OT: Convergence to MAC PRO

[Srek]

to switch to MAC version, do I pay Maxon to convert my win license to mac license? How does this work?
Please contact your nearest MAXON office on this since this varies from country to country.
Cheers
Björn

[Continuumx]

Please contact your nearest MAXON office on this since this varies from country to country.
Cheers
Björn

Hello Srek,

Thank you for the information. I will do so!

[Continuumx]

Here is the system configuration I am looking at:

Mac Pro $4,696.00
NVIDIA GeForce 7300 GT 256MB (single-link DVI/dual-link DVI)
Apple Keyboard and Mighty Mouse - U.S. English
4GB (4 x 1GB)
Two 3.0GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon
Accessory kit
250GB 7200-rpm Serial ATA 3Gb/s
One 16x SuperDrive
Mac OS X - U.S. English

This is still cheaper than Dell system. Dell System specs over $5000 when I last checked. Plus I would have two operating systems!

[mikeh64]

you could make it even cheaper by not buying ram from apple - they charge alot for it

the computer comes with 1 gig, and in your case you are probably adding $700 to bring it to 4 gigs total

if you just order it with the 1 gig, and then buy ram elsewhere (like crucial.com), it will cost $380 for 4 more gigs, so you'll end up with 5 gigs for an additional $370, insted of 4 gigs for $700 straight frm apple

[AkaKico]

Almost identical to the system I bought 2 months ago! I couldn't be happier with it. I got my ram and extra harddrives 3rd party so that knocked my price down a little. No problems with the 3rd party stuff either! Shipped really fast too considering it came all the way from China!

[Continuumx]

Thanks AkaKico and mikeh64! The price with 1GIG of ram is now: $3,997.

I will check for ram prices at Tigerdirect and Crucial. I bought heat sinks for my previous system that I built for my win pc system from Tiger Direct so I am sure these are still available if I buy the ram from Crucial or TigerDirect.

[AkaKico]

"http://otherworldcomputing.com/" came very highly recommended to me if you want another one to check out. I'm very happy with the ram. It also arrived to my house less then 14 hours after I ordered it! I hadn't realized that the company was only 4 hours from me.

*hugs my mac*

[Activator]

Make sure you buy "certified" RAM for the MacPro!! The chips are VERY finicky and you'll save yourself a lot of RAM-related headaches down the road. TigerDirect is not the most "Mac friendly" source... mostly for PC do-it-yourselfers. Crucial or, my long-time favorite, transintl.com, will ensure the best RAM compatibility.

Note that you need to install the RAM in matched pairs for the best performance.

Enjoy!

[Jorge Arango]

Thanks AkaKico and mikeh64! The price with 1GIG of ram is now: $3,997.




$3,800 if you buy from macconnection.


Jorge Arango

[akport]

You should get at least 8GB of RAM if not 16GB. Buying from a source other than Apple will make this affordable. I just picked up 8GB from OWC for around $600. You really want a minimum of 1GB/core to take advantage of each core and overhead. 2GB/core or more is even better.

- Adam

[ooo]

On the XP side of things. I think you have no other option than to install XP again on your Bootcamp partition. You might wanna check some Mac-sites like http://www.accelerateyourmac.com/ or Macfixit or Macintouch.com to see if there are other options, but I'm afraid not. Maybe the external drive with XP can be recognized by Parallels?

I hope you have a full XP license (no OEM) otherwise you have to buy a fresh license. I installed a new OEM on my Macbook Pro and that behaves without a hiccup. If you also want to use your Bootcamp XP in Parallels for fast OS-switching OEM is no option.

I'm holding out a little bit still before I buy an octo. We might possibly see an upgraded Mac Pro around Leopard release, but this is pure speculation.

odo

[Rantin Al]

Just adding my approval and recommendation of Crucial for certified Mac RAM.
No quibble lifetime replacement.. never needed it tho'.

Cheers, Alan.

[fluffouille]

You will have to buy a new license of Windows, as it is linked to the main hardware (motherboard).
You can pick an OEM at Tiger Direct for 139$: http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=335900&Sku=M17-7502

Same thing for Vista 64 (buy OEM), or if you can get your hands on XP64.

I also plan on buying a new MacPro, since they have become such a nice alternative to PCs nowadays. Cheaper, allow for multi OS and they are the only ones getting that Clovertown chip at 3Ghz (Intel seems to have a special deal with Apple to sell these speeds only through their system - highest speed one can get OEM is 2.66Ghz apparently).
All in all, great machines, but I will probably run Windows OS mostly (XP/Vista64), to get that faster/better OpenGL for animation works, and 64bits support.

[leadnut]

All in all, great machines, but I will probably run Windows OS mostly (XP/Vista64), to get that faster/better OpenGL for animation works, and 64bits support.

These should be included when Leopard is released in Oct!

[Kuroyume0161]

Wow, that's still expensive - though the $3997 price tag is better.

My new system will be (being built as I type):

Intel Core 2 Quad (Q6600)
Asus motherboard
GeForce 8800 GTX 768MB
2 x 500GB SATA II HDD
20x Dual-Layer DVD+/-RW
8 GB RAM
Full tower case
650W PSU
Windows XP Pro SP2 and x64 dual boot

I'll be dumping my Creative SB X-Fi and Pinnacle AV capture into that machine for a bit of extra heating. ;)

All for about or less than $3000 - still waiting for final price tag but that is where we specked it. The only place where this system falls behind the Mac 8-core is in the 8 core Xeons. Better every where else. ;P Nothing against the 8-core Macs! They are assuredly wonderous machines - but way beyond my finances (esp. if you want 8+ GB memory).

