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Mac Pro Advise

D

Digital Dunes

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Dec 27, 2006
8
0
Hello, I'm getting ready to purchase a Mac Pro. It will be configured as follows:
2x 3.0 GHz Dual Core
2x 16x Super Drives
1 750 GB Hard Drive
2 GB Ram (4x512 MB)

I intend to upgrade the three extra HD Bays with Seagate 750 GB SATA II Drives and will be adding 8 GB Ram (4x2 GB).

My questions are:
Has anyone had any experience with the Seagates and this setup?

Will I then have 10 GB Ram? and in what order should the 8 chips go into the slots? ie: slots 1-4 with the 2 GB chips and 5-8 with the 512 MB chips or should it be 1,2,5, & 6 with the 2 GB chips and 3,4,7, & 8 with the 512 MB chips?
 
I haven't used a Seagate setup like you've suggested so I can't help you there, but I can tell you about the RAM.

Yes, you will have 10GB. Why you want that much is beyond me, but its your money.

What you will want to do is put the larger amounts in first and then the 512 modules. Also, remember that there's 2 banks of RAM so whatever you put in bank 1 also needs to go in bank 2. Bank 1 is the first set of 4 slots and bank 2 is the 2nd set of slots. So it should go in this order:

2GB 2GB 512MB 512MB>Bank 1 2GB 2GB 512MB 512MB>Bank 2

Also try to keep the same manufacturer of RAM if all possible. Especially within the banks. DO NOT use cheap RAM in this. You will be disappointed! This is especially sensitive since its ECC FB (Fully Buffered) RAM. If you get cheap RAM that doesn't have proper cooling the RAM may overheat and thus, clock itself down to a speed it can safely run at. This can and will effect your performance. This is why you really don't want cheap RAM in a MacPro is recommended that you use Apple or Crucial RAM.
 
I really can't answer your questions, but I can say that is one beast of a machine you plan on having.

If you don't mind me asking, what do you do that will need that kind of a setup? Video editing, large PS tasks, etc?
 
mklos said:
I haven't used a Seagate setup like you've suggested so I can't help you there, but I can tell you about the RAM.

Yes, you will have 10GB. Why you want that much is beyond me, but its your money.

What you will want to do is put the larger amounts in first and then the 512 modules. Also, remember that there's 2 banks of RAM so whatever you put in bank 1 also needs to go in bank 2. Bank 1 is the first set of 4 slots and bank 2 is the 2nd set of slots. So it should go in this order:

2GB 2GB 512MB 512MB>Bank 1 2GB 2GB 512MB 512MB>Bank 2

Also try to keep the same manufacturer of RAM if all possible. Especially within the banks. DO NOT use cheap RAM in this. You will be disappointed! This is especially sensitive since its ECC FB (Fully Buffered) RAM. If you get cheap RAM that doesn't have proper cooling the RAM may overheat and thus, clock itself down to a speed it can safely run at. This can and will effect your performance. This is why you really don't want cheap RAM in a MacPro is recommended that you use Apple or Crucial RAM.
Click to expand...

Thanks for your reply. I was intending to purchase Ramm from Mac Ram Direct

http://macramdirect.com/macpro.html

any experience with this? I was told it is what apple uses.

Thanks for the Chip set-up
 
Whoa, it would probably be helpful to know what you plan to do with it (plus i'm curious).
 
mattcube64 said:
I really can't answer your questions, but I can say that is one beast of a machine you plan on having.

If you don't mind me asking, what do you do that will need that kind of a setup? Video editing, large PS tasks, etc?
Click to expand...

I often and professionally work on large PS files Usually 10-20 stitched 12.8 Mega pixel Camera Raw files making up one pano between 2.5 to 7 GB files depending upon the overlap and amount.

The 4 HDs are for:
1 = OSX and non important files
2 = Scratch disk for PS
3 = Pro Photo file Saving
4 = Mirror Back up.
 
Jay42 said:
Whoa, it would probably be helpful to know what you plan to do with it (plus i'm curious).
Click to expand...

I often and professionally work on large PS files Usually 10-20 stitched 12.8 Mega pixel Camera Raw files making up one pano between 2.5 to 7 GB files depending upon the overlap and amount.

The 4 HDs are for:
1 = OSX and non important files
2 = Scratch disk for PS
3 = Pro Photo file Saving
4 = Mirror Back up.
 
Digital Dunes said:
I often and professionally work on large PS files Usually 10-20 stitched 12.8 Mega pixel Camera Raw files making up one pano between 2.5 to 7 GB files depending upon the overlap and amount.

The 4 HDs are for:
1 = OSX and non important files
2 = Scratch disk for PS
3 = Pro Photo file Saving
4 = Mirror Back up.
Click to expand...

