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New Mac Pro - Loving it!

D

Draeconis

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
May 6, 2008
987
281
I recently recieved my new Mac Pro;

2.8Ghz Xeon
6Gb 1066Mhz ECC RAM
5870
2Tb HDD
LED Cinema Display

It's fantastic, to be blunt. I was a little concerned I'd got a malfunctioning one, because the intro 'welcome' video was really choppy, but subsequently everything is incredibly smooth.

For anyone thinking of getting one, currently I've tested a few things.

Geekbench in 32bit mode scored 8889 (sorry, don't own it so can't run 64bit mode)

It does boot into the 64bit kernal by default.

EVE Online at 2560x1440 with all options on max runs at 60fps constantly.

Left 4 Dead 2 defaulted to 2560x1440 with all options on highest, barring MSAA settings, which were on 4x I think, 60fps solidly.

I will be installing Windows 7 on it at some point (groan, I know), to see how it runs SupCom 2 and a few other things, at which point I'll let you guys know.

I didnt realise the HDD would be so loud(!) Coming from a MacBook Pro I sort of expected something similar, but it's not! Not that fussed about it really.

The Cinema Display viewing angles are great (by colour) but there's quite a lot of backlight bleed, but on axis it's perfect. Is there any screen that doesn't have backlight bleed? :/

The audio quality is not too bad from the Cinema Display, perhaps a little to strong with the mid frequencies, and not really enough treble, but for speakers inside a monitor, pretty good!

The wifi reception is really good, which sort of surprised me as I'd read some rather negative things about it.
 
Thanks for the review.

That's excellent, glad you are enjoying it.

when you say the HD is loud, are you sure that's the HD and not your graphics card?

Thanks,

G.

Draeconis said:
I recently recieved my new Mac Pro;

2.8Ghz Xeon
6Gb 1066Mhz ECC RAM
5870
2Tb HDD
LED Cinema Display

It's fantastic, to be blunt. I was a little concerned I'd got a malfunctioning one, because the intro 'welcome' video was really choppy, but subsequently everything is incredibly smooth.

For anyone thinking of getting one, currently I've tested a few things.

Geekbench in 32bit mode scored 8889 (sorry, don't own it so can't run 64bit mode)

It does boot into the 64bit kernal by default.

EVE Online at 2560x1440 with all options on max runs at 60fps constantly.

Left 4 Dead 2 defaulted to 2560x1440 with all options on highest, barring MSAA settings, which were on 4x I think, 60fps solidly.

I will be installing Windows 7 on it at some point (groan, I know), to see how it runs SupCom 2 and a few other things, at which point I'll let you guys know.

I didnt realise the HDD would be so loud(!) Coming from a MacBook Pro I sort of expected something similar, but it's not! Not that fussed about it really.

The Cinema Display viewing angles are great (by colour) but there's quite a lot of backlight bleed, but on axis it's perfect. Is there any screen that doesn't have backlight bleed? :/

The audio quality is not too bad from the Cinema Display, perhaps a little to strong with the mid frequencies, and not really enough treble, but for speakers inside a monitor, pretty good!

The wifi reception is really good, which sort of surprised me as I'd read some rather negative things about it.
Click to expand...
 
wonderful to see you are enjoying the beast! on 64-bit geekbench my i7 2009 iMac only gets ~10k! yours is only on 32-bit! that is insane.

extremely jealous! goodluck with it!

what will you be using it for? work or play?
 
gabicava83 said:
Thanks for the review.

That's excellent, glad you are enjoying it.

when you say the HD is loud, are you sure that's the HD and not your graphics card?

Thanks,

G.
Click to expand...

Thanks!

Certainly the HDD, unless graphics cards now make clicking noises? lol

DoFoT9 said:
wonderful to see you are enjoying the beast! on 64-bit geekbench my i7 2009 iMac only gets ~10k! yours is only on 32-bit! that is insane.

extremely jealous! goodluck with it!

what will you be using it for? work or play?
Click to expand...

Your i7 and my Xeon should score pretty much the same as they're basically the same CPU afaik?

I bought it for music production and creating audiovisual elements for performances. I use Ableton Live, Logic Studio and VDMX, and they all work veeeery well on my new machine!
 
Your HD if new, should certainly not be "clicking". I would speak to Apple to be honest with you.

Good buy though, I am undecided between many of the models, but defo need to get one.

Pics of the setup would be awesome :D

Draeconis said:
Thanks!

Certainly the HDD, unless graphics cards now make clicking noises? lol



Your i7 and my Xeon should score pretty much the same as they're basically the same CPU afaik?

I bought it for music production and creating audiovisual elements for performances. I use Ableton Live, Logic Studio and VDMX, and they all work veeeery well on my new machine!
Click to expand...
 
gabicava83 said:
Your HD if new, should certainly not be "clicking". I would speak to Apple to be honest with you.
Click to expand...

