Will a 27" iMac C2D 3.06GHz 4670 suit my needs (upgrading from G5 1.6GHz PPC)

[BA Baracus]

Congratulations on the new mac!

I always buy my RAM from Crucial, reliable and always works.

Prices for RAM has shot up recently - use this link for a 5% discount on Crucial stuff.

Cheers.

http://www.crucial.com/uk/promo/index.aspx?prog=uklp_affiliates&pid=2197941

 

[Hellhammer]

My new Mac has arrived! .....

Set it up last night, no obvious faults found so far....

I was pleasantly surprised to find websites loading in 1/2 - 1 second vs 5-seconds on my G5! I'm running Safari and iTunes just now and CPU usage is only at 1.6%!!! ....

Disappointed to find the machine shipped with Leopard pre-installed and Leopard install disks, not Snow Leopard as advertised. I've sent an email to Apple Support to try to resolve this.....

In the mean time, can I ask you for advice on "essential setups" for my Mac Pro, e.g. how to configure the Firewall for best security (seems a bit different to the procedure in Panther, and I'm not sure I got them correct in Panther anyway ).

And is there a quick way to test that EVERYTHING on my Mac Pro is working properly? Does Apple Hardware Test test everything?

Thanks!

Congrats!

It should've come with Snow Leopard, so Apple has just hassled something. I'm sure they will send you one ASAP when they see your Mail.

Just turn on the firewall, it should be enough. Some apps may ask for permission to connect to internet when launching them for the first time.

Obviously you can't look at the screen for any yellowing or so Mac Pros are very reliable so only thing you may want to check are the internal temperatures with iStat.

Link me some well known UK retailers so I can search RAM for you

 

[ToTo Man]

Congrats!

It should've come with Snow Leopard, so Apple has just hassled something. I'm sure they will send you one ASAP when they see your Mail.

Just turn on the firewall, it should be enough. Some apps may ask for permission to connect to internet when launching them for the first time.

Obviously you can't look at the screen for any yellowing or so Mac Pros are very reliable so only thing you may want to check are the internal temperatures with iStat.

Link me some well known UK retailers so I can search RAM for you

Yeah, I just got a mail back telling me they'll send out Snow Leopard as soon as possible, so I'll probably have a few more days waiting....

It's been so long since I bought RAM I don't know many retailers. http://www.crucial.com/uk is where I got the RAM for my G5. Good company. I've just checked it out and I think the RAM for my model of Mac Pro is http://www.crucial.com/uk/store/lis...eries) 2nd Gen. Early 2008&pl=Mac Pro&cat=RAM

Other retailers I can think of:
http://www.macupgrades.co.uk
http://www.macwarehouse.co.uk
and of course http://www.amazon.co.uk and http://www.ebay.co.uk

But I think Crucial or MacUpgrades are probably the most trusted.

I think I'll also install a 2nd internal SATA hard disk. Should I buy the same make as the existing disk (WDC)?

 

[ToTo Man]

iStat widget installed.... CPU temps with iTunes playing = 24'C to 29'C

 

[Hellhammer]

Yeah, I just got a mail back telling me they'll send out Snow Leopard as soon as possible, so I'll probably have a few more days waiting....

It's been so long since I bought RAM I don't know many retailers. http://www.crucial.com/uk is where I got the RAM for my G5. Good company. I've just checked it out and I think the RAM for my model of Mac Pro is http://www.crucial.com/uk/store/lis...eries) 2nd Gen. Early 2008&pl=Mac Pro&cat=RAM

Other retailers I can think of:
http://www.macupgrades.co.uk
http://www.macwarehouse.co.uk
and of course http://www.amazon.co.uk and http://www.ebay.co.uk

But I think Crucial or MacUpgrades are probably the most trusted.

I think I'll also install a 2nd internal SATA hard disk. Should I buy the same make as the existing disk (WDC)?

