will this get the job done?

# 1 12-12-2006 , 02:21 PM

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hey guys ... im getting a new computer soon and just wanted to hear what you guys think about it. do you reckon it will be really quick at rendering etc... and yeah getting a new screen next week, cant wait .. =) "22inch samsung widescreen"

cheers, marlon.

specifications:

APPLE - MAC PRO (INTEL)

Two 2.66GHz Dual-Core Intel Xeon
4GB 667 DDR2 FB DIMM ECC - 4x1GB
250GB Serial ATA 3GB/s drive - 7200rpm
NVIDIA Quadro FX 4500 512MB SDRAM

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# 2 12-12-2006 , 06:12 PM

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Yeah man, Should be pretty fast, Make sure that in your batch render options that you have it set to uise all available processors and threads.

But, its a MAC, LOL, not a bit fan of apple computers myself.

"No pressure, no diamonds" Thomas Carlyle

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# 3 12-12-2006 , 06:47 PM

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cool, thanks for the comment... "Make sure that in your batch render options that you have it set to use all available processors", what does that do?

ahaha your not a mac fan, that sounded like me along time ago. i hated apple etc and loved microsoft because they were the best sellers but now im in love with apple and mac because they will take the lead now from what people and i persoanlly see.

(by the way the "apple mac pro" is also known as G4(not a laptop), they just renamed it since they moved to intel)

cheers ... marlon

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# 4 12-12-2006 , 06:50 PM

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As a hobbist (I am pressuming) your PC is more that sufficient.

The option to use all available processors will allow your PC to use both processors to render, speeding it up. I am not a real mac fan either but they do the job they were built for well, I am glad Apple have seen the light and come to Intel and drop the RISC Chip.

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# 5 12-12-2006 , 06:58 PM

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"Make sure that in your batch render options that you have it set to use all available processors", what does that do?

It renders with all available processors, you can set it to 1,2 etc or all available, if you use mental ray then you change the number of threads that it uses, It renders faster as it can use all the processing power avialable.

As for apple taking the lead.. hmmm... I dont see that, I used to work for them, so I had to use them.

Your a bit stuck with the components that you can upgrade with a mac compared to a PC (that used to be a big thing against them before they moved to intel processors).

They got their name from using RISK processing (one complete instruction per clock cycle) thats why the processors used to run at a lower clock frequency buy had the same punch as a X86 processor, but they have gone to the same technology as PC's so I dont think thats really taking the lead. In the design dept then yes as they look superb.

But thats my 2 pence

"No pressure, no diamonds" Thomas Carlyle

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# 6 12-12-2006 , 09:01 PM

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What Series are the Xeons? You should make sure they are in the 5100 Series. At that speed, they should be the 5150s. The 5100 Series has a FSB Speed of 1333MHz, much faster than the previous series (800MHz).

Eric Tacti
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# 7 12-12-2006 , 09:24 PM

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The Intel Xeon processor has been replaced, I use dual 2.8Ghz Xeons on my worksation at home.

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# 8 12-12-2006 , 11:45 PM

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@ R@nSiD - cool, that sounds great... yeah im glad aswell they seen the light to intel.

@ gster123 - as for apple taking the lead, i really think they will from all the research which i have gathered up and from people telling me how good it was and that they woudnt go back to pc's etc. I read a computer magazine saying about how Microsoft invested $150 million dollers into apple... wow thats alot of cash, lol... and from my I.T. Teachers at school, they have all got mac's now and they love it. they are thinking about changing all the pc's in the school and other campsus to Mac's.. cant wait till that happends.

@ erictacti - looks like R@nSiD beat me to anwsering that .. lol

@ R@nSiD - "I use dual 2.8Ghz Xeons on my worksation at home." how well does it perform?

thanks for the comments guys ... user added image

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# 9 13-12-2006 , 12:09 AM

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On day to day stuff, you really dont notice much of a difference, the areas you do notice are.

OS Launch times have halfed
App Launch TImes have halfed
Renders take a lot less time (esp MR)

I have 2Gb RAM that I may go to 4 with, Really its your RAM that counts on the day to day stuff. But as soon as you ask it to do any processor intensive stuff thats where the difference is really noticed. Running multiple apps...

