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maxing out my 2008 mac pro system

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98707

macrumors regular
Original poster
Feb 15, 2007
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My early 2008 2.8 8-core was my 2nd mac desktop.. I purchased it with 2 gigs of ram and an 8800 gt. Since then Ive filled it up to 8 x 1gb of ram.

I have several sata II sitting around.. I have a 300 gb and a 320 gb which I am going to software raid together as the mac os x boot drive. I just ordered a 120gb sata II 3.5" ssd with 280rd/270wt values which I will use for windows 7 professional 64.

I am ordering a gtx 260 off of ebay and will use it as my primary graphics card and my 8800gt as my 2nd. I ordered a 2 external 2 internal sata II PCI-e card as well as a ExpressCard PCI-e card with a 21 in 1 cardreader (sdhc etc..) express card.

Also I bought a 10x LG blu-ray reader.. I can burn blu-ray at my brothers who is close..


So what do you think of this build? I use it with a dell 22inch 1080p inch touch screen and a 720p 3d projector. Eventually I will put a 27 inch apple screen as my main screen, dell screen as a portrait touchscreen for internet browsing.. its aspect ratio provides very long pages and its touchyness makes it like a huuuge ipod. Pics soon to come as the build comes together.

MASSCOOL PCI-e 4 port SATA2
SYBA ExpressCard to PCI-Express Conversion Card
OCZ Agility 2 OCZSSD3-2AGT120G 3.5" 120GB SATA II
LG Black 10X BD-ROM 16X DVD-ROM
Nvidia 8800 gt 512 mb graphics card for Mac
Nvidia Gtx 260 896 mb graphics card Mac
 
sdschwendener said:
My early 2008 2.8 8-core was my 2nd mac desktop.. I purchased it with 2 gigs of ram and an 8800 gt. Since then Ive filled it up to 8 x 1gb of ram.

I have several sata II sitting around.. I have a 300 gb and a 320 gb which I am going to software raid together as the mac os x boot drive. I just ordered a 120gb sata II 3.5" ssd with 280rd/270wt values which I will use for windows 7 professional 64.

I am ordering a gtx 260 off of ebay and will use it as my primary graphics card and my 8800gt as my 2nd. I ordered a 2 external 2 internal sata II PCI-e card as well as a ExpressCard PCI-e card with a 21 in 1 cardreader (sdhc etc..) express card.

Also I bought a 10x LG blu-ray reader.. I can burn blu-ray at my brothers who is close..


So what do you think of this build? I use it with a dell 22inch 1080p inch touch screen and a 720p 3d projector. Eventually I will put a 27 inch apple screen as my main screen, dell screen as a portrait touchscreen for internet browsing.. its aspect ratio provides very long pages and its touchyness makes it like a huuuge ipod. Pics soon to come as the build comes together.

MASSCOOL PCI-e 4 port SATA2
SYBA ExpressCard to PCI-Express Conversion Card
OCZ Agility 2 OCZSSD3-2AGT120G 3.5" 120GB SATA II
LG Black 10X BD-ROM 16X DVD-ROM
Nvidia 8800 gt 512 mb graphics card for Mac
Nvidia Gtx 260 896 mb graphics card Mac
Click to expand...

I also bought a stock 2.8 8-core 2008 mac pro, and I upgraded it by putting in 16 gb ram and 3 more 7200 sata drives and a gtx 285 card.
I hope to put in an ssd boot drive next year after prices come down more, and maybe go up to 32 gb ram, but that will be it for this machine.
I will wait until the os and software that I use can actually make use of those capabilities before considering a new machine.
Until the hardware becomes the bottleneck to performance rather than the os or software, it's pointless to buy another one.
I do think that the 8 core 2008 mac pro was the best deal that apple has had on mac pros. Before, they were only 4 core, and since, their prices have become ridiculous. I got mine for about £1700 in the UK.
 
I am pretty sure the Intel ICH10 don't allow you to RAID harddrives with dissimilar capacity.

If the machine is only going to be used as a Windows machine I see no problems.

What purpose does the machine serve?
 
Luis Ortega said:
Before, they were only 4 core, and since, their prices have become ridiculous. I got mine for about £1700 in the UK.
Click to expand...

I received a great deal I my 8-core through the apple student developer program.. essentially saved me 400 dollars..

I am pretty sure the Intel ICH10 don't allow you to RAID harddrives with dissimilar capacity.
If the machine is only going to be used as a Windows machine I see no problems.
What purpose does the machine serve?
Click to expand...

I'm going to work on the windows part of the system first.. I'll look into this further when I attempt to raid disks for os x. I think under a raid it will fly. I use logic studio 8 and aperture 3 as well as many programs in windows.. I use it for 3d games also. This is why a nvidia card is essential. I found the higher end 200 series card to be too expensive compared to the 260. I was hoping to see a 4 series get official mac drivers, however I have decided to pull the trigger and get this card which will provide more bang for the buck until fermi chips drop in price in the next two years.
 
Pressure said:
I am pretty sure the Intel ICH10 don't allow you to RAID harddrives with dissimilar capacity.
Click to expand...

Why wouldn't it?
Technically speaking it's no problem to create a striped set of two drives with different sizes, in the case of 320 of 300GB you'd only lose 20GB, so no big deal.

The only problem I see is the graphics cards. Both require additional power.
 
Transporteur said:
The only problem I see is the graphics cards. Both require additional power.
Click to expand...

The 8800gt is already plugged into its tiny 6 pin power source.. the gtx 260 from ebay comes with the very same cable for this.. which goes into the 2nd 6-pin power source.
 
sdschwendener said:
The 8800gt is already plugged into its tiny 6 pin power source.. the gtx 260 from ebay comes with the very same cable for this.. which goes into the 2nd 6-pin power source.
Click to expand...

Oh, I didn't know that they both require only a single power cable.
Well, you're good then.
 
sdschwendener said:
The 8800gt is already plugged into its tiny 6 pin power source.. the gtx 260 from ebay comes with the very same cable for this.. which goes into the 2nd 6-pin power source.
Click to expand...

My gtx 285 required 2 power connectors. Be sure that the 260 requires only one if you plan on keeping both cards in the system.
 
I was incorrect and the gtx 260 possesses 2 x 6-pin power connections. I have checked and the 2nd drive bay has a 4-pin power with a pata interface. I will have to run the sata cable from my add-on card to the sata blu-ray drive.

Next, I will run a cable from one 6-pin power source straight to my gtx 260. I will then run the 2nd 6-pin power with a splitter cable to connect my gtx 260 as well as my 8800gt. After the first y split, i have another y split with two 4-pin molex where ill split again with a 3rd y that is to 6-pin and 4-pin molex. I have two 4-pin to sata power adapters..

I went to my brothers who I built a computer for recently.. these were pretty much all the left over cables.. along with one old cable I have.. these splitters should target everything that needs power with no loose ends.. I'll have to experiement and test the results to see if the cards are good with the disk drives too.. if it is too much power.. obviously I'll just use the gtx 260.

I'm looking forward to this build.. I hope the power doesnt become an issue.. the pci-e are allowed to have around 300 watts.. since I figure I'll never be using both cards full power this will be fine.
 
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