Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

NEED HELP WITH Cuztomize Mac Pro in 2012 April-August ANY HELP IS APPRECIATED

J

j124life

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Apr 5, 2012
3
0
Hi everyone, thanks for reading this post.

I am going to buy a Mac Pro somewhere between April to August 2012.

I will be using the computer mostly for gaming, and video streaming, no graphics rendering or anything like that.

I want to be able to watch hulu, netflix, or youtube on the highest setting without any problem, I want to be able to play the most hardware demanding game that is going to come out within the next 2 years on the maximum setting.

System:

Quad, 8, 12 Core? I don't know too much about computers, all I know is I probably don't need the 12 core, because its for people who make graphic designs or something like that.


Processor:

Is 2 processors better than 1? Which one is faster at loading speed? Is higher and more the better for gaming and video streaming?

Memory:

I am guessing I don't need more than 12gb of memory? Of does more memory make gaming and video streaming better and faster?

Raid Card:

Will this make any difference at all in my situation? What is this used for?

Hard Drive(s)

I am thinking about 2 separate 1TB hard drives, it will be plenty for me to use, and I was hoping to install bootcamp and run window 7 on one of the hard drives, so just in case something goes wrong with one of the hard drives, I still have the other one. Is this a good idea? Or the computer won't run this way? Will the computer be slowed during startup, because I have 2 separate 1TB hard drives? What are some of the cons for this? What do you recommend?

Graphics Card:

I am thinking between 2 5770 or 1 5780, I heard two with crossfire sometimes runs better than 1, but heard there are also bugs with crossfire. I am going to run the display on one, 27in thunderbolt display monitor. Which one will run better for video streaming or games? BTW, can this system run on thunderbolt display at all?

Fibre Channel Card:

What is this? Is this associated with wireless internet? Do I need it to go online wirelessly or need it at all?

Can I connect my ps3 to the 27 in thunderbolt display monitor or the computer to play?


I don't think I need anything else, but please post any of the top suggestions, or any suggestions, your input will be very helpful to me.

Thanks!
 
Honestly a Mac pro is a waste of money for what you're looking for. A custom PC would be much cheaper and have way better graphics cards options for gaming. But for whatever reason if you're dead set on Mac, do not get the apple display, with a 12 ms response time it way to slow for gaming You need a monitor that does 6ms +
 
The above post is the correct one but if you must get the highest clocked system you can. Games love ghz and a quad with higher ghz will trump 16 lower cores in this type of "work"
 
I agree with the other poster. Get a Windows machine if you want gaming.

If you still enjoy Mac OS for day to day stuff many people will build a custom gaming PC, and then have an iMac or Mac Mini to supplement it.

EDIT: In fact, someone correct me if I am wrong, but what you should be able to do is have a Mac mini attached to the network and you should be able to download a software that lets you access it on the network through remote desktop. Again, I *think* you can do that but I'm not positive.
 
chrono1081 said:
I agree with the other poster. Get a Windows machine if you want gaming.

If you still enjoy Mac OS for day to day stuff many people will build a custom gaming PC, and then have an iMac or Mac Mini to supplement it.

EDIT: In fact, someone correct me if I am wrong, but what you should be able to do is have a Mac mini attached to the network and you should be able to download a software that lets you access it on the network through remote desktop. Again, I *think* you can do that but I'm not positive.
Click to expand...

Sounds like simple VNC, or are you thinking of something different?
 
I'm with the operator. I guess he wants a mac that has bootcamp for windows gaming.

1. Single processor is okay used quad core with the highest ghz
2. 12gb -16gb for memory, but i believe 8gb would be sufficient
3. Go for ssd if you have additional budget buy the 3rd party one not from apple
4. Just pick the single stock gpu that comes with the mac pro, if you have add'l budget but nvidia 680
 
fox10078 said:
Honestly a Mac pro is a waste of money for what you're looking for. A custom PC would be much cheaper and have way better graphics cards options for gaming. But for whatever reason if you're dead set on Mac, do not get the apple display, with a 12 ms response time it way to slow for gaming You need a monitor that does 6ms +
Click to expand...

Thanks for the reply, I am pretty set on the Mac Pro, reason being I already have a thunderbolt 27 in display... so which processor and which graphics card should I choose?