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# 10 13-12-2006 , 12:14 AM

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You should go Windows :/ i hate macs. 4 gigys of ddr2 ram sounds good user added image

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# 11 13-12-2006 , 12:27 AM

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The Intel Xeon processor has been replaced, I use dual 2.8Ghz Xeons on my worksation at home.

Originally Posted by

I'm not sure what you mean. I was saying that the newer 5100 Xeons, and even the newer Quad Core Xeons are the way to go. The FSB has jumped up to almost double, when compared to the older Xeons.

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# 12 13-12-2006 , 12:38 AM

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@ R@nSiD - sweet as, i cant wait to get it... i usually run alot of programs at the same time for when im making a video for my friends or myself personally. but the problem with my pc at the moment is that when im doing all this work, my computer gets too hot and resets quiet abit. my graphics card and 2nd harddrive get soo hot that i havnt even touch it.. :angery: well the mac pro has got a sweet cooling system from what ived seen in it so far =]

@ starjsjswars - "you should go windows" haha, ived got windows at the moment but once i used my brothers laptop, ived been using that all the time. im too addicted to mac's that i cant go back lol. but dont worry ill use windows on my new mac computer. these this thing where your screen can flip over and you can run windows itself on it... its pretty neat, forgot what its called though.

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# 13 13-12-2006 , 12:51 AM

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Originally posted by marlonjohn
[B

@ gster123 - as for apple taking the lead, i really think they will from all the research which i have gathered up and from people telling me how good it was and that they woudnt go back to pc's etc. I read a computer magazine saying about how Microsoft invested $150 million dollers into apple... wow thats alot of cash, lol... and from my I.T. Teachers at school, they have all got mac's now and they love it. they are thinking about changing all the pc's in the school and other campsus to Mac's.. cant wait till that happends.
[/B]

Originally Posted by

End of the day dude its up to you, I'm not in any way saying dont get a mac, when I was looking at getting a laptop one of the first I thought of was a mac book pro but at the end of the day I didnt feel that it would be the best choice (even being able to run Windows via bootcamp). The main question I asked was "If your going to run windows on it anyway whats the point as its just hardware at the end of the day?"

Your school might have got a great deal on kitting out, so they will be loving it.

As for taking the lead, well only time will tell but i've read lots of things on Macs Vs Pc's in the 3d world and it appears that PC's win out pretty much all the time.

Should have a bet on it LOL!!

Edit - Forgot to say, its a sweet set up and theres not a chance your going to be dissapointed!!

"No pressure, no diamonds" Thomas Carlyle

Last edited by gster123; 13-12-2006 at 01:07 AM.

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# 14 13-12-2006 , 01:09 AM

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Originally posted by gster123
End of the day dude its up to you, I'm not in any way saying dont get a mac, when I was looking at getting a laptop one of the first I thought of was a mac book pro but at the end of the day I didnt feel that it would be the best choice (even being able to run Windows via bootcamp). The main question I asked was "If your going to run windows on it anyway whats the point as its just hardware at the end of the day?"

Should have a bet on it LOL!!

Originally Posted by

yeah, i agree with you there. haha the betting idea sounds great but im not much of a gambler since im only about 15 years old, and about 16 in four months ... lol user added image

but we can give it a shot my friend =)

ahaha cheers mate,
marlon

Last edited by marlonjohn; 13-12-2006 at 01:11 AM.

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# 15 13-12-2006 , 01:16 AM

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Well, from my experience, PCs always owned Macs when it came to 3D Software. In College, we did some tests to see the true results, and PCs won out every time. That is, when the Macs weren't crashing:p Rendering was the biggest problem for the Macs, but I'm sure that's been remedied now with the Intel CPUs. So I don't think it's much of an issue now, but who knows. One advantage Mac has over PCs is the compositing software. Shake is awesome, as is Final Cut. I don't think After Effects and Combustion can compete, IMHO. But, I have toyed with the newer versions that have been released, so who knows.

Eric Tacti
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will this get the job done?

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