Mac Pro w/ x1900 XT SHIPPED!

[Multimedia]

Is There A Windows XP & Vista On Mac Pro For Dummys Website/Page Yet?

Bootcamp is VERY finicky in the Mac Pro... I recommend the following:

- Use a seperate drive
- Partition it how you want using Master Boot Record-style partitioning (THIS IS A MUST! While the XP CD can install /correctly/ to a GPT disk, it can't boot off one in the Mac Pro in this configuration, go figure)
- Boot off your slipstreamed XP disc with the SATA+Chipset drivers (you did make one, right?)
- Enjoy.

For those of us who are not Windows savy, is there any site for dummys that can explain what you wrote in this post in plain english without any of the lingo plus with detailed explanations of all of the lingo please?

I feel like your post, Krevnik, was written in Russian for Ukranian Geeks.

IE
1. What is Master Boot Record-style partitioning and how should one implement it on the Mac Pro?
2. What is a GPT Disk?
3. What is a Slipstreamed XP disc?
4. Where do you get SATA+Chipset drivers?
5. And when you get them how do you implement their introduction into the formula for success?
6. What is the formula for success?
7. Has anybody written down what they are doing step by step so an idiot could also do it by following detailed instructions with no taken-for-granted-everyone-knows steps missing?

Please and thank you in advance for your consideration. I only have an original Windows Professional XP CD - not even service pac 2. I know there is a network upgrade on a Microsoft page that lets me convert it to service pac 2 but can't remember where that stuff is.

So I need links to help from scratch. Thanks.

 

[Fedge]

For those of us who are not Windows savy, is there any site for dummys that can explain what you wrote in this post in plain english without any of the lingo plus with detailed explanations of all of the lingo please?

I feel like your post, Krevnik, was written in Russian for Ukranian Geeks.

Use a seperate drive
- Install windows on a hard drive SEPARATE from your Mac OS X boot drive.

Partition it how you want using Master Boot Record-style partitioning (THIS IS A MUST! While the XP CD can install /correctly/ to a GPT disk, it can't boot off one in the Mac Pro in this configuration, go figure)
- Let windows do its thing my installing a Master Boot Record (MBR) instead of the GUID Partition Table (GPT). Shouldn't be an issue if you start with a separate drive.

Boot off your slipstreamed XP disc with the SATA+Chipset drivers (you did make one, right? This is what makes the HDD speeds good, instead of worse than my old PowerMac 8600)
- Make a custom Windows Install disc containing the appropriate intel drivers to fix the performace of SATA hard disks.

Enjoy.
- Have fun.

 

[serogers]

Based in San Jose CA, Fry's has grown into a regional powerhouse in the San Francisco Bay Area, Portland OR, Texas, San Diego, Los Angels Area and Phoenix, Atlanta, Chicago, Indianapolis, Las Vegas Nevada, Portland Oregon, & Seattle Washington for ultra low prices on gear. They are particularly famous for offering gear at incredible prices on Holidays and the day after Thanksgiving and Christmas.

They run full page ads in the biggest papers in their metros like these in the San Jose Mercury News which we all get online about 6AM each day. If you use Firefox, each part of the ad pops up in a zoomed detail window as you mouse over different parts of it. Major 8 page inserts appear on Fridays. Holiday sale prices appear in the papers the day of the sale and in the case of the day after Thanksgiving and Christmas on those holidays before and on the day of - Black Friday and December 26.

I was there yesterday at 9AM when the door opened. But only about 20 of us were there even though 400GB SATA/300 and PATA/100 Seagate 7200 rpm HDs with 16MB buffers were only $99.99 - no rebate.

[ anaheim ] [ arlington ] [ austin ] [ burbank ] [ campbell ] [ city of industry ] [ concord ] [ dallas ] [ downers grove ] [ duluth ] [ fishers ] [ fountain valley ] [ fremont ] [ houston ] [ irving ] [ las vegas ] [ manhattan beach ] [ oxnard ] [ palo alto ] [ phoenix ] [ plano ] [ renton ] [ sacramento ] [ san diego ] [ san jose ] [ san marcos ] [ south houston ] [ sunnyvale ] [ tempe ] [ webster ] [ wilsonville ] [ woodland hills ] are all their city locations. I can't put in any of the links because their site is based on Frames - IE No different URLs for each page.

They are in the process of building a new one in Roseville right now as well.
They are a great store to go to, but you HAVE to know what you are looking for because their employees are totally, and completely useless! But as stated, they are usually one of the best places to go price-wiseif you don't like online.

 

[Magis]

uggh again

I just called Apple - I was able to confirm that not being able to cancel online has nothing to do with whether it is about to ship. Like I said, mine was ordered on 8/7 and stopped being cancelable two days ago after getting priority shipping. I live in Los Angeles and he was able to confirm that not only will mine be shipping out of Fullerton but that IT HASN'T EVEN HIT THE PRODUCTION FLOOR, MY COMPUTER IS STILL A NUMBER! - pardon the frustration.

