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New Mac Pro

Guy Mancuso

Administrator, Instructor
This looks pretty darn hot , okay i am NOT looking any more. Repeat after me . I have enough processing power. Say that 100 times fast:ROTFL:
 

Terry

New member
This looks pretty darn hot , okay i am NOT looking any more. Repeat after me . I have enough processing power. Say that 100 times fast:ROTFL:
When you break down (mentally) and just have to upgrade....send me your old setup....I'm sure it is way more than what I am currently running :cool:
 

Guy Mancuso

Administrator, Instructor
Hell Terry I'm already breaking down. LOL

But I know Jack is ordering it, he has been waiting for it
 

Jack

Sr. Administrator
Staff member
I am ordering it, but there are a few stick points...

1) The only way you can get the quad 3.0 or 3.2 processor is to buy the full 8-core machine; they don't sell the 3.0 or 3.2 as single processors. You can a single quad 2.8, and it is very reasonably priced. Overclock?

2) The RAM is DDR2 ECC 6400 fully Buffered --- REALLY tough to find aftermarket in 1G sticks and harder still in 2G sticks. I found some 1G sticks, but no heat sinks on them. Cheap enough, so may be worth a try. Of course as usual, Apple wants a TON for their RAM at $500 for a pair of 1G sticks!

I want at least the 3.0, still reqiuires I pay for two processors to get 8-cores when I only want 4 for Photoshop... So I am waiting a bit until I get it all figured out.
 

etrigan63

Active member
I to want to order one, but the Chief Financial Officer (my wife) told me to save up for it. We'll see what happens with tax time and actual scrimping. The 2.8MHz model is more than enough for what I need.

You guys need someone to teach classes on the east coast?
 

TRSmith

Subscriber Member
I'd be interested to know which Video card you choose.

Also, there was some discussion over on the Apple forum about RAM for the new machines. I didn't track with every bit of it but my perception was that the RAM is unique enough at this point to warrant some caution. For instance, as of this afternoon, high end RAM suppliers like Crucial and Micron weren't offering RAM for the new MPs. No doubt they will eventually. But there was some suggestion that it might be best to wait for them to do so or else go with Apple's own (overpriced) RAM.
 

Jack

Sr. Administrator
Staff member
I'm going with the NVIDIA 8800, just cause I could then run 2 30" displays off it for our classrooms :D

The RAM is very specific and high end, but I did find some 1 and 2 G sticks at macsales.com, so I ordered 8G --- with the 2G the machine comes with, I'll have 10G total which is way overkill, at least until Photoshop upgrades to utilize more.
 

Jack

Sr. Administrator
Staff member
Update on my Mac Pro. It is ordered.

Video: Turned out the NVIDIA 8800 card is a 4-5 WEEK delay on shipping, while the ATI 2600 is right now. I went with the 2600 and figure this way I can use it a few weeks and maybe find it's good enough for what I do --- and if not, put an 8800 or alternate in when available.

RAM: www.macsales.com has 4G sets (2 x 2G matched pairs, Apple qualified) at $200 each. I bought 8G to add to the 2G it comes with for a total of 10.

Processors: At the end of the day, I bit the bullet and went with the 3.2's.... Probably way overkill, but hey, I plan on keeping this one a while :D

Drives: I sprung for the 500g drive just for convenience, so I wouldn't have to re-load the OS. Buying a 500 aftermarket and doing this yourself will save you $100 or so and you could use the standard 320 for scratch or data in another bay. I have 2 500G SATA's sitting around, so will mount them inside the box, one for Time Machine and one for misc data storage. Once I get a feeling for how much space Time Machine really needs for my uses, I may need to upgrade that bay to a larger drive. I'll buy a fast SATA for scratch and another 1T for an empty external box I have and use it for more back-up image storage. Ordering the drives from www.macsales.com too.

Oh, the total cost? All the aftermarket stuff included, about the same as a new M8 body.

I'll keep you posted!
 

etrigan63

Active member
I pitched the Mac Pro to my Chief Financial Officer and she said only if I save up the cash. I plan on the base model (2.8GHz, 8-cores, 2GB of RAM, ATI 2600) as I can upgrade later with aftermarket parts. Gotta start socking the cash away!
 

TRSmith

Subscriber Member
Excellent! Rock and Roll!

I've built mine and stashed it in the "save for later" section of the checkout. I'll sleep on it and probably push the one-click button tomorrow. Since I'm not in a hurry, I'm going to put up with the delay on the 8800 card.

Congratulations! I'll be interested to hear you first impressions once you uncrate it and plug it in.
 
D

DougDolde

Guest
Keep on buying Apple computers guys; I'll keep buying Apple stock !
 

Jack

Sr. Administrator
Staff member
We all should --- it's only going to keep going up as photographers leave the PC platform. I have yet to talk to a photographer that had anything positive to say about VISTA.

However, I doubt this will affect MS much, and they probably won't even notice the market share loss since VISTA is probably perfect for 90% of their current user base. But for sure, Mac market share will increase significantly...

Cheers,
 

etrigan63

Active member
I did a whitepaper for Microsoft on using Vista as the basis of a digital darkroom. It can be done, but the weakness in the driver arena is hampering things. This situation is similar to what happened when XP was introduced 6 years ago. Service Pack 1 for Vista is about to be released which will help corporate acceptance a lot (most IT managers won't deploy a Microsoft OS until the first Service Pack).

The design decisions made in Vista take some getting used to but they get to you after a while. I have found however that the overall level of integration in the OS is not quite as polished as Mac OS X. One of my peers found 65 UI inconsistencies in Vista prior to launch. Stuff stemming back to Windows 95.

Since Mac OS X is based on UNIX, the OS is inherently more stable than Vista.
 

jlm

Workshop Member
I run several PC platform only programs, like Autocad, for example. I realize the Mac's are dual platfrom, but can anyone verify how well this works?
 

TRSmith

Subscriber Member
I run several PC platform only programs, like Autocad, for example. I realize the Mac's are dual platfrom, but can anyone verify how well this works?
Just out of curiosity, I googled "Autocad on a MAC" and got a bunch of hits. Including this little movie: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bb4MHp6_B-A

And since we seem to be in the MAC question mode... does anyone have any experience using the FAX feature with a MAC? I have a dedicated FAX machine and phone line for it, but would love to eliminate it since it's a power hog. Plus, since most of my clients are sending me edits (previously the big reason for a dedicated fax) vie e-fax which comes in thru my email, the volume of actual faxed info is now very small.
 

mwalker

Subscriber Member
I run several PC platform only programs, like Autocad, for example. I realize the Mac's are dual platfrom, but can anyone verify how well this works?
Hi Jlm, I own an engineering company and when I asked my IT guy to investigate this he determined that it will work, sorta...problems arise with print drivers and third party software plug-ins like Coaide.
 

Jack

Sr. Administrator
Staff member
My IT guru told me that if I load Win XP on a separate bootable partition on my drive (aka Bootcamp), it behaves exactly as a PC, albeit with a few extra and one or two missing keys on the keyboard ;)

The other option is to run Fusion (or Parallels) on Leopard, and then run XP virtually through that -- however, I understand this option is where you can run into driver conflicts.

Cheers,
 
D

DougDolde

Guest
I run Pro/Engineer Wildfire 3 on a MacBook Pro 2.2 Ghz using Bootcamp. Works like a charm. A Mac is essentially a PC under Bootcamp, no real difference.
 
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