will_ainsworth
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Registered: 8th Jun 07
Location: London, UK
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well at the moment all i have is a macbook, 150gb drive and 2gb of ram, i am thinking about upgrading for uni, and getting a mac pro, possibly running it off a 1080p tv either a 32'' lcd or if possible led..... will this be ok for image editing? or is it best to go for a decent made for computer screen?
i am probably going to try and pick one up 2nd hand, as i want to keep the costs down, also my mac which ive had for 4 years runs great after a system restore, well once i upgraded the ram and hard drive anyway! so im sure a 2 year old spec mac pro would be enough for me?
any ideas or help, what should i go for etc, never looked into them before?
cheers.
[Edited on 02-09-2010 by will_ainsworth]
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Dom
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Registered: 13th Sep 03
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Aim for an early 2008 (MacPro 3.1) or later Mac Pro as they have the 64bit EFI (allows you to run OSX in 64bit) and i would go for at least a quad-core. I wouldn't worry about ram or storage as these can all be upgraded relatively cheaply.
I've been hunting for a 2nd Mac Pro for a while and prices vary a lot on ebay. I've seen bargain 3.1 Quads go for around the grand mark, but then i've seen worse specced late 2006 models go for two and a half. Average price for an early 2008 quad with ~4GB ram and ~500GB storage seems to be around the £1600 region, although as said, there are bargains to be had.
Apart from ebay, look at the classified sections of forums like overclockers.co.uk where you can usually grab a bargain. Apple refurb is another option and if you are in higher education then look at the HE discount.
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Rob_Quads
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Registered: 29th Mar 01
Location: southampton
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If your wanting to keep costs down you could try a hackingtosh. Pick the right parts and it works flawelessy.
I've upgraded my CPU/Motherboard/RAM for around £200 and now have a Quad Core, 4GB machine which runs osx without any problems. Also updates fine too etc.
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will_ainsworth
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Registered: 8th Jun 07
Location: London, UK
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have you any more info on this? you can even get the mac pro casing on ebay for a ton....
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Dom
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Registered: 13th Sep 03
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quote:
Originally posted by will_ainsworth
have you any more info on this? you can even get the mac pro casing on ebay for a ton....
It's possible to stick an ATX board in a Mac Pro case, but it requires a fair amount of modding - cutting, specifically the back panel and re-wiring, like PSU/front mounted sockets. Great thread here - http://aquamac.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=hack1&action=display&thread=460&page=1
I've been running a hackintosh for the last 2 years or so (now running 10.6) and it runs ok but i'm not convinced that it's truly running correctly. Problem i found is that it still requires a fair amount of tweaking and peeing around with ktext's (drivers) to get everything to play nicely, so it's just like a windows install, and the installation wasn't as easy as sticking in a DVD. I had plenty of kernel panics before i managed to suss out a config that worked and this is with hardware that people recommended on the OSX86 boards.
Plus external hardware is an issue; i've got protools hardware that won't work as the installer thinks it's a bodged OSX install and even manually installing the ktexts just causes errors. I've also got a few midi controllers that don't play ball either.
On the other hand, the Adobe Suite runs pretty well and haven't had any issues. Although i've yet to notice any difference is rendering out HD footage out of Premiere and AE in OSX to my Win7 install on another drive. In fact i've yet to notice any performance advantage what so ever compared to my Win7 (Mac hardware vs Pc hardware is a different story though).
In no way am i saying macs are better, or pcs are better. I use them both daily and both systems and hardware have their uses and issues. And yes there are plenty of people saying they have solid installations and hackintosh systems, but i've never experienced that in the 2 years or so i've been running one. Hence why i'm on the hunt for a Mac Pro, at least i know it'll be a little more plug and play and my hardware will work properly.
If you are interested though, get on the OSX86project forums and start reading.
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Rob_Quads
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Registered: 29th Mar 01
Location: southampton
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THis forum is full of info.
I used:
Gigabyte HA-G41M-ES2l Motherboard
Intel Q9300 Quad Core CPU
4GB Ram
Nivdia 8800 GTS
OS X Installation CD
KakeWalk - http://puru.se/
All installed nice and easy. Only think I had to tweak was the sleep which was a simple fix of replacing the sleep.kext
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Dom
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Registered: 13th Sep 03
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quote:
Originally posted by Rob_Quads
THis forum is full of info.
I used:
Gigabyte HA-G41M-ES2l Motherboard
Intel Q9300 Quad Core CPU
4GB Ram
Nivdia 8800 GTS
OS X Installation CD
KakeWalk - http://puru.se/
All installed nice and easy. Only think I had to tweak was the sleep which was a simple fix of replacing the sleep.kext
KakeWalk relase is geared up for Gigabyte boards though.
You're better off reading the OSX86 Project forums http://www.insanelymac.com/ and have a look at what hardware you can run it on (pretty much anything tbh) and then grab a iATKOS/iDenb OSX release.
[Edited on 03-09-2010 by Dom]
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Rob_Quads
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Registered: 29th Mar 01
Location: southampton
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It is geared up to Gigabye but if you are buying new hardware its way easier to pick one that is already developed for rather buying parts and then trying to find drivers for them.
KakeWalk made it so easy it was virtually like installing Windows 7 and for that reason personally I would recommend it to anyone having previously spent way too many hours trying to get random hardware working with osX.
Nearly anything will run on osX but its a WAY smaller subset that runs painlessly
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John
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Registered: 30th Jun 03
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Just install 7 and run the same programs as the mac + the million others that don't run on mac, it will cost less and you don't need to worry about hardware choices 
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Dom
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Registered: 13th Sep 03
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quote:
Originally posted by John
Just install 7 and run the same programs as the mac + the million others that don't run on mac, it will cost less and you don't need to worry about hardware choices
Same could be said about Windows though (ie: Logic, Aperture, Avid etc) and it all depends what you're doing with the system. Certainly if you're just running the Adobe Suite then i'd opt for a well specced PC (loads of ram etc) just because of cost and personally i've never noticed any major performance differences. Obviously if you need to use OSX only software (i'd add Protools, both Win/OSX, but there are noticeable performance increases under OSX on Apple hardware) then obviously get a mac.
It's all horses for courses at the end of it.
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will_ainsworth
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Registered: 8th Jun 07
Location: London, UK
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quote:
Originally posted by Rob_Quads
THis forum is full of info.
I used:
Gigabyte HA-G41M-ES2l Motherboard
Intel Q9300 Quad Core CPU
4GB Ram
Nivdia 8800 GTS
OS X Installation CD
KakeWalk - http://puru.se/
All installed nice and easy. Only think I had to tweak was the sleep which was a simple fix of replacing the sleep.kext
how much did your set up cost? what tower did u use?
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Rob_Quads
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Registered: 29th Mar 01
Location: southampton
User status: Offline
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Got the CPU second hand for around £90, motherboard and ram came to just over £100 and I already had the graphics card so for me it was ~ £200 upgrade.
Just a standard tower. I don't really care what it looks like. I would rather a faster PC than a slower PC in a nice case
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will_ainsworth
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Registered: 8th Jun 07
Location: London, UK
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ive got a dell dimension 5000 which is rather old now, but back along that cost me around 1k. its only got a bit of ram and a 150gb hd but could i just upgrade the ram to like 4gb and put a nice big hd in it, then im guessing i need to change the motherboard and cpu? then is that it?
[Edited on 03-09-2010 by will_ainsworth]
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