Wow. What do you use for a monitor setup? Those could be some rather large pictures!
 
baby duck monge said:
Wow. What do you use for a monitor setup? Those could be some rather large pictures!
Click to expand...

No offense to anyone on these forums at all. Many of us are probably pretty competent when it comes to this stuff. However when you are talking about such a machine and the money you are putting into itouy might want to have either someone at an Apple Store do this or show you how to do it. Again i am sure there are plenty of guys who are competent and even myself I feel I am but what if you listen to the guy who is wrong and you screw up a machine with that much money. I am sure with what you are spending you can afford to eother have someone do it for you since you are unsure or atleast if you do want to save some bucks and learn it I would have someone show you in a store who does it for a living. As far as the Hard Drives the Seagates should do you fine. Good luck on your pruchase.

kevin
 
Digital Dunes said:
I often and professionally work on large PS files Usually 10-20 stitched 12.8 Mega pixel Camera Raw files making up one pano between 2.5 to 7 GB files depending upon the overlap and amount.

The 4 HDs are for:
1 = OSX and non important files
2 = Scratch disk for PS
3 = Pro Photo file Saving
4 = Mirror Back up.
Click to expand...

If you dont mind a suggestion......

Since PS can only address 2GB max, and OS X can suck up another 2GB or so, therefore I'd save my money right now, and limit the ram to 4 or 6GB for the meantime (leaving the remaining 2GB free for VM or other apps). Ram prices will start to drop in the spring, around the same time that Leopard & PS/CS 3 comes out. By then, adding more will cost less too :p

Same for the HD's. Yes PS works much better with a scratch disk, but 750GB is way overkill for that. Thier prices are always dropping too, so upgrading later on will be cheaper, and you can always sell the smaller one(s) to recoup some of the cost of a new one.

Good luck whatever you do !
 
Yes, hopefully those Apple-approved FB-DIMM prices will come way way down, because I only have 1GB in mine and feel the crunch already!
 
OldSkoolNJ said:
No offense to anyone on these forums at all. Many of us are probably pretty competent when it comes to this stuff. However when you are talking about such a machine and the money you are putting into itouy might want to have either someone at an Apple Store do this or show you how to do it. Again i am sure there are plenty of guys who are competent and even myself I feel I am but what if you listen to the guy who is wrong and you screw up a machine with that much money. I am sure with what you are spending you can afford to eother have someone do it for you since you are unsure or atleast if you do want to save some bucks and learn it I would have someone show you in a store who does it for a living. As far as the Hard Drives the Seagates should do you fine. Good luck on your pruchase.

kevin
Click to expand...

uummm.......no offense to you either OSKNJ, but adding ram &/or HD's is a very simple procedure. Either or both take maybe 5-10 minutes at most. Assuming the OP buys the proper type/size/speed/spec'd ram, of course, an follows the simple directions at apple.com!
 
baby duck monge said:
Wow. What do you use for a monitor setup? Those could be some rather large pictures!
Click to expand...

Two to Four feet high x 10 to 20 feet long! Printed on an 9800 Pro with Image print Pro rip.

Currently two Sony artisan monitors, but am ordering two of the apple 23" displays to go with the Mac Pro.
 
If I were you, I'd swap out the stock hard drive (Since you're installing the OS on it) with a much faster 15,000 rpm hard drive.
 
If you actually manage to use all 10 gigs of that memory, please post everything you did to max it out.
 
Is the 2GB limitation a Photoshop thing or an OSX per program limit? I run massive calculations in Linux (3+GB RAM accessed and can always use more!), but would like to do them in OSX.
 
You only have 8 slots to work with for RAM. You might consider getting 2x1GB modules from the start so that you don't waste half of the RAM slots with 512 chips. Maybe just get 1GB (2x512) and then 4x2GB. 9GB will run the same and you'll spend a little less.

Or, go 2x512MB from the start and then do 6x1GB. There are serious diminishing returns after 4GB. 7GB, 8GB, 10GB -- eh, it's about the same, but you'll save a TON of money.
 
Could you provide some examples of why an excess of 4 gigs of memory would be needed?

I just am interested for future reference. I often times have iTunes, iPhoto, GarageBand, iDVD, Firefox, iChat, and Fire running and it runs smooth, though I know a little bit slower. When closing iPhoto and GarageBand and I am in great shape. I run this on 1 gig of ram on an iMac g5.

I do have very little exp. with Pro Apps and the Creative Suite, so maybe that would require much more ram.

When my machine does start slowing down cause of lack of ram, I generally close some applications that I either forgot to close or no longer need open. I rather do this then spend a small fortune on memory.
 
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