Unboxing and Cleaning a Mac Pro 2013: A Behind-the-Scenes Reboot S1 E2
okay guys it's dark in here for a reason check this out you ready look at that wait for it listen right it actually took me quite a while to figure out what triggers this it's whenever you move this Mac Pro or tip it it lights up look at that think it will also do that in Reverse how cool is that right let's turn the lights on and do some work okay welcome to links London the global headquarters of links London aka the garage let's get a coffee on the go right lungo right links London right now is very much as you can see in um the startup phase this would be considered if we had investors this would be I think stage a round a of investment um but we don't so we're on our own anyway ultimately Links London will be a jewellery business an online jewellery business so for that we need a website and for that we need a computer and that's what this video is going to be about our new computer when I say new it's from 2013 and from Ebay that this is going to be about are phenomenal looking Mac Pro late 2013 I think the I think there was I think it's the 6.1 I think now I watched a lot of videos about these before buying one I've wanted one since they came out I've always thought they look cool they were not well received it's fair to say by Mac fans when they first launched and having said that there's quite a lot of them out there so they weren't well received in terms of uh press and reviews and public feedback but people went and bought them judging by the amount that are out there worldwide on the uh used Market but anyway these cost thousands they were unaffordable for consumers like myself professionals that was still expensive but in recent years as time's as time has gone on they held their value pretty well but the prices were coming down and they recently lost support for the latest Mac operating systems and the price the prices the used prices are plummeting I picked this one up on eBay for 165 British pounds plus 20 shipping so 185 pounds just months ago maybe a year ago they probably would have been close to 500 and this is the the out of the I'm the way I'm going to frame them is there's three models and this is the base model and the way the reason I say there's three models is there were lots of models between 2013 and 2018 when these were on sale and there were lots of configurations but fundamentally you had three choices of graphics card or GPU and the 300 the D300 the d500 or the d700 and this is the D300 and with all the other components they're quite widely available used um and very affordable I you can pick up a choice of any of the CPUs from eBay for about 20 pound um and the same goes for the ram that fits these the graphics cards however are I think right now um to replace a graphics card is actually more expensive than buying a unit complete with that graphics card in for some reason so this is the D300 I probably have to pay I've paid less than 200 for this if I want to buy another D300 it probably cost me 300 so it's cheap the same with the 500s and 700 the 500s and the 700s are more sought after and do fetch higher prices than these ones the reason I went for the D300 is there were product recalls on both the 500 and the 700 and if that wasn't done they cook themselves basically they got super hot and if that wasn't done there will potentially that wasn't though those chips weren't fixed those boards weren't fixed then there's potentially problems down the road for those units but they are a more capable machine so as I was saying I watch loads of videos about this and most of them are fantastic and you can spend hours watching them and I did and they pretty much though do a similar thing which is bench test these against brand new Mac's the outcome is pretty much the same that they're almost as good until you start exporting video and then they invariably stick a 12 core CPU in it and max out the ram and and a lot of them starting with a d700 unit like the top so there's um a lot of interest in maxing these out spec wise which I don't plan to do so I thought we'd make a video about what these are like in base configuration in real world usage and to cut long story short they are it's really responsive I mean I used this yesterday for the first time what I want to do is I'll just quickly run for you um the positives and the negatives I've come across so far what what I can and can't and what I will be able to and won't be able to do with it and then I want to clean it actually because when I first switch this on once it come once it arrived in transit when I unbox it I'm actually surprised how small it is because the predecessors to this I never owned one but friends did and um places I worked had the tower versions of the Mac Pro and they were massive they were they were massive units and this is small now in 2024 in 2013 people must have looked at this I thought how you fitted it has it all in there but I think that was one of the reasons it got absolutely um well hated upon because your not going to squeeze anything else in there in terms of upgrades but yeah when I first turned it on after unpackaging this is a fan unit you can actually not really kicking out too much now but when I first switched it on just I think there's a lot of dust in there probably because when I first turned it on and that dust had obviously shake some of the