MacPro Questions: Configuration

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Savior1

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Mar 12, 2006
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Howdy, I'm looking to get a new MacPro, but I'm a little confused over the configuration options. I'm just wondering if the cost to upgrade to the 3.0Ghz model is worth the money, or should I put that money into other things, like Bluetooth, another Superdrive, and wifi keyboard and mouse and save a few bucks. Also along that line of thought, if I save the money now, I could put that cash to upgrading the chips to clovertown or its successor when it comes along later. I guess I'm just asking for your thoughts, I know that a core 2 duo at 2.67 is about equal to an FX-62, so its pretty fast at 2.66, and don't Macs use RAM a great deal more? So wouldn't the money into RAM help more than a jump in processor speed? Does anyone see any flaws in my mentality, or think that clovertown won't work, or that the upgrade to 3.0 is worth the money?

2 configurations I'm looking at:

Two 2.66GHz Dual-Core Intel Xeon
2GB (4 x 512MB)
250GB 7200-rpm Serial ATA 3Gb/s
ATI Radeon X1900 XT 512MB (2 x dual-link DVI)
2 x SuperDrives
Bluetooth 2.0+EDR module
Apple Keyboard and Mighty Mouse - U.S. English
Mac OS X - U.S. English


Two 3GHz Dual-Core Intel Xeon
1GB (2 x 512MB)
250GB 7200-rpm Serial ATA 3Gb/s
ATI Radeon X1900 XT 512MB (2 x dual-link DVI)
1 x SuperDrive
Apple Keyboard and Mighty Mouse - U.S. English
Mac OS X - U.S. English
 
What are you planning to do with the system?

I would just go for the first config and pocket the extra money. The more ram the better :)
 
i agree. first config for sure.

why 2 superdrives? i really don't see the need for more than one optical drive, but i guess it depends on what you're using it for. FYI, the 2 superdrives share an IDE cable, so it will have all of the limitations of 2 devices on one IDE cable.
 
i'd go with 2 x 1GB sticks for easier upgradeability in the future.
 
Don't they have like 8 ram slots? Just saying that going for the 1gb sticks might not be as usefull as it is on some systems unless you are going for 8gb of ram in the future.

Just something to think about.

-cflux
 
Do not buy RAM from apple, buy it at newegg if you wanna upgrade. Yes, Mac OS X is RAM hungerz esp. with applications via Rosetta.

But as already asked. What do you wanna do with the system case you can buy the 3.0GHz, but if you don#t reallz use them why waste the money?
 
CFlux said:
Don't they have like 8 ram slots? Just saying that going for the 1gb sticks might not be as usefull as it is on some systems unless you are going for 8gb of ram in the future.

Just something to think about.

-cflux
Click to expand...

they 2 have 8 ram slots, but with 4 x 512MB, you've used half of them. the price of 2 x 1GB isn't much higher and it gives you so much more flexability.

Biest said:
Do not buy RAM from apple, buy it at newegg if you wanna upgrade. Yes, Mac OS X is RAM hungerz esp. with applications via Rosetta.
Click to expand...

i'd be careful, the RAM Apple uses has HUGE heatsinks for a reason. none of the RAM at newegg has anything more than a heatspreader.
 
The most system intensive app it would be working with are games that would be run via windows, (hence the ATI 1900xt). I'm waiting for Spore and Supreme Commander :) And this would be a college system. The reason it's a Mac Pro instead of an iMac, is that I see the iMacs as a glorified laptop without the mobile capabilities. The alternative to this is a Core 2 Duo (probably E6700) but considering that I've been using a P.O.S. laptop with Linux (Ubuntu) for some time now, I'd like to try out OS X, and the gaming would still be better with the Mac Pro running windows, than this laptop.
I'd go with the 2nd optical slot for two reasons: 1.) obviously convenience, and 2.) cosmetics, there will be that little drive bay slot there regardless of whether or not it's filled or not, so I'd like it to be filled :)
I see that people are liking the first build with the RAM, and more left over mullah. I agree with the RAM, and I guess the jump in power isn't that justifiable, but in terms of RAM, I haven't found 3rd party RAM yet, I know Crucial had some, and then pulled it. Something to do with those big heatsinks that the RAM uses to stay cool, and thereby keeping the system quiet.
Does anyone know if Clovertown will be a drop in replacement? I hear its the same socket, and same FSB, so I'm gonna guess its got the same voltage, is there anything else that might mess up my eventual upgrade to eight cores? That would be dreamy :)
 
