Mac Pro: Dilemma

[jjahshik32]

Cool setup. Man, I could have probably got by on a mini instaed of blowing over 4K. HAHA. Was it pretty easy to upgrade the mini? Do you need special tools?

I've never opened up a mac mini before nor owned one in the past so I had to find the instructions on how to open the case up.

I went to homedepot just to buy the putty knife to do it. Once you do have a putty knife its a breeze to open it up but the internal parts.. I knew nothing about so it took me about an hour and a half to two hours to carefully examine it and take it apart myself.

The hdd part was hardest to figure out but once I got everything upgraded its very easy. I can probably do it all under 20 minutes now.

All I have to say is that I love the mac mini its such a cool little computer. I would have to say that its my favorite out of all of Apple's line (I've basically owned everything from 15" mbp, 17" mbp to 2.8ghz 8 core mac pro, except the imac which never really interested me).

 

[Tesselator]

I was just wondering if anyone had any thoughts on the single vs. dual....is the single a better value than I think?

To me the single chip quad is not worth even considering. It seems to me like Apple marketing is on purpose slapping the world in the face. It maxes out at 8gb RAM and you can not upgrade to a dual-quad. Considering the same spec in a Core i7 box Apple is overcharging by at least $1,000.00 (ONE THOUSAND DOLARS!) and that's indeed insulting to me.

The dual quads are better I guess but I don't get the marketing concept. You pay more than the price of '08 boxes for a slower clocked proc which WILL "feel" slower under your mouse. So during most of your computing day you will have paid more for less. Unless you're a render-a-holic or something. So to me the Quads are an insult and the Octads are ummm... curious shall we say.

Curious IMHO, is much much better than insulting!

And I've built hackintoshes and used the EFIX chip.....my experience with that = big a$$ waste of time. And in the end you really don't save that much money. BUT..if you like dealing with update worries, crackling sound and crossing your fingers every time you boot the computer then it's probably for you.

That bad huh? I haven't tried one yet. There's like three or four different distros out there. I've been wanting to give it a go on one of my Dell Precision workstations. Sounds like I'm in for some fun.


.

 

[nanofrog]

Vanilla Kernel + a retail copy of OS X seems to be a good way to go.

jjahshik32, could you shed a little light as to what you went through, and when?
(It seems to have gotten better recently, from what I can tell).

 

[superpalmtree]

So when using the Mac Mini do you see the little beach ball lots? I'm very new to Macs. The past year was my first venture into Macs and I started with the Pro. I had Velociraptors in my 08 which worked great!

I'm tempted to get a Mini for my Mac OS and then get a Dell XPS or Precision laptop for my business, (Quickbooks, Exchange, Office Stuff)...I can not stand Apple's Entourage, or QB's for Macs...come to think of it I actually like Vista X64 way more than OSX. I just find it good in my profession to know both OS's.

So..ordering a $3800 Mac Pro may be a bit overkill for my situation. But...that would serve as a nice Vista & OSX computer.

Fun times....

I've never opened up a mac mini before nor owned one in the past so I had to find the instructions on how to open the case up.

I went to homedepot just to buy the putty knife to do it. Once you do have a putty knife its a breeze to open it up but the internal parts.. I knew nothing about so it took me about an hour and a half to two hours to carefully examine it and take it apart myself.

The hdd part was hardest to figure out but once I got everything upgraded its very easy. I can probably do it all under 20 minutes now.

All I have to say is that I love the mac mini its such a cool little computer. I would have to say that its my favorite out of all of Apple's line (I've basically owned everything from 15" mbp, 17" mbp to 2.8ghz 8 core mac pro, except the imac which never really interested me).

I recently built a few EFIX machines. (expresshd.com) -- Here's what I think. If you are much more of a Windows guy...dealing with the problems with a hackintosh might be bearable. Since you'd mainly be using Windows anyways. EFIX and Hackintoshes to me are nothing but constant maintenance. And if you make the slightest wrong adjustment your computer will not boot.

In my builds even with all the proper hardware I ran into lots of choppy audio problems, certain apps not behaving properly, network issues where you had to restart to gain network access, network share issues, computer lock ups when downloading new updates/firmware, computers not booting unexpectedly...just problem after problem. Granted most were small.

