I am thinking about either getting a Mac Pro or an Opteron Workstation.
The Mac Pro is a powerful beast at a good price for a workstation. I’m thinking of getting the 2.6 GHz model.
I’m leaning towards the Mac Pro but I have a few concerns.
If any of you guys can help me with this, would be great.
1) First of all is the graphics. Can I SLI or cross fire the Mac Pro?
2) Am I limited to the graphics cards Apple offer? (A PC the 7900 and 7300 use the same driver, so can I use a 7900 in the Mac?)
3) I want to add a raid card I have 7 Hdds on my current rig. Where would I put them? 4 Drive bays are not enough. As I will be running Windows and Mac OSX on separate Hdds. Can I put the hard drives in the drive bays backwards and connect then to the PCI-E raid card?
4) I know a 2.6 GHz Xeon will now beat a 2.6 GHz opteron, for the most part. But I heard the Mac pro’s(intels) are still in the dark ages. Sharing the system RAM memory for both CPU’s and not using separate memory and memory buses for each CPU. Is this True? (This is where Opterons have always killed intels hands down) Apples website does not say. Apples website also does not mention memory bandwidth speed, just cpu bandwidth speed. This makes me think this is true. Memory bandwidth is very important for what I do. I hope the Mac Pro Cpu’s don’t share the same memory.??
5) What kind of sound chip or card does the Mac Pro have? Is it any good for Pro sound production?
I really like the look of the Mac Pro. It looks like a great machine. I’m just concerned of some of the limitations. I really need the flexibility to add Hdds as I need and want to be able to use what graphics card I want.
That’s all. Thanks for any help in advance.
The Mac Pro is a powerful beast at a good price for a workstation. I’m thinking of getting the 2.6 GHz model.
I’m leaning towards the Mac Pro but I have a few concerns.
If any of you guys can help me with this, would be great.
1) First of all is the graphics. Can I SLI or cross fire the Mac Pro?
2) Am I limited to the graphics cards Apple offer? (A PC the 7900 and 7300 use the same driver, so can I use a 7900 in the Mac?)
3) I want to add a raid card I have 7 Hdds on my current rig. Where would I put them? 4 Drive bays are not enough. As I will be running Windows and Mac OSX on separate Hdds. Can I put the hard drives in the drive bays backwards and connect then to the PCI-E raid card?
4) I know a 2.6 GHz Xeon will now beat a 2.6 GHz opteron, for the most part. But I heard the Mac pro’s(intels) are still in the dark ages. Sharing the system RAM memory for both CPU’s and not using separate memory and memory buses for each CPU. Is this True? (This is where Opterons have always killed intels hands down) Apples website does not say. Apples website also does not mention memory bandwidth speed, just cpu bandwidth speed. This makes me think this is true. Memory bandwidth is very important for what I do. I hope the Mac Pro Cpu’s don’t share the same memory.??
5) What kind of sound chip or card does the Mac Pro have? Is it any good for Pro sound production?
I really like the look of the Mac Pro. It looks like a great machine. I’m just concerned of some of the limitations. I really need the flexibility to add Hdds as I need and want to be able to use what graphics card I want.
That’s all. Thanks for any help in advance.