Update: $2450 + tax. Not bad for this system. Similar pre-builts cost $3500 and up.

[fluffouille]

I certainly hope so, that way Mac users can have their 64bits as well.
As for better OpenGL support, is Leopard supposed to improve on this? Will it be as fast as the Windows version?

[TBoxman]

This is just a hunch - I have no inside information from Maxon.

Maxon is a very Mac friendly developer. They released the Mac Intel version of C4D the day the MacPro was announced.

I'm speculating that C4D 64 bit for Mac will be announced the day that Leopard is released. In fact, I'd wager that someone from Maxon will be on stage to make the announcement.

Terry

[SilverCity]

Btw, does anyone know what the next version of the Macpro will be? Newer and faster chip? More cores? Cheaper price? I planned on waiting until Leopard+new Macpro comes out before getting a new mac.

[NWoolridge]

All in all, great machines, but I will probably run Windows OS mostly (XP/Vista64), to get that faster/better OpenGL for animation works, and 64bits support.

These should be included when Leopard is released in Oct!

I certainly hope so, that way Mac users can have their 64bits as well.
As for better OpenGL support, is Leopard supposed to improve on this? Will it be as fast as the Windows version?

You guys are behind the times; Mac OGL performance is now equal to or better than Windows. Just look at the Cinebench results.

http://www.3dfluff.com/mash/cinebench/top.php

Apple has improved its OGL implementation significantly, including the addition of multithreaded OGL, and Maxon has improved its use of Apple tech.

No reason these days to avoid Macs, if OGL speed is your concern.

Nick

[fluffouille]

How about enhanced OpenGL?
I'm glad Apple got its act together concerning OpenGL support, now the only thing to consider is the lack of choice in graphic card for these Mac Pros (and the "not really interchangeable parts" that come with it). Although, the X1900 is pretty decent at the moment.

[sunmade]

enhanced opengl works perfectly on my macpro ati 1900xt

[3DBond]

Best place for RAM I've found.

I bought when the dollar wasn't nearly as good and it still worked out to be far less expensive.

https://www.datamem.com/

[Continuumx]

Thank you to everyone that provided some great information.

At the moment, my prospects are to move down to the dual dual core xeon 2.66mhz MAC PRO as as much as I want 8 processors, the extra $1500 is a lot right now for that awesome amount of power. I think moving from a single processor core 2ghz athlon to 4 processors (2.66 mhz) should give me enough of a boost to really get more in the way of production when it comes to rendering in general.

I have been very amazed at bootcamp, I saw a youtube video of autocad running on a macbook pro.

There is no doubt my next machine is a MAC. I am very glad to have a viable option when it comes to further support of microsoft.

I am now waiting for the release of leopard as I want boot camp integrated in the OS.

I just hope Apple can seize the moment here with leopard, pricing, and mac pro line and boot camp as they can really take advantage of a growing movement and momentum of window users making the big exodus to MAC.

It about to happen as a lot of PC users like myself that have built their PC systems in the past, are really thinking a lot more and more about MAC systems. The flood gates are about to open. There will soon be a larger percentage of mac users than in the past to that is no doubt. And one day, it just may be 50 to 50 rather than 89 to 11 percent

Okay, now its Apple turn to release this Leopard OS!

[jackb602]

I have been very amazed at bootcamp, I saw a youtube video of autocad running on a macbook pro.

I run Autocad inside Parallels on a MacBook Pro. It's very smooth and responsive. Bootcamp might be overkill for Autocad. I also noticed in another recent thread that my MacBook Pro (2x 2.2 GHz) is faster at basic GI rendering than my Quad G5. I imagine you'll be pretty happy with the Quad 2.66 Mac Pro.

Jack

[AdamT]

Wow, that's still expensive - though the $3997 price tag is better.

My new system will be (being built as I type):

Intel Core 2 Quad (Q6600)
Asus motherboard
GeForce 8800 GTX 768MB
2 x 500GB SATA II HDD
20x Dual-Layer DVD+/-RW
8 GB RAM
Full tower case
650W PSU
Windows XP Pro SP2 and x64 dual boot

I'll be dumping my Creative SB X-Fi and Pinnacle AV capture into that machine for a bit of extra heating. ;)

All for about or less than $3000 - still waiting for final price tag but that is where we specked it. The only place where this system falls behind the Mac 8-core is in the 8 core Xeons. Better every where else. ;P Nothing against the 8-core Macs! They are assuredly wonderous machines - but way beyond my finances (esp. if you want 8+ GB memory).

Update: $2450 + tax. Not bad for this system. Similar pre-builts cost $3500 and up.

Very good price -- definitely better than you could do on a Mac. OTOH, don't necessarily believe that a collection of stellar but unmatched/unoptimized components will make for a better machine. I built my own PCs for years using top-shelf components, and last year bought a Mac Pro quad core. I was amazed at how well the Mac Pro is engineered. The thing is put together brilliantly and runs very reliably and very very *quietly.* It's much quieter even than my water cooled rigs. Nice.

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