New to MAC with lots of qustions

[Akarim47]

hey everyone,

I just decided to switch to MAC and I have lots and lots of questions. I have been using PC/ windows for along time and its actually what I do for living (computer technician) I have finished my MCSA 2 years ago and I do a lot of windows trouble shooting which lead me to believe that it not the best OS

so I decided to switch to Mac, first here are the specs for the Mac pro that I want to order (once its available in the Medill East)

# Two 3.2GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon (8-core)
# 8GB (4 x 2GB)
# 300GB 15,000-rpm SAS
# 300GB 15,000-rpm SAS
# 1TB 7200-rpm Serial ATA 3Gb/s
# NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GT 512MB (Two dual-link DVI)
# Apple Cinema HD Display (23" flat panel)
# One 16x SuperDrive
# AirPort Extreme card (Wi-Fi)
# Apple wireless Mighty Mouse
# Apple Wireless Keyboard (English) + Mac OS X

any recommendations?

Of course I’ll need to install windows (XP for now and Vista later) because my work depends on it but I still want to use the superior system MAC OSX

I have 4 external hard drives
250GB NTFS
500 GB NTFS
2 TB NTFS
2 TB NTFS

All NTFS format but I want to change them to

250GB NTFS
500 GB FAT32
2 TB NTFS
2 TB HFS+

The FAT32 and HFS+ will be used by MAC OSX and the NTFS by windows.

Is it possible to write to NTFS on MAC OSX because I want to swap files between both OS and FAT32 doesn’t accept files bigger than 4 GB?

Also I want to install OSX on the 300 GB and WinXP on the other 300 GB and want to use the TB drive for my files for both systems, any recommendations?

How does the wireless keyboard and mouse work on windows without installing the drives for them? Or I have to connect wired ones till I install the drivers?

I appreciate your help and I’m sure I’ll have more question once I get my hands on the Mac pro 

 

[eviltobz]

# Two 3.2GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon (8-core)
# 8GB (4 x 2GB)
# 300GB 15,000-rpm SAS
# 300GB 15,000-rpm SAS
# 1TB 7200-rpm Serial ATA 3Gb/s
# NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GT 512MB (Two dual-link DVI)
# Apple Cinema HD Display (23" flat panel)
# One 16x SuperDrive
# AirPort Extreme card (Wi-Fi)
# Apple wireless Mighty Mouse
# Apple Wireless Keyboard (English) + Mac OS X

you don't mention getting the raid card in these specs which is required if you want to use the scsi drives. without it you'll need to run on sata.

 

[Ploki]

i think i've read you can't run SAS + SATA at the same time either

 

[Sky Blue]

Mac not MAC.

 

[TransientWolf]

Firstly welcome to the world of Apple, the mac Pro and Macrumors Forums. I think it is great when a seasoned and very experienced (indeed certified) user of Windoze can also see the benefits of OS X.

On your questions:

As eviltobz says you need to have the hardware RAID card to run SAS. Not sure I can get my head around the need for SAS drives (2 drives plus RAID card in UK would cost c£1,300) but then I am just a humble home user!

Whilst mixing SATA and SAS drives is not an Apple supported configuration I understand it will work fine in a mac pro as long as you obviously don't start trying to build any arrays with mixed disks.

On memory consider purchasing third party for the additional over stock build - Apple pricing on memory is pretty horrendous.

On the Windows side given the memory you are going to spec consider 64 bit Vista with the newly available drivers from Apple (se other threads).

On wireless keyboard and mouse I used a usb set to get Windows installed and now the bluetooth drivers will ensure they work in Windows. I often have to force a detection of the keyboard though in Windows as it doesn't recognise it on first boot.

The 1tb storage drive will presumably be formatted HFS+? If so you will need to get software for Windows (MacDrive?) to enable it to access the partition otherwise it won't be recognised.

Similarly with your external drives if they are formatted as NTFS they will not be writable in OS X (they can be read). Rather than go FAT32 I would redo as HFS+ and with MacDrive windows will be fine.

Given the amount of cash you are dropping on all this the 30" screen is not a much motre expensive upgrade and I can vouch for its added flexibility. Unless you are size restricted of course.

Just my 2c

 

[Mr. Zarniwoop]

Of course I’ll need to install windows (XP for now and Vista later) because my work depends on it but I still want to use the superior system MAC OSX

Except for gaming, you will be very pleasantly surprised by the ability to run Windows under Mac OS X with VMWare Fusion or Parallels.

Is it possible to write to NTFS on MAC OSX because I want to swap files between both OS and FAT32 doesn’t accept files bigger than 4 GB?

Mac OS X out-of-the-box is read-only for NTFS volumes. Two current options to allow full read/write for NTFS under Mac OS X are the open source NTFS-3G for OS X and commercial Paragon NTFS for Mac OS X.

How does the wireless keyboard and mouse work on windows without installing the drives for them? Or I have to connect wired ones till I install the drivers?

Under VMWare Fusion or Parallels, you need to install the VMWare/Parallels drivers in general, but the install works without them. Under Boot Camp, you need to install the Apple drivers in general, but the install works without them.

 

[Akarim47]

many thanx for your help and recommendations

for sure I'll get the RAID card for the SAS HD, I didn't know that apple doesn't support mixing SAS with SATA. maybe I'll go with three SAS and drop the 1TB.

Mr. Zarniwoop thanx for the info, I never liked the VMWare under windows (maybe its diffrent with Mac OSX) so I think I will use boot camp to install windows. also many thanx for the tips on writing on NTFS, have you tried them?

TransientWolf, thanx for all the help, I would love to get the 30" display but I'm running out of space with PC/ laptop/ 4 external hard drives

Sky Blue, consider it beginners mistake and from now on its Mac