Here or There? To buy a Mac Pro

I need to replace my work computer with a new Mac Pro when I move from Bay Area to Australia, I know the power if different, but can I buy computere here? Or would it be better to wait until I get there....does Apple make a power converter so the computer will not fry?

Apple has a World Travel Kit that has one in it. AAA stores should carry them, too. Many computer stores such as Office Depot may have them.

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About to buy a Mac Pro, have quick question please.

Hi all,
I am going to more than likely buy a Mac Pro 2.66 tonight or tomorrow, but I was wondering something in regards to graphics cars if any one could assist me.
I am planning to go with the ATI card and 2gigs of ram since I do some gaming on the side and plan to use bootcamp for that.
My question is that if I buy the machine in retail store, they do not credit the stock GeForce card and just add the ATI card in, so if I go that rout can both the ATI and Nvidia card both reside in the machine at the same time and be used in SLI mode?
EG: can I get the power of both cards or will I only be able to use the processing power of one card? If only one card then would I be better off configuring the machine online since they credit you the difference of the Nvidia card which saves roughly $150.00 off the order from doing it in a retail store?
Any help would be greatly appreciated. I am not worried about the $150.00, it would almost be worth it to spend the extra since the shipping time on the online configuration may end up costing almost the same unless I want to wait a few weeks for the machine.
Whats your thoughts on this? Is it worth it to buy in the store and use both cards or just buy online from apple and get the credit for the Nvidia card?
Thanks in advance!

can both the ATI and Nvidia card both reside in the machine at the same time and be used in SLI mode
No… SLI requires two Nvidia SLI capable cards. In addition, SLI is not supported under Mac OS X although does work, apparently, under Windows and Boot Camp. ATi's comparable technology is CrossFire.
would I be better off configuring the machine online since they credit you the difference of the Nvidia card which saves roughly $150.00 off the order from doing it in a retail store?
Financially yes as the Nvidia card is ultimately useless to you. One consideration though is the CTO conditions of return, or lack there of, in case you receive a DOA. In the US, amongst other countries, CTo unit are not returnable even if they are DOA so you should check the terms of sale in the country store you would buy from.
Whats your thoughts on this?
I, like many others, bought CTOs from the Apple Store so I don't think it's such a bad way to go. It also means you won't have any pressing need to open your new Mac Pro right away.
One thing you might want to consider though is to downgrade the standard 250GB hard drive to a 160GB drive and use the saving on a drive of your choosing. Apple tends to use OEM desktop drives that have unimpressive performance. The 160GB drive in my Mac Pro didn't even get turned on. It was a Seagate Barracuda 7200.9 if you're interested.

Planning on buying a Mac Pro

Hi, I'm planning on buying a Mac Pro 3Ghz in the near future and had a few questions before I buy it.
I plan on using the computer mainly for games but I want to have it for a long time and be able to handle whatever I throw at it (games and otherwise). I had a iMac G3 300Mhz for about 5 years and been useing a iMac 2Ghz more recently, both of which I have been very pleased with but I know a regular tower has alot more options and complications too.
At first I was planning on buying all my RAM from Apple and just getting the monitor seperate (since they seem pretty overpriced), on futher research I found that the 2GB RAM I was going to get at first is really a min. amount for the system and 4GB much better for getting full performance from the computer. Now from Apple the price difference from 2BG to 4GB is $800, not cheap.
So my first question is where can I find memory thats not so expensive? and what are the good brands to buy?
I also found out that the hard drives that apple uses aren't that good. Was going to get the 250GB HD but I probly don't need that much and can always add more so size isn't a big factor.
So what brand has good hard drives and where would be the best place to buy it?
I'm now planning on getting the computer with the min. HD and RAM and upgrading from there but I also want to be able to put in all the upgrades right away and not have to worry about adding more for awhile.
Last is the monitor but that doesn't concern me as much as the main computer. I want to get atleast a 20", any suggestions you have would be appreciated.
Thanks for taking the time to read my post.

