My 8-core Mac Pro is here!

[Raid]

Update

Hi everybody,

Well I was unable to get a LCD screen from work (tech support took the extra ones away sometime this week ), but a friend came through yesterday and I've got a temp one for a week. I must say the initial boot up/bootcamp install yesterday was a shining of example of what not to do... I should have taken much more time to prep (the bootcamp download took over an hour at ~26.6Kbps) and reading the manual would have helped. Also my Open firmware settings prevented the migration assistant from working (Target disk mode is disabled) and I can't find my Tiger disk to correct the problem... I'm calling my brother to borrow his disk, hopefully this will get the ball rolling later tonight. Currently I'm downloading both MediaFork and Handbrake, and will have Photoshop and Toast up soon.

BTW is there a "Setting up your Mac" FAQ here? ... I think it would be handy for many of the Macrumors visitors and members.

congrats from me also. What screen did you order?

I ordered the 23" Display from Apple, which will hopefully arrive soon!

 

[synth3tik]

I ordered the 23" Display from Apple, which will hopefully arrive soon!

I love mine, truly the most beautiful display.

 

[surfratt]

Can you take more pictures? Need Mac Porn ....

 

[dogbait]

Nice PC Raid (what, a mac's a PC too... Incidentally, nice bike (can see it in the background I'm hopefully looking to get my first Mac this month, just weighing my options, my current PC (and my income!) to determine just how powerful a Mac Pro to get. I had no idea that buying a Mac would get me addicted to checking Macrumors everyday.

 

[Raid]

Excuse the rambling post, I'm tired and should be in bed!

Arrgh, it looks like the Open Firmware was not the problem. After some testing it seems both my firewire 400 ports are DOA. After zapping the PRAM and so on the system profiler seems to see the FW-800 port(s) occasionally, but the FW-400 ports don't appear at all. I'm calling Apple Tech support in the morning to see what I/they can do.

Nice PC Raid (what, a mac's a PC too... Incidentally, nice bike (can see it in the background I'm hopefully looking to get my first Mac this month, just weighing my options, my current PC (and my income!) to determine just how powerful a Mac Pro to get. I had no idea that buying a Mac would get me addicted to checking Macrumors everyday.

Well checking MR almost daily is habit for a lot of people (I wonder if Dr. Q should do some checking on that )

While I'm frustrated now (better part of my weekend chasing dead ends + nothing going to plan=Grrrrr) I really do love the simplicity of Macs and I'm sure you won't want to look back after getting your Mac. I guess after 21 years of Macs I should expect one set up problem... Oh and the bike in the background is my Specialized Enduro-sport. Currently it's on the trainer and over in the corner so I can watch tv while I spin.

 

[twoodcc]

Arrgh, it looks like the Open Firmware was not the problem. After some testing it seems both my firewire 400 ports are DOA. After zapping the PRAM and so on the system profiler seems to see the FW-800 port(s) occasionally, but the FW-400 ports don't appear at all. I'm calling Apple Tech support in the morning to see what I/they can do.

i'm sorry to hear that. hopefully you'll get everything worked out. keep us informed

 

[Father Jack]

Sorry !!

FJ

 

[akadmon]

Arrgh, it looks like the Open Firmware was not the problem. After some testing it seems both my firewire 400 ports are DOA.

You may want to check out this thread

 

[Raid]

You may want to check out this thread

Yes I have already and I'll try what Lord Nerdos has suggested... I hope it works, at lunch I went up to the Apple store at the Eaton's centre and talked to an Apple genius, he's concerned if the network settings change doesn't bring them back it might be a logic board problem...

Keep your fingers crossed, I have a feeling I'll need a little luck tonight.

 

[glowrider]

Moved msg to new thread.

 

[twoodcc]

Yes I have already and I'll try what Lord Nerdos has suggested... I hope it works, at lunch I went up to the Apple store at the Eaton's centre and talked to an Apple genius, he's concerned if the network settings change doesn't bring them back it might be a logic board problem...

Keep your fingers crossed, I have a feeling I'll need a little luck tonight.

i hope everything goes well

 

[Lord Flashheart]

Ditto, Hope everything goes well. Make sure to keep us posted.

