Mac Pro 3.2 8800GT Questions

[Tommy Wasabi]

Going to buy a MP 3.2 (Early 2008) version tomorrow. Have a few questions:

Parallels vs. VMWare - Does Parallels still only support a single core? Also boot camp integration - want to play games (at times) and want to boot natively - but I do need to run Quicken (windows - mac version sucks) so a VM would be just fine - any thoughts on Vista 64 or should I just stick with XP?

Windows boot - video in SLI/Crossfire - I read that SLI will not work on the MacPro when booting under bootcamp - do I need have to ATI cards? Is it worth it for the few extra FPS? Should I just buy a faster NVidia board and have the ROMs flashed? Thoughts?

Audio: Can't seem to get a straight answer in the forums - is there an audio solution that works on both the mac and PC side? Firewave sounds awesome for the mac side and Creative on the PC side - anything that works on both? I listen to a lot of music and it's nice to have 5.1. Should I just buy a new set of Logitech 5500s? Need to solve the music and games situation.

And finally - if I use BOTH of the ethernet connectors on a gigabit switch - do I really get 2x the speed? or is it used more as a failover?

Thanks so much for your thoughts...

Tommy W.

 

[sammich]

And finally - if I use BOTH of the ethernet connectors on a gigabit switch - do I really get 2x the speed? or is it used more as a failover?

Sorry I can't answer the other parts, but I believe that you need a special type of switch. Here is another discussion that might help you here:

http://forums.macosxhints.com/archive/index.php/t-81137.html

 

[pastrychef]

Yes, Parallels still only supports one core. Yes, both Parallels and Fusion can run from Bootcamp partitions. No comment on XP or Vista...

As far as I know, neither SLI or Crossfire work in OS X. SLI won't work in a Mac Pro running Windows. Don't know about Crossfire.

Don't know about sound.

As for ethernet, the above link explains things better than I could.

 

[Tigrisvo]

Stick with XP. My other computer (for gaming) is running Vista Home 64. It is really bad. Plus, many hardware drivers are not yet available. I am seriously thinking about switching back to XP soon.

MacPro does not (yet?) support SLI or Crossfire. Although games run very smoothly on my PC with 2 8800GT in SLI. I can run everything but Crysis at the highest setting.

Try M-Audio Revolution 5.1 for your audio. I currently have this card on my Mac, but have used the same card at times in my PC. The sound is pretty good. Logitech speakers are generally good, but the bass is loud.

Can't help you with the ethernet question. Sorry!