At some point, I bought into that Apple mantra too. Then I quickly realized it's a load of bunk.
For starters; Apple TV never works correctly. There are constant software bugs and connectivity niggles and after snapping up three generations of hardware for multiple televisions across home and studio, Apple announces "it's a hobby". Nice. How about the fact that the iMacs have, for multiple generations now, not matched the hardware dimensions of the Apple LED Cinema Displays? You need to buy an after-market stand to get the monitors leveled for multi-monitor mini-seam transitioning.
Or what about the Airport Express modules that would limply hang off the wall with their prongs exposed, luring children (worst-case) or would simply fall off the wall with the slightest bump (common)? Or how about the fact that the current generation of Airport Extreme and Airport Express hockey pucks are not compatible when attempting to use the Express to expand a network (even though Apple claims they are)? What of the fact that every single 30 pin iToy connector I've ever seen frays at the plug? Or the fact that Apple had to replace all of the original 5v cubes? Or that the first and second generation Apple Garage Band apps had a bug that only allowed monaural output? Pretty significant when you're talking about a music program... Or that Apple bought Logic and drove the product into the ground (which they also did with other major professional tools)?
Remember the iPhone antenna-gate problems? How about the first generation iPhone that had a "lock screen" that didn't actually lock/secure anything? Did you ever use the iPhone 4.* release that caused visual voicemail to not display for up to 30 seconds each time?
I once had an iMac DVD jam in the side-screen slot load. That DVD and the HDD inside of the iMac contained an unreleased album from a major recording artist, plus unreleased/unapproved video footage from a music video rough. I called Apple Support and after attempts at software troubleshooting, they told me it was not possible for me to fix this by myself. I would need to take the iMac into an Apple store to fix it. Because Apple neglected to include the paperclip force eject hole that every other computer on Earth has -- presumably this was because Apple didn't like the aesthetics of a pin hole -- I had to bring everything into an Apple Store to fix this and they would need to bring the computer into the back room (where I'm not allowed) to perform the work. Nope. Couldn't risk it. Had to do the disassembly and dirty work myself. All.. to... eject... a DVD. The drive never jammed again and I made sure to only use external drives for vital work.
Have you ever downloaded an album from iTunes that was corrupted and then had to email Apple and ask for a re-download? I have. Did you ever need to contact Apple support because you had reached the limits of iTunes activations and needed to reset all of them so you could use iTunes again? Yep, been there.
How many times in a week do you need to provide your administrator password, sometimes even multiple times in a row. I distinctly remember Apple making fun of Microsoft for this (which no longer happens in Windows since 7, by the way).
Ever max out your RAM shopping with Apple only to find out later, the hardware can safely support much more but Apple inexplicably won't sell or advertise that? That's fun. And expensive.
Or how about all of us MacBook Air buyers that bought the first generation hardware and only found out later, after light-weight use (browsing internet or playing music) the thing would heat up on battery and the second processor core would shutdown. Nice. Great design there. Again, expensive.
I've also got an iTunes-bought Disney movie I bought for my daughter that inexplicably pops French credits and then de-synchronizes the vocal track in the middle of playback. I've emailed Apple about that and never heard a word back. But because the video file is 'in the cloud' via iTunes Match, it can't be fixed on our end.
Or that Apple Maps doesn't work as-well-as Google Maps and even though they had a license that ran until next year, they pulled the plug in the interest of competition only.
There are countless more. These just off the top of my head. "It just works" is a marketing bullet point.
But hey, these 7970's do 'just work' and no one here wants to believe that...
I'm not really arguing with you
I'm glad it works and am happy for you and for others who want to use it!
My point was, for
me, I'd rather treat it as a temporary product which I do work on, and then sell it or keep it as a backup and buy a new one and continue working. That is all. I do not care about computers anymore, I barely have time to myself. I just want them to work "ok".
Coming from a PC background since the early 90's, I can say that Macs definitely need to be taken care of less for them to work, and it's not due to the hardware, but OS X. After all, they all use Intel parts now, anyway.
My overall point was that Apple should and cannot be seen as a vendor like Dell, HP, etc. because they are never shooting for that. They want computers to be just like any other appliance. That kind of thinking comes from German industrial designers such as Dieter Rams and architects such as Mies van der Rohe. This is what makes Apple a different company than the rest of them.
Now, I am not going to deny that Macs have their own issues, believe me, I know they have many issues...but usually it's less of a technical challenge to get it working than it is for a Windows based PC. I don't need access to BIOS settings or settings for primary/slave, etc etc, or bus speeds. I just want it to work.
Hopefully you understand my point.
However, it's great to see threads like these. I also don't think putting such a card will fry the PSU. That thing is 1,000 watts as far as I remember. But see, not thinking about watts or voltages is the fun part of Macs
I don't miss my PC building days at all
You apparently do like fiddling with computers and by all means, do it. You might be better suited for Windows, since it is definitely more open when it comes to picking your own bits and pieces and upgrading down the line. I know you're sticking with Apple probably because you like OS X and the way the hardware is designed...but like I mentioned before, don't be completely pissed off at Apple when you can't upgrade too many things on their computers, because of the reasons mentioned above. There are plenty of other choices out there FAR cheaper and with more performance than Apple hardware...but not by far when you consider that the Mac Pro's use Xeon CPU's...I remember I did comparisons part by part back in 2008 when I was purchasing the Mac Pro, and it actually was more expensive to build my own workstation with the same Intel parts than it would be to get a Mac Pro.