Dust had shaken loose and it it was a tornado of dust coming out of the top so I want to open it up and clean out the fan it's a little bit noisy but I think it was probably running fine when but yeah that dust has been shaken loose in transit now it's blow out and I think some of it's catching a little bit I think it would be quieter if I clean it out so that's what that's what I want to do the only other thing I want to do to this is I've ordered um four sticks of ram because this has only got 12 gig in it so I'll tell you what this model is or spec this is this is about this Mac I've got this running up up to Mac OS Monteray and that's as far as it will go it is Mac Pro late 2013 in here we have the 3.5 GHz 6 core Intel xeon E5 memory it's got 12 gigs of 1866 DDR3 which is the correct speed I believe and this has the AMD firepro d300s now this has got the 256gb hard drive which is pretty easy to upgrade as well if you wanted to I'm not going to um and we've got three sticks of 4 gig RAM and I think I think that's possibly original because I read somewhere that these actually for some odd reason shipped with three sticks of Ram with one maybe Ram was expensive back in 2013 I can't remember but yeah so that you it left you a little slot for potential upgrades to a whole um 16 gigs but it's probably just a so they could sell you an extra stick of RAM for some exorbitant um price but yeah I'm going to upgrade that cuz that's looks like a real simple a simple upgrade but real world testing I actually managed actually filmed the previous video to this one on this channel I filmed on the iPhone um I think that's an 11 or 12 filmed 4K 60 frames per second and because this has got such a small hard drive I've in all I've installed on this is so far is Google Chrome and Final Cut Pro and what I did yesterday is i' plugged in a freshly formatted um Samsung these t7 the little yeah the t7 hard drive so my plan was to be a because I've got other Macs this isn't my only Mac um my plan was to do the some editing on here and possibly moov on some a MacBook Pro and I've got an iMac as well so what I did yesterday is I actually put the footage from the previous video on this and edited it and 4K 60 frames per second it worked pretty well there was it Dropped some frames um it probably worked I would say as well as a 2017 in real world it was comparable to a 2017 MacBook Pro it was somewhere it was better than a 2015 Mac Pro probably about as good as a two at editing the video when it came to exporting I went to export it in like I didn't even try like Pro Res I did it for is it HVEC did it for Apple devices it was about an it was going it was 25 minutes long it was going to be in that format I think I did it in the Dolby the full Dolby 10 but anyway it was about an 8 GB video it was about an 8 it would have been about an 8 gigabyte um file I left this I left it for about half an hour and it didn't even get to 1% and the fan that sounded like a it was going to take off it was I was tempted to leave it I thought I was worried about I was worried I was going to cook it it was yeah it was struggling with the export so what I did is because it was everything was on the external drive everything the um nothing was on the actual um hard drive in here unplugged the hard drive stuck it in a Macbook a 2017 MacBook Pro and what it wanted to do it uh it wanted to up it for some reason it wanted to update it because what it turns out is that MacBook has got the latest operating system operating system after this one I'm not sure if he's got the late one but it's definitely got the one after this what it appears that does is also updates final Car Pro to a new version it updated the files on there and then I exported it still that file still took a Mac a 2017 MacBook Pro which is what I I just had it handy I've got newer Macs which would have done it quick it still took the MacBook Pro a couple of hours to export that 8 gig video but now when I've plugged this in here um if I go to open it you cannot open it because this operation could not be completed one or more of the libraries you've created with a newer version of Final Cut Pro these libraries will be ignored so because I've updated that in a newer in a newer Mac on a newer operating system it now went it did edit like it edited that video but it's then been updated by a newer version of final and now it's not backwards compatible with this so this is going to be fine for webbased stuff for editing video that you filmed on newer devices no like if if you're using if you're if you're doing a few minutes of 1080P or 720p or whatever we used to use back in the day fine if you're using newer video formats and long format video forget it it's going to take it's not that it's not possible it's just going to be it's going to take a long time you're probably going to cook the computer before you've uh finished exporting so I still love the look I still love it I still going to use it but for doing web development most of that's done it's cloudbased so the price of these now as a just a web browser doing emails you're still going to be able to I think editing photos will be fine because yes that's going to be fine 4K 60 frames per second video forget it um but I don't think many people like are going to be looking at this as their only computer I think most people like me that I've seen making videos about these