Last fall Intel customers that run heavy servers were clamoring for Intel to get new chips out the door. Servers are often optimized for multi-cpu/cores, and the new chips run cooler, take less power to run, AND less power to cool. The costs of running a server farm makes any reduction in cost important today. Plus, even though they are clocked slower, are somewhat more efficient (improved and more mature?) that and stability are often what drives servers, not the hottest (figuratively and literally) cpus and systems.
So even if/when Intel does start shipping, and tested/qualified for OEMs they may not have any "left over" for awhile for desktop. And it could be they might even end up in Apple Xserves rather than MacPro.
Given that it took until November (late) for Apple to use Xeon in Xserve I almost wondered if it takes longer and more testing (and revising version of server) or if Apple might be hoping to delay and see if Intel could supply the new 53xx chip (would they use single quad-core or two? or have both configurations?).
Often it does take a "patched" or revised OS to deal with any new hardware as well (10.4.9? 10.5.1? something in-between?).
Anyone whose work is really cpu bound on G5 Quad or Mac Pro will probably be first off the line for these, as they were for the other two systems.

So im about to buy a mac pro, I just need help cause im not sure if it's worth paying more for instance, a hi-res screen compared to the stock screen, and will i really miss the .2 ghz and the upgraded video card if I get the 2.0 ghz mbp?

So im about to buy a mac pro, I just need help cause im not sure if it's worth paying more for instance, a hi-res screen compared to the stock screen, and will i really miss the .2 ghz and the upgraded video card if I get the 2.0 ghz mbp?

The_Tiger92 wrote:
So im about to buy a mac pro, I just need help cause im not sure if it's worth paying more for instance, a hi-res screen compared to the stock screen, and will i really miss the .2 ghz and the upgraded video card if I get the 2.0 ghz mbp?
It appears the 15" 2.2 ghz isn't worth spending $400 more for, but you get the 1GB Radeon 6750M that has four times the VRAM than the 15" 2.0Ghz model and about 167% more performance. High settings on all current games with over 50 fps.
If your not into 3D gaming or just light weight, then the 2.0 Ghz (last years performance) will suffice on low-medium settings at about 30 fps.
The 13" is rather poor as it has integrated graphics. 30 fps on only some games.
The high res screen is a excellent choice and the anti-glare is great for viewing just about anywhere.
No messy films to replace at $30-$40 a pop.
A lot of people bring the glossy screens back once they hear about the anti-glare.
http://www.pcpro.co.uk/blogs/2011/05/23/glossy-vs-matte-screens-why-the-pc-indus trys-out-of-touch/
Here's my 17"
In my opinion the extra $400 for another 2-3 years of use out of the computer is worth it.
Quad cores are more than enough for most uses for most people for many years, it's just a slow card is going to make the machine feel slow in rendering graphics in the future.

Can I buy a Mac Pro in the States and then buy and register AppleCare in Australia?

Hi,
I am going to buy a Mac Pro in the States but will be using it mainly in Australia. Can I purchase and register Applecare for the Mac Pro in Australia?
Thanks.

Would you incur a fiscal deficit, moreso, by registering a US purchased
Applecare plan, or registering the same plan, bought in Australia?
The AppleCare extended plan is nearly global, and could be bought
nearly anywhere. Some users buy one in the USA, then travel to Japan.
In some cases, the place where you buy the plan is cheaper than where
you may be living afterward; so consider the national sales tax in Oz.
Depending on where you buy the computer in the States, the plan can be
added on and automatically enrolled at the same time. You could wait
and buy the plan in Australia; at whatever currency rate and tax added.
Is there any magic behind the method, man?

Told my friend to buy a Mac Pro today...right choice?

