POLL: Do you plan to buy a new Mac Pro on January 15th?

[Nugget]

There won't be a Mac Pro released on the 15th. But if there is, leave your address and I will come over and give you and your wife a shoe shine.

Thanks shoeshine boy. You're both humble and lovable.

 

[Pressure]

I would stay away from RAID 0 - RAID 1 is much safer !!

(see my reply to this guys post - https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/408504/)

RAID 5 is even better but I can't afford that or indeed have the space in the MP. Might look at buying an external RAID setup instead ? ? Any reccomendations anyone - need 500Gb- 1TB RAID 1 or maybe 5??

d

I've had a RAID-0 drive running for 3 years now. Shouldn't be a concern if you take the time to do a proper backup now and then.

 

[Nugget]

I've had a RAID-0 drive running for 3 years now. Shouldn't be a concern if you take the time to do a proper backup now and then.

RAID0 simply doubles your odds of losing the partition to a hardware failure. It's not dramatic, but it is double.

 

[madfresh]

I'm thinking about it. Not sure at the moment.

 

[Pressure]

RAID0 simply doubles your odds of losing the partition to a hardware failure. It's not dramatic, but it is double.

Mean Time Between Failure isn't the same as life expectancy.

It doesn't double the chance as such but you only need one drive to fail to lose all your data.

 

[netdog]

Given the kexts for new graphics cards in the 10.5.2 release, either they are going to release the Mac Pro on the 15th or the Nano is going to have one hell of a graphics card.

 

[Pressure]

Given the kexts for new graphics cards in the 10.5.2 release, either they are going to release the Mac Pro on the 15th or the Nano is going to have one hell of a graphics card.

Which we can safely assume it will not.

 

[G4DP]

There planning on intergrating iPod socks and the iPod. So it'll keep itself warm and also provide added protection from all those bumps an scratches.

 

[Mike Teezie]

The change in dot pitch would be very insignificant when moving from a 23" to a 24". Furthermore, 23" panels are dead. They would need to move to a 24" to keep the latest tech. As in the H-IPS panel in the 24" iMac.

And Mike, I hope it gets updated as well. I just gave up my two 24"s to move to a 30" when the Mac Pro gets updated. I didn't enjoy working with two displays much.

I debated this in my own head countless times. I wanted that 30! But in the end, when I really got my workflow ironed out, two monitors made the most sense.

I live in CS3, and Bridge is always open on the second monitor. It's actually really great - I just get weak in the knees any time I see a 30 at an Apple store.

If I was a real man, I'd go Dual 30's..........

My plan is this:

Drive 1 (Seagate 1TB):
- Partition A (150 GB): boot drive with OS X & apps
- Partition B (800 GB): Time Machine backup of RAID

Drives 2 & 3 (2x 750 GB SE2 in RAID 0)
- user directory and image files

Drive 4 (Seagate 1TB):
- Partition A (100 GB): Photoshop scratch
- Partition B (bootable clone of Drive 1, A)

I am considering something similar for my MacPro. Maybe you could take a look at what I've sorted out in my head, and tell me what you think?

Drive 1 (500 Gig)
-OS X and apps

Drive 2 (250 Gig)
-Photoshop Scratch

Drive 3 (750 Gig) (raid 1)
-Photo Storage

Drive 4 (750 Gig)
-Photo Storage Backup (raid 1)

Drive 5 (some external FW drive)
-Photo Storage Backup 2

I know I should have a backup of my OS/app drive. Maybe partition the PS Scratch disk?

 

[Topper]

Slapping two cores on one PCB is a failure for innovation (think 3Dfx...)

I don't understand what you are trying to say.
My limited knowledge of 3dfx goes like this...
VooDoo 5 5000/5500 were dual gpu cards.
VooDoo 5 cards were unable to use all of the available memory of the gpus.
Voodoo 5 cards had a low demand.
But what does this have to do with nVidia and ATI's upcoming dual gpu cards?

 

[Pressure]

I don't understand what you are trying to say.
My limited knowledge of 3dfx goes like this...
VooDoo 5 5000/5500 were dual gpu cards.
VooDoo 5 cards were unable to use all of the available memory of the gpus.
Voodoo 5 cards had a low demand.
But what does this have to do with nVidia and ATI's upcoming dual gpu cards?

It's a dead-end (for now, R700 is rumored to be multichip in a new sense) and a clear sign that innovation has gone the opposite way. I still believe they can make a monolithic chip with more performance.

What I am trying to say, is that the solution is hardly elegant in any way and the market will be limited at best.

Take a look at it here and see how the card dwarfs every other graphic card ever made (and even the motherboard, if you can spot it).

Smaller, more efficient and power sensitive chips can be made I am sure of. Hopefully G100 and R700 will change this downward spiral.

