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Sitting on the fence

A

Arborist

macrumors newbie
Original poster
May 6, 2008
17
0
Tacoma,WA
I'm looking forward to buying a new Mac Pro. As an ex-PC oem system builder I have some observations and concerns:
I was looking to install the new WD VelociRaptor 300gb as a primary drive but found out the connectors don't match up with the drive bays of the new Mac Pro. http://tinyurl.com/4vn4nb
The Mac Pro I'm looking at comes with 2gb of ram which seems a little low, however 2mb of ram added at purchase from Apple for $500 seems a little too high. I'm a big supporter of Apple since they went with the Intel architecture, but I'm feeling some limitations on the harware side.
I'm done with the PC, I just don't want to deal with it's operating system and all of it's problems anymore.
I'm wondering if this is just my anxiety towards the Mac Pro's apparent harware restictions, or am I just wanting this new machine too soon?
(my old xp tower is still running fine) I'm sure there are some old die-hard PC users that have also made the transformation and have some advice to give.
Please be kind as this is my first post.
Thanks
 
About the RAM thing...you will find out that everybody knows, and it has been this way forever, that Apple always ships their comps with minimum RAM and charges way too much for extra RAM. It's just the way it is, sorry to say.

You can go to ramseeker.com and get much, much cheaper RAM than Apple's.

About the hard drive, I don't know that specific model, but I do know that I just got a 1TB Seagate for 189...so if your model isn't working out I'm sure you'll find something out there.

Welcome, and enjoy.

Oh, and keep in mind that this forum has an over average rate of problems because nobody really posts when the computer is working fine, you know?
 
die hard pc fan

i switched to Mac about 18 months ago and have not looked back. I converted my machine and my daughters to iMacs. I have one more Dell to kill and i will replace it with a MacPro (need budget approval from the wife first). The MP does not have restrictions or limitations. the WD 300 raptor issue it of their making. MP uses the standard SATA connectors. There are many on this forum that use the older 150.

http://eshop.macsales.com/ has hard drives and anything else you will need to customize your machine without paying the crazy apple prices. I know as an PC builder you want to get in there and add stuff :)
 
i am not an expert on this, but since it's a 2.5in drive the connecters are not in the standard place.. anyway there is a discussion on:
Apple.com > Support > Discussions > Mac Pro > Expanding your Mac Pro

sounds like a really fast drive though.
 
If you want high rpm, there is a 15000 rpm drive. Not sure if that's compatible or not. Your best bet for high speed to price is actually a RAID.

But *typically* a harddrive tray have flexible cable that can connect to drives with different connector placement, and the backplane of the tray is what interface with the computer. However some non-standard drives might not work.

Ram: get third party ones that are are the same specs as Apple Ram. ALL Computer makers charge extra for Ram due to the time involves for them to install and test.
 
Thanks for your help

Thanks for the links to macsales and ramseeker. I've delt with OWC before and had good luck on external drive purchases. What would be the difference from buying from MacMall or directly from Apple besides the price?
I intend to get Apple Care for the new computer but I don't see that option to buy it for the Mac Pro at MacMall.com.
I bought a 17" MacBook Pro from Apple. I have to say I was really impressed by the folks at the genius bar when I updated from Tiger to Leopard, IWork 07 to IWork 08, then had them tune up the laptop.
The days of writing code for me are long past, (8086 & dos) I'm at that stage in my life where I don't want to have to tweak an OS to get it to work.
(sp2 comes to mind) I like the stability of the Unix core even though I don't understand it. (grin) There was a time when i wanted to work my way through computer problems, now I just want the computer to work.
Thanks for your responses and any further advice!
 
Consultant said:
If you want high rpm, there is a 15000 rpm drive. Not sure if that's compatible or not. Your best bet for high speed to price is actually a RAID.
Click to expand...

There are... many 15K RPM drives and have been for over a decade. Seeing as he's a system builder, I'm going to go out on a limb and say he knows that.. and that RAID is faster.

MacMall vs. Apple? I guess maybe you don't get the same generous 1 year warantee (joke).... but I think you do. It's possible though that you can't buy AppleCare w/it. Not sure. Other than that, I really don't think it would be any different.
 
Raid Drives

Hi Firefly,
This XP tower I have now has two Raptors in a Raid/0 configuration. I looked at the prices for going to a raid set-up for the Mac Pro and have decieded I can go a little slower, a lot cheaper!
I guess I'll just go out of the gate with the 320mb hard drive that Apple offers as stock. My computer demands are just not great enough to justify the extra cost right now.
Best,
Jim
 
Arborist said:
I'm at that stage in my life where I don't want to have to tweak an OS to get it to work.
Click to expand...
This is an excellent reason to switch to Mac. You have the option to tweak all kinds of stuff if you want to, and all the information you'd ever need about doing this is easily available. But what you're getting right out of the box is a quality machine, a powerful OS that's intuitive and fun to use, and you can still visit Windows if the nostalgia bug bites. :)
 
I built PC systems for about ten years. i love it that i don't have to mess with this thing. And if i did its very easy to tweak. i am not aware of the best drives etc. anymore, but the drives i have are only 10,000rpm believe, and they are so much faster than what i have on my pc (7500?s) that i cant imagine needing more - but i am only doing limited video editing. I am running boot camp and can do whatever i need on the PC side with no problems. seriously. My brother is a programmer and is looking into getting one now as he can triple boot into OSX/XP&Vista/Linux for programming and testing.
 
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