----------
Jst0rm said:
The above post is the correct one but if you must get the highest clocked system you can. Games love ghz and a quad with higher ghz will trump 16 lower cores in this type of "work"
Click to expand...

Thanks for the reply, so which processor and which graphics should I get if I need to get a mac pro? Do I need raid? Thanks

----------
chrono1081 said:
I agree with the other poster. Get a Windows machine if you want gaming.

If you still enjoy Mac OS for day to day stuff many people will build a custom gaming PC, and then have an iMac or Mac Mini to supplement it.

EDIT: In fact, someone correct me if I am wrong, but what you should be able to do is have a Mac mini attached to the network and you should be able to download a software that lets you access it on the network through remote desktop. Again, I *think* you can do that but I'm not positive.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the reply, I just really love the simplicity of apple system software, I've had bad experiences with Window system due to crazy errors and viruses. If I am going to get mac pro, which hard drive would you recommend? Should I get 2 TB hard drives, or 1 2TB hard drive? Do I need a PCI card, or what ever you might call it for internet? Or does the system already have that built into it?

Thanks

----------
robertbrian23 said:
I'm with the operator. I guess he wants a mac that has bootcamp for windows gaming.

1. Single processor is okay used quad core with the highest ghz
2. 12gb -16gb for memory, but i believe 8gb would be sufficient
3. Go for ssd if you have additional budget buy the 3rd party one not from apple
4. Just pick the single stock gpu that comes with the mac pro, if you have add'l budget but nvidia 680
Click to expand...

Thanks for the reply, I am sorry for being noob at the computer parts, can you explain a bit on 3 and 4? I have no clue what you mean by them.

Thanks
 
j124life said:
Thanks for the reply, I am pretty set on the Mac Pro, reason being I already have a thunderbolt 27 in display... so which processor and which graphics card should I choose?
Click to expand...

You have to wait for a new one to be released with thunderbolt, The current Mac Pro can't use the thunderbolt display, so its really unknown what choices of graphics cards will be available after the update.

But honestly with the 12ms+ Response time the Thunderbolt display is terrible for gaming. For the price of a Mac Pro you could buy a Mini with thunderbolt use the monitor you have, and a Custom gaming PC and a monitor with HDMI input for your PS3. With that you save your self 500 dollars, and have an excellent gaming machine.

But my first response is if you really really are decided on a Mac Pro.
 
To answer a few more of your questions...

As you will probably have seen from the pictures on the Apple Store of the current Mac Pro case, there are four hard drive sleds. These can take either a 3.5" HDD or SSD (such as the OCZ Vertex2 120 or 240Gb drives) or any 2.5" HDD or SSD providing you buy an adaptor to fit the smaller drive. It is likely that the next Mac Pro model will also house 4 drives.

The current Mac Pro drive controller is SATA-II (3Gb) and although SATA-III (6Gb) drives will certainly work on it, you will not get full performance from them. It is likely that the next Mac Pro will support SATA-III.

As for which drives to get, I would recommend, depending on your budget, a single SSD boot drive, a single HDD of 1Tb or 2Tb capacity for your data such as iTunes etc and a third HDD of about 2Tb for Time Machine Backup. There will be plenty of room on those drives for a Bootcamp partition if you need to use Windows 7 or you could use the 4th slot for a modest SSD dedicated to Windows since you can easily choose which to boot off.

Unless you need blistering speed, I personally would not use a RAID card but it is something you could always add later.

As for the comment about "don't buy Apple's SSD" (which would apply to memory too), this is because perfectly compatible and warrantied drives (or RAM) exist which meet Apple's specification and cost a LOT less. Ask for recommendations for RAM or SSD suppliers once you know more about what you would like.

In the 2010 Mac Pro in my sig, I bought it with the default 3Gb RAM and 1Tb Caviar Black HDD which was offered at the time and added 12Gb of third-party RAM from a reputable supplier and bought the SSDs separately myself.

The Mac Monitor (27" Apple Cinema Display) is fine for gaming. I know there are "better" monitors out there but this one is certainly fit for purpose. I use the 5870 card which is the current top official card although it is very likely that any 2012 Mac Pro as and when (and if) it lands will support a much newer card. OS X does not support crossfire although Windows 7 under bootcamp will. I have no issues gaming with Skyrim and Eve or WoW on that setup.

