Trigger Pulled...

[dgdosen]

From Apple (with ADC Discount) ($2,679 + tax):
Two 2.8GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon
2GB (2x1GB)
NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GT 512MB
750GB 7200-rpm Serial ATA 3Gb
One 16x SuperDrive
AirPort Extreme Card (Wi-Fi) (to leverage neighbor's fios)
APPLE WIRELESS MIGHTY MOUSE (no wires! altough I like MS/Logitech mice better)
WIRELESS KEYBD/ OS X (no wires!)
Country Kit

From NewEgg:
750G|WD 7K 16M SATA2 WD7500AAKS - OEM (Qty=3, Price=$479.97)

From OWC:
8.0GB Mac Pro Memory Matched Pair (2GB x 4) PC6400 DDR2 ECC 800MHz 240 Pin FB-DIMM Modules ($429.99)

- I figure I'll run MacOS and Vista on one drive via bootcamp with no RAID
- I'll mirror the other drives as needed via sofware raid in macos and vista.
- I'll use Foldershare on four PC's to keep certain data (non multimedia) backed up

The only problem with this is, I won't be able to get at data that Vista can see but macos can't and vice versa - therefore I'll store most mutlimedia data up on a RAIDed server...

I'll stick with my two old 21" monitors unitl I can get a cheap(er) LED 30" screen...

Thoughts?

 

[~Shard~]

Wow, that looks like one hell of a setup! Can't see anything wrong with that, you should be very happy with your new machine.

 

[thedommer]

16 mb cache on the drives??? might as well have bought a G3

you could save some money getting a 24 inch montor. 30 is huge.

 

[AppleNewton]

From Apple (with ADC Discount) ($2,679 + tax):
From NewEgg:
750G|WD 7K 16M SATA2 WD7500AAKS - OEM (Qty=3, Price=$479.97)

I just ordered a fe wthose myself, let me know how yours work out, one of mine started buzzing insanely loud, so i sent that one back, so hopefully the replacement comes back fine =)

also what kind of 750GB drive is in your new macpro? a WD or Seagate?


awesome machine ive been debating whether or not to sell my MacPro Quad towards a new Octocore, im really interested in the 8-Core, Higher FSB, PCI-e 2.0 and Memory Controller.

However i still love Tiger hahaha.

hmmmmm.....

 

[dgdosen]

also what kind of 750GB drive is in your new macpro? a WD or Seagate?
However i still love Tiger hahaha.

hmmmmm.....

Don't know yet - it's on order.

The previous post looked down on the drives with the 16 MB cache! Not too sure of the performance difference - I see comparisons of 8 to 16, but not 16 to 32. I'll try to find it. I just saw the specs were the same as what Apple was shipping and picked them... I wonder what kind of impact that would have on, say, running a VM on that disk, or using those disks in some RAID 5 setup...

 

[dgdosen]

16 mb cache on the drives??? might as well have bought a G3

Not that I need the fastest PC, but the prices are pretty comparable between drives with 16 and 32 MB cache sizes, so I could return them and just go through the hassle.

I see another thread on MR (https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/419786/) discussing the issue - but no real information as to whether the performance difference is that great.

If it is, I'll return them and order new ones. I'm just having trouble finding more good information out in the Internets.

 

[dgdosen]

Whoops - I take that back

Here's from one of the links in the other MR threads:

http://www.tomshardware.com/2007/03/05/understanding-hard-drive-performance/page14.html

We looked at several Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 drives to get down to the performance nitty-gritty. In doing so, we found that there is hardly any difference between two drives that only differ in their cache sizes: 16 MB cache has no significant advantage over 8 MB across our benchmark suite, and this applies both to Serial ATA and to UltraATA drives. We would have expected that at least the SATA drives would show some degree of benefit, but in the case of the 7200.10 family, 16 MB cache is a waste of money if you have a cheaper 8 MB alternative. At the same time, 16 MB cache doesn't hurt either if the price is about the same...

Sounds like the bigger cache means that Malibu Stacy has a new hat...

No RMA for me...

 

[AppleNewton]

The 16mb cache drives are perfect, theres really no issue with them as the 1TB drives are the only ones that seem to have the 32mb at the moment, well on a wide scale.

i prefer WD over seagate personally....and alot of people said the 7200.10 seagates have had alot of weird firmware and other issues in their system.

i just got one bad OEM drive, but thats risk i suppose.
the other ones are fine and perfect, i use one for XP back up and one for OS X back up...works like a dream, cant see any slow down in either o fthem at all.


yeha post back if you can, see what kind of 750's the new macpros are shipping with!!


goodluck nice rig/set up!

 

[thedommer]

I was over exaggerating a bit

my main drive is a 16 mb cache one. seagate.

I did buy 2 new spinpoints though for raid. (750 gb 32mb cache) I have no idea if they are faster as my mac is taking its sweet time arriving.

 

[krye]

Congrats.