 

[Nugget]

Well it seems that my new monitor didn't arrive with the tower, and I only have a CRT monitor (shown in the last pic). This means I'll have to wait a day or two before actually going to town on my new Mac Pro

Congratulations on the new machine. You should take comfort in the understanding that this state of affairs is nowhere near as frustrating as receiving your 30" Apple Cinema Display a week before its companion machine arrives leaving you with no way to use the display. I sat around gloomily looking at my 30" ACD for an interminably long time before my PowerMac arrived to drive it.

 

[Raid]

Update

Last night went fairly well by all reasonable accounts, but things aren't perfect yet. When I got home I decided to go through a complete Archive and reinstall of the G4 and the Mac Pro, and turned off the Firewire channel in the Network settings. Then I did tests of all my machines and their firewire connectivity, here's what I found out:

1. Maxtor FW External Drive works, both FW and USB ok.
2. G4 (My old machine) 1st FW port dead, 2nd FW port active
3. Mac Pro FW 400 at rear dead, FW 400 at front works (don't have a FW 800 cable to test at rear)
4. Oh and my TiBook FW port works... but that was never in doubt!

Armed with this I set up the migration assistant again this time with the FW cable in port #2 of the G4 and at the front of the Mac Pro. The Mac Pro was able to find the connection and currently it's sitting at home running through the migration process. One thing that I did find odd is that the Migration assistant said there was about 30GB to transfer, but that it would take almost 3hours to do! It seems slow to me, could that be further evidence of Firewire troubles, or is that normal or part of the migration process?

Tonight I'll be checking the other ports around the dead FW-400 port in the back of the Mac Pro. I've got a sneaking suspicion that the analog "line-in" is dead as well, but since I don't have anything reliable to test with it I'm not sure how I can prove/disprove that... However, regardless of tonights outcome I will be taking the computer back to the store for the amount of cash I paid for it I want an A1 operational machine!

 

[twoodcc]

Last night went fairly well by all reasonable accounts, but things aren't perfect yet. When I got home I decided to go through a complete Archive and reinstall of the G4 and the Mac Pro, and turned off the Firewire channel in the Network settings. Then I did tests of all my machines and their firewire connectivity, here's what I found out:

1. Maxtor FW External Drive works, both FW and USB ok.
2. G4 (My old machine) 1st FW port dead, 2nd FW port active
3. Mac Pro FW 400 at rear dead, FW 400 at front works (don't have a FW 800 cable to test at rear)
4. Oh and my TiBook FW port works... but that was never in doubt!

Armed with this I set up the migration assistant again this time with the FW cable in port #2 of the G4 and at the front of the Mac Pro. The Mac Pro was able to find the connection and currently it's sitting at home running through the migration process. One thing that I did find odd is that the Migration assistant said there was about 30GB to transfer, but that it would take almost 3hours to do! It seems slow to me, could that be further evidence of Firewire troubles, or is that normal or part of the migration process?

Tonight I'll be checking the other ports around the dead FW-400 port in the back of the Mac Pro. I've got a sneaking suspicion that the analog "line-in" is dead as well, but since I don't have anything reliable to test with it I'm not sure how I can prove/disprove that... However, regardless of tonights outcome I will be taking the computer back to the store for the amount of cash I paid for it I want an A1 operational machine!

yeah, i'd take it back and get it fixed or another one.

 

[stevetannen]

My Awesome New Octo - toxic smell???

Hey All,

Long-time lurker, first time poster. I got my 3.0 Mac Pro Octo via fed ex this weekend. It's blisteringly fast, I've taken it through its paces and am thoroughly pleased. EXCEPT...it stinks to high heaven. It's a plastic-burning type smell, seems almost toxic, the smell coming out the back fan. I have to shut it down and leave the room every few hours to air it out, it's that bad. I've heard about the "new mac smell" and had a tiny taste of it with my new macbook last summer, but this is different - it's intense, nauseating, and makes you feel funny. Friends and neighbors have agreed: this can't be good.

Anyone else had this experience? Does this smell last? Do I bother calling Apple? Do I put it in the garage and run extra long monitor cables in? (If so, do those exist?)

