So I just bought a early 2009 (4,1) mac pro dual cpu configuration (x2 Nehalem X5550 2.66 GHz quad core 14GB ram) what looks to be in pristine condition. (for what I think is a good price ($600). They are listed for $1000+ with original crap 2009 hardware (GPU) What ill be doing is flashing it to a 5,1 mac pro firmware and swapping in 2 Westmere x5690 (3.46 GHz) 6C/12T cpus. Also would be buying a 1080 or 1070ti and putting it in, and dual boot windows 10. It should be a upgrade from my current system (3770K and 380 X) You are probably wondering why are you going back in time to older slower hardware? Actually according to geekbench (for what its worth) x5690's (in dual configuration) are comparable to the 8th gen i7 in multicore performance (however they are weak in single core arena.) as they are server cpus and they are from 2011. So we will see how this pans out.. $600 + $200 (for the 2 5690's) and + $450-489 for a 1070ti. should be awesome multi threaded machine for now for the price. Will post up some pics as the process goes on. I wanted to experiment and use this as a project, to hold me over for newer 9th gen intel or zen 2 cpus and then build me a proper new gaming tower.
So update to this Purchased a ASUS 1070Ti used on ebay for $355 I decided to go with a pair of x5680s (slightly lower turbo clock than x5690s) $117 Picked up thermal paste, dual 6 pin mini pcie to 8 pin adapter and 3.5 mm wrench for the cpu coolers. $25 on amazon So as it stands $600 + $100 (shipping) for the machine + $335 + ($20 shipping for the 1070Ti) + $100 + $17 (shipping for the matched pair of x5680s). $1197 as it stands for 12C/24T machine that should last for a good bit. Still want to pickup alittle more ram but that's cheap. Here is a Ryzen5 2600 "$1200" build for comparison https://pcgamehaven.com/amazing-1200-dollar-gaming-pc-build-1440p/
