MP 1,1-5,1 Rendering on a 4,1...upgrades possible? dosdude? or open core? for autodesk, and mild animation...anyone tried it recently?

[mrcdesigns]

Hi, I have done a bit of research, and I have 3 machines that are either going to be thrown away, or upgraded to use as mild rendering machines for furniture design, and a bit of AR for online retail, (this will be eventually for my business) booting latest windows, and or Mac os, via either a patch, or open core.

Open core is a bit beyond my depths, at the present moment, but have the 4,1 machine running 32gb of ram, (purchased more RAM yesterday) to make it 64gb, as one is not recognised, 4 tb raided HDD, and one 512 pci flash drive. I was going to load the dosdude catalina upgrade, but found that it wouldn't boot, and I cant load it on a partitioned HDD. Anyway I have spent a few days on the machine trying to get work a rounds and was wondering if I should give up the notion that I could actually still use these machines as a server a, 2d assembly machine and a render machine, one of each. please help I really want to learn, and have been using macs since 1988, and dont want to use PCS.

Please be kind

 

[ThunderSkunk]

I know, it sucks, but Apple essentially flushed us, by first shutting down 32bit apps, & then abandoning Intel completely. Since most design & engineering software are massive programs that took many decades to develop & only run on intel, they aren’t going to be rewritten from the ground up to work with Apples unpredictable processor idea of the month, and those companies have nearly every aspect of that software tied up in decades of patent & licensing wars, so while itks no fun being kicked to the curb by this company we’ve supported for ages, it is the end of the road for Apple computers in small & mid size design services. At this point, small-mid firms are buying up the final i9 machines, expecting to get 5-10 years out of them (if they really stretch it out) hoping they’ll bridge the gap until a decent OS X alternative to solidworks or inventor is ironed out on Apples silicon (if theyre even still using that a decade from now), or just moving to Surface Pros for the added utility + big hideous PCs for their practicality. Whatever you don‘t use or cant quite figure out, stick in the classifieds. Someone who loves tinkering will take it off your hands fir a few bucks at least and eventually find a use for it.

 

[macguru9999]

My advice would be to find a consultant who understands mac pro upgrades in your city (i'm in sydney,au) and buy a few parts and let him set them up. There is no reason that an upgraded 4,1 or 5,1 cant run cad software really well, either in windows or macos mojave or catalina. You need , the right video card, firmware upgrade, ssd and ram. Maybe a processor upgrade but i dont think i would go there with a 4,1 even though you can. good luck.

 

[velocityg4]

Hi, I have done a bit of research, and I have 3 machines that are either going to be thrown away, or upgraded to use as mild rendering machines for furniture design, and a bit of AR for online retail, (this will be eventually for my business) booting latest windows, and or Mac os, via either a patch, or open core.

Open core is a bit beyond my depths, at the present moment, but have the 4,1 machine running 32gb of ram, (purchased more RAM yesterday) to make it 64gb, as one is not recognised, 4 tb raided HDD, and one 512 pci flash drive. I was going to load the dosdude catalina upgrade, but found that it wouldn't boot, and I cant load it on a partitioned HDD. Anyway I have spent a few days on the machine trying to get work a rounds and was wondering if I should give up the notion that I could actually still use these machines as a server a, 2d assembly machine and a render machine, one of each. please help I really want to learn, and have been using macs since 1988, and dont want to use PCS.

Please be kind

For business usage. I'd recommend against this. You need machines running a stable OS they were designed for. Not something using a software and possibly firmware hacks to get running on a current OS. Especially if you don't understand how any of this works and won't be prepared to quickly tackle problems which may arise.

If all the software you need runs on M1. Get an M1 mini or iMac. Otherwise look at an Intel Mini (with eGPU) or iMac.

For a server. It all depends on what you need from a server. If just a file server and other basic server functions. Get a Synology NAS or build your own NAS. For a DIY consider a Raspberry Pi or something else with a lightweight power draw. The reason for not using the Mac Pro is power consumption. That thing gulps down electricity.

When you factor in selling the Mac Pro. You'll quickly break even. From then on you'll be spending less. While gaining modern hardware. A Mac Pro of that vintage can easily break 150w at idle while a modern NAS may be 15W to 20W at idle.

 

[chrfr]

Hi, I have done a bit of research, and I have 3 machines that are either going to be thrown away, or upgraded to use as mild rendering machines for furniture design, and a bit of AR for online retail, (this will be eventually for my business) booting latest windows, and or Mac os, via either a patch, or open core.

Open core is a bit beyond my depths, at the present moment, but have the 4,1 machine running 32gb of ram, (purchased more RAM yesterday) to make it 64gb, as one is not recognised, 4 tb raided HDD, and one 512 pci flash drive. I was going to load the dosdude catalina upgrade, but found that it wouldn't boot, and I cant load it on a partitioned HDD. Anyway I have spent a few days on the machine trying to get work a rounds and was wondering if I should give up the notion that I could actually still use these machines as a server a, 2d assembly machine and a render machine, one of each. please help I really want to learn, and have been using macs since 1988, and dont want to use PCS.

Please be kind

Sometimes it's important to use the proper tool for work and a 10-12 year old Mac isn't the right tool for rendering. Save yourself a lot of hassle and get a more modern PC.

 

[mBox]

Not sure if 4, 1 qualifies but I had a slew of cheese graters running Boot Camp and W7 as a Maya renderfarm.
Of course thats all gone now and replaced by two HPs and a 2019 MP.
It worked then, wonder if the 4, 1 can still do BC?