# Best OS for Mac Pro 5,1 ?



## mjsalam (Dec 1, 2020)

Running a Mac Pro 5.,1 as a VEP slave. I've been happily running Catalina but not with Big Sur I am trying to figure out the path forward. Obviously there is not really any urgency but I was just wondering what folks intentions are for these awesome but cruelly abandoned machines? As I see it the options are:

1. Stick with which ever legacy MacOS for as long as humanly possible.
2. Upgrade to Big Sur and hope.
3. Install WIndows.

The third option is becoming increasingly interesting to me. Is anyone running Windows on their Mac VEP slave? Would you recommend it?

TIA


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## Ray Toler (Dec 1, 2020)

I currently run two 5,1s in my studio, both running High Sierra. One is primarily music production, and the other primarily video / streaming, though I've been considering making it a VEP machine.

My plan is to upgrade them to Mojave in 2021 and freeze them on that. I can still chug along quite happily with current performance for the next couple of years until Gen 2 / Gen 3 of the new Apple lineup, by which time my production tools will have been through the shakeout.

I still have a Mirror-Door G4 that's frozen on OS 9 for the orphanware that didn't make the last transition. I fully expect to have some favorites that get left behind in this transition as well, and want to make sure that I don't make the same assumptions I did last time.

I did consider putting Windows on one of the CMPs for VEP duties, but PCs are so cheap that I'd rather just get/build a new mid-level PC for that and leave the Macs to do what they do until they can be replaced. A newer PC will run rings around the CMPs, but won't run MacOS.

Long-term, I'm looking at turning one of the CMPs into an Unraid / media server / media maintenance box.


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## Dewdman42 (Dec 1, 2020)

If you’re using it as a vepro slave I’d just leave it on Mojave. 

if you’re running Catalina. Are you using dos dude’s patch or open core? You’ll need to use open core if you want to do Big Sur. I personally would wait and see on that. I am personally now using Catalina on open core and it works very well so far. I will wait 6-12 months from now before even thinking about Big Sur while other adventurists on the cMP 5,1 experiment with Big Sur.

for me converting this machine to windows would be last ditch effort after it becomes too difficult or unreliable to keep up with the lastest OS X changes or probably when OS X becomes ARM-only for all practical purposes, then I will probably switch it over to being a full time Windows machine. Ironically it should be able to run the very latest version of Windows at that time even if it can’t run anything current from OS X. But we are years away from that situation just yet.

personally I would leave it on Catalina for now if you’re already there. But if you’re not using open core yet then start reading up about it, I have a feeling you will want Big Sur later in about a year.


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