Mac Pro Arrived! Pics Included

[digitalbiker]

Front row would be awesome on a Macbook Pro, and here's why. I hook my powerbook up to my tv and stereo when I want to watch a movie or a downloaded tv show or when I listen to iTunes and I can tell you that having a remote for my setup would be awesome.

If I'm watching a movie and the phone rings I have to get up and pause it. If I'm with a female on the couch listening to iTunes on random and some lame song comes up I have to get up and change it. If I'm watching something else when I'm all alone, a remote would come in very handy.

Rather than constantly connecting and un-connecting a $2000.00+ laptop to a tv and stereo. Plus farting around with finding the right cables and connections and a place to rest your half openned laptop so that the IR works. Wouldn't it make more sense to buy a cheap mac mini with airport and use it permanantly tucked away and connected to your tv and stereo.

 

[Chundles]

sorry my bad.... its the 50XX series tt supports HT.

What do you mean "50xx series tt"?

I am unaware of a "tt" version of the 50xx.

 

[Cowinacape]

You are correct sir.

Not a problem. You sure you need that noisy overkill card that makes you wait a month? Both Dual DVI ports supports the 30" 2560 x 1600 30" Monitors. You sure you gonna spend $4000 for those? Cause if not, you don't need that card unless you are a gamer or a 3-D worker.

Cool! Thanks for the confirmations! I used to play a lot with Bryce and Carrara (many many a hour wasted away with those two, and I look forward to getting back into them once again) as well, I am hoping to run XP with bootcamp, so I can still play my games (CSS,DoD,CoD ect. ect.) especially scince I already have the PC versions of them, and a copy of Xp that I can remove from this old PC when the time comes. Acctually the games are the only reason for me to have Windows in my life, if not for them, I'd be completely Mac-centric.

Thanks again!

Before I forget, $4000.00 is a little above my budget for monitors (not that I don't lust for them none the less) but I am looking at a couple of wide 19" for the programs listed above, and for Logic as well) I only plan on using on monitor for gaming through windows though.

 

[mittles]

Congrats on the new Toy.

I just did the PS test and I got 4:10 !
:: how come he got 4min 8 on that beast ??

these are my specs.

System Version: Mac OS X 10.4.7 (8J2135)

Machine Name: iMac
Machine Model: iMac4,1
CPU Type: Intel Core Duo
Number Of Cores: 2
CPU Speed: 2 GHz
L2 Cache (shared): 2 MB
Memory: 1.5 GB
Bus Speed: 667 MHz


WDC WD2500JS-40NGB2:

Capacity: 232.89 GB
Model: WDC WD2500JS-40NGB2
Revision: 10.02E04

 

[Multimedia]

mini Serves Mac Pro Media To TV?

Rather than constantly connecting and un-connecting a $2000.00+ laptop to a tv and stereo. Plus farting around with finding the right cables and connections and a place to rest your half openned laptop so that the IR works. Wouldn't it make more sense to buy a cheap mac mini with airport and use it permanantly tucked away and connected to your tv and stereo.

So the mini is a delivery hub for everything coming from a wi-fi server like a Mac Pro?

Now I see why there is a need for Airport in the Mac Pro.

 

[kanefsky]

I am sure we will see something between this beast and the Mac mini using Core 2 duo. Just a matter of time (Paris?).

Well we have the MacBook, MacBook Pro, and Mac Pro. So clearly there is room for a new model called the "Mac"

--
Steve

 

[hondaboy945]

I'm a bit confused on this issue. ATI makes two Quadro 4500 cards. They make the Quadro FX 4500 and the Quadro FX 4500 X2. I thought the difference between these cards were that the FX 4500 had one Dual Link DVI connector for one monitor and that the FX 4500 X2 was a double wide card that supported two Dual Link DVI monitors.

But Apples description of the FX 4500 says that it supports two Dual Link DVI monitors.

So is Apple using the ATI FX 4500 X2 double wide card but just calling it a Quadro FX 4500 option?

just for claification Nvidia makes the Quadro Cards, and ATI makes the Crossfire abd Radeon cards.

 

[hondaboy945]

I'm a bit confused on this issue. ATI makes two Quadro 4500 cards. They make the Quadro FX 4500 and the Quadro FX 4500 X2. I thought the difference between these cards were that the FX 4500 had one Dual Link DVI connector for one monitor and that the FX 4500 X2 was a double wide card that supported two Dual Link DVI monitors.

But Apples description of the FX 4500 says that it supports two Dual Link DVI monitors.

So is Apple using the ATI FX 4500 X2 double wide card but just calling it a Quadro FX 4500 option?

I was just reading on Nvidias site and the Quadro FX 4500 X2 has (2) 512mb GPU's on the Video card for 1GB of Video memory and (4) DVI connectors so we can hook up 4 panels off of one card, and with the possibility of running (2) of these cards Thats 2GB of Video and (8) displays, that would make for a very "Swordfish" like computer room. Swordfish the movie to make that clear. (8) Displays hooked up to the (8) core Mac Pro! I'm down for it!!!!!

 

[k2director]

Laslo, does the Mac Pro heat up your room by much??

