Jack in my gaming PC and use Mac Pro? Advice please!

claypigeon101

claypigeon101

claypigeon101

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Hi guys, I'm having serious issues with my Windows 7 PC where my second hard drive has been killed twice and it's down to the motherboard... I'm running DDR2 so new motherboard means new RAM and a new drive or two is needed too and by the time I've done that I might as well get a whole new system for £1000-1500...

Anyway all of that aside I want to know whether this is feasible..
Get myself an 8-core Mac Pro with 8GB RAM, standard they're round about £3000, put my XFX 5870 in it and bootcamp Windows 7 for games on a second Hard drive? Get an SSD for the OS (put Windows on there too?) and run one HDD for music editing through OSX and one HDD for games and misc stuff?

Is that realistic do ya reckon? Mac Pro is a hell of an investment but it would last me for years and with me doing the majority of my recording and production on my Macbook Pro it would take over as a major base station.

What do you think?
 
Insane.

Is your macbook sufficient for the audio processing? If it is save yourself a packet and get a new pc, or get a better specced pc, if I were spending 3k on a computer I'd want watercooling and some epic graphic cards and monitor.
 
Mac Pro is amazing, but there is no point now till they sort out ivy bridge and show everyone what happens to it.

Even then its pretty hard to justify one when 80-90% of the performance could be had with an imac, at a third of the cost.
 
You have to remember that with the Mac Pro you're paying extra for the server grade components. That alone stops the Mac Pro really being worth it. I'd seriously recommending avoiding it if you can, unless you absolutely need a professional level Mac for what you do, in which case wait for IB. It doesn't sound like you do require a Mac Pro though, considering you seem to be okay with your MBP. But your money, your call, and your requirements.
 
Right now is the worse time in the history of the world to buy a mac pro. They have not been updated since summer 2010!

Also... just buy a second hand motherboard for your pc for less than £100 and job is a good 'un.
 
Also, from experience with my old Mac Pro (the August 2009 8-core model... which I sold for a profit 1 year later might I add) I put a different graphics card in there for Windows bootcamp (I think it was a 8800 GTX at the time) and it didn't work properly.

I bought a PCI-E power lead (as the motherboard has the socket on it) which was a nightmare to get in the UK, but the motherboard just didn't give enough power to it and it keep crashing out.

The newer Mac Pros might have resolved that, but I would never do it again! I hate PC gaming now though so would never want to, but you know what I mean.
 
yeah. you might as well get a cheep mac for mac stuff and a windows computer for windows gaming and it will still cost you less than that 8 core mac.
 
claypigeon101;21707534]Hi guys, I'm having serious issues with my Windows 7 PC where my second hard drive has been killed twice and it's down to the motherboard... I'm running DDR2 so new motherboard means new RAM and a new drive or two is needed too and by the time I've done that I might as well get a whole new system for £1000-1500...

Anyway all of that aside I want to know whether this is feasible..
Get myself an 8-core Mac Pro with 8GB RAM, standard they're round about £3000, put my XFX 5870 in it and bootcamp Windows 7 for games on a second Hard drive? Get an SSD for the OS (put Windows on there too?) and run one HDD for music editing through OSX and one HDD for games and misc stuff?

Is that realistic do ya reckon? Mac Pro is a hell of an investment but it would last me for years and with me doing the majority of my recording and production on my Macbook Pro it would take over as a major base station.

What do you think?
Click to expand...

I've a punctured tyre, hmm! Should I spend £20k on a new motor, what do you guys think? Unbelievable logic some folk have, just because of a faulty HD, if indeed that's what it is.
 
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Faustus said:
I've a punctured tyre, hmm! Should I spend £20k on a new motor, what do you guys think? Unbelievable logic some folk have, just because of a faulty HD, if indeed that's what it is.
Click to expand...

Hey, appreciate the input, I understand how this looks but trust me the HDDs aren't dead, the entire system is on the way out. Had a motherboard problem for a while that killed my 4870x2, I thought it was my PSU so I replaced that, then my HDDs died and they were new.

My 'unbelievable logic' would go a good way to building a professional-standard studio setup, I've got the rest of the kit with regard to mixing desks, mics, cables, flat freq monitors etc. Just an idea.

Although maybe it's my fault for cooling my computer with custard instead of coolant
 
IF your going to go ahead with this then I make only one recommendation:

Get a 2009 2.66Ghz machine, put a W3680 in it for £1500/1600.

Then you can actually fit and flash a GTX 570 (I personally have a flashed 6870 in my Mac Pro).

In Mountain Lion there are drivers for the 7 series cards and Nvidia actually have OS X drivers (no boot screens without flashing however).

My spec is: 3.33Ghz Hex W3680, 16GB (4x4GB 1333Mhz), MSI 6870 OC, Intel 320 300GB SSD + 4 HDDs.

Looking forward to a 7870 when Mountain Lion is released :)
 
Hi Concorde,

You seem pretty knowledgable on this subject so gonna ask a question!

I'm looking to use my 2009 Mac Pro for some Windows gaming rather than build a separate Windows PC.

I may look into upgrading the CPU to the W3680 if I can get one at a decent price.

I need to change the GT120 GPU though - but what is best with the least hassle? I'm running a 27" Apple Cinema Display so the Nvidia's may be a problem due to needing mini displayport to connect to the monitor?

I do have 2 x PCIe cables which I bought (Apple ones for the motherboard to GPU) but they are both 6 pin, so again this may limit my options.

I'm running ML DP3 at the moment.

Any pointers appreciated!

Cheers!
 
I don't understand how you can spend 3k on a new mac but not a few hundred quid on a mobo/ram/ssd

It's a big shame we can't mention that thing that can't be mentioned on here In this thread tbh
 
Don't understand that response unless you are referring to running OS X on a PC.

I paid nowhere near what you mention for this Mac Pro - and I mean nowhere near!!

So why should I ditch it and build a PC?
 
psykix said:
Don't understand that response unless you are referring to running OS X on a PC.

I paid nowhere near what you mention for this Mac Pro - and I mean nowhere near!!

So why should I ditch it and build a PC?
Click to expand...

He was clearly talking about hackintosh to the OP and hadn't read the thread...
 
To the OP, are you really sure your mobo is killing your hdds and gfx? sounds very odd. Either way, surely the hdds are under warranty?

I'd give the mac pro a miss personally, as its been mentioned its the worst time ever to buy one.
 
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