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  • Hey all, just changed over the backend after 15 years I figured time to give it a bit of an update, its probably gonna be a bit weird for most of you and i am sure there is a few bugs to work out but it should kinda work the same as before... hopefully :)

Buying Mac Pro today

P

Peter Cote

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So I'm afraid I've waited as long as I can to be buy a Mac Pro. I was hoping for the next generation to come out by now. I plan on buying it with the minimum RAM and adding 64 GB RAM separately as it's much cheaper this way. I am also planning on adding a GTX 580. My question is if I add RAM myself does that have an impact on the warranty of the machine by putting in hardware myself?
 
I don't think so, but one other caveat; if you break the mounting clips or anything else while you're in there then all bets are off. Don't force the module in. Negligence isn't covered by any warranty after all. :-)
 
Hey Peter,
You can upgrade the ram yourself without voiding the warranty. You could buy it at MacMall and they would probably match your online price for ram and install it for free.
Cheers,
Sam
 
Sam Edwards said:
Hey Peter,
You can upgrade the ram yourself without voiding the warranty. You could buy it at MacMall and they would probably match your online price for ram and install it for free.
Cheers,
Sam
Click to expand...

Was planning on buying RAM from Macsales.
 
WAIT! 30days. Also you could save by buying the PC varient and re-flashing the video card to a mac firmware.
 
Peter Cote said:
So I'm afraid I've waited as long as I can to be buy a Mac Pro. I was hoping for the next generation to come out by now. I plan on buying it with the minimum RAM and adding 64 GB RAM separately as it's much cheaper this way. I am also planning on adding a GTX 580. My question is if I add RAM myself does that have an impact on the warranty of the machine by putting in hardware myself?
Click to expand...

Installing RAM and hard drives in a MacPro is simple and the only way to go. Apple charges WAY too much for this stuff. I do this every time I big a Mac - get optimum config on RAM (so you don't have to throw out too many SIMMs) and min hard drives (although Apple's hard drives do tend to be enterprise grade, I think). Then, DIY.

As for your timing... I agree that it would be nice to wait - for Thunderbolt. No guarantees but one can hope.
 
Quick little Mac note (user since 1984)

If you do have a warranty issue, put the original RAM back in to make sure the 3rd party RAM isn't the issue. If you need to send the computer in to Apple, keep the Apple RAM in it. Apple doesn't want to mess with user installed RAM just in case they need to swap out the machine or whatever.

P.S. I'm waiting for the new Mac Pro too. I hope they actually release one.
 
Peter Cote said:
I am also planning on adding a GTX 580.
Click to expand...

You can't. This is what sucks most about Mac Pros: they have really slim GPU support.

We'll probably get support for the new nVidia cards in April. But the problem is that if in 9 months, nVidia releases a better card... chances are you will get no support for it on a Mac Pro. Until Apple decides to update the Mac Pro again and perhaps decides to offer some new video card options.

Major cards such as the GTX480 and GTX580 were never officially supported (although people could hack it so that the 480 kinda works).

Personally I think that Apple will release a new Mac Pro and they will include support for the latest GPUs at that time.

The future, however, is in quite a lot of doubt. Basically, whether you can run a modern GPU or not depends on whether Apple feels like releasing a new Mac Pro at the same time and doing drivers :)

Kinda sad because I still would like to get a Mac Pro at some point... and they are not any more expensive than the usual PC workstations when they first come out.

Bruce Allen
www.boacinema.com
 
Save some money and get a used MacPro. You can get an 8-core 2009 (4,1) for $2000 and maybe less. Look around a little and you will find they have added ram and upgraded video cards for that price. I have six of those right now and they run great.

If warranty is mandatory, look at the refurbished MacPros from Apple.

Just a thought.



Dusty
 
Barry Bishop said:
NO!!!!!
Intel just released info on their new cores.

http://www.xbitlabs.com/news/cpu/di...ips_for_LGA2011_Platform_in_March_Rumour.html


Surely you can wait a wee bit longer.

http://buyersguide.macrumors.com/#Mac_Pro


Honestly your going to get a thunderbolt connection as well as better performing CPU. In the long run your better off just getting a crappy PC to hold you over on craigslist till the MacPro is released.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the tip Barry.
I am looking to replace 7 older Mac Pros, but will take your advice and hang on a bit.
 
nigelsmith said:
Thanks for the tip Barry.
I am looking to replace 7 older Mac Pros, but will take your advice and hang on a bit.
Click to expand...