She wanted a new computer so she could edit music and video, but she only had $2200 to spend. She was gonna grab a MacBook Pro, but I told her to buy the Mac Pro but in its lowest configuration. 2.0GHz, 1GB Ram, 160 GB HD, no WiFi etc. It came in at $1962 with her student discount.
Is that the right choice? I told her it's upgradeable, but I wasn't sure if she could ever upgrade the CPU. Did I point her in the right direction? Or should she cancel her order and get the MacBook Pro?

Given her budget she's going to be tightly squeezed which ever way she goes. Ultimately, the startup price of a Mac Pro is probably going to be slightly higher if you need to consider a display. If not then they're going to more or less the same.
In my opinion you did point her in the right direction for several reasons…
1) 2 x 2GHz Xeon processors are going to be far better than single 2.16GHz Core Duo Mobile processor. I would however suggest she makes every effort to beg, borrow or steal the cash to stick with the standard 2.66GHz processors. They're far better value than the 2GHz and will serve her far better in the long run.
2) RAM is a real problem with all other Mac s as they're limited to 2GB. For serious video editing you want 4GB or more. With 1GB in either system she'll be struggling so it's suggest she have at least 2GB.
3) Laptops are limited to 2.5" drives and hence, are currently limited to 160GB (which you cannot even get as a CTO option) forcing MB/MBP users into external drives. The Mac Pro you can add up to 5 drives.
4) No RAID in the MBP which provides a huge performance boost for video editing.
5) No DVD+R DL recording in the current MBP.
6) No upgradeable GPU in the MBP. Even though the ATi X1600 Mobility in the MBP and the Nvidia 7300 GT are more or less the same, the Mac Pro does give upgrade options where the MBP does not.
7) No TOSLink in the MBPs.
Having been a laptop users for some time before going with a Mac Pro I can reasonably say that the only reason I would ever recommend a laptop is that you require portability.
The MBPs do come with Airport and Bluetooth as standard although you can buy USB Bluetooth adapters cheap enough and I'd suggest using Ethernet cables in any case.
Finally, have you/she considered going with say a 24" iMac?

Do I need to buy a Mac pro with an iMac?

I'm planning on buying a 27-inch iMac, do I need to buy a Mac Pro (single processor) or any other hardware etc with the iMac PC?

Go for the higher end 27 inch screen base model.
Get one with the fusion drive.
Add third party RAM after the purchase.
If you need an optical drive, the new iMacs no longer have an internal CD/DVD optical drive.
You will need to budget and purchase an external optical drive.
Also, budget for an external hard drive for backups and storage.
Most important, budget for, purchase and register for extended 2-years of AppleCare warranty before your first year of ownership has ended.
The cost of the extra 2 years is only a fraction of an actual out of pocket repair cost.
Later aluminum iMacs, in general, have a 3-5 year varied liability history and it's better to have 3 years of warranty coverage than get caught with an expensive repair sometime after the first free year of AppleCare.
Good Luck!

If I buy the Mac pro and iMac combine it together would it be faster?

If I buy the Mac pro and iMac combine it together would it be faster or I just buy the mac pro and Apple Thunderbolt Display (27-inch)?

If you buy a Mac Pro 2013, use the iMac for casual stuff and use the Mac Pro for media creation work.
Maxed out iMac with 4-core 32GB RAM and 1TB SSD PCIe is nice.
Mac Pro with 6-core 64GB dual graphics for $1000 more might run rings around it.
Why not look them both up on Geekbench.
Some people really need and like having two systems, maybe laptop (Air) and a more powerful system.

I plan to buy a mac pro 13 inch, any discount for corporate company workers

i plan to buy a mac pro 13 inch, any discount for corporate company workers
13-inch: 2.4 GHz

Possibly if your company has an agreement with Apple and the machine is purchased through the company. Otherwise, no.

I intend to buy new mac pro, is it better to wait for the new OS X mountain, or can buy it and we can update it without affecting its performance?

