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Mac Pro + RAM amount

Jeff O'Neil

New member
Hi folks,

I'm about to make the switch from PC to Mac.

I'll be purchasing the new Mac Pro Quad 2.66

I have a quote here in canada on extra ram and for 4 gigs it's $699.00

I'm wondering what the going rate in the US is for the same thing?

You'll have to excuse me for not searching this myself but I'm totally new to Apple products and don't really know what the going rate is versus a good price.

I'm looking to outfit the new rig with a total of 5 gig of ram. Is this overkill for Lightroom and eventually CS3?

I still have to add a monitor to the setup and right now iot looks to be the 23" ACD.

I've been a staunch user of PC and MS for years as my audio app's ran so much better in that environment. Now the tables have turned and I will be adding a Digidesign audio card for professional recording in the near future, which also factors into my surmizing I'll need more RAM than usual.

I'm also making the switch from MS to Apple because I falt out refuse to let MS have the power to de-authorize my computer if it senses I have non certified or paid for apps. To set the record straight ALL of my software is paid for but i don not like the intrusive factor MS is adding to Vista.

Thanks in advance for any and all comments.

Greeting from the cold Toronto Landscape!

Jeff
 

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
Hi folks,

I'm about to make the switch from PC to Mac.

I'll be purchasing the new Mac Pro Quad 2.66

I have a quote here in canada on extra ram and for 4 gigs it's $699.00

I'm wondering what the going rate in the US is for the same thing?

You'll have to excuse me for not searching this myself but I'm totally new to Apple products and don't really know what the going rate is versus a good price.

I'm looking to outfit the new rig with a total of 5 gig of ram. Is this overkill for Lightroom and eventually CS3? ...........

Greeting from the cold Toronto Landscape!

Jeff

A good choice Jeff!

4 GB is a very decent start. You can always add more. You need pairs that are matched. OWC ie http://www.Macsales.com is where you get more RAM if you are not going with Apple RAM.

I'd suggest getting genuine Apple Ram for the first 4GB if you can afford it or at least the first 2GB.

Bad RAM is a cause of crashes. The Apple RAM appears to be better selcted and QC'd.

You will cut through your work fast!

Asher
 

Jeff O'Neil

New member
A good choice Jeff!

4 GB is a very decent start. You can always add more. You need pairs that are matched. OWC ie http://www.Macsales.com is where you get more RAM if you are not going with Apple RAM.

I'd suggest getting genuine Apple Ram for the first 4GB if you can afford it or at least the first 2GB.

Bad RAM is a cause of crashes. The Apple RAM appears to be better selcted and QC'd.

You will cut through your work fast!

Asher

Thanks for the link Asher. I'll be keeping the OEM 1 gig and adding the 4 for a total of 5.

The pricing is difficult to discern. The quote I have here lists it as 2GB (2 x 1GB) quantity of 2
for a total amount of 4 GB additional. Not know ing how the RAM slots work on the MAC Pro it's a bit confusing for me. I'm used to pc's where you have either 2 slots or 4. The Site you sent me to is actually more expensive I believe than in Canada which is very odd. My price here in Canada was 699.00 for the 4 gigs and Other World was 778.00+.

I know mathing the RAm is very important so I'll keep trying to suss out other suppliers.

I have some research to do!

Thanks again.

Jeff
 

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
Jeff, they are great at OWC and will honor warranty promises and give immediate service. That's worth something. You also need drives.

The OWC Mercury Elite Pro Dual SATA case is a marvel and 2 500 GB would give all the space you could need for a while.

You'll need a SATA card.

Asher
 

Chuck Fry

New member
One downside of the Mac Pro is that it uses oddball FB-DIMM memory. That's why its RAM is so pricey.

Asher, why the recommendation for an external drive case? The Mac Pro will hold up to 4 SATA drives internally.
 

Jeff O'Neil

New member
Usually things like RAM sticks are less expensive in the US than Canada thats why I was looking for a reputable source to compare prices.

The new Mac Pro does hold 4 drives which to me is a godsend. One for a scratch disk and the other two archival drives. Once an archival drive is full I can store it and refer back when needed by simply slipping it back into the bay. Of couse all material will be copied onto DVD for protection as well.

Jeff
 

Josh Liechty

New member
You need to be very careful selecting RAM for the Mac Pro. Due to the way the cooling is set up, normal FB-DIMMs that are used in servers and workstations don't have big enough heatsinks to remain stable under high workloads in the Mac Pro. Unfortunately, this means that you have to buy special "Apple-compatible" FB-DIMMS - in other words, RAM with a more expensive, chunkier heatsinks. Just beware that if your RAM seems to be too much cheaper than Apple's, you may end up needing to buy third-party heatsinks to make it work.
 

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
One downside of the Mac Pro is that it uses oddball FB-DIMM memory. That's why its RAM is so pricey.

Asher, why the recommendation for an external drive case? The Mac Pro will hold up to 4 SATA drives internally.

I believe that no data should be stored in the tower as it is not easily grabbed in a fire and put in a bag and you're out.

I work in pairs. The black SATA enclosures from OWC are handsome and inexpensive some $75-90 I forget. So it's easy to work out that this set backs up this set and this set is for offsite storage, in my son's house.

The computer is for all my programs and uses the fast drives with no RAID for scratch, although I can see having RAID for scratch in future.

When I jecently went to Houston, I popped a SATA Express 34 by Sonnet in my new 17" PowerBook Pro, grabbed the OWC "Black Beauty" and I was off

The SATA enclosure goes in the safe easily!

This is a simple approach.

BTW, I use my ipod and a flashtrax as backup while on the road.

I don't want to be opening my tower to mess with the drives. I want to be able to go to a new place with my drive and even rent a computer and keep working.

Anyway, for the extra $90 or less I have mobility and choice plus, I think more security.

Asher
 
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