Say what you will about old Apple hardware, it’s cool and it’s got staying power — sometimes to an amazing degree. Today’s featured setup, for example, sports a 16-year-old Mac Pro with some modifications driving a 19-year old Cinema Display (the big one — 30 inches — first released in 2004, a mere 20 years ago).
The user’s just happy she’s getting the venerable desktop machine to run as fast as her spritely young MacBook Pro … from 2012.
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2008 Mac Pro drives 30-inch Cinema Display from 2005 in ‘upgraded’ setup
Redditor 128Megabytes (“Meg”) showcased the deeply experienced hardware in a post entitled, “Upgraded the Mac, so I decided to upgrade the setup too.” She indicated the old desktop machine hails from 2008 and it’s hooked up to a 30-inch Cinema Display built around 2005, by her guesstimate.
And the old computer got a memory upgrade, thankfully. That’s good to know. Maybe it’ll help the machine remember it belongs in a museum because it’s 2024.
Kidding aside, it’s pretty easy to find memory modules like this one for specific older computers on Amazon. Meg added a ton of storage space to the graybeard desktop, too.
Here’s how she listed the Mac Pro’s specifications (Apple lists the full specs here, too):
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Dual 2.8 GHz Quad Core Xeon [processor]
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7GB DDR2 [RAM]
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120GB SSD+1TB HDD [storage]
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AMD Radeon HD 3870 (Probably going to upgrade if I don’t just buy a better Mac) [graphics card]
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macOS 12 patched with OCLP [OpenCore Legacy Patcher]
Running on macOS Monterey
“Awesome setup, love to see a cheese grater in the wild!” said one of several admiring commenters. “How’s it handling [macOS] Monterey?”
“It actually runs really good, about the speed of my 2012 MacBook Pro was on [macOS] Catalina,” Meg replied, prompting me to check the calendar again to see what year it is. “I don’t do any real gaming or heavy tasks, as macOS doesn’t support many games anymore and I have a Windows desktop for that. The SSD definitely helps, along with the RAM upgrade.”
‘Looks cool but DDR2? Oof!” said another commenter, echoing a common refrain in the comments about how slow DDR2 synchronous dynamic random-access memory must be at this point.
“What’s wrong with DDR2?” asked someone else.
The reply spells it out pretty clearly:
Max speed 800mhz.
DDR4 max speed 3200mhz
DDR5 max speed 6000mhz+
Developed by Samsung, DDR2 goes all the way back to 2003, succeeded in 2007 by DDR3. DDR5 SDRAM came out in 2020.
Shop these items now:
Computer:
- 2008 Mac Pro
- (Or blow that away with the modern performance of a 2023 M2 Pro Mac mini)
Display:
- 30-inch Cinema Display
- (Or if you’re going with a newer desktop machine, maybe a Studio Display)
Input devices:
If you would like to see your setup featured on Cult of Mac, send some high-res pictures to info+setups@cultofmac.com. Please provide a detailed list of your equipment. Tell us what you like or dislike about your setup, and fill us in on any special touches, challenges and plans for new additions.
✅ Small desktop form factor
✅ Powerful M2 Pro chip with lots of memory and storage
✅ Lots of ports for accessories
⚠️ Display, keyboard and mouse not included