Any ideas, suggestions, snide flames at my ignorance, all are appreciated. I've been trawling the net and can't come up with much. Thank you!
Steve Tannen

 

[brooker]

Hey All,

Long-time lurker, first time poster. I got my 3.0 Mac Pro Octo via fed ex this weekend. It's blisteringly fast, I've taken it through its paces and am thoroughly pleased. EXCEPT...it stinks to high heaven. It's a plastic-burning type smell, seems almost toxic, the smell coming out the back fan. I have to shut it down and leave the room every few hours to air it out, it's that bad. I've heard about the "new mac smell" and had a tiny taste of it with my new macbook last summer, but this is different - it's intense, nauseating, and makes you feel funny. Friends and neighbors have agreed: this can't be good.

Anyone else had this experience? Does this smell last? Do I bother calling Apple?

Good Lord, man, call Apple! Surely this is not as it is supposed to be. Open her up and see if there are any melty looking parts, especially near the CPU (if you can get at it) or the RAM. Are all your heatsinks in place? Are all internal fans a-whirling? Whatever the case, something has gone wrong, and Apple will help make things right again, so get on the phone!

And serious congrats on the purchase! What a lovely piece of engineering.


p.s. you prolly could have posted this in your own thread...

 

[twoodcc]

Hey All,

Long-time lurker, first time poster. I got my 3.0 Mac Pro Octo via fed ex this weekend. It's blisteringly fast, I've taken it through its paces and am thoroughly pleased. EXCEPT...it stinks to high heaven. It's a plastic-burning type smell, seems almost toxic, the smell coming out the back fan. I have to shut it down and leave the room every few hours to air it out, it's that bad. I've heard about the "new mac smell" and had a tiny taste of it with my new macbook last summer, but this is different - it's intense, nauseating, and makes you feel funny. Friends and neighbors have agreed: this can't be good.

Anyone else had this experience? Does this smell last? Do I bother calling Apple? Do I put it in the garage and run extra long monitor cables in? (If so, do those exist?)

Any ideas, suggestions, snide flames at my ignorance, all are appreciated. I've been trawling the net and can't come up with much. Thank you!
Steve Tannen

yeah man, call apple. but first open it up and make sure that you got all the plastic wrap and stuff off of the machine.

 

[Raid]

New Update

Hey all,

Just so you know I called Apple yesterday and spoke to a guy who instead of taking me through a trouble shooting script, just asked me what I tried to fix the problem... the whole conversation clocked in at less than 10 minutes. After I explained what I checked out/did, the only thing he asked me to do was try another firewire device. Luckily I have a firewire iPod cable and found out that there was at least power running through the port, but still no connection. So he hooked me up with an appointment today with a Mac Genius, while there they checked out the port and ordered me a new logicboard. In 5-8 days or so I should have a completely functional machine.

I must say I had absolutely no problem with the service, quick and hastle free is how I'd describe it!

Now if fate times this right I might get my RAM and my monitor at the same time the logic board gets fixed.

I know some may be looking for me to do some software speed testing, and I'm still gonna try. Till then I'm sure you're familiar with the benchmark thread here!

P.S. While I've noticed the 'New Mac smell' it is not pungent or enough to make me leave the room (and my office is pretty small). I'd open her up and see if there's tape or something in there that's melting!

 

[cabasner]

Congratulations. I just ordered an 8 core Mac Pro yesterday, with 4G of memory, the ATI graphics card, 2 750 G hard drives, the dual super drives, bluetooth and airport, wireless mouse and keyboard. And a 24" ColorEdge Eizo monitor. This setup should be amazing!!!

 

[synth3tik]

Congratulations. I just ordered an 8 core Mac Pro yesterday, with 4G of memory, the ATI graphics card, 2 750 G hard drives, the dual super drives, bluetooth and airport, wireless mouse and keyboard. And a 24" ColorEdge Eizo monitor. This setup should be amazing!!!

I don't know, that sounds like it might be a little slow.

