Making the switch, pc to apple

[invisible]

Hi everyone--first time poster and semi-Apple newbie, I was around in the very-early days, IIe/LC2 and that fun stuff.

I'm pretty set on buying a Mac Pro and just trying to get some further information. I've looked at the iMacs which, although appealing, I shy away from because I prefer the idea of the easier upgradability of the pro. So my questions..

Moving from PC to Mac--I have about 875+gb of data I need to move over, its all on NTFS internal drives. Any suggestions on the best way to accomplish this?

Are all SATA/II drives compatible with the pro? Am I going to run into problems with the FAT32 formatting and 4gb file size limit?

Am I better off waiting until October for the release of Leopard rather than buying now and then upgrading?

Am I going to be satisfied with the single 256mb video card for higher-end gaming and editing?

Is the two 3.0ghz dual worth the $800 more versus the 2.66ghz?

Thanks in advance!
Blake

 

[eXan]

Hi everyone--first time poster and semi-Apple newbie, I was around in the very-early days, IIe/LC2 and that fun stuff.

I'm pretty set on buying a Mac Pro and just trying to get some further information. I've looked at the iMacs which, although appealing, I shy away from because I prefer the idea of the easier upgradability of the pro. So my questions..

Moving from PC to Mac--I have about 875+gb of data I need to move over, its all on NTFS internal drives. Any suggestions on the best way to accomplish this?

Are all SATA/II drives compatible with the pro? Am I going to run into problems with the FAT32 formatting and 4gb file size limit?

Am I better off waiting until October for the release of Leopard rather than buying now and then upgrading?

Is the two 3.0ghz dual worth the $800 more versus the 2.66ghz?

Thanks in advance!
Blake

Macs can read NTFS drives, but cannot write to them, so moving data from PC to Mac shouldn't be a problem.

As for 3 GHz vs 2.66, well it depends on what you use your computer for and if a small performance boost is worth the extra 800$.

Judging by the benchmarks on http://barefeats.com/ and others, I say that 2.66 is just slightly slower than 3.0 and, IMO, not worth so much more money. But thats me...

 

[killerrobot]

Moving from PC to Mac--I have about 875+gb of data I need to move over, its all on NTFS internal drives. Any suggestions on the best way to accomplish this?

NTFS can be read. So plug them in and copy over to your mac HDs.

Are all SATA/II drives compatible with the pro? Am I going to run into problems with the FAT32 formatting and 4gb file size limit?

Yes, as far as I know they are all compatible. And Yes, you will run into the 4gb file size limit. It really does exist. Are you wanting to do the FAT32 so you can read/write between Mac and PC?

Am I better off waiting until October for the release of Leopard rather than buying now and then upgrading?

Depends on if you can wait. It's only a hundred buck upgrade, and 10.4 Tiger is just as dependable. I'm personally not going to upgrade until Leopard has been out for a while. I really like Tiger.

Am I going to be satisfied with the single 256mb video card for higher-end gaming and editing?

If you're really going to do Higher end stuff, then you really need 512 (either through the card combos or the one card).

Is the two 3.0ghz dual worth the $800 more versus the 2.66ghz?

I say yes. I'd even say the Quad is worth the extra 700 on top of that. I think when you buy technology you should always get the top of the line processors available. That's just my opinion though.

Good luck with your purchase.

 

[Umbongo]

I say yes. I'd even say the Quad is worth the extra 700 on top of that. I think when you buy technology you should always get the top of the line processors available. That's just my opinion though.

It really depends on your usage with high end processors, for example the 3Ghz cost just over 20% more than the 2.66GHz, offering a theoretical 13% extra performance (depends on your task). Obviously for many people looking at high end workstations their time is worth far more than that, but when you add on Apple's huge margin for processor upgrades (like 80% on 3GHz over 2.66GHz) for those just looking for a powerful Apple desktop it might not be worth it.

 

[dartzorichalcos]

Is the two 3.0ghz dual worth the $800 more versus the 2.66ghz?

I will say get the 2.66GHz and more ram. Using that $800 on more ram than
.34GHz speed increase is better. I suggest waiting for Leopard too, if you can wait.

 

[invisible]

NTFS can be read. So plug them in and copy over to your mac HDs.

Yes, as far as I know they are all compatible. And Yes, you will run into the 4gb file size limit. It really does exist. Are you wanting to do the FAT32 so you can read/write between Mac and PC?

My predicament is basically I need to move 800gb of data.. or have those drives readable and writable on the mac and I don't really want to purchase new ones if I don't have to. They're decent drives. I was thinking of just copying 1 drive over, formatting the one copied to FAT32 or whatever mac will support, copying the data I copied back to its original source -- rinse and repeat.