I intended to buy new mac pro, is it better to wait for new OS X moutain or can buy it now and update it later as it will not affect its performance???

khalid.mktaka76 wrote:
I intended to buy new mac pro, is it better to wait for new OS X moutain or can buy it now and update it later as it will not affect its performance???
If you can wait about a 3 months after 10.8 is released this summer and upon new hardware you should be in excellent shape to have not only a fastest latest machine, but a OS X version that all the bugs have been worked out. Plus the three free months of Apple hand holding while they figure out what they did wrong with the new OS version.
If you need a new machine now you'll have to get what you need obviously, but 10.8 should run on it just fine. However know that Apple tweaks things with more currently sellling hardware first, then later gets to the previous released models.
It's been my guestimation that your good for about two year old hardware with very recent OS X release, three years or older hardware you may want to reconsider sticking with the previous OS X version as your hardware is getting dated and likely has only a year left to go anyway (4 year average), so why bother mucking it up, slowing it down and having to buy all new/updated software and third party hardware because they won't make drivers for your new OS version?

Can I buy a Mac Pro in the U.S., with a German keyboard?

can I buy a Mac Pro in the U.S., with a German keyboard?

The Mac Pro Tower is NOT a laptop computer. It weighs 65 lbs, and holds four full-size Hard Drives. It uses a detachable keyboard.
US English
Western Spanish
French
Japanese
... are readily available at the Apple Online Store, in wired and wireless.
For German, you would have to call them and make special arrangements, or pick one up an additional keyboard when you get back home.
This thing won't fit in your suitcase. Are you sure you want to pay to ship it home again? I would be tempted to sell it when you are leaving, and buy a new one at Home.
A laptop would be a better choice. These are also available with the same four choices of languages (in all models) through the online store.
You can make all the German characters and accents with the USEnglish keyboard, but some are two keystrokes.

I want to buy an imac but do I have to buy a mac pro or is everything bult into the imac?

I want to buy an imac but do I have to buy a mac pro or is everything built into the imac?

The MacPro is a tower aimed at professional users. The display is sold separately. The iMac is an all-in-one aimed at consumers (and, well professionals, actually). The computer is built into the same housing that holds the display, optical drive and hard drive. It includes a keyboard and mouse (or trackpad).

Advice-Buy early Mac Pro 2gz 4GRAM for £690, or save for later model?

The earliest model...... just want to get some opinions here before taking plunge..drawbacks for me 1)I don't like the idea of not being able to update the OS 2) dont like the fact it doesnt run 64 bit natively...plus side 1) It will be a major upgrade for me, as am using g4 ppc and can run Snow L 2)I can afford it (just) can I pick some minds re price and how long its likely to last? I mostly use my mac for video and music..what exactly will I need to watch HD video? am wavering whether to milk my g4 until I can save enough, or take the plunge and start saving again...

I think you are both mistaken, and exaggerating. Plus this got some good input from your friends on MacRumors.
Booting a 64-bit kernel is all it lacks as you should have gathered by now.
Runs 64-bit apps fine. There were lots of threads on forums etc about 64-bit drivers/mode and what it means (or not). Maybe in 3 yrs will 64-bit kernel matter more, but today? now?
I don't know what US$ is but if you want "more modern" Apple Store Specials.
Refurbished Mac Pro 2.66GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon $US2200 is a better investment.
http://store.apple.com/us/product/FB871LL/A?mco=MTEzMzA3MDk
http://store.apple.com/us/browse/home/specialdeals/mac/mac_pro
3 yrs ago when it was new it would have been a great upgrade from any G4. Today you could buy an iMac and probably be happy and satisfied.
So the only reason is you think Snow Leopard might help, and in that department I'd say wait a year or until 2011. No compelling reason today.
Good reason to stay with 3 yr old Mac, it runs 10.4.11 (Intel, so you need the OEM DVD it came with probably). Tiger for Intel Mac was never sold retail.
Best reason to buy: you need it and can't do what you need now; these things are darn quiet!
Plan on upgrading the graphics to ATI 4870 and throw in an SSD system drive, plus a 1TB data drive. I'm sure you'll find it fine.