The HackMac is fine...I'd say it's more for a hobby, although lots of pro's use them...I would never use one for pro work.

Just my point of view -- for whatever that's worth...I've just been down that trail 3 times...I ended up selling one and lost $200, I RMA'd my other build back to Newegg and lost $500 in restock/shipping fees, and my last one I luckily sold to a client who needed a custom PC. So..I hate THEM! HAHA

Vanilla Kernel + a retail copy of OS X seems to be a good way to go.

jjahshik32, could you shed a little light as to what you went through, and when?
(It seems to have gotten better recently, from what I can tell).

 

[nanofrog]

I recently built a few EFIX machines. (expresshd.com) -- Here's what I think. If you are much more of a Windows guy...dealing with the problems with a hackintosh might be bearable. Since you'd mainly be using Windows anyways. EFIX and Hackintoshes to me are nothing but constant maintenance. And if you make the slightest wrong adjustment your computer will not boot.

In my builds even with all the proper hardware I ran into lots of choppy audio problems, certain apps not behaving properly, network issues where you had to restart to gain network access, network share issues, computer lock ups when downloading new updates/firmware, computers not booting unexpectedly...just problem after problem. Granted most were small.

The HackMac is fine...I'd say it's more for a hobby, although lots of pro's use them...I would never use one for pro work.

Just my point of view -- for whatever that's worth...I've just been down that trail 3 times...I ended up selling one and lost $200, I RMA'd my other build back to Newegg and lost $500 in restock/shipping fees, and my last one I luckily sold to a client who needed a custom PC. So..I hate THEM! HAHA

My needs definitely require Windows, and it doesn't look like that's changing in the next few years. I also use Linux, which I have a few stories with... but it as gotten better, particularly as I entered the Linux fray very early.

OS X is meant more as an experiment for me, to keep up to date with it, and I like to tinker.

 

[superpalmtree]

Perfect!

It's perfect for the tinker!! I didn't mean to make it sound all bad either. It was kind of cool. I used high end cases...like the ABS Canyon 695 and Lian Li PC-P80R -- it was cool seeing Mac OSX load up...and boy it was fast! Seemed faster than my Mac Pro.

Before I started using OSX I thought it would be so much more superior. I must admit lots of OSX apps are good looking...but whenever I use OSX in my business I get behind. To me Vista is fast and fluid...granted I'm using powerful hardware.

HAHA -- Well...I do love OSX though, I think it's becomming more transparent between PC/MAC/Linux users than ever before.

I have a Mac Pro ordered but am starting to like the idea of a Mac Mini with my 24 LED Apple and wireles keyboard/mouse....---

My needs definitely require Windows, and it doesn't look like that's changing in the next few years. I also use Linux, which I have a few stories with... but it as gotten better, particularly as I entered the Linux fray very early.

OS X is meant more as an experiment for me, to keep up to date with it, and I like to tinker.

 

[nanofrog]

It's perfect for the tinker!! I didn't mean to make it sound all bad either. It was kind of cool. I used high end cases...like the ABS Canyon 695 and Lian Li PC-P80R -- it was cool seeing Mac OSX load up...and boy it was fast! Seemed faster than my Mac Pro.

Before I started using OSX I thought it would be so much more superior. I must admit lots of OSX apps are good looking...but whenever I use OSX in my business I get behind. To me Vista is fast and fluid...granted I'm using powerful hardware.

HAHA -- Well...I do love OSX though, I think it's becomming more transparent between PC/MAC/Linux users than ever before.

I have a Mac Pro ordered but am starting to like the idea of a Mac Mini with my 24 LED Apple and wireles keyboard/mouse....---

I'm partial to Lian Li as well. Currently using the PC-V2010.

The applications I use aren't all available in OS X, but are under Windows, so I've no choice really, unless I boot between OS's constantly. Not to mention the costs associated with switching the licenses for those that do run under OS X. VM isn't an option either. (I need my electronic bench equipment attached to the computer, and couldn't make it work).

OS's do seem to have better parity these days, but Linux isn't quite ready for prime time per se. But it's amazing considering how it's been developed.