I've just been looking at these for a decade thinking they they're cool I'd like one of those they were unaffordable now they're an expensive toy or Gadget um but that the price is now for £185 it's uh yeah they're actually like I reckon they're probably as capable as a 200 if you were to go and buy a 200 pounds notebook you know laptop they're probably going to be as capable as something like that that's going to struggle it's it's going to struggle equally with 4K 60 frames per second video um I mean if especially if it's Windows based it's not even going to be a you're not even going to be a to transfer those file sizes for a start like forget it so it but it's you are going to be able to pick up um for instance I went from the I took the video footage from this to a 2017 uh uh Mac Pro the 2017 Mac Pro at the time of me filming this you can probably pick one up in reasonable condition like an i5 for 150 quid um so they're slightly less than these and in terms of video more capable but yeah if you if you're looking for a desktop for browsing for web based stuff editing your uh document photo highly recommend they're a cool looking computer way smaller than you'd imagine as well they'll fit perfectly and look cool on any desk especially with this light thing if you're thinking of using as your only computer think again um and the compatibility I think the issues with compatibility are only going to get worse but I love it and um yeah I'm going to clean it up we got to get this sticker off there was a when I bought I think one of the other reasons I got this so cheap is there was like a Fleck of paint here it almost look like a dent and a and and a scratch I thought this was possibly painted but I'm not sure what it is the the case is a lot heavier than you'd imagin and a lot thicker but um it it was just a Fleck of paint I flicked it and it flipped off so it's actually in better looking it's in they if they just done a little bit of um I paid 185 delivered I think if they would have done a little bit of cosmetic work and photographed this uh in a more flattering light it looked kind of knackered um and I mean the stickers didn't help but it does have the original Mains cable other than it didn't come with anything apart from dust but yeah if they have I think this would have been a 250 pound machine if they' have done a little bit of um tarting up it would have been a 250 pound machine they didn't so I got bargain but yeah if you can pick one of these up for a couple of hundred quid um and I mean it works really well with this apple Cinema display this is this this display is another story like it was a bit of an eBay disaster thats turned out pretty well now I've got one of these but this I paid about 50 Quid for um delivered it was real cheap because at the time there was loads of them for sale um on eBay and this one's got some damage around the bezel there which absolutely no problem at all unless you've got OCD if you got OCD it's the end of the world but um yeah I paid 50 for that delivered and that I bought that to go with an iMac that I've got which is like a 2022 21 22 model which I got straight from Apple it cost thousands and almost immediately as soon as I was editing 4K for 60 frames per second video on that um it would do about 15 minutes to start with and then the screen would black out um and it turns out that's a thing um basically they built them so they look cool but they don't stay cool so as soon as you start doing anything taxing with that iMac there's obviously a thermal cut out on the screen the screen just blacks out um but the computer is still running funny enough um just fine it's just the thermal cut out on the screen blacks it out so if you plug an external display in it's actually quite a good Mac for video editing um but so I got an external display a cheap Samsung one and the problem with that is when you go from like 5K retina to a cheap 100 pound screen it's quite the downgrade so I thought I'd get a cinema display like this which would be less of a downgrade and these are a phenomenal looking screen especially for the money these would have this this set up back in 2013 you'd have been the would have been the business um now it's kind of normal but yeah well actually these these cinnema screens now hold up compared to a modern inexpensive compared to the cheap 100 pound Samsung this runs far better however it's like I think it's thunderbolt 2 with a it's basically a USB dock there's about three USBS in the back of there so all that does turn this into a USB dock but I think that's thunderbolt 2 and I just could not get the new Mac to connect I gave up trying to I got a load of converters um because I needed them for the Samsung anyway but there's obviously some issue I think if I'd have persevered with power docks and stuff I probably would have found a way to get that to run on a new Mac but know like it was just getting to the point where it was I was going to I was buying things from Amazon I got to the point where I'd sent about four or five things bought things and sent them back and I was just getting I was getting fed up with it and I think they were get fed up with me returning things that i' opened and tried but yeah I'm guessing there's some issue with connecting whatever that is f if that's it's hard to is that Thunderbolt 2 or Thunderbolt 3 on these things I think it's probably