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What apps/utilities should one get with their new mac pro?

M

musicguy7

macrumors member
Original poster
Jun 21, 2011
84
0
For my macbook, I got things like OnyX, smcfancontrol, istatpro...I'm guessing these also work on the mac pro desktop? any others you recommend?
 
I also use Transmit (ftp) and Unison (usenet), both from Panic.com. I have CarbonCopyCloner for disk backups and Perian and Flip4Mac WMV for video codecs.
 
it all depends, for what purpose do you use the mac pro? Is this the server model?
 
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Not server, using it as the centre of music production rig...would like to know general apps to help maintain it, ie fan control, regular cleaning up files, etc
 
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1188687/

buy istat menus 3.18 for 12 bucks the family plan the link above has a sale for 17 more hours


I have super duper pay version but free version is good.

http://www.shirt-pocket.com/SuperDuper/SuperDuperDescription.html


I have carbon copy cloner free version

http://www.google.com/search?client=safari&rls=en&q=carbon+copy+cloner&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8


all three programs are good. since you record disk warrior is not a bad idea.


http://www.alsoft.com/diskwarrior/

just in case you forgot to make copies it can repair and recover your bad hdd.

real seller on ebay at a lower price.☟


http://cgi.ebay.com/Alsoft-WDD105-D...ltDomain_0&hash=item3a67a9b306#ht_1392wt_1141
 
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Well, you certainly don't need to mess around with fan control on the Mac Pros like some do on the MBP's. They are whisper quiet even when rendering for hours on end under full load.
 
I don't need my machine cooler than 30ºC. Even gaming it never peaks over 50º. That is totally in the coolish zone. Maybe you guys need to dust out your case for hair and such. Once every 2-4 weeks. For me it makes almost an 8-10ºC difference.
For SW I vote for Diskwarrior, Onyx, Perian, MacFuse, Flip4Mac, VLC, Unarchiver and 1Password. 1pass is a luxury but I am hooked.
 
derbothaus said:
I don't need my machine cooler than 30ºC. Even gaming it never peaks over 50º. That is totally in the coolish zone. Maybe you guys need to dust out your case for hair and such. Once every 2-4 weeks. For me it makes almost an 8-10ºC difference.
For SW I vote for Diskwarrior, Onyx, Perian, MacFuse, Flip4Mac, VLC, Unarchiver and 1Password. 1pass is a luxury but I am hooked.
Click to expand...

A lot of what you say is true, but hot rooms are common in many areas of the world.

If your ambient room temp is 27 c or 80 f or less and your mac pro is allowed good air access keeping it cool is much easier the in a room of 32 c or 90f. Also if you are forced to hinder the mac pros breathing it is harder to cool.


As a complete aside you can program the mac pros fans individually
with istat menus 3.18 you can jack just the cpu fan /fans or just the gpu fan.

Or lower just the gpu fan.
 
Lone Deranger said:
Well, you certainly don't need to mess around with fan control on the Mac Pros like some do on the MBP's. They are whisper quiet even when rendering for hours on end under full load.
Click to expand...

This!

Honestly 99% of the time on ANY machine the user never needs to touch the fan. People just think they need to touch the fan because they see the temperature raise. (Computers get hot, its normal).

The most anyone does by messing with the fan is shorten its life.
 
philipma1957 said:
that is why you need the fan control. the fans run too slowly in many cases.
Click to expand...

The cooling systems on the Mac Pros are balanced just fine. If they weren't you'd know about it through system instability. If the cooling at a certain RPM is deemed insufficient by the SMC, (if it's in a warm/hot room for instance, or airflow is less than ideal) the fans will rev up accordingly. No user meddling is required for this. It's an urban myth.
These machines are built to be pushed hard and long and unless you over clock the CPU's or expect to run them long past their useful life expectancy (longer than most would ever want to actively keep using the system), the cooling system is designed to cope with this more than adequately.
At the Visual FX company I work for, we have many Mac Pros and they are being used and abused on a daily basis. Even the old G5's dating back, 7+ years run as fine as the day we bought them. The first few years they serve as artist workstations. Once they are replaced by newer models the old ones are "relegated" to renderfarm/server tasks. They outlast their usefulness without having ever to mess around with 'cooling utils/scripts'.
 
Lone Deranger said:
The cooling systems on the Mac Pros are balanced just fine. If they weren't you'd know about it through system instability. If the cooling at a certain RPM is deemed insufficient by the SMC, (if it's in a warm/hot room for instance, or airflow is less than ideal) the fans will rev up accordingly. No user meddling is required for this. It's an urban myth.
These machines are built to be pushed hard and long and unless you over clock the CPU's or expect to run them long past their useful life expectancy (longer than most would ever want to actively keep using the system), the cooling system is designed to cope with this more than adequately.
At the Visual FX company I work for, we have many Mac Pros and they are being used and abused on a daily basis. Even the old G5's dating back, 7+ years run as fine as the day we bought them. The first few years they serve as artist workstations. Once they are replaced by newer models the old ones are "relegated" to renderfarm/server tasks. They outlast their usefulness without having ever to mess around with 'cooling utils/scripts'.
Click to expand...

+1



I render and encode video on a daily basis on my Mac Pro (often pushing all 8 cores to their absolute max load) and not once has my system been in danger of overheating using the stock fan settings controlled by the SMC. This machine has been in relatively hot rooms (85-90 degrees), too. The CPUs sit at about 65 degrees Celcius under full load, but that's well within their rated operating parameters. And my machine doesn't have to sound like an aircraft carrier in the process. Very balanced.

I think I lot of the hoopla surrounding the "need" to use SMC hacks stems from the hardcore DIY PC crowd, who tend to stress their hardware beyond specifications (overclocking, overvolting, etc.). Additionally, there is a lot more uncertainty when you build a custom PC, where achieving the perfect balance of performance, stability and operating acoustics requires careful planning - and perhaps a bit of trial and error.