 

[jjahshik32]

So when using the Mac Mini do you see the little beach ball lots? I'm very new to Macs. The past year was my first venture into Macs and I started with the Pro. I had Velociraptors in my 08 which worked great!

I'm tempted to get a Mini for my Mac OS and then get a Dell XPS or Precision laptop for my business, (Quickbooks, Exchange, Office Stuff)...I can not stand Apple's Entourage, or QB's for Macs...come to think of it I actually like Vista X64 way more than OSX. I just find it good in my profession to know both OS's.

So..ordering a $3800 Mac Pro may be a bit overkill for my situation. But...that would serve as a nice Vista & OSX computer.

Fun times....



I recently built a few EFIX machines. (expresshd.com) -- Here's what I think. If you are much more of a Windows guy...dealing with the problems with a hackintosh might be bearable. Since you'd mainly be using Windows anyways. EFIX and Hackintoshes to me are nothing but constant maintenance. And if you make the slightest wrong adjustment your computer will not boot.

In my builds even with all the proper hardware I ran into lots of choppy audio problems, certain apps not behaving properly, network issues where you had to restart to gain network access, network share issues, computer lock ups when downloading new updates/firmware, computers not booting unexpectedly...just problem after problem. Granted most were small.

The HackMac is fine...I'd say it's more for a hobby, although lots of pro's use them...I would never use one for pro work.

Just my point of view -- for whatever that's worth...I've just been down that trail 3 times...I ended up selling one and lost $200, I RMA'd my other build back to Newegg and lost $500 in restock/shipping fees, and my last one I luckily sold to a client who needed a custom PC. So..I hate THEM! HAHA

Even with heavy multitasking + vmware fusion no beach balls at all.

 

[Tesselator]

I've never opened up a mac mini before nor owned one in the past so I had to find the instructions on how to open the case up.

http://www.ifixit.com/Guide/First-Look/Mac-mini-A1283/659/3#top

 

[Tesselator]

Vanilla Kernel + a retail copy of OS X seems to be a good way to go.

Yeah, I haven't looked yet but I guess the different disrtros are just different sets of OS X drivers for whatever. <???> I guess none of them are modding the kernel or supplying an illegal copy of OS X. Again though I haven't really looked - Just clicked a few links and looked at the title + the first few lines of text.

 

[myca]

I recently built a few EFIX machines. (expresshd.com) -- Here's what I think. If you are much more of a Windows guy...dealing with the problems with a hackintosh might be bearable. Since you'd mainly be using Windows anyways. EFIX and Hackintoshes to me are nothing but constant maintenance. And if you make the slightest wrong adjustment your computer will not boot.

In my builds even with all the proper hardware I ran into lots of choppy audio problems, certain apps not behaving properly, network issues where you had to restart to gain network access, network share issues, computer lock ups when downloading new updates/firmware, computers not booting unexpectedly...just problem after problem. Granted most were small.

The HackMac is fine...I'd say it's more for a hobby, although lots of pro's use them...I would never use one for pro work.

Just my point of view -- for whatever that's worth...I've just been down that trail 3 times...I ended up selling one and lost $200, I RMA'd my other build back to Newegg and lost $500 in restock/shipping fees, and my last one I luckily sold to a client who needed a custom PC. So..I hate THEM! HAHA

I'm hoping that my EFIX hackintosh build goes well, if I can get it stable and running the OS and apps I use I won't be doing updates, I'll just leave it as my audio workstation/gaming rig. I'm not allowed to update my OS until Digidesign tell me I can anyway.

If the build is a disaster on the OSX side, well I'll have a nice gaming rig and I'll just have to wait for the new base mac pros to have a better price/feature ratio, and hope that my ageing dual G5 can keep up.

 

[nanofrog]

Yeah, I haven't looked yet but I guess the different disrtros are just different sets of OS X drivers for whatever. <???> I guess none of them are modding the kernel or supplying an illegal copy of OS X. Again though I haven't really looked - Just clicked a few links and looked at the title + the first few lines of text.

I've been under the impression that at least some of the distros are modified versions. Vanilla is the only one I'm certain of that isn't, as you need a (hopefully retail) copy of OS X.