How happy are you with your macPro

[Ti22]

hey guys,

I am wondering how happy you guys are with your mac pro.

I must say I am really happy with mine.

I've had mine for 2 years now, and i hardly turn it off, usually i just put it to sleep, i have the occasion full restart(like once in 3 months) but usually it runs fine without a reboot.

When i first got it it had the X1900XT in it. and i was abit disappointed with the graphics card apple put in their mac pros.

Anyways now I've upgraded to the Radeon HD4870 and I must say I am impressed. It runs much faster (i animate heavily in Maya i am a professional animator workin in a company)

anyways. I use it alot for aperture projects, maya, final cut pro, web development (i know this doesn't use the power of the mac pro but still.) )

I must say I am really happy with my setup it has not shown its age, it runs games like a champ.

I can never say this about a PC, I think even though mac pros are more expensive but I also upgrade much less than a PC. i remember when I had a PC i had to upgrade every 6 months to keep up.

Any hoo. how happy are you guys with your mac Pros

I recently installed Windows 7 and it runs windows 7 awesome!, super stable. All games run perfect. I played UT3 and HL2 Episode 2 so far I maxed out every setting and it still runs fast! i am using the 23inch Cinema Display btw.

With the Snow Leopard coming bringing enhancements to the system it will make it even faster.

I think i will keep this setup for another 4-6 years.

btw in case you are wondering, my mac pro is as follows:

MacPro 1,1 3.0 Quad scores 7.2 on the windows performance index
8GB Ram scores 7.2 as well on the windows index
Radeon 4870 (Xfx 1GB) scores 6.8 on the windows perf index
3 HDD @ 250GB each no RAID. (raid cards are too expensive at the moment and i can't seem to find a good one anyone care to recommend?)

 

[Tesselator]

Me too. Very happy with my Mac Pro. Everything is good! Apple makes a few software and firmware mistakes but nothing show-stopping or that can't be user remedied.

I don't like the evolutionary progress of the Mac Pro line tho.

In keeping with the previous 10 or 15 years of apple's evolutionary history and progress pattern the 2006 introduced multi-core multi-proc Intel Xeon, 2007 showed it could be 8-core, 2008 shored up the bottlenecks and demonstrated a stronger commitment to 8-core Xeon. And all at the same relative price point. Then 2009 comes along and we were shown that it could be HT but suddenly they're $2000 more per machine. What happened?

PS: there's a thread here call Best RAID Card or something like that with some good info in it - thanks to NanoFrog. https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/712398/

 

[Dr.Pants]

What happened? The Days of Performa set the price/performance ratio Apple always wanted, but the 2008 was a pricing fluke due to subprime Juniper Visa cards

I kid, I kid.

I have used a MacPro for a few times. One of my friends got one for university, he pulled it out in the media lab (highschool) as where he lived there was absolutely no room. 8 cores and physics games abounded! What was hilarious is that he, another friend, and I were all crowded around this 17" monitor whatching what it could do. Priceless!

Other times have been in the media lab at college where I've had a go at a 2006 model that is lying unoccupied. Thinking about using CCC for fun programs (Maya, for instance), but ethics always gets in the way.

Other then that, I am using a G5 (as in the signature). Probably the best computer I have ever owned for working; in fact, the lack of PPC games and other assorted trivia have rendered me a more productive individual Or at least, that's how I look at it.

I get by with using Final Cut Studio - the main reason I got a mac. It works wonders, and is far more fluid then the Intel iMacs or G-series iMacs I have used it on.

 

[LurchNC]

2008 8 Core 2.8 here and it's the best computer I've ever used. I can encode in Handbrake, watch a video, play on Full Tilt Poker and surf the web without so much as a stutter.

Best money I've ever spent (on electronics). .

 

[Cynicalone]

I would say my Pro is by far my favorite computer. I have very few complaints about this machine.

One thing I need to solve is my RAID setup. The Apple Raid Card is horribly slow, but as Tesselator points out that is something I can solve in time. I'm just waiting on more RAID options for the 09 Models.

 

[nanofrog]

I'm just waiting on more RAID options for the 09 Models.

If you're waiting for another card to come out that can use the PCIe traces as Apple's RAID card does, don't bother. The market is too small to make it profitable, and legal issues over IP would likely surface if it was attempted.

The easiest thing, is to go external with a good card, enclosure(s), and drives. Internal is possible, but isn't as easy as the '06 - '08's models.