Now, I believe the laptops would perhaps be exceptions to this. When Apple expects a couple of fans the size of Kennedy half-dollars to keep a laptop with several hot-running components crammed into a tight space cool, SMC hacks can prove to be useful (at the expense of added noise, of course).
 
my cpu is rated for 67.6 c your cpus are rated for 67 c so if you never exceed 65 c you are fine.

when I run handbrake I exceed 155f or 68c.

I have a 2010 you a 2008 you have 2 cpus I have one. so you have a different cooling setup then I do. I won't run my machine over spec and it runs over spec with apple settings. It has done so since day one.

If you want a counter argument you could tell me move the pro to get better air movement. No can do,
so if I run a hot program I boost my fans. your are lucky you don't need to do so.
 
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What apps/utilities should one get with their new mac pro?

Windows 7 via Boot Camp, Parallels, or Fusion is pretty useful.
 
TA031 said:
Is it made of butter? Pretty much all CPUs are rated for at least 95*c.
Click to expand...

all hex core cpus from intel w3600 series are rated at 67.6 c to 67.9 c

http://ark.intel.com/products/47918 mine a 3.2 hex

http://ark.intel.com/products/47917 apples a 3.33 is rated 67.9 c


http://ark.intel.com/products/52586 the 3.46 hex the fastest is rated at 67.9 c



any of these 3 can go over temp when pushed the apple fan settings are not that good for these 3 cpus.

If you don't believe me and the tests I did then run them with apple's settings and don't buy a fan program if you push the cpu past 68c for extended time periods.
 
philipma1957 said:
all hex core cpus from intel w3600 series are rated at 67.6 c to 67.9 c

http://ark.intel.com/products/47918 mine a 3.2 hex

http://ark.intel.com/products/47917 apples a 3.33 is rated 67.9 c


http://ark.intel.com/products/52586 the 3.46 hex the fastest is rated at 67.9 c



any of these 3 can go over temp when pushed the apple fan settings are not that good for these 3 cpus.

If you don't believe me and the tests I did then run them with apple's settings and don't buy a fan program if you push the cpu past 68c for extended time periods.
Click to expand...

That's not the max operating temperature. It's a 130w TDP cpu which means it's not a cool running cpu to begin with.
Even mobile cpus are rated for 90-110° in most cases. The motherboards have a much lower thermal shutdown limit so the cpu normally never reaches it's max.
 
I don't use anything to keep my Mac Pro maintained. I just do work on it, and it keeps going.

I don't think there is anything you need to install to keep it running. Just make sure to pop it open every once in a while and clean out the dust.
 
show me an official intel document that reads you are allowed to exceed that temp (68 c) for w3600 series cpu's.


by exceed i mean for long time periods hours on end.


here is a mobile chip with a 100c rating


http://ark.intel.com/products/27257/Intel-Core2-Duo-Processor-T7600-(4M-Cache-2_33-GHz-667-MHz-FSB)

another mobile chip with a 105c rating

http://ark.intel.com/products/37006/Intel-Core2-Duo-Processor-P8700-(3M-Cache-2_53-GHz-1066-MHz-FSB)



people have a lot of confusion about ratings the mobile chips above use the t junction as the max number.


the intel hex chips use the t case


http://www.google.com/search?client=safari&rls=en&q=tcase+tjunction&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8


http://www.google.com/search?client=safari&rls=en&q=tcase++vs+tjunction&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8

now some say the tJunction rating is at most 15 c higher then the tCase rating

so these hex cpus would be 83 to 85 c not 100 c for t junction




istat menus 3.18 gives 2 readings for the cpu in my mac pro quad to hex cpu 1 and cpu a


since I can get the cpu over 170 f or 77 c in the case of the cpu 1 reading under heavy load why should i take the chance when setting to a higher fan speed can prevent it.
 
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I have a 3.46 hex in my 2010 and frequently run handbreak with no modified fan control. Ive never had any issues but i will pay attention to the temps next time and see if there is anything out of the ordinary and will report back.
 
hammten said:
I have a 3.46 hex in my 2010 and frequently run handbreak with no modified fan control. Ive never had any issues but i will pay attention to the temps next time and see if there is anything out of the ordinary and will report back.
Click to expand...

you are the perfect test subject see what your cpu a and cpu 1 ratings go to. and the higher number is 80 to 85 c in theory that would be exceeding the tJunction of your chip.


when i push my hex 3.2 the cpu 1 is the higher reading. not the cpu a.


it may well be that the cpu 1 reading is not accurate and pushing it to 100c is okay. I have never allowed it to go beyond 70c for more then a few minutes..

I am making the assumption that that higher number(cpu 1) is a t case reading not a t Junction reading.
these would be the two possible max numbers below;

70 c if cpu 1 is t case reading

85 c if cpu 1 is t junction reading
 
.
SuperDuper
Onyx or Cocktail
Snapz Pro X
DiskWarrior
Drive Genius
Little Snitch
WhatSize
File Buddy 9
Firefox
MacDVDRipper Pro
iWork and/or Microsoft Office
Toast Titanium
Handbrake
Photoshop or Photoshop Elements
iLife or Final Cut Pro
.
 
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Topper said:
.
SuperDuper = yes
Onyx or Cocktail
Snapz Pro X
DiskWarrior
Drive Genius = yes
Little Snitch
WhatSize
File Buddy 9
Firefox = yes
MacDVDRipper Pro
iWork and/or Microsoft Office = yes
Toast Titanium = yes

Handbrake = yes
.
Click to expand...

I own and agree with all the ones I mark with yes. the others i do not own so I can not judge
 
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