Savior1 said:
The most system intensive app it would be working with are games that would be run via windows, (hence the ATI 1900xt). I'm waiting for Spore and Supreme Commander :) And this would be a college system. The reason it's a Mac Pro instead of an iMac, is that I see the iMacs as a glorified laptop without the mobile capabilities. The alternative to this is a Core 2 Duo (probably E6700) but considering that I've been using a P.O.S. laptop with Linux (Ubuntu) for some time now, I'd like to try out OS X, and the gaming would still be better with the Mac Pro running windows, than this laptop.
I'd go with the 2nd optical slot for two reasons: 1.) obviously convenience, and 2.) cosmetics, there will be that little drive bay slot there regardless of whether or not it's filled or not, so I'd like it to be filled :)
I see that people are liking the first build with the RAM, and more left over mullah. I agree with the RAM, and I guess the jump in power isn't that justifiable, but in terms of RAM, I haven't found 3rd party RAM yet, I know Crucial had some, and then pulled it. Something to do with those big heatsinks that the RAM uses to stay cool, and thereby keeping the system quiet.
Does anyone know if Clovertown will be a drop in replacement? I hear its the same socket, and same FSB, so I'm gonna guess its got the same voltage, is there anything else that might mess up my eventual upgrade to eight cores? That would be dreamy :)
Click to expand...

What are you doing at college (major?)

If that is the case go with the 2.66 and 2 GIG you should be well prepared for any game for the time being
 
My major is planned to be Business Administration, with a minor in Psychology. Of course, they say you change it five times so I'm not sure how well that will go :)
 
Savior1 said:
My major is planned to be Business Administration, with a minor in Psychology. Of course, they say you change it five times so I'm not sure how well that will go :)
Click to expand...


have fun with that *cough* (sry physics major here). In that case (I thought you might be a Fine Arts student) the 2.66 is enough, lol for the main stuff you will get to do you need a Mac Mini :p
 
felix88why 2 superdrives? i really don't see the need for more than one optical drive said:
Personally the only 1 optical drive option in the G5 Powermacs was a big reason I could never convince myself to dump the money into one. Maybe you don't burn many CDs disc to disc, but it is a lot more convenient and faster to do it when you have two drives than when you have to copy to the hard disc then switch out for a blank and write to that. I mean, sure, you could get an external drive, but then you have lots of stuff starting to pile up on your desk.
Click to expand...
 
Do yourself a favour and buy an iMac instead. You really don't need a Mac Pro unless you do things like heavy-duty video editing or 3D graphics or such things. If you want a good game machine, the Mac Pro is kind of a waste of money. Sure, it's an AWESOME game machine, but the price premium for the extra CPU is pretty high.

You could probably buy a Macbook and a home-built PC for the same amount of money, and get better gaming performance.
 
NulloModo said:
Personally the only 1 optical drive option in the G5 Powermacs was a big reason I could never convince myself to dump the money into one. Maybe you don't burn many CDs disc to disc, but it is a lot more convenient and faster to do it when you have two drives than when you have to copy to the hard disc then switch out for a blank and write to that. I mean, sure, you could get an external drive, but then you have lots of stuff starting to pile up on your desk.
Click to expand...

true, it is nice to be able to drop a disc in one and a blank in the other and just hit copy. the problem is that they're on the same IDE channel, so in reality i don't believe its any faster than copying to the HD and then burning to a blank disc.

how long does it take to burn a disc nowdays anyway? i remember when copying and burning a CD took an hour or more, that is when it was nice to have 2 optical drives. even then, it was best to have them on different channels.

to each their own i guess. a 2nd optical drive would be a waste of money for me.
 
felix88 said:
they 2 have 8 ram slots, but with 4 x 512MB, you've used half of them. the price of 2 x 1GB isn't much higher and it gives you so much more flexability.
Click to expand...

From Anandtech's recent article on the Mac Pro:

"The Mac Pro ships with a default configuration of 2 x 512MB FB-DIMMs, unfortunately that means that you're only using two of the four available memory channels, cutting your peak theoretical memory bandwidth in half. You'll want to upgrade to at least four FB-DIMMs so that you can run in quad-channel mode"
 
felix88 said:
i'd go with 2 x 1GB sticks for easier upgradeability in the future.
Click to expand...

I recommend going with 4xanything because the Mac Pro chipset has a quad channel memory controller. Get as many memory from Apple as your budget allows. 3rd Party memory will be cheaper but at this point you cannot be sure it will work as expected.

So, the default config of 2x512 is not optimal. Try at least 4x512. I ordered 4x1024 so I won't have to worry about upgrading until maybe in 2008 and then I'll just put in (cheaper) 4x1024 or 4x2048 depending on the requirements.

:cool:
 
Yeah, all great stuff. I've read the memory bandwidth thing, and it makes sense, just remember: student budget :) The upgrade to 4 gigs, is significantly more than up to 2 gigs, so that's the next thing on the list of future upgrades.
Does anyone know anything about Clovertown yet? I know the CPUs aren't sodered to the MOBO curtesy of one of those geek porn threds where they strip the MacPro down to bare circuits. So will I be able to upgrade to the 8 core in the coming years? That seems like the next logical upgrade point, I doubt clock speed will be the place to upgrade. Although seeing what the core 2 can overclock to, it looks like there's plenty of room for higher clocks.
 
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