Laslo, thanks for posting all this info about the Mac Pro. Much appreciated!

One question for you: I know that you said your Mac Pro was silent, but how much heat does it generate? I find that my Quad G5 heats up my guest bedroom pretty easily, to the point where I have to point a small desk fan at myself, to stay cool! My original PowerMac G5 (2.0 Dual) also could heat up a room, but not nearly as quickly as this Quad can.

I would love it if the Mac Pro didn't generate quite so much heat, and am curious what your experience has been so far!

Any help appreciated, thanks!

 

[Chundles]

Well we have the MacBook, MacBook Pro, and Mac Pro. So clearly there is room for a new model called the "Mac"

--
Steve

Oh god it's like banging my head against a wall!!!

The MacBook is a Mac, the MacBook Pro is a Mac, the Mac Pro is a Mac, the iMac is a Mac, the Mac mini is a Mac. You can't have a single product that has the same name as all of your products, it's confusing and just plain stupid.

Seriously no more of this "They're going to release a new model called the "Mac" talk" it's total bollocks. Apple can come up with something a little more original - Mac Pro mini, Cube², even the Mac maxi would make more sense if it didn't sound like a feminine hygiene product.

 

[Mammoth]

Oh god it's like banging my head against a wall!!!

The MacBook is a Mac, the MacBook Pro is a Mac, the Mac Pro is a Mac, the iMac is a Mac, the Mac mini is a Mac. You can't have a single product that has the same name as all of your products, it's confusing and just plain stupid.

Seriously no more of this "They're going to release a new model called the "Mac" talk" it's total bollocks. Apple can come up with something a little more original - Mac Pro mini, Cube², even the Mac maxi would make more sense if it didn't sound like a feminine hygiene product.

I'm thinking along the lines that the next 'prosumer' model will be called iMac², because it's the second iMac, and it would be square in some form.

 

[chiamon]

What do you mean "50xx series tt"?

I am unaware of a "tt" version of the 50xx.

tt is a shortform for "that". Sorry for using short forms.

 

[motulist]

Rather than constantly connecting and un-connecting a $2000.00+ laptop to a tv and stereo. Plus farting around with finding the right cables and connections and a place to rest your half openned laptop so that the IR works. Wouldn't it make more sense to buy a cheap mac mini with airport and use it permanantly tucked away and connected to your tv and stereo.

If you wanna gimmie the dough I'd be more than willing to accept it. Plugging 2 cables in is hardly a hassle and it's a notebook, this is hardly rough duty for it. Spending $500 so I don't have to insert 2 plugs every now and then seems like a very bad solution to me.

 

[chiamon]

I don't have a card to try or I would.

Something neat to note, once I got windows working, in the nvidia control panel is says that the card is SLI capable, and that I can add another one. The funny part is that there is no SLI connector on the card that came with my Mac Pro.

So, it looks like the chipset supports SLI.

Laslo, thx for ur time in trying out bootcamp, so far we noe the graphics and chipset works, so what are the compatibility problems, if any, in boot camp for mac pro so far?

Nice to hear that SLI seems possible, if u are thinking about the bridge connector btwn 2 cards, it is actually not necessary with the new drivers, the cards can communicate through the PCI lanes without the bridge. Regarding SLI connectors on the cards, they should be present as seen from the powermax take-apart of the mac pro U can see he connector at the bottom right corner of the heat sink.

So SLI is only possible in win xp but not OS X? Hopefully, driver support for SLI in os X will come in the future.

Mind to show a screen shot of the Nvidia control panel SLI option page? thx!
However, SLI capability of the 5000X was not explicitly stated anywhere on intel website, strange.

 

[shongohan]

we need some graphics benchmark for macpro's 7300GT

Good work Laslo, Thanks!

Now Laslo, please... I need some information...

Any single benchmark for bootcamp for comparison Imac's x1600 vs macpro 7300GT...

Detailed any 3dmark results or game results etc

Depends of the result I can buy now the standard macpro... because for me macpro silent...it's of paramount importance but also i am gamer!

Thanks Laslo!

PD: k2director your hot's question is also very interesting!

 

[cyberbeats]

hi,
i have a little question for the new macpro owners:
is it really silent?
I have sold my dual g5 because there was a high pitch sound
(someone called it "chirp"), and the macbookpro too had similar noises.
So, could you tell if there is any strange sounds coming from the PSU?
I'm in a little room and work with audio,
so i'm everyday looking for the most silent mac! Thanks for any feedback.

 

[cb911]

Someone, please help me to understand RAID a little better. Wouldn't this setup significantly increase the chances of losing your data. If only one drive in 4 fails in a RAID 0 setup, you lose 1/4 of your data and chances are, corrupt many of your files, applications and the like. You could lose almost everything on your 4 drives because you've then lost 1/4 of all the files, is this correct? I know about the speed gain but is it worth that kind of risk. Someone, please correct me if I don't understand this.

you're right there - you'd lose all your data if a single drive out of RAID 0 failed. That's why i use RAID 10. that's RAID 1 + 0 - so you have the best of both worlds.

now why I ask about hardware RAID is because the SATA data cables need to be plugged directly into the RAID controller card. with the G5 it was a real squeeze to get a cable up into the lower hard drive bay!

would someone be able to have a look and see if it's easy enough to run a data cable to one of the HD's in the Mac Pro?



also - i thougth the base config Mac Pro was ~$3500 here in Aus?? i know the Apple AU Store shows you the 2.66GHz model by default, which is ~$3999...

