Mac Pro Arrived! Pics Included

[Laslo Panaflex]

If you get Boot Camp (not parrallels) to work do you think you could download 3DMark06 and PCMark to get some marks on the system. I know its not the X1900xt, but it would be useful to see some numbers to compare with similar pcs.

I will once there are drivers, I tired last night and the apple supplied driver disc didn't work. Windows installs fine, but there are no drivers for pretty much all the devices, including ethernet cards.

 

[pc.Pwner]

Ok, Thanks. You would think Apple would have those drivers out with the release of the system, they prolly late on the release.

Congrats on getting the system, I'm prolly gonna get a 2.66GHz with bluetooth/ airport, 2 gigs ram, and the x1900xt. Its gonna take forever to get that system though.

P.S. I was wondering how you open up the disk drives if there aren't any buttons on the case?

 

[adamfilip]

Anyword on anyone trying a standard PCIe video card in a mac pro?

 

[TBi]

What I want to know is why is Apple saying you can only use GeForce 7300 GT in the Mac Pro and not in the Quad G5? Is the power different in the Mac Pro PCI Express bus so the newer faster cheaper card won't run in Quad G5?

Different BIOS. The G5 and X86 use different Endianess, you need a different BIOS for the G5 system.

 

[Chundles]

P.S. I was wondering how you open up the disk drives if there aren't any buttons on the case?

The side panel comes off, to access the disk drives you slide the lock across and remove the caddy. Each drive has it's own lock.

 

[TBi]

Anyword on anyone trying a standard PCIe video card in a mac pro?

From XLR8YourMac

" I was told today that video cards used in Mac Pro's must be EFI compliant cards. BIOS compliant video cards will not work in EFI equipped Mac Pro's. My dream of running PC video cards in Mac's seems to be thwarted at every turn!
-Iain B. "

 

[Multimedia]

G5 Dual Core and Quads from October 2005 are PCIe Bus

I think the reason of the not supported issue is due to a pci-x vs pci-e board?

No. G5 Dual Core and Quads from October 2005 are PCIe Bus. Looks like TBi found the answer at XLR8YourMac post above this one. Thanks for that TBi. Good work.

 

[Spazmodius]

http://www.powermax.com/articles_reviews/article.php?id=32

A Dissection of MacPro

Processors are socketed...I assume this is a fully upgradeable* Mac! Can you believe it? So freaking awesome!

*Yeah, I know, you can buy processor upgrades on daughter cards for G4 Macs, but those are a far cry from simply being able to slap a faster pair of processors in the sockets, like a typical PC.

 

[TBi]

Processors are socketed...I assume this is a fully upgradeable* Mac! Can you believe it? So freaking awesome!

*Yeah, I know, you can buy processor upgrades on daughter cards for G4 Macs, but those are a far cry from simply being able to slap a faster pair of processors in the sockets, like a typical PC.

Going Intel has its advantages after all

I'd say soon we'll be able to install off the shelf graphics cards into it. My buddy has flashed many a bios to get normal cards working in G4's and G5's and he wants one of these Mac Pro's badly. I'm sure he or others will figure out how to do this.

 

[devmage]

So on http://www.xlr8yourmac.com/ they say the Mac Pro has special heat requirements on memory and that the OEM memory for sale is not sufficent to meet the Mac Pros needs.

They link http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/memory/Mac-Pro-Memory as the only one who is. They want $559.00 for 2x1GB vs http://www.crucial.com/store/listpa...ro&mfr=Apple&tabid=AM&model=Mac+Pro&submit=Go who has 2x1GB for $343.99. Now I hardly think a piece of metal is worth $215. Anyone know where you can get better heatsinks to stick on crucial memory?

 

[Multimedia]

CaseCooler.com Sells RAM Heatsinks

So on http://www.xlr8yourmac.com/ they say the Mac Pro has special heat requirements on memory and that the OEM memory for sale is not sufficent to meet the Mac Pros needs.

They link http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/memory/Mac-Pro-Memory as the only one who is. They want $559.00 for 2x1GB vs http://www.crucial.com/store/listpa...ro&mfr=Apple&tabid=AM&model=Mac+Pro&submit=Go who has 2x1GB for $343.99. Now I hardly think a piece of metal is worth $215. Anyone know where you can get better heatsinks to stick on crucial memory?

Yeah. At CaseCooler.com. Posted this above several times already.

 

[devmage]

Yeah. At CaseCooler.com. Posted this above several times already.

None of those look any different than the kind of heat sinks the RAM comes with. If those are sufficient then I would assume whats on it would be too.
Apples has some massive fins on theirs.

 

[simie]

Tried to install windows via bootcamp, windows installs fine, but the mac drivers cd fails saying "hardware incompatible with software" looks like I have to use my PC for a little longer, or parallels (still haven't installed it).

I will run a handbrake test and post the results.

You could use Sisoft Sandra (under XP) to tell you all about the chipset etc... and then search for some drivers. The drivers must be out there as both the Woodcrest and its chipset will be in other workstations and servers.

I bet Intel has some on their website somewhere.

 

[apfhex]

The side panel comes off, to access the disk drives you slide the lock across and remove the caddy. Each drive has it's own lock.

