Getting My First Mac Pro

I have been wanting (lusting) over the new Mac Pro for quite a while now and it looks like this is the week. I am getting the dual quad with 6 gigs of RAM. I am also getting the upgraded Video Card. I plan on getting a lot more RAM but welcome any suggestions from other Mac Pro users.

Re: Getting My First Mac Pro

Longevity is one of the main reasons I am getting it. while doing my research I kept hearing the same thing over and over. It was Mac Pro users that have had their machines for years and still love them. They would talk about a couple of upgrades but all in all they bought such a good product that they were able to keep it and grow into it. I hate having to buy things twice so I figure I will get a beast, keep it for a long time and grow with it. Now we just need Snow Leopard to ship!!!!

Re: Getting My First Mac Pro

That is exactly what I am talking about. I want to keep this PC for a long time. The 4th of July weekend will be very exciting. I also ordered a WACOM Intuos 4 medium tablet for my Photoshop and Design work.

I'm not real happy about the video card options. Both cards are just 512 mb's. My PC is running a 1 Gig and looks awesome on my 30 inch screen. I am looking to order the EVGA GeForce GTX 285.

Re: Getting My First Mac Pro

Shane, I have never used a WACOM tablet before but I have used tablets in the past. I saw the tutorials online and thought it was fantastic.

Sam, Yes that is the card. I have done a lot of research and found 2 things. 1. This is the best card available for a Mac Pro.
2. It costs a lot more when you own a Mac.

But in the end it is well worth it.

Re: Getting My First Mac Pro

I know what you mean. There is definitely a learning curve with the pens. I subscribe to Kelby Training and Corey Barker has an entire class just on using the Intuos 4. There are things you just can't do with a mouse. I hope I pick it up in a week like you. I was planning on a bit longer.

Well I have it all installed and it is fantastic!!!!!!  I ended up getting the Mac Pro 16 core machine last Tuesday.  Once I got it home I started loading it but kept getting interrupted so I didn't actually get it finished until yesterday.  The new video card arrived on Thursday. Man is it awesome.  So much better than the original card.  I found 1 TB hdd's on sale for $79 at at Fry's so I picked up 3. I have 1 for MAC data, I loaded Windows on another using Boot Camp and 1 for Windows data.  I just got the Wacom tablet installed Saturday as well.  It is really nice but will take a long time to master.

I am a little disappointed  about 1 thing though.  For the amount of money I paid for his computer you would think it would come with a lot better hardware.  For $3300.00 it really should come with wireless, a remote and a much better video card.  It didn't even come with a wireless mouse.  The wireless keyboard I can understand because not everyone wants the little one.  Just a small frustration but nothing to really worry about.  It just seems like Apple should go all out and package all it's best stuff when you buy their best system.  It is also strange that Apple only offers 512 meg video cards for this computer.  I would think since they offer the GTX 285 on their website, that is where I got mine, that it would be in their build options.  And why is it that I had to go with Logitech to get a wireless keyboard with a 10 key?  Don't get me wrong, I really love Apple, obviously, but some of their decisions leave me scratching my head.

Anyway, now I am really looking forward to Snow Leopard.  That OS should unlock all the potential of this computer!!!!!!!  16 cores baby!!

Don

 Why do real pros use wired peripherals?  I really hate wires.

I paid the money because I wanted the machine. And I love it!!  Yes, for a bit more you can get a wireless mouse etc.  My point was that for this amount of money, you shouldn't have to spend more.  It should just come with it.  Not complaining really, just an observation.  I didn't realize that real pros use wired peripherals and 512 meg video cards I guess.  So that must be why they include the same stuff with with everything from the mini to the pro.  Sorry, I didn't know. This is all rather new to me.

 Now that that's over with I do have a serious question.  I am trying to run 2 monitors off my GTX 285.  It will run the monitors just fine but when I try to run a video tutorial in full screen mode on either monitor it drops my dock from the other monitor.  I tried clicking back on the other monitor to get my dock back and it resizes my video back down to normal mode.  Some of these tutorials are very hard to see in normal mode.  I called Apple and they had no idea.  We tried different sites among other things and nothing fixed it.  I suggested adding another video card just to run the second monitor.  Apple said that would work.  However, I do not know if I can run the Nvidia GTX 285 with the Radeon 4870 at the same time.  Apple had no answer.  Any ideas? 

 Pretty cool huh!?  I had a buddy over when I added 2 new hard drives to mine and he was really amazed at how easy it was. He kept asking  where all the wires were.