Posts: 16,409
Threads: 1,430
Joined: May 2025
Please don't suggest that I get an iMac or Mini!!!
I am very happy with this model, which is a 2010 quad-core 3.2 GHz. While a hex-core would be nice, I would not be able to use any of the RAM that I currently have in a hex-core.
It's a question of where to buy a replacement. There are several on eBay, and there are a couple available through OWC. I love OWC, but there is a $300-$400 difference in what I could expect to pay. There is a 90-day warranty through OWC.
I could try to sell the RAM, or trade it in to OWC for RAM appropriate for a hex-core. Not my preferred option, though. Should have bought the higher-spec RAM for the quad core, but didn't think it through (dagnabbit).
Posts: 4,930
Threads: 69
Joined: May 2025
I would go the OWC route, but I use my 2009 Mac Pro for my job (self-employed).
If I have to buy used, I want to go with someone/someplace I trust even if it means paying a bit more.
If you can afford the greater chance of downtime and hassles, then gamble on one of the other used sellers offering lower prices.
Posts: 33,936
Threads: 1,272
Joined: May 2025
Posts: 17,287
Threads: 1,510
Joined: May 2025
Reputation:
0
Pretty sure your RAM is fine... IIRC, it's OK to go from quad to hex, the issue may be going the other direction whereupon the higher speed hex spec'ed RAM may be too fast for a quad CPU. IRL it's doubtful you'd be able to tell the difference from RAM speed, because you'd already be so thrilled from the faster CPU and PCIe based SSD you'd also get.
==
Posts: 68,291
Threads: 17,197
Joined: May 2025
Reputation:
0
.....double the fun.......???
Posts: 16,409
Threads: 1,430
Joined: May 2025
jdc wrote:
Budget? New screens too?
Nothing wrong with the monitor. Budget is whatever it costs to replace it. I just hope my drives aren't all somehow hosed. I just hooked up the drive that I was using when this all started, and it is screwed up on my laptop, too. It won't boot, except to the recovery partition, and two volumes are locked, with no apparent way to unlock them or even view the contents.
Same admin user on every system.
Posts: 16,409
Threads: 1,430
Joined: May 2025
I really doubt that it is the RAM. I pulled the sticks that were in when this mess started; can still go back to the original 3 1GB sticks if I need to.
Not sure why the RAM would cause drives other than the boot drive to be unfixably locked.
Posts: 1,484
Threads: 47
Joined: Apr 2024
About 2 months ago I bought a 2010 Mac Pro 2 X 2.93GHz (12-Cores) Xeon 1TB 32GB MC561LL/A-BTO + B Grade from isellimac on eBay. Paid about $1225 shipped. Its was sent in a Mac Pro box and arrived promptly. The only issue is although all 8 RAM slots have RAM sticks (4GB each), when it boots a little popup screen says the RAM slots are not populated in order, and it only sees seven of the eight sticks. I guess either one stick or one slot is bad.
I had cloned my Mac mini system volume (10.6.8) to the freshly wiped and partitioned Mac Pro HD and it booted fine EXCEPT that when I copied (drag & drop) the other 2 Mac Mini partitions to their respective Mac Pro partitions, the copy seemed to occur but I had the same permission problems you described above: neither of the copied partitions would open nor could I change permissions on those volumes.
I solved that problem by wiping the Mac Pro HD and starting over with it connected in TDM to the mini, which I booted from my 10.6.0 DVD. I installed several updates via TDM until i got to 10.6.4 (the minimum required to boot the Mac Pro), then updated directly from the Mac Pro. This time the drag and drop worked fine for the other 2 partitions. Of course I had to take the time to install all my apps from their respective CDs, but at least it all works correctly.