I think he meant the optical (disc) drives. If you have two of them, how are you going to open one of them since there are no eject buttons to press on the case? Will the keyboard's eject key always open both? Will you have to use the "eject" menu extra?

 

[Multimedia]

Option + Eject Key Opens The Lower Optical

I think he meant the optical (disc) drives. If you have two of them, how are you going to open one of them since there are no eject buttons to press on the case? Will the keyboard's eject key always open both? Will you have to use the "eject" menu extra?

Option + Eject key opens the bottom one. Remember both Quicksilver and MDD G4s had two opticals as well so this is not a new command combo at all. Been in the system for years.

 

[Evangelion]

Apple could have released a quad G5 3+ ghz system by now, if they wanted.

They needed liquid-cooling to get to 2.5GHz, what makes you think that they could do 3+Ghz now? And even if they had been able to do it, that would have been the end of the road, basically.

And pumping more life to G5 would not make any sense. Apple needs Intel for their laptops and small form-factor machines. It makes sense to use only one architecture. Either Apple uses PPC, in which case they are stuck at G4 for the portables. Or they use Intel, in which case they use Xeons in the workstations. Using Intel on some machines, and PPC on others is stupid thing to do.

But, then the Xeon system had been slower.

What makes you think that?

The G5s are low powerchips.

Which is why they need liquid cooling? I have seen reviews of G5 PowerMac, which mention that the G5 runs very, very hot.

If Apple had been smart, they should have keept the watercooler and clocked the Xeons to 3.7ghz.

Intel does not support those speeds, so Apple would be running the CPU out of spec. Yeah, I can see that being a smart thing to do . Luckily you are not the one deciding these things.

Now, they are cheap quad Intel that can not do dual grapics.

None of the Quad-intels can do dual-graphics. There are no Xeon-chipsets that support dual-graphics.

 

[Glen Quagmire]

The chipset for the Mac Pro is most likely an Intel 5000 series.

You should be able to find some drivers at Intel's web site:

http://downloadfinder.intel.com/scripts-df-external/Support_Intel.aspx?lang=eng#

There is a chipset identification utility, which might be worth downloading and running (from XP).

 

[Evangelion]

Its my understanding that the cards talk to each other and do cooperative processing of video. Both ATI and NVidia do this but using different methods. I don't think it has anything to do with running multiple monitors.

You are talking about SLI (Nvidia) or CrossFire (Ati). And the Woodcrest-chipset supports neither. The point of having multiple vidcards is precisely the fact that you can hook several monitors to them.

 

[chiamon]

How much memory is recommended for the new type of memory? Does the multi-core processors use more memory than single core one? Not sure if to spend extra on 2gb of ram.

 

[devmage]

How much memory is recommended for the new type of memory? Does the multi-core processors use more memory than single core one? Not sure if to spend extra on 2gb of ram.

I've read the memory system in the mac pro would perform best if you have at least 4 dimms 2 in on each riser card. So if you just got the 1GB 2x512MB like I did then you want to buy at least another 2 512MB from what I have gathered.

 

[bigmc6000]

Dual GFX support

According to the 1kW version of the dell 690 the xeons do support dual GFX cards. They allow for 2 FX4500's. This is a big bit of the whining over at cnet...

http://configure.us.dell.com/dellstore/config.aspx?c=us&cs=555&l=en&oc=MLB1727&s=biz

granted it comes with some type of wierd @$$ graphics riser card but it's still an option - an expensive one but still...

 

[Multimedia]

See How It Feels With One GB For Starters

How much memory is recommended for the new type of memory? Does the multi-core processors use more memory than single core one? Not sure if to spend extra on 2gb of ram.

See how it feels with one. It's ain't gonna be slow. Don't buy extra from Apple. You can get two later for $344 or less from Crucial and others. Hopefully the demand will drive the price down in a few more months.

I've read the memory system in the mac pro would perform best if you have at least 4 dimms 2 in on each riser card. So if you just got the 1GB 2x512MB like I did then you want to buy at least another 2 512MB from what I have gathered.

That's theoretical mubo-jumbo. You won't be able to tell the difference. Don't waste money on 512 sticks. If/When you're gonna add more ram, do it with pairs of 1GB sticks not more 512s.

 

[apfhex]

Option + Eject key opens the bottom one. Remember both Quicksilver and MDD G4s had two opticals as well so this is not a new command combo at all. Been in the system for years.

Obviously I had forgotten. I couldn't think of a previous system which supported two optical drives that didn't have any buttons on the case (never had much experience with the MDDs, I generally used the older G4s). I'm glad there's a slick solution in place (not that Apple would have overlooked such a thing).

 

[iAra]

Wow these machines are a beauty, I wish the apple store would have had it sooner, I cant wait to test drive these things!

 

[mwswami]

What about non Mac Keyboards?

Obviously I had forgotten. I couldn't think of a previous system which supported two optical drives that didn't have any buttons on the case (never had much experience with the MDDs, I generally used the older G4s). I'm glad there's a slick solution in place (not that Apple would have overlooked such a thing).

What does one do if they are not using an Apple keyboard? I have a PC, MacMini, PowerMac, and a Sun on a KVM. I always have trouble ejecting the media. And now, there is not even a remote on the Mac Pro ...