 

[twoodcc]

Hey all,

Just so you know I called Apple yesterday and spoke to a guy who instead of taking me through a trouble shooting script, just asked me what I tried to fix the problem... the whole conversation clocked in at less than 10 minutes. After I explained what I checked out/did, the only thing he asked me to do was try another firewire device. Luckily I have a firewire iPod cable and found out that there was at least power running through the port, but still no connection. So he hooked me up with an appointment today with a Mac Genius, while there they checked out the port and ordered me a new logicboard. In 5-8 days or so I should have a completely functional machine.

I must say I had absolutely no problem with the service, quick and hastle free is how I'd describe it!

Now if fate times this right I might get my RAM and my monitor at the same time the logic board gets fixed.

I know some may be looking for me to do some software speed testing, and I'm still gonna try. Till then I'm sure you're familiar with the benchmark thread here!

P.S. While I've noticed the 'New Mac smell' it is not pungent or enough to make me leave the room (and my office is pretty small). I'd open her up and see if there's tape or something in there that's melting!

well i'm glad things are looking up for you hopefully you'll have your ram, monitor, and everything working shortly

Congratulations. I just ordered an 8 core Mac Pro yesterday, with 4G of memory, the ATI graphics card, 2 750 G hard drives, the dual super drives, bluetooth and airport, wireless mouse and keyboard. And a 24" ColorEdge Eizo monitor. This setup should be amazing!!!

an amazing machine indeed!

 

[Bugs]

I couldn't take it anymore - I couldn't wait!

I finally received my new 8 core machine today. It came with 2 - 23" Apple displays/4gig ram and the 1900 graphic card.

I'm using menu meters to see what the processors are doing. Not much activity as they're at 0 or 1% most of the time. I'm going to load FCP Studio 5.1 to see if the activity picks up. I'll also run the tests that Multimedia mentioned and report back.

One thing I noticed is that some type of "hickup" exists when using ProTools 7 and the Digi CoreAudio Manager. When playing iTunes through core manager (in order to play through studio reference monitors) I experience a "noise-stutter" sound when using another application.

Hope all is well with everyone.

Bugs

 

[BiikeMike]

Congratulations. I just ordered an 8 core Mac Pro yesterday, with 4G of memory, the ATI graphics card, 2 750 G hard drives, the dual super drives, bluetooth and airport, wireless mouse and keyboard. And a 24" ColorEdge Eizo monitor. This setup should be amazing!!!

Holy Balls! You can run like... Safari, Mozilla, AND Mail all at the same time!

Seriously though, what are you gonna do with it?

And by the way, on the BT keyboard and mouse thing, hopefully Apple has fixed their fock up on the 8-cores, but if you connect the mouse, and its really jerky and just all around sucks, Apple Probably connected the wrong antenna wire for your Bluetooth (Link 2) I got my new Mac Pro a few days ago, and was VERY dissapointed with the performance of the mouse. I was almost ready to return the whole damn thing, and I started to do some research on it. After cruising the web for over an hour just hearing people b!tch about the same thing, I came across a post on another board by a pretty smart guy who opened up his Box and traced the wires. (by the way, if it does happen to you, I just saved you over an hour of research time ) Someone botched plans somewhere, and the wires are mis-labeled.

Hopefully they have fixed it on the 8-core machines, I just got mine a few days ago, but who knows how long it was sitting on a shelf!

 

[cabasner]

Thanks Mike...you're right, hopefully there won't be any issues with the bluetooth. It's unlikely that I'll end up using the Mighty Mouse anyway. I'm a track ball guy, and will likely just move my Logitech wireless track ball over to the Mac Pro, which has an external wireless antenna.

As far as what I'm going to do with it...not enough to justify the machine Mostly photograghy (PhotoShop). The thing is, I've been running an iMac G5 with 1.25G RAM for about a year now, and recently, it's been running pretty slow with multiple images open and with maybe 4-5 other applications open at the same time (Mail, Safari, iTunes, connected to the net with Streaming audio, etc). I'd like to be able to run, additionally, Adobe Lightroom and have Parallels with at least one Windows application running as well, which, of course, I could not do on the PowerPC iMac. You might ask why I need an 8 core megamachine to do even that, or why do I need to have that much open at once. The short answer, on the open applications is...because LOL And why such a hot machne, well primarliy, I'd like this machine to be relevant for a long time to come.

I just wish Leopard was out already.