.folklore.org/StoryView.py?project=Macintosh&stor... is the proper URL (for those like me who are curious, and want to see what you're talking about!)

I've got a Mac Pro 1,1 which I've been debating about upgrading. Apparently you can new processors and hack around the 32bit EFI bootloader issues. It's a bit of a pain, but seems like a cheap way of getting a faster machine. The bus access is still going to be slow, but for most tasks, it seems pretty reasonable.

I've got one too. X5650s on ebay are about $20 for 2, 16gb of ram was $15, and you can flash it to a 2,1 easily and take it up to El Capitan.

I am using this model as well, but I've added a bunch of cards and replaced the BT module so that I could get Handoff support. The biggest downside right now is the fact that the motherboard is SATA2 instead of SATA3. The disk speed is abysmal.

Would you mind sharing the model num of the Mac Pro your using?

I'm not the OP but I use a 2008 Mac Pro: https://everymac.com/systems/apple/mac_pro/specs/mac-pro-eig... 8 cores, 32GB of RAM, 4 SATA drive slots - found it used for only $400 CAD.
A 2010 or newer Mac Pro would allow you to run the latest macOS version.

Mac Pro 3.1 from 2008 with 2 quad core Xeons at 2,8. You can get one of these very cheap (300 euro maybe if you buy the memory separately). As the other poster says, the only drawback is SATA2 disks speed.

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