Is there another formatting option I'm not aware of that doesn't have the 4gb limit on mac?

-- And thank you everyone for your answers thus far, appreciated.

 

[thomasp]

My predicament is basically I need to move 800gb of data.. or have those drives readable and writable on the mac and I don't really want to purchase new ones if I don't have to. They're decent drives. I was thinking of just copying 1 drive over, formatting the one copied to FAT32 or whatever mac will support, copying the data I copied back to its original source -- rinse and repeat.

Is there another formatting option I'm not aware of that doesn't have the 4gb limit on mac?

-- And thank you everyone for your answers thus far, appreciated.

Best bet would be Mac OSX's native HFS+ format, which is not readable at all by Windows machines.

 

[invisible]

I will say get the 2.66GHz and more ram. Using that $800 on more ram than
.34GHz speed increase is better. I suggest waiting for Leopard too, if you can wait.

How smooth is the OS upgrade process? Better to wait for the clean install? (you can tell I'm pc-influenced with these questions.)

 

[dartzorichalcos]

How smooth is the OS upgrade process? Better to wait for the clean install? (you can tell I'm pc-influenced with these questions.)

If you buy the Mac Pro right now, you have 3 options when you buy Leopard and install Leopard: Upgrade, Archive and Install and Erase and Install. Upgrade just upgrades Tiger to Leopard, Archive and Install will save your existing files and will delete Tiger and install Leopard, Erase and Install will erase everything and install Leopard. If you buy the Mac Pro with Leopard installed you don't have to worry about OS upgrading (Tiger -----> Leopard).

 

[Oilbrnr]

It has been years since I went through a Mac OS upgrade, but I personally would not hold off buying now. I have a lot more faith in Apple than I ever have had with MS in the upgrade dept.

Another option might be getting a TB external. I just picked up a 1TB Maxtor for around $350. It has Firewire, so the IO is fast. Once you get settled in with the MP you could use it as a DR backup device...

I too started out on a IIe and then a Fat Mac. I got a Mini last year, and I'm so glad I did. Now I'm trying to decide if I want a MBP or a MP.

 

[Wolfpup]

Regarding moving data over, personally I'd think the simplest option would just be to network them and copy stuff over. If you don't already have a wired network, you'd really only need a single regular Ethernet cable. Depending on the speed of the network card in your Windows PC it might take a while, but it'll take a while copying stuff to a hard drive too (and seems like a bigger hassle to me).

At worst you've probably got 100Mb Ethernet, which would be around 12MB/s versus the probably closer to 60MB/s your hard drive can do (and they're probably a lot slower than that on small files anyway). Gigabit Ethernet would actually be faster than your hard drive, making it totally pointless to do it a more complicated way IMO.

 

[zioxide]

Regarding moving data over, personally I'd think the simplest option would just be to network them and copy stuff over. If you don't already have a wired network, you'd really only need a single regular Ethernet cable. Depending on the speed of the network card in your Windows PC it might take a while, but it'll take a while copying stuff to a hard drive too (and seems like a bigger hassle to me).

At worst you've probably got 100Mb Ethernet, which would be around 12MB/s versus the probably closer to 60MB/s your hard drive can do (and they're probably a lot slower than that on small files anyway). Gigabit Ethernet would actually be faster than your hard drive, making it totally pointless to do it a more complicated way IMO.

He could set up a firewire network too. (Yes, it's possible with Windows. I've done it.)

 

[Wolfpup]

He could set up a firewire network too. (Yes, it's possible with Windows. I've done it.)

Good point, although most desktop Windows machines probably don't have Firewire. I had totally forgotten about that. My Audigy 2 has a Firewire port, which Windows sets up as a network device even before I install drivers for the card.

So presumably OS X supports Firewire as a network device too? IP over Firewire

That would be 4 times faster than 100Mb Ethernet, and be very close to the max speed of most modern hard drives.

But one way or the other, there's no way I'd manually connect and disconnect drives to copy stuff over, if I could just network it.

 

[Eraserhead]

Best bet would be Mac OSX's native HFS+ format, which is not readable at all by Windows machines.

not true you can use MacDrive to read it.

The ATI X1900XT is the graphics card you want for gaming/video editing.

 

[Wolfpup]

It sounds like he's just doing this as a one time thing though, so I can't see buying a product like that. Networking to me makes the most sense, followed by using an external drive/iPod/whatever.

 

[Eraserhead]

It sounds like he's just doing this as a one time thing though, so I can't see buying a product like that. Networking to me makes the most sense, followed by using an external drive/iPod/whatever.

There's a free trial .