Ok, to be honest 3Dfx were on to something but way too early. Both NVIDIA and ATI made monolithic chips that outperformed the Voodoo 5 family. They were cheaper to produce and easier to make. A dual gpu PCB is a hell to make.

 

[roblin]

I am considering buying a MP. It depends on what apple releases. I have a 2.4ghz,2GB,1GB,everthing silentpcreview-recommends, 8months old PC which I would like to replace. But it will have to be worth the money and effort for me to take the step.

What I would like:
*smaller design(new xeon require less power, less cooling etc)
*new gen xeon
*better performance RAM
*8800gts with a silent cooler
*even more silent 120mm fans
*mtron SSD system disc, with 4 empty discslots (would be awesome but not gonna happen )
*dvd with easy to install blueray (futuresafe)
*reasonable price

 

[Tallest Skil]

1. No. Cheese grater for the win.
2. Of course. It will happen in the next revision.
3. Of course. it will happen in the next revision.
4. Dream? 10.5.2 says...
5. To quote our fearless leader, "But why?"
6. Built-in SSDs will make the price be... yeah, so no. Most expensive BTO option ever?
7. Probably, now that Foo'-ray has taken the lead.
8. Define reasonable.

 

[Pressure]

I am considering buying a MP. It depends on what apple releases. I have a 2.4ghz,2GB,1GB,everthing silentpcreview-recommends, 8months old PC which I would like to replace. But it will have to be worth the money and effort for me to take the step.

What I would like:
*smaller design(new xeon require less power, less cooling etc)
*new gen xeon
*better performance RAM
*8800gts with a silent cooler
*even more silent 120mm fans
*mtron SSD system disc, with 4 empty discslots (would be awesome but not gonna happen )
*dvd with easy to install blueray (futuresafe)
*reasonable price

The size of the case is not changing dramatically. You still need room for expansion slots. It is a workstation!

It will get the new Harpertown processors based on Penryn and come with either 667Mhz or 800Mhz Fully-Buffered DDR2 DIMMs. I think it may actually be an Build to Order option.

Not to get people's hope up but the next Leopard update (10.5.2) is supposed to bring support for the Radeon HD 3800 series and Geforce 8800 (GT/GTS 512MB) series.

The current Mac Pro is already tremendously silent compared to anything else.

I don't understand your fascination of Solid-State Disks. They still do not outperform older rotational drives, have way less storage and the cost is too high. Besides what good would a 32GB Solid-State Disk do for a workstation? That's an insult if anything.

You can already buy a Blu-Ray drive and easily install it in the current Mac Pro.

Expect to pay for workstation hardware, so the standard system will retain the $2499 price point. The hardware itself has not become cheaper but better alternatives for the same price have arisen (think Woodcrest, to Clovertown and now Harpertown).

 

[Topper]

Not to get people's hope up but the next Leopard update (10.5.2) is supposed to bring support for the Radeon HD 3800 series and Geforce 8800 (GT/GTS 512MB) series.

It would be nice if that means that the new Mac Pro will support a number of nVidia and AMD/ATI video cards.
But I am guessing that it may mean that the base card will be the HD3850 and the bto consumer card may be the 8800 GT 512MB.

 

[roblin]

I don't understand your fascination of Solid-State Disks. They still do not outperform older rotational drives, have way less storage and the cost is too high. Besides what good would a 32GB Solid-State Disk do for a workstation? That's an insult if anything.

http://www.nextlevelhardware.com/storage/mtron16/

 

[OneArmedScissor]

What i want

What i want come january 15th...

Mac pro (going to have to be redesigned to fit newer cards, so i want it bigger and cooler- more fans)
*Dual 3.2 Quad penryn chips at 1600mhz
*16 gigs of ram, hopefully apple doesnt use just fb dimms and supports 1150 mhz sd ram and up!
*Some Skulltrail variation motherboard-- Quad FX
*One Nvidia Quadro 5600 then later hopefully OS supports SLI so i can get another (forget hd encoding time biaaa)
*(Apple to add another hd) 2-300 gig 15,000 rpm seagate cheetah drives, and 3 1TB seagate drives raid 0
*30 inch ACD hopefully new one after MWSF

FCP/ Shake Update- something worth being stoked about...

i just want a machine that will burn through cad, maya, final cut studio work (mostly hd encoding) and i wont have to worry about a thing and get projects done not just on time, but early.... thats just what i want to buy the 15th or 16th....

 

[Topper]

This clearly shows the lack of innovation in the graphics market. Over a year later and still only 30% faster than the Geforce 8800 Ultra while using two cores instead of one.

This board will use in excess of 200 Watt or around.

I am not intrigued by the Radeon HD3800GX2 either...

I want a monolithic chip and not something stitched together for now.

Fudzilla agrees with you
Although they are talking more about price than performance.