Thinking about buying Mac Pro

[applecow]

I am still fairly new to Macs so please bare with me as I have a few questions about adding hardware to Mac Pros.

If I choose the stock 7900GT 256, can I just add another PCI-e card or is there some additional compatibility issue with the motherboard or whatever. Also, if I do want to add, does it have to be another 7900GT or can I have 7900GT + some other video card?

As for hard drives, is it as simple as it would be on a regular windows desktop where I could just stick it in (SATA of course) and it will be read as so.

And how is the 7900 for gaming? The rig I want will probably be running parallel and playing a few games so I just kind of want an idea of how good will fare against some of the more recent games.

thanks

 

[swiftaw]

You will not be able to play games through parallels as it does not offer any 3d graphics. You can play windows games via bootcamp though.

 

[applecow]

ah, thanks for mentioning that.

overall though, would you recommend me waiting for leopard or just upgrade when it comes out

 

[Pressure]

I believe you mean the stock Geforce 7300GT, unless the Apple Store list options not available to me

The Mac Pro will accommodate up to 4 Geforce 7300GT graphic cards but why would you need more than one?

Yes, you can just insert any S-ATA hard drives and it will work with the Mac Pro.

The Geforce 7300GT is a low end graphic card, so do not expect amazing things from it.

 

[applecow]

oops, yes i did mean the 7300 gt . So if I wanted a higher end card, can I just get any PCI-e card or are there cards that work specifically with the Mac Pro?

Oh and another question I forgot to ask, will 3rd party 667 ddr2 ram work? I read somewhere on the forum that people were worried about it being non compatible and not guarenteed to work.

 

[MikeDTyke]

I believe you mean the stock Geforce 7300GT, unless the Apple Store list options not available to me

The Mac Pro will accommodate up to 4 Geforce 7300GT graphic cards but why would you need more than one?

Yes, you can just insert any S-ATA hard drives and it will work with the Mac Pro.

The Geforce 7300GT is a low end graphic card, so do not expect amazing things from it.

Should just clarify, you can plug an existing sata drive formatted in FAT32 or NTFS. (NTFS will be read only). You won't however be able to boot from this drive into windows as the EFI pre-boot env won't recognise it.

When you come to set up bootcamp, it will format a partition or a complete drive appropriately for windows to boot.

Cheers M.

 

[pubb]

Like everything else Mac, you can add [component X] but if it doesn' work, you're on your own. They'll support the computer as it shipped. If you bring the computer in for service and the RAM is detected, they'll take it out and give it back to you in a little polyethylene bag.

Also, I've seen 3rd party RAM do funky things to Macs: kernel panics mostly, but the odd audio issue as well. You're spending 3 grand on a computer, bite the bullet and buy Apple RAM. In the long run, its the easier thing to do. Even if it is a complete rip-off.

 

[MikeDTyke]

oops, yes i did mean the 7300 gt . So if I wanted a higher end card, can I just get any PCI-e card or are there cards that work specifically with the Mac Pro?

Oh and another question I forgot to ask, will 3rd party 667 ddr2 ram work? I read somewhere on the forum that people were worried about it being non compatible and not guarenteed to work.

THe card may physically fit and start electrically, but it's a dead brick til someone writes a driver for it. Buy your cards from apple or an apple developer, they'll provide the driver.

3rd party ram is fine if you buy it from a reputable provider. With the MacPro the issue seems to be the size and quality of included heatsink. I can verify that Crucial (excellant memory/not the cheapest) is fine. A good provider like Crucial, Kingston is generally fine and a magnitude cheaper than Apple.


Cheers