Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

eawmp1

macrumors 601
Original poster
As an continuous Apple owner from the days of the Apple ][, I am upgrading from my 3rd iMac to a MacPro 2.8 GHz core. A few questions:

1) I will be installing 3rd party RAM. Does it really matter if I add 4 sticks of the same size, or can I just add 2 larger sticks. Also, should I (and where) should I utilize the stock 2x1GB Apple sticks?

2) Should I replace the boot drive with a Raptor to enhance performance of Leopard? If so, should I put most of my applications on this drive or have a separate drive dedicated to applications.

3) As I will need some functions only available to Windows (probably best done with Bootcamp), should I dedicate a drive to this purpose (i.e. avoiding cross contamination from Microsoft voodoo, possibly protect from viruses, etc.) Also XP versus Vista ... any experiences?

4) I have my setup in a large computer armoire. Will the beast need significant clearance for ventilation or will a standard tower space suffice?

5) Can Time Machine back up multiple internal drives to multiple external drives (I have a number of 200-500 GB LaCie triple interfaces from old applications I can daisy chain (or possible set-up as an external RAID) or should I splurge on a TB drive

I know this is a lot, but I want to get my big purchase right the first time around. Thank you in advance for the help!
 
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.