 

[kered22]

I feel your pain Magis, hard being in the LA area (I'm in Torrance) just north of Fullerton and not having your MacPro yet. Your situation is the worst since it was so soon after the Pros were introduced... Apples got some really messed up priorities....

 

[mus0r]

My Mac Pro has also shipped...several weeks early, in fact. It was scheduled to be shipped on the 29th, but went out on the 6th.

I'm going to be giddy like a schoolgirl on Tuesday when it arrives

 

[Bosh]

One thing to consider ... I used a Check Card with a daily limit less than the total cost of my order. I happen to catch the problem the day they first attempted to charge my card. I spoke with someone on the phone and they were able to split the charges into one that day and one the next.

Make sure your credit card does not have a limit below your order cost. Perhaps some orders are being delayed because of something similar.

 

[Abulia]

Tuesday seems sooooo far away to order. Must. Resist!

 

[Renovatio]

Well ... a week ago I removed the ATI card from my CTO in the hopes of making it ship faster after an Apple rep messed up my order pushing it to mid-October. My Mac Pro was *supposed* to arrive today with the ATI card coming much later.

This morning I woke up to an e-mail "Due to an unexpected delay, we were unable to ship your product(s) by the date originally quoted to you." They then proceeded to tell me my ship date has been moved from the 7th ... to the 15th

Called Apple and told them I was really pissed about this. They gave me free shipping.

Then I checked the Apple store and noticed that if I add the ATI card CTO the wait time is only the standard 2-4 days. Called back and added the ATI card back in and they say the estimated ship date will still be the 15th (next Friday)

So here's hoping for some luck. Boy I really can understand the frustration of the people who ordered right when released and still haven't had their ship while people who ordered last week already are getting theirs.

 

[Trekkie]

So here's hoping for some luck. Boy I really can understand the frustration of the people who ordered right when released and still haven't had their ship while people who ordered last week already are getting theirs.

Good luck

Sometimes I wonder if all of us sweating it out and messing with the orders causes issues with their system

 

[Fedge]

If it's any consolation, once it does come you'll be in heaven. The machine rocks. It's certainly worth waiting for.

 

[Krevnik]

I feel like your post, Krevnik, was written in Russian for Ukranian Geeks.

Best part of the post, hands-down.

I may not be able to do a full how-to, but I can answer the questions:

1. What is Master Boot Record-style partitioning and how should one implement it on the Mac Pro?
2. What is a GPT Disk?

GPT (Guid Partition Table) is the default disk-type used by Intel Macs. MBR (Master Boot Record) is the legacy disk-type used by PCs since DOS. When you go to partition a disk in Disk Utility, click the small options button at the bottom, and you will be allowed to select the type of partitioning you want.

Just don't do this to the disk you want MacOS X on, as then it won't boot correctly. This why I say use a seperate physical disk, and I bought one for the purpose of running Windows on it while another disk houses OS X (that and the work I do takes a good 50GB in Windows... and I write code for a living. ).

3. What is a Slipstreamed XP disc?
4. Where do you get SATA+Chipset drivers?
5. And when you get them how do you implement their introduction into the formula for success?
6. What is the formula for success?

This is covered in the following handy how-to which I farmed from the 'Slow SATA performance on Mac Pro in XP/Bootcamp' thread: http://macprojournal.com/xp.html

It is usually pretty clear, although it assumes you have already installed Windows from the original XP SP 2 disc on a machine. I used Parallels on my MacBook, though, and burned the disc image using Disk Utility.

7. Has anybody written down what they are doing step by step so an idiot could also do it by following detailed instructions with no taken-for-granted-everyone-knows steps missing?

Not really.

Please and thank you in advance for your consideration. I only have an original Windows Professional XP CD - not even service pac 2. I know there is a network upgrade on a Microsoft page that lets me convert it to service pac 2 but can't remember where that stuff is.

The link for slipstreaming the disc also has instructions for slipstreaming SP 2 onto your XP disc. That way the disc you burn afterwards will be XP SP 2, with the drivers you need.

 

[TheFuzz]

has anyone with the x1900 run cinebench? did i miss it somewhere if someone's already posted?

 

[stapler]

I called a second time and they're trying to get me free overnight.

 

[bob5820]

I've heard this before, so I figured I'd give it a shot too. I called and there's no change on my order date. Checked my status online, still expected to ship on Sept 29. I'm running out for a few hours, hopefully when I get home I'll get the e-amil my Mac Pro has shipped. Thats how it works right?? While I was on the phone I asked about free upgraded shipping because of the delays, but they didn't bite. Was worth a try.

Well that didn't work , think I'll try sacrificing some chickens or something

 

[kered22]

Well that didn't work , think I'll try sacrificing some chickens or something

I hope you're reading this Apple. I'm threatening to sue AND cause a ruckus outside of 1 Infinite Loop with a bonfire, torches and pitchforks. And now Bob5820 is going to start sacrifices, it's only a matter of time before he progresses to things more siniser than chickens.... Now watch, several Apple employees will start mysteriously disappearing. LOL

 

[ammon]

It shipped!!! Finally!!!!

