Ever since the weakening of Ringgit (Malaysia), buying a new Apple Computer in Malaysia is a really difficult thing to do when we used to be able to buy a Mac pro for just over RM10,000 but now we have to fork out more than RM 18,000 just to get an similar spec system.

I’ve tried Hackintosh a few years ago but I knew it’s not going to be the same no matter how we do it.

My career kinda rely on Mac exclusively (Xcode, Final Cut Pro X, Motion and etc).

Just a couple of months ago, I have found a post in lowyat.net forum for some Mac Pro 4,1 and 5,1 for sale. The pricing that the seller posted is very reasonable.

Mac Pro 4,1 = RM 1,300 Each (USD 319)

Mac Pro 5,1 = RM 1,600 Each (USD 393)

Saw this video online for an upgraded Mac Pro. Kinda made me decided to buy a couple of these for experiment.

I knew I have to definitely get it and give it a go.

Always thought of getting a used G5 and mod it to a modern hackintosh. But due to the reason that I prefer not to fiddle with too much of hackintosh issues (drivers, hacks and updates issues….) and prefer to stick with genuine Apple Hardware.

Contacted the seller and bought 2 units for 4,1 and 5,1 each.

2 of these units came in mint condition. Not much visible cosmetic wear except some small scuff at certain part of the corner. Don’t think it’s a huge problem as my main concern is how it perform. Each set of these came with very hard to find Apple wire keyboard and mouse.

Mac Pro 4,1 Specs

https://everymac.com/systems/apple/mac_pro/specs/mac-pro-quad-core-2.66-early-2009-nehalem-specs.html

Quad Core Xeon W3520 (2.66 GHZ turbo to 2.93 GHZ), 8GB DDR3 Ram (1066mhz), 640 GB HDD 7200 RPM, Nvidia Geforce GT 120 512 MB VRAM.

Mac Pro 5,1 Specs

https://everymac.com/systems/apple/mac_pro/specs/mac-pro-quad-core-2.8-mid-2010-nehalem-specs.html

Quad Core Xeon W3530 (2.80 GHZ turbo to 3.06 GHZ), 8GB DDR3 Ram (1066mhz), 1 TB HDD 7200 RPM, ATI Radeon HD 5770 1GB VRAM.

For the upgrades, I’ve decided to start with a Mac Pro 4,1 just because that the casing seems to be in better condition (less scratches) than the 5,1.

Update Mac Pro 4,1 to 5,1

I’ve upgraded my Mac Pro 4,1 to 5,1 by following the guide here

https://www.ifixit.com/Guide/How+to+Upgrade+the+Firmware+of+a+2009+Mac+Pro+41/98985

The process isn’t hard. It not the most pleasant experience due to the reason that the machine I’ve bought came with El Capitan which has got an older Safari. For a while I was stuck there because the Safari can’t allow me to download the needed firmware files. Then I figured out that I just need to install the latest Firefox and then I can download the firmwares. As for the rest of the process it was a breeze.

CPU Upgrade

Open up the side panel by just flicking the latch at the back. No screws required, such a well thought and elegant design. The internal seems relatively clean with minor dust in it. I believe the former life of this machine was lightly used and has not need abused before.

The CPU tray seems to comes with 4 pieces of 2GB ram. A little dusty on top but it’s not serious as seen on photo.

Unscrewing with the hex 3.0mm extra long key wrench. Bought it cheap from Lazada.

The thermal paste went dry and needed some cleaning with alcohol.

Same goes with the heat sink.

After some cleaning and it’s time to remove and exchange for a better CPU.

Here’s the comparison of the old included Xeon W3520 and Xeon X5690. Went with this because we can’t easily overclock a Mac Pro and the price for each X5690 went down to about RM320 each.

I was told not to remove the sticker below the chip as it won’t interfere with the performance. I left it there anyway. No harm to the performance so far.

The first time I did this I was using a cheap thermal compound from cooler master that cost around RM12. And after a while I realised that the thermal seems a little higher than expected.

I can’t be able to find ArticSilver 5 in Lowyat. End up buying Thermaltake TG-8 which I can’t be able to find any review online. Any how it’s price RM49 and luckily it’s thermal result is quite satisfying so far.

Before I apply the thermal paste I have to remove the old compound on the heat sink.

Look shiny and clean and it’s time to apply the paste.

Then I just screw the heat sink back and call it done for the CPU. It’s a single processor Mac Pro 4,1. Still quite easy for the whole process. Dual processor 4,1 is another beast which I will cover in future. 5,1 single and 5,1 dual are relatively easy compared to 4,1 dual cpu.