Go with the Crucial route then. You may pay few £ more but it saves you the hassle. How much RAM are you going to buy? Remember that you have 8 RAM slots so if you buy 2x2GB, you get 6GB as you don't have to remove the old RAM and still have 4 free RAM slots.

I would get Western Digital hard drive, but what capacity and speed is up to you. 2TB is as low as 117£ from eBuyer, slightly cheaper than 2x1TB.

iStat widget installed.... CPU temps with iTunes playing = 24'C to 29'C

Sounds cool

 

[ToTo Man]

Go with the Crucial route then. You may pay few £ more but it saves you the hassle. How much RAM are you going to buy? Remember that you have 8 RAM slots so if you buy 2x2GB, you get 6GB as you don't have to remove the old RAM and still have 4 free RAM slots.

I would get Western Digital hard drive, but what capacity and speed is up to you. 2TB is as low as 117£ from eBuyer, slightly cheaper than 2x1TB.



Sounds cool

Thanks for the link.... amazing how affordable hard drives are these days! It's a shame the RAM isn't this cheap!

I'm trying to plan what hard drive configuration would be best for me.

In my G5, I have the stock 80GB internal SATA for my OS, Apps, and general daily files (e.g. word proccessing docs, spreadsheet docs, pdfs, email downloads, etc), and I added a 250gb SATA to put my important stuff on (iTunes music, photographs, videos, etc). I think the 80gb boot hard drive is very fragmented as it is very noisy when accessing files, and while I have 20gb free on it at the moment, in the past it there has been as little at 7GB free space on it and the disk hasn't been erased for 5 years .

Therefore, my plans for the Mac Pro are to either:
1) use the stock HD only for the OS and apps, install 2nd HD (500gb) and direct all general daily files to this drive (therefore avoiding fragmentation on boot drive), install 3rd HD (2TB) to store all my music, photos and videos.
or
2) use the stock HD only for the OS and apps, install 2nd HD (500gb) and direct all general daily files to this drive (therefore avoiding fragmentation on boot drive), install 3rd HD (2TB) to store my iTunes and Logic music, install 4th HD (2TB) to store my photos and videos.

Until now I've never considered implementing RAID or using automated backing-up software, as I've always just preferred to take care of this manually (at the moment I have all my important files backed-up onto 2 external 500gb WD USB2.0 hard drives, but being quite lazy I don't update this backup as often as I should! ). Do you think the new configuration in my MacPro is going to be too complicated to keep track of manually?

 

[DoFoT9]

Thanks for the link.... amazing how affordable hard drives are these days! It's a shame the RAM isn't this cheap!

Until now I've never considered implementing RAID or using automated backing-up software, as I've always just preferred to take care of this manually (at the moment I have all my important files backed-up onto 2 external 500gb WD USB2.0 hard drives, but being quite lazy I don't update this backup as often as I should! ). Do you think the new configuration in my MacPro is going to be too complicated to keep track of manually?

most definitely getting a bit confusing, especially if you are finding yourself not backing up very often.

personally, i would use the stock HDD as a boot drive/application drive.

then add 2x2TB in RAID1 (mirrored mode) - this way you dont really have to worry about the drives being backed up, they automatically mirror each other. extra speed is gained from implementing this type of thing (incase you doing video editing intensely etc).

 

[ToTo Man]

most definitely getting a bit confusing, especially if you are finding yourself not backing up very often.

personally, i would use the stock HDD as a boot drive/application drive.

then add 2x2TB in RAID1 (mirrored mode) - this way you dont really have to worry about the drives being backed up, they automatically mirror each other. extra speed is gained from implementing this type of thing (incase you doing video editing intensely etc).

Could I have the 2x2TB drives in mirrored RAID mode like you say and also add 1x500gb that's not part of the RAID, as I'd rather not clutter my important storage drives with lots of small files which will be saved and and deleted on a regular basis.