It should be here by the 12th. It is about time!

 

[kromekat]

Ah - it takes me back 2 years whilst we al sat impatiently waiting for our Dual 2.5 G5's, except of course, we waited 3 months after ordering!! :/

Any Cinebench scores yet??

 

[arn]

has anyone with the x1900 run cinebench? did i miss it somewhere if someone's already posted?

CINEBENCH 9.5
****************************************************

Processor : Dual Xeon, Mac Pro, 2GB RAM (512MB x 4)
MHz : 2.66GHz
Number of CPUs : 4
Operating System : Mac OS X 10.4.7

Graphics Card : ATI X1900

****************************************************

Rendering (Single CPU): 439 CB-CPU
Rendering (Multiple CPU): 1429 CB-CPU

Multiprocessor Speedup: 3.25

Shading (CINEMA 4D) : 527 CB-GFX
Shading (OpenGL Software Lighting) : 1983 CB-GFX
Shading (OpenGL Hardware Lighting) : 4030 CB-GFX

OpenGL Speedup: 7.65

****************************************************

 

[Multimedia]

Someone Please Provide Analysis Of These Results

CINEBENCH 9.5
****************************************************

Processor : Dual Xeon, Mac Pro, 2GB RAM (512MB x 4)
MHz : 2.66GHz
Number of CPUs : 4
Operating System : Mac OS X 10.4.7

Graphics Card : ATI X1900

****************************************************

Rendering (Single CPU): 439 CB-CPU
Rendering (Multiple CPU): 1429 CB-CPU

Multiprocessor Speedup: 3.25

Shading (CINEMA 4D) : 527 CB-GFX
Shading (OpenGL Software Lighting) : 1983 CB-GFX
Shading (OpenGL Hardware Lighting) : 4030 CB-GFX

OpenGL Speedup: 7.65

****************************************************

Thank you. Now will someone tell us what this means? I have zero experience looking at stats like this. Perhaps some comparison to a G5 Quad's Cinebench Result from someone who has both or the other? Thanks very much.

BTW I went to Fry's yesterday and re-ran my video compression tests - encoding DVD images with Toast 7.1 from EyeTV HD recordings and then ripping from those images with Handbrake to archival iPod compatible size mp4 files. I have concluded that the Mac Pro is NOT significantly faster than the G5 Quad for this particular type of work. Will have to wait for Clovertown before a real improvement may come to pass - I hope. Bummer.

I suppose I am the only person in the world running this pattern of workflow all the time.

 

[arn]

Thank you. Now will someone tell us what this means? I have zero experience looking at stats like this. Perhaps some comparison to a G5 Quad's Cinebench Result from someone who has both or the other? Thanks very much.

Doesn't look much better than the "regular" video card

http://arstechnica.com/reviews/hardware/macpro.ars/7

 

[TheFuzz]

CINEBENCH 9.5
****************************************************

Processor : Dual Xeon, Mac Pro, 2GB RAM (512MB x 4)
MHz : 2.66GHz
Number of CPUs : 4
Operating System : Mac OS X 10.4.7

Graphics Card : ATI X1900

****************************************************

Rendering (Single CPU): 439 CB-CPU
Rendering (Multiple CPU): 1429 CB-CPU

Multiprocessor Speedup: 3.25

Shading (CINEMA 4D) : 527 CB-GFX
Shading (OpenGL Software Lighting) : 1983 CB-GFX
Shading (OpenGL Hardware Lighting) : 4030 CB-GFX

OpenGL Speedup: 7.65

****************************************************

thanks, arn! i just ran it on my machine with the stock 7300gt. results below:

CINEBENCH 9.5
****************************************************

Tester :

Processor : Dual Xeon, Mac Pro, 2GB RAM (512MB x 4)
MHz : 2.66ghz
Number of CPUs : 4
Operating System : OSX: 10.4.7

Graphics Card : nvidia 7300gt
Resolution : <fill this out>
Color Depth : <fill this out>

****************************************************

Rendering (Single CPU): 439 CB-CPU
Rendering (Multiple CPU): 1422 CB-CPU

Multiprocessor Speedup: 3.24

Shading (CINEMA 4D) : 525 CB-GFX
Shading (OpenGL Software Lighting) : 2104 CB-GFX
Shading (OpenGL Hardware Lighting) : 4420 CB-GFX

OpenGL Speedup: 8.42

****************************************************

 

[Rocksteady]

so the 7300 beat the 1900?

 

[Multimedia]

Anyone With Both Cards That Can Report Comparative Experience?

so the 7300 beat the 1900?

Did anyone order both cards so they can report comparative experiences?

Probably defective benchmark.

 

[x704]

If that's what it means, this is quite a scandall. Did anyone order both cards so they can report comparative experiences?

I'm feeling a stunned silence across planet Earth right now.

I'll break the silence, becasue I did not order one yet! Yes I would too like to see side by side tests.

(I probably won't buy one anyway but I can still dream right?)