Also can refer to the video below.

Ram Upgrade

Now check out the Rams I’ve ordered PCL-10600R ECC registered. One thing I have to mention about these Xeon CPU and ECC rams is that they are decommissioned from their existing data Center and plenty of these are flooding to market. If you wanted to upgrade your Mac Pro or any of the X58 based PC. It’s the best time. It yield the best performance even compared to chip in 2018.

Despite of the rams are e-waste from data Center it still looks very new.

I put all 4 of these in to the ram slots of the CPU tray. Very easy.

AirPort Extreme Chip

The 4,1 Mac Pro that I bought came without a Wi-Fi chip. Bought this from online from Taobao. It’s the original AirPort Extreme chip which can be installed and recognised directly my OSX.

There are 3 cables inside dangling in the case. It can only be seen with the cpu tray removed.

Just connect the cables (check it’s numbered label) according to the numbers I’ve shown in the photo.

Once I’ve done this, I just slot the CPU tray back to Mac Pro

Boot up the system and you will see the Wi-Fi recognised immediately.

SSD Upgrade

I bought the Samsung SM951 M.2 ACHI SSD from Taobao. Please make sure that it’s the ACHI version so that the Mac OSX can be bootable.

Make sure that you put it in slot 1 or 2 with Pcie 2.0 x16 to maximise its read and write speed.

The one I got here is a 512GB version. Pretty hard to find.

I also need to use a M.2 card for PCIE. It recognised by Mac Pro without any driver issue.

Here’s a tip to clone the Mac OSX from your HDD to SSD.

USB 3.0 Upgrade

Did a bit of research and I was trying to look for a cheap one that works without additional driver installation. Settled with this brand called “Debroglie”. I put this in pcie slot 3 (Pcie 2.0 x4) and it works right out of the box.

The SSD recognised right out of the box with no tinkering. I did the HDD transfer to the new SSD.

The speed seems to be satisfying. 1.4k read and write seems to be good enough for the work.

GPU Upgrade

I have some AMD Rx580 8GB that I had for my other projects before. Can’t wait to swap out the crappy Nvidia GT120 card came with the system.

It’s a Sapphire Nitro+ RX580 8GB.

Still very new and lightly used.

There are some mini 6 pin to 8 pins connector that I bought from Taobao. I notice that we can use 2 mini 6pin to 1 8pin connector or we can use 1 mini 6pin to 1 8pin and 1 mini 6 pin to 1 6pin connector. Either way works.

Putting it in was hard initially and then I notice that the easier way is to pull the grey fan back by pressing the small light grey button on the fan. This will open up a little on the holder to the GPU and allow us to easily slot in and out for the GPU.

vtudio has some very useful videos to show us on how to upgrade the system.

Final Result

Finally after boot up we can see that the system has fully upgraded from 4 cores to 6 cores. The ram from 8GB 1066mhz to 32GB 1333mhz. However, I notice that the system actually runs better with 3 rams installed instead of 4 because its runs better on triple channel.

The RX580 recognised out of the box but it don’t comes with the EFI boot screen. I can’t be able to select start up disc by holding the alt button. This could be a problem if I wanted to switch OS or boot from USB or disc in future. Just make sure that you keep the original Nvidia GT120 card.

Here’s the Geekbench 4 64bit result. It’s quite similar in performance to the Alienware 17″ R3 I have. And it also very similar to the I5 8400 I have in office.

Before upgrade

After upgrade

Here’s the Geekbench 3 64bit result. Quite impressive for its age.

Cinebench also seems to be giving pretty good result.

Conclusion

Mac pro 4.1 RM 1,300

Graphics Card RX 580 8G RM 1,800

Xeon CPU x5690 RM 360

16GB ECC Ram RM 110 x 4 RM 440

500 GB SSD RM 725

Dual Sata 3 to PCIE expansion RM 125

USB 3 expansion RM 110

6+6+2 pins cables RM 12

Airport Extreme RM 22

Estimated Total RM 4,894 (Excluded Shipping)

Pricing wise, it’s definitely worth it. It cost less than the latest Macbook and it performs like the latest iMac. I believe this system can last for a good few years until I really going to let them go.

The whole process is quite enjoyable. I can conclude that the amount of works is very much worth the effort. I had a lot of fun of doing it.

Right after the first project, I’ve immediately called up my supplier and bought another 3 Mac Pro. I won’t stop here and I’m going to up my game next.