You are very welcome, but I hope the OP will take my advice. Also got some intel from an intel exec....i9's are going to blow us all away
 
Okay you convinced me. I'm going to get another sup'ed up iMac as a temp with 32 GB RAM. What SSD do you recommend I put in the iMac?
 
Like some have mentioned, hold on for a month, that's when the new Xeon E5 CPUs are incoming. However, if you are looking for a GTX 580 or otherwise planning to do graphically intensive work, Mac Pro is totally the wrong solution.
 
Subhadip Sen said:
Like some have mentioned, hold on for a month, that's when the new Xeon E5 CPUs are incoming. ...
Click to expand...

Even if Intel is keeping to their roadmap it's not clear how quickly Apple will adopt the new chipsets. It can be July easily before you have the new MacPro in your possession. And then you work with a first generation box. I prefer to buy 2nd generation boxes. Most issues are sorted out by then, the graphics driver are working as expected and many other obstacles hopefully ironed out. This is often nit the case with a generation 1 box.

If you are after the latest, fastest etc... you must go PC. For many reasons I'm still on 10.6.8 on my MacPros. There are driver issues with Lion for instance. Will be a downgrade possible with new machines? I doubt that. I'm looking for reliability. Hence I let others do the beta testing with new hardware.

The idea to get a used MacPro with a Nvidia 4000/4800 is a good advice, IMHO. A thoroughly tested new workhorse from Apple will be available earliest late summer, IMHO. Nonetheless I'm convinced that it will be a clever buy again. Apple hardware rarely let me down.

Hans
 
Biggest problem with the more powerful graphics cards isn't really the drivers - it's the fact that there's only two 6-pin power connectors on the motherboard. A lot of the bigger cards need a lot more power than what can be provided on those small ports. I saw there's a guy who is selling modified Quadro 6000 for Mac on eBay: http://www.ebay.com/itm/Nvidia-Quad...141?pt=PCC_Video_TV_Cards&hash=item4cfdca7fd5
 
Peter Cote said:
Okay you convinced me. I'm going to get another sup'ed up iMac as a temp with 32 GB RAM. What SSD do you recommend I put in the iMac?
Click to expand...

If you want an SSD in the iMac, go with the stock one from Apple. It's pretty good and a bit on the pricey side, but it will leave your warranty intact. Unlike the Mac Pro or the Macbook Pro, cracking open an iMac will void your warranty! Not to mention, it's a pain in the ass. It's not difficult, but it's just a pain. Seriously, I've done a couple of them and then bought an iMac for my family at Christmas. When it came to doing that, I just bought the SSD+2GB HDD configuration with minimum RAM from Apple, then bought RAM separately.

As for the Mac Pro, there is indeed some logic to waiting. The new CPUs are ready, the new chipsets are supposedly in production now, but Intel hasn't given all the final specs or confirmed delivery dates just yet. We are probably at least 30 days from a new Mac Pro, and quite possibly a lot more. There are a lot of rumors flying about them and many of the rumors are starting to align, it seems that the next Mac Pro will be smaller, sleeker, have ThunderBolt, have 2.5" bays for internal storage, possibly 2.5"/3.5" hybrid bays. But no one really knows for sure. There's quite a few people buying up the current Mac Pro now because they are unsure of what the next revision will bring. Personally, I'm waiting it out... But I'm up to my eyeballs in computers anyway and don't really need another one at the moment. As soon as Apple releases the new Mac Pro, I'll buy one... And I'll be building 2 or 3 Xeon PC's as well.

I'm also in pre-production for a big animation project and we'll be building our new render farm around the new Sandy Bridge Xeon architecture when it arrives.

GTX580 in a current Mac Pro is a waste of time. Available drivers can't use all the CUDA cores, you have to hack/flash the BIOS/EFI image to make it work anyway and there's the power issue that others have mentioned -- if you want to install a second video card. The 580 will use up both PCI power connectors. So you have to pull it from an optical bay or elsewhere. In my own experience in trying to do this, it leads to more problems. Best real-world video card on the Mac right now is the Quadro 4000 Mac Edition. But for some reason, they just keep getting more expensive. I bought several of them a year ago for around $615 each. They're close to $750 right now...
 
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