Reaching for the top

After two years of struggling to access SL with a Mac Mini, I have finally saved up enough that I soon will be able to replace my system with a top-of-the-line Mac Pro Tower. I'm looking at a system with the following specs, as soon as the new OS X 10.5 (Leopard) is released, later this month.

Specifications - Mac Pro Tower
Two 2.66GHz Dual-Core Intel Xeon
2GB RAM (4 x 512MB)
500GB 7200-rpm Serial ATA 3Gb/s
2 x NVIDIA GeForce 7300 GT 256MB
One 16x SuperDrive

Does anyone out there have a similar high end Mac? Any feedback on how it runs? Caveats on what doesn't work well?

And has anyone out there SLI-linked a pair of NVIDIA GeForce 7300 GT 256MB cards and used them to access SL on a Mac, with the paired cards driving a single monotor?

An alternative would be the ATI Radeon X1900 XT 512MB (2 x dual-link DVI) card instead of the paired NVIDIA cards. More VRAM, and a faster single card... but will the ATI drivers be an issue with SL?

I got pretty much the identical computer about a month ago - I got it as a replacement from Apple when my G5 was deemed a lemon

My computer was the same processor, but with 1 GB of RAM and one Nvidia card. I learned quickly that RAM is your friend, and I splurged and had another 4 GB of memory put in. That made a *huge* difference in how well it ran SL (and other stuff too). Where my G5 was regularly taxed by SL (fans running on high, etc.), this thing seems to barely notice.

I've also installed the Nicholaz build of SL (discussed elsewhere in this forum - *waves hi to Nad*). While the linden build is fast on this computer, the Nicholaz build goes all the way up to 11 I can run it with the graphics options pretty much maxed out and get along very well.

I'm only using 1 monitor, so I can't comment on how it works with SLI linking, but I think you'll be happy with it.

Hm the 7300GT is a pretty low-end video card these days. If you're aiming for a top-of-the-line setup, you'd probably be better off with a single 8800GTS. The only trouble is, it seems you have to modify some kernel extensions to make a Geforce 8800 work under Tiger:
http://forum.insanelymac.com/index.php?showtopic=53052&st=640&p=460962&#entry460962

It does seem risky though, although I imagine it would it would be much faster than either two 7300GT or an X1900, if the hack works ;D

Right now, here are the graphics card options when I order directly from Apple. It provides 300W for up to four PCI Express graphics cards. :

* NVIDIA GeForce 7300 GT 256MB (single-link DVI/dual-link DVI) [base config]

* 2 x NVIDIA GeForce 7300 GT 256MB [Add $149]

* ATI Radeon X1900 XT 512MB (2 x dual-link DVI) [Add $249]

* 3 x NVIDIA GeForce 7300 GT 256MB [Add $299]

* 4 x NVIDIA GeForce 7300 GT 256MB [Add $449]

* NVIDIA Quadro FX 4500 512MB, Stereo 3D (2 x dual-link DVI) [Add $1649]

Nice though it is, I can't afford that kind of money for the NVIDIA Quadro FX 4500 card.

I'll only be using one monitor, or at most two. Right now I'll be starting with a 20" CRT monitor that I already have, but eventually I'll replace that with a 20" flat cinema display.

So realisticly, my choices at this time are the first three options. Any of those are a HUGE step up from my Mac Mini, with its puny 32 MB VRAM.

I suppose one thought would be to stick with the single NVIDIA GeForce 7300 GT card for now, go for more RAM, and plan to upgrade the video card later, for the best card that I can afford that draws less than 300 watts.

The 8800 GTS draws 400 watts, and so far I have only found that offered for Windows systems.

There have been a lot of talks on this forum about the ATI card as the best choice for SL.
It is a lot faster than the 7300. ( and much cheaper if you buy it with the MP), The only problem that I know about with the ATI card is an issue with WOW, Apple and Blizzard are working that now (see the WOW MAC support forums for more information.

Thanks Mu, Creem, Rais,

Then it looks like I'll go with the ATI card, once Leopard comes out:

Specifications - Mac Pro Tower
Two 2.66GHz Dual-Core Intel Xeon
4GB RAM (4 x 1GB)
500GB 7200-rpm Serial ATA 3Gb/s
ATI Radeon X1900 XT 512MB (2 x dual-link DVI)
One 16x SuperDrive
OS X 10.5 (Leopard)

From what I have been reading, it sounds like the Beta for Leopard actually makes use of all cores, and not just one core, without having to boot to Windows. And it appears the ATI card not only is faster, but it also handles more than 2 GM of RAM, which seems an issue with NVIDIA on Macs. And apparently the SLI Linking isn't as well supported on Mac yet as on Windows, which is a strike against the pair of cheaper NVIDIA cards.

Now I have to finish the 3 projects I have in the pipeline, and maybe make a good start on one more that is on hold waiting for a LL billing screwup to be resolved. The final system will be more expensive than what I was looking at to begin with, having a better video card, more RAM, and a larger HD than I initially had in mind. But I think it will be worth waiting just a little longer, for the better specs.

One other way to keep your costs down is to avoid buying extra RAM from Apple, as you are likely to pay significantly more for it.

I bought my extra memory through my dealer and paid just over half what Apple would have charged. Installing it was dead easy, even for someone like me who's afraid of changing light bulbs

That is a good point. On a system that is designed to allow upgrades by the end user, like the Tower, I can easily install my own Ram and HD upgrades.