macpro

trainmaster77

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hey fellas ...im debating on taking the macpro plunge. Was looking into the machines ..quite pricey ..but after purchasing this 16g iphone ...im really impressed with how effortlessly the OS runs.

Its my understanding that the macpro is much more reliable and virus free ..and plan on using it for video/music server and the everyday tasks i use this rig for.

Anyway ... anyone care to share some info on what to look for/not to look for ... price guidelines ..ect ..cause im very dumb with mac stuff ..but am open to any/all suggestions.
 
Is there a reason you don't want to go for an iMac rather than the Mac Pro?

The Pro is exactly that... aimed at professional (I.e. very resource intensive) use. Everyday tasks don't really call for that sort of power, and the iMacs are more than sufficient for most people, and they come with everything you need unlike the Mac Pro.

I'm sure you can tell from the specs yourself what sort of machine you want, and how you want the build configured, the only advice I'd offer when buying a new Mac is to never buy the ram from Apple. Buy the Mac, rip out the stock ram, and shove in a few gigs from Crucial (Or any other retailer), it's much cheaper, plus you have the stock ram spare, or to sell at your leisure.
 
ty for the response. No ..not exactly with teh specs. I dont know if the specs are comparable with numbers as with a pc.

WHen i say that ..i mean the fundamental differences between AMD and Intel with specs.

I plan on using the computer as media center/home server with upto 4 other computers and various devices pulling music/movies from it.

the server itself will be connected to a Sharp LC-65SE94U (when its released). I dont know how many movies I actually have ..but its hundreds and hundreds ..and 20,000+ songs.

Its my understanding that the Macs do not crash as this vista based machine crashes frequently... expecially when pulling off stuff with a ps3.

I asked an apple guy abotu the ram ... so its quite good you mentioned that. Of course he said the "apple" ram had "special" heat sinks blah blah blah.

Obviously ..i dont need 4 quad core processors and 50000 gigs of ram ..but a few terrabytes of memory is a must ..and something fast ..and capable of streaming 3 or 4 movies at once (not all the time, but there are times when my g/f and I and even a guest want to watch different movies).

Also, since i see the macpro has 8800 nvidia cards ..can i just pull the 2 out of this machine and put them in a mac?
 
The specs of a Mac Pro are sufficient for pretty much anything you can throw at it, the lowest configuration utilises two 2.8GHz quad-Core Intel Xeon processors. The numbers are directly comparable with PC's as all the hardware is the same as you can get off the shelf in any PC store.

I can happily stream raw and transcoded content from my Mac Mini (A lowly dual core 1.83GHz with 1GB memory).

Though if you are to be pulling more than one stream, second to your network set-up, I'd say the iMac and Mac Pro's hard drives would likely offer similar performances, therefore any advantages would likely come from the CPU in that area ... especially if you intend to transcode any of the content on the fly.

One advantage the Mac Pro has is the storage, you can of-course add more as you see fit, unlike the iMac, so if storage is a major issue, then the Mac Pro would definitely be the machine to go for.

As for the graphics cards, it used to be the case that Mac graphics cards had a different firmware or set of chips which made off-the-shelf PC cards incompatible, though I honestly don't know if that's the case any more with the newer Intel based models, however I'd say it likely still is.
 
If you are planning to just use it as a server, I believe you are wasting your money on buying an Mac Pro.

You can build a server for around $1000 outfitted with a huge amount of space. For example, this is what I am saving my money for:

Core 2 Duo or AMD 64 X2
Motherboard with Gigbit on board, and at least 6 sata
6 x 500 GB Seagate hard drives (might go 750 Gb if by the time I am buying they are about the same price as 500 GB now)

Running something like FreeBSD off an IDE hard drive, use raidz (ZFS) to RAID 5 the SATA drives and off you go. Fast (hard drives in RAID 5 using Raidz can saturate a gigbit connection) and a lot cheaper. This would allow you to easily stream music and movies using Samba (CIFS) or AppleTalk/NetaTalk.

Or if you want something easy, grab Mythbuntu, install a nice Nvidia graphics card with the TV out support into the machine, and use MythTV as a frontend (with remote control capability!).

The possibilities are endless, and much cheaper than buying a Mac Pro. If you want to go with a Mac Pro anyway, you are free to do so, but I figured i'd show you some cheaper options, especially if you really don't need all that processing power.
 
i appreciate your help with this. I guess the entire idea is for this POS to stop crashing when im pulling more than 1 or 2 things from it at once.

I figure it must be a vista issue ..as the specs of this machine are not bad ..4 gigs ram ... fx60 .. 2 8800's and 4 raptor 150's ..along with a tb of storage with external drive.

i will try and figure out the language you are talking about x-istence haha ..but cheap is definitely good ...especially if it works good.

The problem it seems ..is when i start ffind or rwinding stuff on the ps3 being streamed from the server ... the server (this computer) crashes.

nothing special for wireless router ..its a belkin ndraft .. and everything else is connected via wireless ..

i will research both options you put forth here.

why are the macpros so expensive? is it the name? where could i find info on the nvidia 8800s working with mac? Obviously ..im after reliability/stability/ease of use then price and will pay a premium for the previous 3 if i must.
 
Mac Pro's are expensive because of the hardware. Plain and simple. While it may seem like a simple machine, internally it contains very expensive "stuff"*

Dual Core Xeons are a pretty penny, and multi-processor motherboards cost much more to make. Sure you are paying for the name as well, but not as much as one would think.

The Mac Pro is a quick and easy solution. It will work, and you will have to do little yourself to get it to work. The other option I gave you, means doing research, learning a new OS (Mythbuntu) and figuring out how all that works, in such a way that it does what you need it to do. There is a definite learning curve. It is all about your personal preference.

Apple has the advantage that you can buy an AppleTV, hook it up together with iTunes, and have stuff easily moved to your TV over the network you have.

* I really don't know how to phrase it
 

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