EDIT:
Apparently, Maxconnect has come up with a work around. Not cheap by any means, but does make it possible for 3rd party solutions without having to do a daunting mod by one's self (sleds & cabling).

 

[Genghis Khan]

Hell yeah, why wouldn't I be pleased.

As said by the O.P. it's a kickass powerful machine, yet you have the sense of security that it won't stuff up if you leave it rendering all night.

I think it's also good to know that the 2005 model PowerMacs are still doing their job, and that we can count on Mac Pros to do the same in years to come

Although, jumping from a 2.13GHz iMac to an Octo-Core Mac Pro has gotten me greedy for more speed. (Just think, if i were to double the cores, I could double the picture quality of the animations I do!!!)

 

[bobpensik]

I've been using a laptop for the past 6 years while going to school, and now that I am done and portability are less of an issue I got a 2008 2.8 8-core and I could not be happier. I had almost forgot how powerful a tower! Man do I love it, I can do so much more now. Editing photos is a breeze, gaming is great and I can encode again!!

 

[poobah]

'08 2.8GHz 8 core here....
4GB ram, ATI 4870
finest machine i have ever used.

 

[jabrowntx]

I have an April 2007 2.66 quad core and I love it. I've only experienced a couple of minor nuisances, mainly with it not recognizing external firewire drives, but nothing requiring a trip to the Genius Bar or calls to Apple support. I'll probably run this thing until it dies

 

[mason.kramer]

It's a good machine, now that I've I replaced the noisy video card cooler on my 1900xt with an aftermarket cooler. It still cheeses me off that I had to waste a saturday afternoon doing that, considering the price premium on Apple products. I'm eagerly anticipating the day that I can replace my HDDs with some SSDs - I have no desire to upgrade my CPU/RAM.

 

[bearcatrp]

I love the pro so much that I bought 2 of them. My 1st one was a 2006 2ghz quad that I upgraded to a 2.33ghz octo. My second one being a 2008 2.8 octo really screams. Best computers I have owned in the past 25 years. Probably grab another when the next update happens.

 

[UMHurricanes34]

Love mine more than any computer I've ever owned.

 

[surflordca]

A1

I didn't know what to expect when I bought my 2008 MacPro as it is my very first Mac. I LOVE it and would never go back to a Windows computer again. I run Fusion VMware for any windows stuff that I need...

 

[Eithanius]

Mine's a MacPro2,1 as per siggy. Owned for 2 years...

I would have loved it more if it was greener. Unbeknownst to me, this beast slowly burnt my lungs away for as long as I've owned it, thanks to the ever powerful yet inefficient hot-rod Xeon Clovertown processors that Apple threw in. Now that it emits a strong odor, it made its way back to the service centre for 3 weeks already, pending replacements for the entire enclosure, processor heatsink, and PSU unit.

Right now I'm thinking of ditching this evil beast, while contemplating on getting either a more efficient Xeon Harpertown refurbished MP, or an MBP...

 

[bigbird]

2008 8 Core 2.8 here and it's the best computer I've ever used. I can encode in Handbrake, watch a video, play on Full Tilt Poker and surf the web without so much as a stutter.
Best money I've ever spent (on electronics). .

Same computer, same comments.

 

[sejanus]

I'm happy with the stablity - it's never crashed once. But the box is not as fast as I had hoped for - I'm hoping 10.6 helps.

I'm not happy with the occasional flickering when using the stupid displayport adapter.

I've spent a lot of money on this box (8x2.93 with 2 x 30" ACD) and really getting annoyed that theres still no fix to this flickering.

 

[Demonfart]

For what it's worth I LOVE my new Mac Pro. Just upgraded from a 2006 Mac Pro to a 2009 Octo and it's quite lovely. ZERO complaints, it's fast as hell, pretty to look at, and has the best case layout I've ever experienced (and in my opinion it was not overpriced one cent...but I've got the budget to allow me such an asinine opinion!!!). In my attempts to get it to choke on files my old Mac Pro would choke on, I get nothing but butter smooth performance (I tend to max out the filesize limits of both Tiff and PSD files...silly 4gb/2gb file size limits need addressing

Also quick thanks to everyone at these forums, the occasional bickering and 'know it all" tudes aside, I've learned bunches from you fine folks and really appreciate all the data that helped me purchase and upgrade my new workstation. Kudos MacRumors members!

 

[mperkins37]

Couldn't be happier with my Early 08 3.2 dual.
I haven't been able to throw anything at it that it can't handle highly effectively
LOVE IT!.