What? Many hard drives (especially faster ones) make clicking noises as they're accessing data. It's completely normal.

OP: Congrats on your great machine! :D
 
I suppose it depends how you label clicking.

Personally, clicking to me would be the sound of when an HD is on it's way out! Considering I do this day in, day out, I can normally tell the difference.

Light tapping, is what you're describing as it accesses data, now, I am talking about normal hard drives 7200rpm max, which are what are installed on MP's.

Anyhow, what screen did you get Draeconis, by the sounds of it a 27"?





Kenndac said:
What? Many hard drives (especially faster ones) make clicking noises as they're accessing data. It's completely normal.

OP: Congrats on your great machine! :D
Click to expand...
 
Draeconis said:
Your i7 and my Xeon should score pretty much the same as they're basically the same CPU afaik?
Click to expand...
quad core 2.8ghz with hyperthreading - i7 860. what is yours? i presumed it was a 2010 model, which is slightly different.

I bought it for music production and creating audiovisual elements for performances. I use Ableton Live, Logic Studio and VDMX, and they all work veeeery well on my new machine!
Click to expand...
oh i dont doubt that! you will need more then 6GB RAM! i am running 12GB atm ;) keep up!
 
gabicava83 said:
I suppose it depends how you label clicking.

Personally, clicking to me would be the sound of when an HD is on it's way out! Considering I do this day in, day out, I can normally tell the difference.

Light tapping, is what you're describing as it accesses data, now, I am talking about normal hard drives 7200rpm max, which are what are installed on MP's.

Anyhow, what screen did you get Draeconis, by the sounds of it a 27"?
Click to expand...

Usually I don't hear it, but when I was pulling all my documents from my MacBook Pro, it was pretty loud (I imagine it's the head flying about, I was doing about 6 file transfers to different locations).

I have the 27" LED Cinema Display, it's very nice! Bigger than I was expecting, it's basically an iMac without the Mac!

DoFoT9 said:
quad core 2.8ghz with hyperthreading - i7 860. what is yours? i presumed it was a 2010 model, which is slightly different.


oh i dont doubt that! you will need more then 6GB RAM! i am running 12GB atm ;) keep up!
Click to expand...

Quad Core Xeon W3530 2.8Ghz with HT. I think the difference is basically it's a Xeon, so it has another QuickPath-Interconnect bus channel for speaking to another CPU?

I actually found 4Gb on my MBP was pretty decent, I only got 6Gb as 3 seemed a little diminutive!
 
Draeconis said:
Quad Core Xeon W3530 2.8Ghz with HT. I think the difference is basically it's a Xeon, so it has another QuickPath-Interconnect bus channel for speaking to another CPU?
Click to expand...
ahh so yup virtually the same. you have QPI i have DPI or whatever it is called.

I actually found 4Gb on my MBP was pretty decent, I only got 6Gb as 3 seemed a little diminutive!
Click to expand...
i had 4GB on my iMac. was dog slow as i run quite a few virtual machines at any one time. i have used all 12GB RAM on my imac and have started paging out to Virtual Memory. meh.
 
DoFoT9 said:
i had 4GB on my iMac. was dog slow as i run quite a few virtual machines at any one time. i have used all 12GB RAM on my imac and have started paging out to Virtual Memory. meh.
Click to expand...

How many? What OSs were you virtualising? I've been following the development of Ubuntu using VirtualBox and old Windows boxes for quite a while, 10.10 looks pretty good so far, though I'm not sure they've updated VirtualBox to fully support it yet.

I managed to kernal panic my MBP by running an installation of Ubuntu 10.10 beta, another VM running an installation of Jolicloud, another VM running Chrome OS, and a few other things in the background, wasn't too surprised!
 
Draeconis said:
How many? What OSs were you virtualising? I've been following the development of Ubuntu using VirtualBox and old Windows boxes for quite a while, 10.10 looks pretty good so far, though I'm not sure they've updated VirtualBox to fully support it yet.
Click to expand...
currently on this machine -
• osx 10.6 server (learning how to use it) 1GB RAM
•*windows 2008 server - 1GB RAM (uni assignment)
•*windows 2003 server - 1GB RAM (uni assignment)
• windows xp client - 512MB RAM (uni assignment) - logs on to 2008/2003 machines through Active Directory
• ubuntu 10.04 server - 512MB RAM - mucking around
sometimes also have Win7 for ripping BDs, and vista VM has a few specific programs installed on it.

i use Parallels 6 by the way.

i wil be downloading 10.10 quite soon - it sounds good!

I managed to kernal panic my MBP by running an installation of Ubuntu 10.10 beta, another VM running an installation of Jolicloud, another VM running Chrome OS, and a few other things in the background, wasn't too surprised!
Click to expand...
Chrome OS! really? how do you like it!? where can i get it from!? 10.10 drivers wont be ready for a while i presume.
 
