My Gaming PC Broke. So.....

I specced out a Mac Pro. To be honest, the things I needs to run in XP aint gonna be a problem as I can use VMware or Boot Camp.

What do you think of this spec? I have left the RAM at 1GIG as I will get 8GB from Crucial for a great price.

Two 3.0GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon
1GB (2 x 512MB)
ATI Radeon X1900 XT 512MB (2 x dual-link DVI)
500GB 7200-rpm Serial ATA 3Gb/s
500GB 7200-rpm Serial ATA 3Gb/s
One 16x SuperDrive
Apple Keyboard & Mighty Mouse - British
Mac OS X (English)
Five USB ports
Two FireWire 400 ports
Two FireWire 800 ports

 

The ATI X1900 will not play DirectX 10 games. Since this is oriented to be a gaming system, maybe a DirectX 10 compatible video card would be better.

 

If you're looking to do updated gaming, you might want to hold out for the Mac Pro updates, which are likely to have newer GPU's as options (not to mention Penryn chips).

-Zadillo

 

Thanks chaps. Keep the advice comming

Is there a Direct X 10 compatible GFX card with the same amount of RAM as the ATI ones that I can SLI?

 

For gaming, that spec will be heavily bottlenecked by the weak GPU. I personally would strongly recommend people who are not going to use OS X to get PC instead. You will be able to get a much better speced Dell XPS at a much cheaper price, especially if you're American.

PS. In case you didn't know, Mac systems are designed to be only compatible with Mac hardware. So you cannot just purchase a 8800GT and stick it in your Mac Pro and expect it to work properly. You will need to hack it in some way.

 

That's one thing I've never been totally clear on with the Mac Pro.

I've heard some people mention the possibility of essentially keeping the X1900 in for the Mac side, but that you could put in pretty much any other GPU alongside it, and use it while booted into Windows with boot camp.

It seems like if that's possible, it could be an option, but I've never been clear if it was or not.

-Zadillo

 

I dont want a PC. I have had it with XP and I would not touch Vista with a barge poll.

I have had high end gaming machines from Overclockers.co.uk for the past 4 years. Good service great PC's, they just run Windows.

Having seen the light I want a Mac Pro.

Ideas?

 

Wait for Apple to update the Mac Pro. It should be soon (just a guess).

There are all sorts of issues with updating the GPU with a non-Apple-supported card. Search Google for something like "8800 GTX Mac Pro" and you will find loads of forum threads.

 

Does the GPU really matter to you at all then? Or I mean, if you won't be installing Windows, are you planning on doing any Mac gaming at least (I don't know, like WoW, UT3, etc.)?

-Zadillo

 

yes wait for an update.

the current gpu = not amazing and not for current savage games out there

 

I will be doing WOW, Flight Sim, and other games like WOW when they come out

I will be installing windows, but not to run games, just for a couple of bits and bobs i have that require windows.

 

what do you need 8 gigs for?

HD editing??

massive image files?

AIM, iTunes, all at the same time?

Jeeze i wish I had 8gigs of RAM. want to build a Savage RAM system someday

 

So you want to game but don't want to run windows (the most game friendly OS). If gaming is your main purpose why are you spending over $3000 for a rig with an x1900. It would be a much better idea to build your own PC, stick a $200 8800gt in it (almost as powerful as an 8800gtx and much much faster than an x1900). Use the money that you save to get a macbook or something.

 

I dont want Windows full stop. I have a £3000 gaming PC. It runs Windows, since using my Macbook I have begun to hate Windows and love OSX.

I want 8GIG as (without sounding like a d1ck) is that i can afford too. I do edit photos and awful lot, multiple RAW files, so the more RAM he better, but thats not the prime reason.

I guess what i am trying to find, and again I am open to advice, thats why I am posting here, given that i would rather not run windows as my main OS (and can run this via Bootcamp or VMware if needs be) am I being unrealistic in thinking I can use the Mac Pro as a gaming machine for the types of games I have mentioned.

Cheers all

 

X1900 ati is crazy outdated and is not DX10....

If you want a gamer build a PC gamer and if you want an editor then build a Mac or PC editor.

 

RAM is cheap these days anyway so defintly build a PC with 8 gigs of RAM

 

You really don't need an 8gb RAM monster machine to play wow...

 

I'm pretty sure that you have to use ECC ram for the Mac Pro. Insanely expensive stuff I think.

Anyway, Mac Pros... to build it as a gaming machine are WAY too expensive. I say either go with a XPS or DIY. You don't need server hardware for a gaming machine. It's just... not needed. GFX are more important, and you can't do SLI or Crossfire with a Mac Pro.

IMHO Gaming = Windows Servers = Linux/Unix and everything else = mac.

 

http://guides.macrumors.com/Mac_Pro_Buyer%27s_Guide
check this out before you purchase

 

1.) I would wait for the update of the mac pro. Rumors are flying that it will be updated around spring or around Christmas from what i've read/heard.

2.) The ATi X1900XT is a decent video card. It can play most DX 9 games on high settings.

3.) Just because DX 10 is out, it doesn't mean it's replacing market right now.

If you have noticed, new games are coming out and will be compatible BOTH DX 9 and 10.

However, as more and more technology updates are coming DX 10 will take over DX 9 in a few years from now.

 

Ditto on that. Mac Pro's currently require FBDIMMS (fully buffered) which I believe are the same as ECC. They're insanely expensive and they get worse the higher density the module is. Also, I'm pretty sure you wouldn't be able to use any leftover DDR2 modules because of this requirement, unfortunately.

That aside, the X1900 isn't *that* bad of a card although it's definitely not the latest. Running slightly older games like WoW and other more recent games should be fine; just don't expect to be able to run Crysis or similarly intensive games like it at high settings.

 

The memory looked cheap on the Crucial site. Thanks for he continuing advice