New PC???,,, or a new MAC????

While there is a way to upgrade the standard 945 video chipset sold with most laptops. Be aware that even the newest laptop you buy with this video card is guaranteed to have some older version of the video driver dll installed "by default". It will cause you much heartache and pain upgrading this video card dll to work with SL correctly without crashing. So my advice to you is either get a MAC or make sure the PC/Laptop you buy has a better video card in it. Personally I have both.

There have been some reports in Macintosh Users group chat that Sl and Nvidia graphics cards don't get along, especially in Powerbooks. My pre-Intel desktop Mac runs SL fine on the ATI graphics card it came with from the factory, even though the card is only 128MB! (It does take a little time for everything to download when I tp in, but is fine otherwise and even that seems no worse than others with PCs talk about, and no, I'm not a masochist - I had never heard of SL when I bought the machine.) Next time I get a new computer (probably not soon) I'll stick with Mac - but with the biggest, baddest (non-Nvidia, sorry) graphics card it will support.

The advice to ask questions in the Macintosh Users group is a very good one - do it at different times and different days to get a better cross-section of users. The folks on there are really knowledgeable.

SLI isn't useless for SL. But it's questionable to buy two video cards at this stage when Nvidia are probably planning on releasing a super new video card soon.

I'm waiting for the new cards before buying a new machine.

I just hope Nvidia doesn't read this and decides to delay their new card just to spite me.

Opps, sorry Just a conversation I overheard

Sorry to hear you had such trouble with Cyberpower, Carolyn. I had a few problems with mine as well. One was a bad motherboard which was not their fault. The other was instability from improperly setup overlcocking, which defintely was their fault. Ever since having sorted those issues out, the machine has been incredible.

If I had it to do over again though, I don't think I'd buy from Cyberpower again. That's not anything against them in particular though. I just wouldn't buy a pre-assembled PC, period. I learned enough from the process of replacing the motherboard that I could now build a PC myself. It's actually much, much easier than I had thought it would be. If you played with legos as a kid, or if you're good enough at following instructions that you can put together do-it-yourself furniture, you can snap a PC together too. It's almost as simple.

The next machine I get will definitely be a collection of parts I'll assemble myself, not a pre-built system. Perhaps surprisingly, the parts manufacturers have MUCH better customer service than any computer company out there. So there's no need to feel like you're buying support when you pay so much more for a pre-assembled system. Alienware and Apple both have horrible support, as do pretty much every computer maker I know of, except possibly Falcon Northwest. Parts makers like EVGA, on the other hand, have really impressed me with incredible support.


I'm not a fan of those, but since you already own it, I'll spare you my reasons why.


My guess is they don't offer it because then they'd have to put in a better power supply. The 8800 is an extreme power hog, especially the Ultra. You want at least a 500W power supply in there for a single Ultra, or at least an 1000W for SLI. The 7300, on the other hand, only needs a 300W, which is significantly less expensive.

For what Apple charges for hardware, of course, they could afford to throw a nuclear reactor in there for you and still make a profit on the deal. But of course they will want to put in whatever will cost them the least. The Apple website doesn't actually say what kind of power supply comes in a Mac Pro, but I have to assume it's nothing huge.

Also, unless something has changed recently that I don't know about (I don't follow Mac news all that closely, so it may have), there are no 8800 drivers available for OSX.

If you can find drivers though, and if the motherboard has a true PCI-E x16 electrical slot in it (the website isn't clear on that either), then you could pull out the 7300, eBay it, and put in an 8800 yourself. You'll probably have to swap out the power supply, which won't necessarily be a small task, but it could be done.

If you're gonna do all that anyway though, you might as well just build the thing yourself (unless you really, really, really want that Mac OS). If you don't want to build it, then buy a pre-assembled PC. I wouldn't go with Alienware though. Everyone I know who has an one of their machines hates the thing because it broke, and hates the company even more for their terrible customer service. I even know one person who had the tech support guy try to trick him into voiding his warranty over the phone. Not cool!

Falcon Northwhest, from what I hear, is the way to go. Everyone I know who has bought a FNW machine says the same thing, "They're a little more expensive, but their service is absolutely incredible." One person even told me the company sent him a carton of fresh coffee as an apology when something went wrong.

This is all hearsay of course for you, since I've never owned either brand myself, and I'm telling these stories to you second hand. But I trust the people who told me first hand, if that counts for anything.

I'd at least suggest you check out what Falcon Northwest has to offer. http://www.falcon-nw.com


I guess you haven't been reading my posts then. I get about a 30% FPS boost in SL when I have SLI turned on. It makes a huge difference.