DoFoT9 said:
currently on this machine -
• osx 10.6 server (learning how to use it) 1GB RAM
•*windows 2008 server - 1GB RAM (uni assignment)
•*windows 2003 server - 1GB RAM (uni assignment)
• windows xp client - 512MB RAM (uni assignment) - logs on to 2008/2003 machines through Active Directory
• ubuntu 10.04 server - 512MB RAM - mucking around
sometimes also have Win7 for ripping BDs, and vista VM has a few specific programs installed on it.

i use Parallels 6 by the way.

i wil be downloading 10.10 quite soon - it sounds good!


Chrome OS! really? how do you like it!? where can i get it from!? 10.10 drivers wont be ready for a while i presume.
Click to expand...

I wasn't sure you could run virtualised copies of OS X? Is this relaxed just for OS X Server?

Does the SuperDrive actually read BDs if you have Windows running? I wasn't sure the drive supported it? How do you rip it?

Chrome OS isn't too bad, quite interesting. The version I got was the early built of it, it was pretty laggy, but booted up in exactly 10 seconds, which was impressive. Seems like a nice idea, I'm interested to see the resulting products, but I'm not sure I'll get one myself.

I got the build of Chrome OS from gdgt, link is here.
 
Draeconis said:
Quad Core Xeon W3530 2.8Ghz with HT. I think the difference is basically it's a Xeon, so it has another QuickPath-Interconnect bus channel for speaking to another CPU?
Click to expand...

Your XEON is a SP unit, hence can't be used with another processor.
The main difference between your XEON and the i7 is basically the added feature to use ECC RAM. Performance wise the processors are pretty much the same.
 
Draeconis said:
snip...........
Left 4 Dead 2 defaulted to 2560x1440 with all options on highest, barring MSAA settings, which were on 4x I think, 60fps solidly.

snip.........
Click to expand...

Big congrats on your new MP.

What controller are you using for L4D?

cheers
JohnG
 
johnnymg said:
Big congrats on your new MP.

What controller are you using for L4D?

cheers
JohnG
Click to expand...

Thanks! Just a standard laser usb mouse and the Apple keyboard.

I do really like the Magic Mouse which came with the Mac Pro, one finger scrolling is unsurpassed in terms of new GUI paradigms, but the damn movement rate is poor, even at maximum, and as a gaming mouse, it doesn't really work :/

I'm a keyboard and mouse person, I do own a 360, and really enjoy using it, but the console controller will never be better in FPS games than a keyboard and mouse.

Transporteur said:
Why? All Mac Pro's use ECC RAM?
Click to expand...

Sorry, what I meant is why don't other types of Mac / other PCs use ECC RAM?
 
Draeconis said:
Sorry, what I meant is why don't other types of Mac / other PCs use ECC RAM?
Click to expand...

ECC are usually for Workstations and servers.
In the normal systems usually this further security step (Error Correction Code) is not required..
 
johnnymg said:
Big congrats on your new MP.

What controller are you using for L4D?

cheers
JohnG
Click to expand...

60fps in LFD2 is nothing to write home about. I get that on a dual core AMD machine with an ATI 5570 (HTPC card)
 
DualShock said:
Try MagicPrefs?

http://magicprefs.com/
Click to expand...

Although nice, this doesn't fix all the problems, especially as a gaming mouse. I had to turn off the wheel functionality just to play minecraft because it was so easy to accidentally hit it. Also, I would find it impossible to play an FPS when you are required to actually take your opposing finger off the mouse to left or right click (try it, rest both your right and left fingers on the mouse and try to right click).
 
Draeconis said:
I wasn't sure you could run virtualised copies of OS X? Is this relaxed just for OS X Server?
Click to expand...
it is all legit - its enabled for OSX server :)

Does the SuperDrive actually read BDs if you have Windows running? I wasn't sure the drive supported it? How do you rip it?
Click to expand...
no, a DVD drive cannot read BDs. i have an externally attached BD drive - which is then mounted into windows.

Chrome OS isn't too bad, quite interesting. The version I got was the early built of it, it was pretty laggy, but booted up in exactly 10 seconds, which was impressive. Seems like a nice idea, I'm interested to see the resulting products, but I'm not sure I'll get one myself.

I got the build of Chrome OS from gdgt, link is here.
Click to expand...
thanks very much for the link! i will HAVE to check it out, i take it that it is VERY web based/cloud based?

Draeconis said:
Ahh I see. Seems a bit strange other machines don't have ECC Ram?
Click to expand...
ECC isnt needed by anybody for most cases - its more or less to prevent errors in calculations, which are rare. given that the MacPro is marketed as a high end server grade workstation, i think thats the justification behind the ECC RAM.

DualShock said:
Try MagicPrefs?

http://magicprefs.com/
Click to expand...
i prefer BetterTouch Tool :)
 
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