The Mac Pro comes with a built-in network card so you don't need to worry about that. There are two network ports already on the back.

Finally, just to add something else to your budget, if you are in an area with rough mains electricity you may want to budget for a UPS. From my personal experience I would recommend the APC SMT1000I model from the Smart-UPS range. You do NOT want a model from their Back-UPS range as it provides the wrong type of sine-wave under load.
 
why anyone would buy a Mac Pro for gaming now is beyond me, you get more gaming performance in a PC for literally $800 today (and hackintoshing it). the current Mac Pro is using 3 year old hardware...

mac pro can't even run thunderbolt display. that's how old it is.


j124life said:
I want to be able to watch hulu, netflix, or youtube on the highest setting without any problem
Click to expand...

dude, you can do that with an iPad these days.

j124life said:
I want to be able to play the most hardware demanding game that is going to come out within the next 2 years on the maximum setting.
Click to expand...

the current Mac Pro will struggle with TODAYS games at high settings. It won't even run Battlefield 3 in HIGH (not ultra) at max res, 60 fps. The GPU it is using was released 2009!
 
Last edited:
chrono1081 said:
I thought there was some utility Microsoft made that was like Remote Desktop but for a Mac thats on the network. Who knows maybe I'm crazy :p
Click to expand...

I haven't heard of anything like that, but that does not mean it doesn't exist so you might be right. One easy option would just be to use TightVNC or some other VNC client on Windows.
 
j124life said:
Thanks for the reply, I am pretty set on the Mac Pro, reason being I already have a thunderbolt 27 in display... so which processor and which graphics card should I choose?
Click to expand...

A Mac mini, a Macbook Pro, or use as 2nd iMac display. No Mac Pro can use the Thunderbolt display. Stupid huh? Way to go Apple. Could have just made a passive mini-display through port to let regular non-TB Mac's use the absolute ONLY display you offer. But I digress. You should not have bought that display. You locked in son!
 
Cindori said:
the current Mac Pro will struggle with TODAYS games at high settings. It won't even run Battlefield 3 in HIGH (not ultra) at max res, 60 fps. The GPU it is using was released 2009!
Click to expand...

I don't have any problems running ultra BF3 30-75 FPS. Skyrim HD texture pack at max over 120+FPS. Trick is the "max res" part. I never went 2560x1600 because I do not have endless cash for SLI/ xfire everything. I game on NEC 20WMGX2 @ 1680x1050 >6ms AS-IPS. I am at my max res. No games give me trouble right now. Not even Metro 2033 in DX11. I do rarely set over 4x AA though. AMD sucks with the AA hit. When you game on Mac you can have a great experience (booted in Windows of course) you just need to know the limitations.
 
Last edited:
derbothaus said:
A Mac mini, a Macbook Pro, or use as 2nd iMac display. No Mac Pro can use the Thunderbolt display. Stupid huh? Way to go Apple. Could have just made a passive mini-display through port to let regular non-TB Mac's use the absolute ONLY display you offer. But I digress. You should not have bought that display. You locked in son!
Click to expand...

Is the just quit smoking rage still going there:D? They could have done that. It's somewhat silly that you can't run it on the mac pro. The uniformity seems relatively good, but aside from that I don't think the TB display is that special.


Cindori said:
the current Mac Pro will struggle with TODAYS games at high settings. It won't even run Battlefield 3 in HIGH (not ultra) at max res, 60 fps. The GPU it is using was released 2009!
Click to expand...

I wouldn't buy a mac pro for gaming either. It makes little sense if that's your primary use. It's more like if you're buying a mac pro anyway, it could also be your gaming computer. Did the GPU actually come out in 2009? I know it was announced in late 2009. I wasn't sure if it made it out prior to early 2010. If it was 2009, it was the tail end of it, so we're approaching the two and a half year mark on that. The 6970 wasn't necessarily that big of an upgrade either. It's just that the upgrade cost is pretty high for a 5870 these days.
 
derbothaus said:
I don't have any problems running ultra BF3 30-75 FPS. Skyrim HD texture pack at max over 120+FPS. Trick is the "max res" part. I never went 2560x1600 because I do not have endless cash for SLI/ xfire everything.
Click to expand...