 

[shongohan]

Seems Only HD is Audible

Cyberbeats, while waiting for Laslo answer, I can say i have read that Mac pro is inaudible and only can hear sometimes HD noise but I suspect, overall seems even more quiet than Intel imac

 

[ReanimationLP]

Hyper-threading is overrated....



Perhaps, it will be more efficient if running under Mac OS X.

Hyperthreading is overrated, but its still a nice feature. I like my HT Pentium 4 chip

 

[Lollypop]

4 for the HD bays, 2 where the Optical drives are. (as in, disconnect your Superdrive and plug in an HD

Im actually impressed that Apple is using SATA optical drivers, they are still rare and very few of them support boot.

Hyperthreading was way overhyped, there was also very little ferformance gains as well.

 

[gravygraphics]

FB-DIMM information

I keep seeing where FB-DIMM's reduce trace on the motherboard. While true, this isn't the big advantage a user sees of a FB-DIMM.

The biggest advantage is what you see by looking at the new Mac Pro. It has 8 DIMM slots. As DRAM speeds have increased, the number of DIMM slots a channel on the North Bridge supports has decreased. A North Bridge cannot hold that many channels so the total number of DIMM slots keeps decreasing.

FB-DIMMs combat this in two ways. First, there are a lot less pins needed to support a FB-DIMM channel so that you can fit more channels on the North Bridge. Second, each buffer on the FB-DIMM can be used to daisy chain to another FB-DIMM. By daisy chaining, one channel could support 8 DIMM slots. I believe the Mac Pro supports 4 channels, each with 2 DIMM slots.

The next advantage of a FB-DIMM is that it can support simultaneous reads and writes. Even though the DRAM on the module can't do simultaneous reads and writes, the buffer chip can buffer up the writes until the DRAM is idle and then flush it out. They did make a tradeoff here. The write speed of the channel is half the read speed. The total bandwidth is higher since you can simultaneously read and write, but the peak write speed of a FB-DIMM will be slower than a standard DDR2 channel. This isn't a problem as writes are mainly used to make room in the cache for reads. Intel estimates that programs do 3x more reads than writes.

Another advantage of the FB-DIMM is the reliability. The channel has CRC protection to detect if there was an error in sending the data from the host to the FB-DIMM. In addition, the protocol supports ECC bits, which the Mac Pro supports. The ECC is an optional part of the spec, so theoretically you could buy a non-ECC FB-DIMM. The FB-DIMM spec goes so far as to support operation over a link that has a bad lane.

The downsides of the FB-DIMM is that it adds latency compared to a standard DDR2 channel and the extra power for the buffer chip.

 

[bigandy]

Im actually impressed that Apple is using SATA optical drivers, they are still rare and very few of them support boot.

I'm pretty sure they're not - I've seen a few diagrams showing a PATA ribbon up in the optical area...

which means you can use both - even better.

 

[Multimedia]

What is SLI And Why Do We Want It? I Have Never Heard Of SLI

I don't have a card to try or I would.

Something neat to note, once I got windows working, in the nvidia control panel is says that the card is SLI capable, and that I can add another one. The funny part is that there is no SLI connector on the card that came with my Mac Pro.

So, it looks like the chipset supports SLI.

So I need a SLI for Dummys post please. Please provide as much detail as possible with some links to more info if it's not too much trouble. Thanks in advance for the help. I am totally ignorant on this front.

 

[aswitcher]

Oh god it's like banging my head against a wall!!!

The MacBook is a Mac, the MacBook Pro is a Mac, the Mac Pro is a Mac, the iMac is a Mac, the Mac mini is a Mac. You can't have a single product that has the same name as all of your products, it's confusing and just plain stupid.

Seriously no more of this "They're going to release a new model called the "Mac" talk" it's total bollocks. Apple can come up with something a little more original - Mac Pro mini, Cube², even the Mac maxi would make more sense if it didn't sound like a feminine hygiene product.

I call Mac Media...or Media Mac...

 

[Multimedia]

SATA Optical Drives? Why What Where For Art Thou?

Im actually impressed that Apple is using SATA optical drivers, they are still rare and very few of them support boot.

I'm pretty sure they're not - I've seen a few diagrams showing a PATA ribbon up in the optical area...

which means you can use both - even better.

I thought the SATA connectors were for alternate hard driives instead of optical. Why would we want or need SATA speed on poky optical drives? Who makes them and what do they write very fast to what and how expensive optical media? You mean Blu-ray and HD-DVD Opticals are SATA? I thought they were Firewire. At least the Logitech Blu-ray optical for sale in Japan is FW400.

Here's that Mac Pro schematic again for those of you who missed it earlier: