[ Mac] New Users

[Lyris]

OK Mac people, question time for anyone who knows about the current Mac Pros.

I've just moved my PC stuff into a new case and have been unable to get the thing to start because of some chassis intrusion feature. I've spent hours with tweezers playing with the jumper settings (losing the little bit of plastic in the case as well) and my PC works again, but I'm now afraid to change anything in the BIOS in case it goes into lockdown mode again. In other words one of the few reasons I stuck around with PCs is now off the list.

1. Can you overclock a Mac Pro? I don't play games and am not addicted to getting the best numbers, but I do like the idea of getting more performance for my money if possible.

2. I have 8gb of RAM in my PC machine. It's DDR2, forget the speed exactly. Can I drop these RAM sticks into a new Mac Pro?

3. I have a PCI SDI video capture card I use for DVD authoring tasks, do the new Mac Pros have PCI slots or do I have to get some PCI-E card instead?

4. Where do I get the best deals? Or are Apple Store prices generally the best I'll get?

[Strolls]

1. Can you overclock a Mac Pro? I don't play games and am not addicted to getting the best numbers, but I do like the idea of getting more performance for my money if possible.

No idea, what does Google say? It's certainly not common practice to overclock Macs, but I know you could do it with some of the eMacs (for instance).

I noticed a while back that secondhand Xeons - circa 2 years old - are remarkably cheap on eBay. Like ?100 for a complete & running dual-proc Xeon Dell Proliant server, for instance. So it may be good value to get take the single-processor downgrade option (saves ?313) on the Mac Pro and pick up a second processor later secondhand.

You'd need to do some homework, though, over how widely this particular model of Xeon is used, and you'd probably find the secondhand Mac Pro CPU-heatsink that you'd need to be cripplingly expensive. I have this nagging doubt that it can't be that easy.

2. I have 8gb of RAM in my PC machine. It's DDR2, forget the speed exactly. Can I drop these RAM sticks into a new Mac Pro?

The Mac Pro will use "standard" PC RAM, but I wouldn't be surprised if you find that this spec is for the best & most expensive type:

http://www.apple-history.com/?page=gallery&model=mac_pro_early_08&performa=off&sort=date&order=ASC&range=

http://www.crucial.com/uk/store/listparts.aspx?model=Mac%20Pro%20%284-core%20Xeon%205400%20Series%29

One tends to only buy Crucial brand 3rd-party RAM for Macs, as they perhaps have a bit of a reputation for being fussy.

Interestingly, Apple RAM has a temperature sensor, which allows the fans to run quieter / more slowly:

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT2813

3. I have a PCI SDI video capture card I use for DVD authoring tasks, do the new Mac Pros have PCI slots or do I have to get some PCI-E card instead?

Let me Google that for you:

http://www.apple.com/macpro/design.html

http://www.apple.com/macpro/specs.html

The Mac Pro features four full-length expansion slots, including an even higher-performance PCI Express 2.0 graphics slot, with up to twice the bandwidth of PCI Express. The graphics slot is double-wide, so your graphics card won't cover an adjacent slot. Three additional expansion slots, one PCI Express 2.0 and two PCI Express, provide room to grow. And thanks to a tool-less PCI bracket, you can take out cards as fast as you put them in.

Three unused full-length PCI Express expansion slots

• One PCI Express 2.0 x16 slot
• Two PCI Express x4 slots
• All slots provide mechanical support for 16-lane cards
• 300W combined maximum for all PCI Express slots

4. Where do I get the best deals? Or are Apple Store prices generally the best I'll get?

Yeah, Apple store is generally the way to go. Apple's margins to third party resellers (believe me, I used to be one) are miniscule and they screw-over everyone else on delivery schedules, too - one of my customers ended up waiting 2 or 3 months, at a time when you could get it in 10 days if you bought from Apple online, and I just couldn't in good conscience sell any more on that basis. If you need a build-to-order option then I'm pretty sure you can get it only from Apple.

I've been saying for a while that if you want a stock Mac then John Lewis' two-year warranty is nice, but I've tended to buy the 3-year Applecare on my laptops. I have regretted not buying the 3-year Applecare on my G5, as the graphics card died after a couple of years, as did the front firewire port. Having said all that, I have recently discovered the Sale Of Goods Act (see here and here) so you should be fine without Applecare if you're prepared to write a stern letter. Now this has occurred to me - in the context of my G5 - I'm kicking myself for not being aware of the Sale Of Goods Act, earlier. I may now dash off a nasty missive to Apple, but if I'd have done it two years ago the argument would have had a lot more weight.

Honestly, Apple's range can make it very pricey for the ordinary "power user" to afford the brand. I won't buy an iMac because I don't want to buy a new screen everytime I buy a new PC, and I like my dual-head 1600x1200. Yet there's nothing between the ?400 or ?500 MacMini and the ?1700 Mac Pro. Dell make nice quad-cores for about ?400 or ?500 - I'd happily pay a premium above that for an Apple, for Mac OS X, but even if you downgrade the CPU on the Mac Pro to a single quad-core, that's still ?1300, and that's a little more "premium" than I had in mind.

Stroller.

[Ian(not Ian)]

I've just bought an imac 20" job for the missus' incoming birthday. Now as it's the entry level and ships with what to me seems like a piddling amount of RAM (1GB) should I be looking to add some more, indeed how easy is it to install the dimms in one of those all-in-one imac?
Ah, can anyone recommend anti-spyware SW for macs, or don't they need it?

[egparadigm]

They don't really need it, Ian. Most of the spy-ware is targeted at windows. Don't know if there's any software available, even.

[Space Monkey]

.....

[Ian(not Ian)]

Thanks for the above replies.
Seems like the missus will just plug it in and >>>>>> go

[Lyris]

Question again to the experienced Mac users.

A program I run is quite buggy on Leopard 10.5.6 (the latest OS version). It requires the previous OS (10.4, what's the name of that again? Tiger, right?) to fully work.

Can I install Tiger on my Mac and do a dual-boot setup? So I can select from Leopard, Tiger or Windows at startup? Or can it only have one version of Mac OS at one time?

[JP]

Question again to the experienced Mac users.

What about inexperienced Mac users who remember reading about it a few days ago?

Anyway, I was reading this last week after stumbling across it by accident.

I've read online of other people doing it too but I'm sure other people who know what the hell they are talking about could give you more specific advice about it.

It doesn't sound too complicated really.

[Lyris]

Excellent, thanks
I totally forgot OSX can easily boot from a portable disk.

[JB@XL]

Any further news on an update for the mac mini.

I have been thinking about going for an apple for several months now and the mini is the one that i reckon i would go for.I know the present models are outdated but i would still get one if no replacements were due.

Picked up my ipod touch today which is a lovely piece of kit and has given me the urge to change to a mac even more.

[CMcK]

No one outside Apple really knows but I wouldn't be surprised if they hold a special event soon. The iMac is due an update as well.

[Lyris]

I'm waiting for updates to the Pros...

[CMcK]

I'm waiting for updates to the Pros...

Nehalem based octo core? Drool!

I won't budge until I can get a quad core Nehalem based iMac update.

[Brad]

I'll only buy Apple branded computers now, even if I need them to run an os other than OSX. My 2ghz Macbook runs vista better than my 3ghz dell at work. Much better. No idea how or why. I think Apple must just match up all the bits of hardware better or something.

[JB@XL]

Question for the Mac techheads or John Parry incase he has done some more reading


I am hoping to move over to the mac mini or imac soon and looking for some confirmation.I currently have an external usb h/drive which is formatted to ntfs and has my movies,music,pictures etc. stored.


From what i believe i can connect this to the mac even though its ntfs , transfer all my files then reformat the external h/drive to Mac OS Extended.

Once i have the Mac i wont be using the external h/drive with any windows machine.