You don't have to have "endless cash for SLI" to run BF3 at 2560x1600, you just need a GPU that isnt 3 years old. I myself am running BF3 at 2560x1600 with a 6950, High settings. But it is struggling due to 1GB vram.

derbothaus said:
I game on NEC 20WMGX2 @ 1680x1050 >6ms AS-IPS. I am at my max res. No games give me trouble right now
Click to expand...

Good for you but doesn't prove my point wrong.
Just because you can run BF3 at 800x600 it does not mean your GPU can handle todays games at high settings. High settings include resolution. OP asked for high settings.
 
Last edited:
derbothaus said:
A Mac mini, a Macbook Pro, or use as 2nd iMac display. No Mac Pro can use the Thunderbolt display. Stupid huh? Way to go Apple. Could have just made a passive mini-display through port to let regular non-TB Mac's use the absolute ONLY display you offer. But I digress. You should not have bought that display. You locked in son!
Click to expand...
So the Mac Pros in store are hooked up to Apple Cinema Displays?
 
Liquinn said:
So the Mac Pros in store are hooked up to Apple Cinema Displays?
Click to expand...

Are they? Kind of impossible to a TB display.

----------
Cindori said:
You don't have to have "endless cash for SLI" to run BF3 at 2560x1600, you just need a GPU that isnt 3 years old. I myself am running BF3 at 2560x1600 with a 6950, High settings. But it is struggling due to 1GB vram.



Good for you but doesn't prove my point wrong.
Just because you can run BF3 at 800x600 it does not mean your GPU can handle todays games at high settings. High settings include resolution. OP asked for high settings.
Click to expand...

Definitive forum attitude. Impressive.
I was not trying to prove you wrong. But kind of funny you say a 5870 is so old yet you use a 6950 that is like 1-5% faster in DX11. DX10 they are pretty much the same and with DX9 (70% of titles still) the 5870 sometimes beats it with same memory allotment as your "current" selection choice. All single cards struggle with 2560x1600 unless you have 7970 or GTX 680. Been that way for years only getting better recently. For me high settings are not high resolution. As that may be 1920x1080 for some. CS players still use CRT at 800x600 but no one else. My Dell U2311 didn't slow things down too much more than the 1680 NEC. Point is if you like smooth as butter frames you do not buy a 27"+ display. You can find very happy mediums for lesser cards (like 2+ year old 5870's) and have a great experience still. My problem is Apple displays and iMac's are way out of line performance wise for the GPU's they offer. We can probably agree on that.
 
Last edited:
derbothaus said:
Definitive forum attitude. Impressive.
I was not trying to prove you wrong. But kind of funny you say a 5870 is so old yet you use a 6950 that is like 1-5% faster in DX11. DX10 they are pretty much the same and with DX9 (70% of titles still) the 5870 sometimes beats it with same memory allotment as your "current" selection choice.
Click to expand...

Me having a 6950 does not make the 5870 any younger.
My 6950 is unlocked to 6970 shaders, and OC'ed. While reference 6950's are indeed on par/just slightly better then 5870, I believe my card is about 10-15fps stronger. And having my card struggle at High settings, max res, implies that a 5870 does not cut it.

Yes, it will work fine in lower res. Yes, few people game in 2560x1600. I was just trying to bash into OP's head that the current Mac Pro with it's 5870 definately is not a good choice for:

j124life said:
be able to play the most hardware demanding game that is going to come out within the next 2 years on the maximum setting.
Click to expand...
 
All you need for amazing game PC would be:
i5-2500
Z68 Mobo
6GB Memory (doesn't even matter the speed)
600W PSU
AMD 7870 or similar.
Or
GTX 570 or similar.
Win 7 license. Does not matter which.
Probably less than 800.00.
Will beat a Mac Pro 12-core 2.93GHz, 32GB RAM, 5770 or 5870 on any game.

----------
initialsBB said:
Aren't the TB displays also vanilla (mini) DisplayPort compatible ?
Click to expand...

Nope. Even Apple store was bemused by this info. Not that they are definitive anything.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back