Never owned a Mac, thinking of buying a Mac Pro, could use some advice...

Hey guys,
I know this was a lot to read, but I sincerely hope someone will take the time to answer my questions:
As the title of my post implies I've never owned a Mac in my life. I've always built my own desktops and usually gone to HP or Dell for my laptops. I'm approaching that time again where my custom-built desktop is looking outdated and I'm getting the upgrade itch. I'm looking at all the parts I need to order to build a computer and I can't help but think I'm older now with a full-time job and a one year old daughter in the house. Do I really want to go through the hassle of building a desktop from scratch again? Not really. So I started evaluating things a bit. As I get older I’m really just getting sick and tired of Microsoft’s antics (Vista was a huge disappointment for me) so I decided this could be the year for me to take the Mac plunge.
Now I’m an IT guy, so I have a pretty atypical setup at home. I’m currently running both Windows and Linux on all my computers. Rather than dual boot or use virtualization software I have a pretty intricate system in which I use a product called Acronis Trueimage to experiment with operating systems. What I do is perform a a clean install on an operating system, tweak it as needed for security and to use resources on my LAN than back up the customized OS install to a server a an image file. I have pre-built images for XP, Vista, Ubuntu and OpenSuSE that I can roll out to one of my machines in an average of 15 minutes whenever I get the urge to switch operating systems. I also serve all my data off a NAS box, so since data and OS are kept separate on the network I don’t have to worry about erasing something when I swap between Linux and Windows (as loading an image literally destroys the previous OS install).
So you can see I’m pretty highly specialized. I even have things down to the point to where I have custom images for specific purposes. For instance I have one XP image customized for development, one XP image customized for gaming, etc. Naturally if I got the Mac Pro I’d like to have the freedom to create a similar set of custom OS deployment images (Windows, Linux and OSX) for it as well. In researching the Mac Pro I have some concerns my current system might not work if I go that route. Am I correct in assuming that in order to run an alternative operating system on a Mac I’ll have to run boot camp or something like it? Or upon unboxing my Mac and tweaking Leopard will I be able to use disk imaging software to make a backup image of my preinstalled Leopard hard drive and then do a clean install of Windows XP or Ubuntu and set it up to function like a PC? I guess I’m asking if it’s possible (now that Macs are Intel-based) to run Windows or Linux exclusively on the Mac hardware?
Also I have some concerns about the proprietary nature of the Mac platform. From what I can gather in my research it seems the hardware is pretty locked in. One area that has me really concerned is gaming. I pretty much use Ubuntu exclusively at home for productivity and web surfing. However I still like to load that XP image every now and then to play some games on the LAN with my buddies. I’m not a fan of virtualizing for gaming because of the obvious performance hit you take, so I’d have to be able to run Windows XP free and clear. Also I checked Nvidia’s site and I see no OSX drivers listed there for their cards. Under the Windows platform they are always releasing driver updates to squeeze more game performance out of your card. What if I want to upgrade my video card? How do drivers work on OSX? Does Apple just integrate drivers for just a few specific video cards into the OS? Will I be stuck only able to pick from a handful of video cards approved by Apple?
Thanks in advance to anyone who can offer advice!
Message was edited by: ZeusABJ