 

[DoFoT9]

Could I have the 2x2TB drives in mirrored RAID mode like you say and also add 1x500gb that's not part of the RAID, as I'd rather not clutter my important storage drives with lots of small files which will be saved and and deleted on a regular basis.

you can most certainly do that! and you would still have 1 spare bay for another hard disk for future expansion!

the possibilities are endless with RAID. you could install 2x2TB drives in RAID1 mode, then partition them into 1TB partitions (that are still mirrored). one partition for video, one for audio/pictures.. or whatever you want. just makes it easier to organise like that sometimes i find. its up to you though.

 

[Hellhammer]

Could I have the 2x2TB drives in mirrored RAID mode like you say and also add 1x500gb that's not part of the RAID, as I'd rather not clutter my important storage drives with lots of small files which will be saved and and deleted on a regular basis.

Dofot9 is right and made a great suggestion. No need to get a separate drive for everything, 2x2TB is enough to be used as storage and it backups everything so you can just enjoy your Mac. Use the stock drive for OS and then get e.g. two of those drives I linked you and put them in RAID1

 

[ToTo Man]

I've got 6GB of RAM on its way .

I think I'll follow your advice and just go for 2x 2TB Western Digital internal SATA's and configure them in RAID mirrored format using Disk Utility. Is there much difference between the WD Caviar Green/Blue/Black HDs in terms of reliability and speed performance? And much difference between 32MB vs 64MB cache?

I also plan to use an external 2TB Firewire HD for a portable backup clone. Can I use software like CCC to automatically backup one of the RAID drives to this external drive?

On my G5 I use a Western Digital MyBook 500GB USB 2.0 HD for my backups but I've read a lot of negative reviews about the reliability of WD's external HD's, so I'm wondering if it would be better to buy an internal SATA HD and mount it in an external case with FireWire capability? Is this a complicated procedure? Is there a particular case you recommend for this?

 

[Hellhammer]

I've got 6GB of RAM on its way .

I think I'll follow your advice and just go for 2x 2TB Western Digital internal SATA's and configure them in RAID mirrored format using Disk Utility. Is there much difference between the WD Caviar Green/Blue/Black HDs in terms of reliability and speed performance? And much difference between 32MB vs 64MB cache?

Greens consume less power and are much quieter than Blacks. There is no 2TB Caviar Blue I think Green suits good for you because you don't need speed really.

I also plan to use an external 2TB Firewire HD for a portable backup clone. Can I use software like CCC to automatically backup one of the RAID drives to this external drive?

Yea, Carbon Copy Cloner is a great software for that.

On my G5 I use a Western Digital MyBook 500GB USB 2.0 HD for my backups but I've read a lot of negative reviews about the reliability of WD's external HD's, so I'm wondering if it would be better to buy an internal SATA HD and mount it in an external case with FireWire capability? Is this a complicated procedure? Is there a particular case you recommend for this?

I haven't heard anything negative about WD's external HD. Of course building your own external HD is the best choice because you can easily use that HD in your Mac Pro as well if it doesn't have to be external anymore and if the HD fails, you can just buy a new one and put that in. I would buy a HD dock because you can easily swap HDs back and forth.

 

[DoFoT9]

I've got 6GB of RAM on its way .

wow nice!

I think I'll follow your advice and just go for 2x 2TB Western Digital internal SATA's and configure them in RAID mirrored format using Disk Utility. Is there much difference between the WD Caviar Green/Blue/Black HDs in terms of reliability and speed performance? And much difference between 32MB vs 64MB cache?

wow, now you are getting to the upper limits of my current knowledge. i dont really follow these drives.

basically, the Black is the fastest of them all, then blue, then green. you can expect throughputs on the black of 109.8MB/s read, and 108.7MB/s write. the green read 77.9MB/s and writes at 78.0MB/s. (couldnt really find anything useful on blues).

so as you can see, quite a difference there. cache does play a big role, but if you are just using it to transfer data, i wouldnt worry about it too much.