thunderbolt 2 I would imagine it was probably something to do with having a getting a powered Dock and I'm sure someone would find a way if I had enough adapters and docks to get it to work but I I gave up um but yeah I kept it and I had a Macbook plugged into it and now I kept that for this so but if you're getting one of these I keep your eye out for one of these I think this is the 27 inch cinema display and I think that's thunderbolt 2 you can see them with the VGA adapters as well this funderbolt 2 and USB coming out the back so there's three k so it's like one uh I think it's connected to the power cable as well there's power USB Thunderbolt 2 if you're getting one of these definitely keep an eye out for one of these 27 inch cinema display Works amazing right enough waffle let's open this up remove the fan see how much dust is inside so removing the case or the shell of the Mac Pro it couldn't be simpler there's a toggle switch on the front you slide that and the shell slide straight off it's unclear why they made it so easy to get inside maybe just to Marvel at the way it looks because once you're in there's not a lot you could do sure it made it easy to upgrade the RAM but how frequently do you do that you couldn't fit anything else in here it was always intended that any upgrades would be external which is why there were so many ports on the front where you can plug in your external hard drives or additional displays now there's quite a lot of dust in here so I use a brush attachment on the Dyson Hoover and get that out the way this is designed it works like a chimney so the fan sits on top it pulls in cool air from the bottom and then Jets it out the top however where some of this dust had come loose in transit it then became like a dust tornado when I first switched it on okay used the Dyson Hoover with a brush attachment on it to clean out the dust from the fan and I've cleaned some of the dust out from around it um I think there might still be a fair amount in the bottom there get the duster the brush attachment on that cleaned the case with actually some uh floor wipes it was uh covered in paint the moment of truth is going to be when we power this back on and um see how much dust it could be like a dust tornado out the top the Ram um I've ordered some RAM for this and it looks super easy look just to um upgrade the RAM it's about all you can upgrade and they made it really easy to upgrade but yeah the case came up well taken the stickers just peel the old stickers off with my fingers and thumbs and cleaned the case up it's come up quite good still some flexed paint on there all right let's get that one power cable in plug the screen in did I eject the external drive might be worth plugging tit in or I will get an message about not ejecting that properly I didn't I can't remember all right moment of truth see if we get the dust tornado that and the noise it's so quiet now I wondered if the fan was actually on it is on and now super quiet I think before where the dust had loosened off it was effecting the fan a little bit yeah that's ultra quiet now it does ramp up and speed up when I was trying to edit uh export the video yesterday it was it was full speed but right now that's um it's only quiet right that's it all I've got to do is upgrade the RAM and then we'll build the uh links on the Links London website using that um the takeaway from this I think is if you're looking at one of these definitely they look cool best arguably one of the best looking um desktops ever produced it's much smaller than I remembered and in my mind thought it would be I love when you tip it up the lights come on so you can see where you're plugging things in because these were designed for external upgrades but yeah I'm guessing this was kind of a predecessor one of the early space grey finishes phenomenal looking Machine Works fantastically with the 27 inch Cinema display from around the the same era if you're thinking of getting one I'd recommend it but but is limited to what we can do with it as a as um a web browser emails that sort of thing I think you better for one of these than an inexpensive modern desktop if you want to edit videos you're going to have to get a silicon mac um these aren't from what I the one video I edited which was 25 minutes of 4K 60 frames per second considering these were on sale at the same time as a 2017 Mac book Pro the 2017 Mac book Pro currently I don't know if it was at the time but currently is more capable because it has the latest or a later operating system and later updates of Final Cut Pro X which I was using which may be the difference but that difference in the latest software made my 2017 Mac Pro laptop more powerful than this which would have been probably wouldn't actually probably wasn't considerably more expensive in this configuration but well yeah probably probably about ,1000 pounds difference but yeah um I'm Waffling now if you like the way they look definitely get one now they're super affordable as a as a desktop web browser if you're thinking about it as you I can't imagine anyone's thinking about one of these is their only as their only machine if you are forget it you know splash out on a Mac Mini right next video will hopefully be uh it might be jewellery related um or it'll be uh more behind the scenes about making websites and I've still got to stick the ram in that
2025-01-08 19:52