Hi Zeus
I may be able to answer some of your questions. And sorry in advance if this sounds like yet another of those "religious conversion" stories
I'm a software developer/architect, mostly doing Microsoft .NET/C#/Web Services coding. I'd been a loyal Microsoft guy since I started on the original IBM PC back in the 80's. Like a lot of people (or so it seems) I just got fed up with Microsoft's high-handed and self-important ways. More importantly, the company always seemed to be lagging behind technically. Looking at beta versions of Vista did not bode well for the future - it just seemed awful. When Vista came out it it was the last straw - I just could not get enthusiastic about this bloated, slow, mess of an operating system. I really hated it. Still do. Even with a top-spec machine, Vista didn't run in the snappy, responsive way it I thought it should. Nothing seemed well thought out.. yuck!
Then, by chance, I was staying for a few days with somebody who had a Mac. Now, for years and years I not even considered Macs as remotely serious machines. My only experience of them was in the late 80's when somebody at work had one. He took delight in pushing a floppy disc into the machine so that it would respond "Ah, it's so big!". Great, just a toy. Not for serious programming work. So, encountering Mac OS X Tiger on my friend's iMac was something of a shock. It was so responsive, clean and elegant. When you turned it on it only took about 30 seconds or so for the thing to be ready for use, etc, etc.
Long story short, I bought an iMac, then a newer, bigger, faster iMac, then a MacBook Pro and now I have a Mac Pro. I still have to work with Windows to do my .NET-related day job. But 95% of the time I work on the Mac using various VMWare virtual machines. I can switch between Windows Server 2008, Windows Server 2003 and Windows XP in a few seconds and still be working in a Mac environment. And the performance of running Windows inside VMWare is even better than on my dedicated top-spec Windows laptop! I have a selection of virtual machines to choose from and, because these virtual machines are just files, I can back them up, revert to saved copies, etc. I've tried Bootcamp but it's much less convenient and performance inside the virtual machines is never an issue (although I don't do any gaming). So, you could keep virtual machines on your NAS box or local Mac hard drive.
With regard to graphics drives, etc. I've never had any problems whatever in this respect. For example, when I installed Windows XP on VMWare it automatically recognised all my hardware (including some obscure audio interfaces, USB-based MIDI interfaces, etc.) and made it available. I must admit that when I was new to the Mac I expected to have driver issues, but never have had... So, my guess is that you'll be able to run all your Windows and Linux distros on the Mac without too many problems.
You mention Apple's hardware as being "locked-in". I don't think that's the case. Certainly the consumer Mac models like the iMac can't be upgraded (by you or me) internally, expect for memory. The Mac Pro though is very easy to upgrade - though there may be some limitations with regard graphics cards.
Re your questions about graphics card drivers. Yes, these come with OS X in just the same as as with Windows. Because I've also used the card that comes "with the box" this has not been an issue for me. However, unless you get a Mac Pro you can't swap-in your existing graphics card. And even then I think you may find restrictions. However, other, more knowledgeable Mac users on this forum may have other thoughts.
Overall though, the experience of using the Mac in terms of software is very much the reverse of Windows - the OS is very open and well documented. It really is an IT person's dream machine - so much to fiddle around with (particularly if you know anything about Unix!). Unlike Microsoft who charge a FORTUNE for their development tools, Apple give them to you for free. And very good they are too!
Finally, one bit of advice. If you are considering buying a new Mac, join the Apple Developer Connection scheme as a Select member. It'll cost you around $400 to join but they give you a hardware discount for Apple-store purchased items that will save you a ton of $$$'s - absolutely definitely worth doing.
Hope this helps (and good luck)!
Russ

Where can I buy the Mac Pro 2013 motherboard? Just the motherboard

So where can I buy JUST the Mac pro 2013 motherboard? If you can, please link it.
Thanks!

This is a User-to-User help site.
Helpers get their rewards by helping.
I know some good solutions to a lot of problems with Mac Pros. And other readers know a whole lot more solutions.
I do not know of any problem that can be solved by replacing these boards in a nearly-new Mac Pro. The processor board is sold as a bare board, with no processors or heatsinks. It takes an hour of trained technician time just to install the processors and heat sinks, and you MUST get the correct parts or it will not work. If your technique is not correct, the processor(s) will self destruct when you power them up.
The mainboard does not include the SATA connectors, which are actually on a wiring harness that is attached from behind.
What problem are you trying to solve here?

Here or There? To buy a Mac Pro

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