01-21-2008, 03:28 AM

Hello All,

I’m about to order my first big Mac Pro, and need some of your advice…



Main objectives:
1.*To have enough storage to keep and backup photos/music/video.
2.*To have access to enough machine power to use it for Flight Simulator (very… very resource demanding).

Questions:
1.*After installing Parallels and switch to Windows to run the Flight Simulator, will I have the full computer resources power ? Will 2x2.8GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon (8-core) + 4Gb DDR ram, be enough for the Flight Sim to “fly” properly? On a PC it’s about enough, but how will it be on a “paralleled mac”?
2.*Which operating system can I install? Win Vista 32 bit or 64?
3.*If it’s Win Vista 32 bit, do I understand it correctly that it will not be able to “see” more when 3Gb of RAM?
4.*Can the storage space be configured as follows:a.*a. Bay I - 1TB 7200-rpm Serial ATA 3Gb/sb. Bay II - 1TB 7200-rpm Serial ATA 3Gb/s (full backup for drive in Bay I)c. Bay III - 320GB 7200-rpm Serial ATA 3Gb/s – for Win Vista
5.*Did anyone have an experience in installing Vista on the new Mac Pro? Any problems with drivers etc? My main concern is that the additional hardware, which I use for Flight Sim will not be detected correctly, through it’s not a problem on a standard win vista machine.

Your feedbacks are highly appreciated. Cheers.

01-21-2008, 03:55 AM

1* it really depends on what the required system specs are for the flight simulator. Parallels doesn't have allot of game acceleration at the moment (they are working on it). You might consider installing XP or Vista via Bootcamp, this way you can have full system hardware and resources for the application.

2* Either, the 64 would be the best. I have installed 64 bit Vista Ultimate (yuck) on my iMac and it ran just fine. I have also installed XP Pro corp edition, it's 32bit. They both ran fine, they are gone now, but they did run fine.

3* You are correct, it won't see that 4th gig unless they have updated it with out my knowledge.

4* Yep, you'll just have to point your backup utility to the drive you want the backups to be back-upped to.

5* I haven't done it to a MacPro, but I did do it on my iMac AL and it went smooth. The Leopard disk should have the correct drivers for windows. You just need to pop the Leopard disk in when windows is up and running, it will prompt you to install the drivers.

01-21-2008, 12:23 PM

I don't think running Parallels would be a wise move for running a video game. BootCamp is an option but you can only use Windows 32-bit. As you mentioned, if running winows in 32-bit, it will only recognize 3GB of RAM.
I don't know much about computer gaming but I dont think they make any use of a second processor.
do you have any real desire to run OS X? Or are you just making a high end gaming rig with lots of multimedia space?