I also plan to use an external 2TB Firewire HD for a portable backup clone. Can I use software like CCC to automatically backup one of the RAID drives to this external drive?

yes you certainly can!

On my G5 I use a Western Digital MyBook 500GB USB 2.0 HD for my backups but I've read a lot of negative reviews about the reliability of WD's external HD's, so I'm wondering if it would be better to buy an internal SATA HD and mount it in an external case with FireWire capability? Is this a complicated procedure? Is there a particular case you recommend for this?

VERY easy process. i believe hellhammer has already caught you up on that. WD drives are pretty reliable IMO, never had one fail on me yet! thats your call to make though

 

[ToTo Man]

Thanks for the info.

Before I pull the trigger on the green HD's, do you think they'll be fast enough for recording 96kHz 24-bit audio to using Logic Studio? I'm assuming they will be but just wanted to check .

 

[Hellhammer]

Thanks for the info.

Before I pull the trigger on the green HD's, do you think they'll be fast enough for recording 96kHz 24-bit audio to using Logic Studio? I'm assuming they will be but just wanted to check .

I'm sure they will be. Blacks are very fast while Greens are quite average. Blacks are quite noisy so sooner than later you wish you got the Greens.

 

[DoFoT9]

Thanks for the info.

Before I pull the trigger on the green HD's, do you think they'll be fast enough for recording 96kHz 24-bit audio to using Logic Studio? I'm assuming they will be but just wanted to check .

good question! how many tracks do you record at a time?

generally it should be fine for that.

 

[ToTo Man]

good question! how many tracks do you record at a time?

generally it should be fine for that.

For the most part, only 1 or 2 at a time, and I don't envisage being in a situation where I exceed 4 at a time.

 

[Hellhammer]

For the most part, only 1 or 2 at a time, and I don't envisage being in a situation where I exceed 4 at a time.

Then there is no no risk of slowdowns. I've heard people recording +20 tracks at the same time on MBPs with 5400rpm drive without issues and you have an 8-core Mac Pro

 

[ToTo Man]

Then there is no no risk of slowdowns. I've heard people recording +20 tracks at the same time on MBPs with 5400rpm drive without issues and you have an 8-core Mac Pro

 

[DoFoT9]

For the most part, only 1 or 2 at a time, and I don't envisage being in a situation where I exceed 4 at a time.

great. 1x24 bit/96kHz track uses ~4.39Mb/s (megabits!). you could probably do up to 50 channels at once.

i think you will be fine

 

[ToTo Man]

OK, I should have my RAM, HDs, and Snow Leopard all installed by Tuesday hopefully if they arrive on time .

Thanks for the help so far guys, greatly appreciated!

 

[Hellhammer]

OK, I should have my RAM, HDs, and Snow Leopard all installed by Tuesday hopefully if they arrive on time .

Thanks for the help so far guys, greatly appreciated!

Nice! Let us know how it went

 

[ToTo Man]

Nice! Let us know how it went

I was wondering, in theory, could I use the Leopard install discs that came with my Mac Pro to do a clean install on my G5, or would I need to purchase a retail version for it to work?

 

[Hellhammer]

I was wondering, in theory, could I use the Leopard install discs that came with my Mac Pro to do a clean install on my G5, or would I need to purchase a retail version for it to work?

Was there two Leopard disks (one in KB&mouse box, other one just dropped-in)? The one found in KB&mouse box works only with your Mac Pro because it includes drivers etc only suitable for your MP.

 

[ToTo Man]

Was there two Leopard disks (one in KB&mouse box, other one just dropped-in)? The one found in KB&mouse box works only with your Mac Pro because it includes drivers etc only suitable for your MP.

Both grey install discs were inside the KB & mouse box. The first disc has Mac Pro written on it but the second doesn't. The first disc is stamped 2Z691-6201-A and the second is stamped 2Z691-6195-A. An iLife '09 disc was dropped-in separately, that's all.