I am toying with building a Mac Pro 2012 :: Build newb

[Dave Shocon]

Hi everyone!

Off the bat, i'm a Mac man and have for the last couple of weeks been trying to educate myself on the pros and cons of building a Mac Pro from 2012 and must admit, being not too tech wise currently, it is a bit of a minefield. I have some idea of what i want but there are so many variations for items that it is hard to know if i'm getting a good deal or if a build from scratch is the way to go.

The machine will be used predominately for DAW use but i can imagine that i will be using it for light video editing/rendering and photoshop but no animation or 3D work.

Has anyone got any good experience about builds from scratch, any good guides for a complete beginner that they know of that i can read on and any tips for purchasing parts so that i can make sure that i have a good list of al items that i need? What are the need for duel CPU logic boards, are these necessary or are not? I am looking to get a 5.1 board so i don't have to mess about with firmware.

Has anyone got a good list that might have an average parts price for an Mac Pro? I could spend forever looking at this on eBay and Google but this something i have found myself doing and tbh, with all the variations of models and sitch, i have become pretty overwhelmed and need to reach out to the Mac boffins.

Im sure that folk will tell me to get a iMac but really, i'm looking for something more sturdy, something i can max out with SSD storage/RAM and also easy to upgrade over time or swap out hard drives.

Thanks guys!!

[jestermgee]

I'm not a Mac user, I use my macBook when I am forced to for my work but it's far from my prefered way of working and not an environment I enjoy working within so if you are use to it I can understand why you too wouldn't want to use Windows.

So you want to build a Hackintosh? One does not just "Build a Mac" and from all my research over the years and using VMs to emulate the Mac environment and working with geeks that use Hackintosh setups, you do kind of need to be a bit (lot) tech savvy because there are a lot of aspects from hardware to how the BIOS is configured to ongoing compatibility of things... Then it may not even work at all or may work poorly. Also unsure why you would aim to build an 8 year old version?

Pretty sure even the guys that can build a Hackintosh and make it work will probably not advise a non tech user to take on the headache but keen to see what the advice is either way.

[TLW]

Why a 2012 vintage Mac Pro? They’re outdone in terms of performance by the upper end of the iMac range and have been for some years.

Your best option, in terms of retaining your sanity if nothing else, might be to see if you can buy a used “dustbin” Mac Pro at a decent price rather than bravely attempting to build a hackintosh.