Lots of people, for some reason that escapes me, tend to like writing things like "SL wasn't written to take advantage of SLI, so SLI won't do anything for you in SL". Clearly these people have never actually sat down and tested. As far as I know, a program does not to be written in any special way to see benefits from SLI. The system as a whole will see a gain in graphics processing horsepower under SLI, so every program running on it will go that much faster, SL included.

Well if they don't release their new card next month then I'm gonna post some rather nice words about ATI!

Actually, from what I hear, it may be quite a while before nVidia comes out with their next series. You can thank the spectacular failure of Windows Vista for that. Since Vista pretty well sucks for graphics support, and since XP has that hard limit of 4GB total RAM (which includes both system RAM and video RAM put together), graphics card improvements are at a little bit of a standstill right now.

From what I've heard, apparently the only reason nVidia even chose to make the 8800 with 768MB instead of 1GB was precisely because of that 4GB limit in XP.

If and when Vista improves (it has to sooner or later), then there will be more of a reason to make beefier video cards. Until then, I suspect the 8800 will continue to be the top of the line.

If all you care about is raw gaming horsepower, by all means get a Win XP system and trick it out into a gaming rig. You can get faster CPU's, beefier video cards, and larger power supplies in a gaming rig designed for Win XP or Vista. The top of the line Macs can't offer that much raw gaming horsepower. Of course, you need to be something of a geek to get that gaming rig assembled and working smoothly...

But if you want to avoid 95% of the viruses and other malware that is on the Internet and have much easier to use applications, get a Mac.

If you want both, yes, there are some hacks out there (See http://www.osx86project.org/ ) that would allow you to install Mac OSX Tiger or Leopard on a normally Wintel platform set of PC hardware. But there you're getting into hardcore geek territory to get it set up and working at all. You have to hack the OS X installer so it doesn't run something called a "Trusted Platform Module" check, to determine if the motherboard in the computer is licensed Apple hardware. And my understanding is that the Mac OS performs best on Wintel PC hardware when that hardware and the associated graphics card closely aproximates the standard options for normal Macs. So you might not get that hardcore gaming rig to run Mac OS X all that well.

see this graph?

as far as I remember it somehow represetnts sales in USD of Dell and Apple from 1997 to 2007.

I wasn't going to reply again, but I couldn't resist after reading the "uneducated masses" comment.

"Those who surf the Web using a Mac tend to be better educated and make more money than their PC-using counterparts, according to a report from Nielsen/NetRatings.

The study also said Mac users tend to be more Web savvy, with more than half having been online for at least five years. And the Mac faithful are 58 percent more likely than the overall online population to build their own Web page and also slightly more likely to buy goods online, according to the report.

'With above-average household income and education levels, the Mac population presents a very attractive target for marketers, both online and offline,' the research group said."

source: CNet http://www.news.com/2100-1040-943519.html

It could also be considered a polygraph that's been wired up to Steve Jobs' ass since 2005.

I read a report that said mac users suck

I use SL mostly on a 17" MacBook Pro (2.33 ghz iteration). SL runs pretty well. Won't max out the graphics settings or anything, but very very stable with Nicholaz clients.

As far as the hardware goes, it's stellar. 1" thin closed, light, and not an inch wasted for the display. Very sleek and reliable.

You can do better for your money on paper, but it's hard to describe the value of the great ergonomics of this thing.

With Parallels, you can run Windows without a hitch. Or bootcamp for a dual boot system I suppose.

Having said that, it's a work computer, and I wouldn't be able to justify the $$$ if I had to buy it myself. Probably could justify the lower 15" model though.

I also run SL on a PC in case anyone is thinking "biased".

There are a lot of reasons to buy a Mac, Just no good ones........

IMHO

"And the Banker never wears a MAC, in the pouring rain. Very strange....."

All you people with strong emotional and irrational fanatical reactions to operating systems amuse me to no end. They're just tools for getting different types of jobs done. Pick the best tool for you and move on. I won't say losers, because that would be mean.

well exactly only a PC user would post that comment LOL

I too would like to look into getting a mac. But be careful, my good friend had to stop playing SL because his mac was no longer compatible with an SL update.

a office had a fire some years ago, they had Macs (older versions than the ones around today obviously) everything was destroyed, but they took the Macs out of the damage and switched them on and they worked they looked really crappy though, no more nice curves.

See, Macs are gaining market share these days, and it apparently makes people whose egos are tied to PCs uncomfortable. (I'm not sure my ego is tied to Macs: I don't really mind if other people choose Windows machines; I would just rather own Macs. On the other hand, I kinda like to see Macs on an upsurge.)

I use both, I am unbiased towards PC's or Macs -- Hardware.

When it comes to OS's Windows is complete crap. I have been using windows since my 386 on 3.1 and and am an old Microsoft customer, and my career has been built on windows. My career in Windows network security. Gettign 6-figure paychecks thanks to all the holes in that crap OS. My own humble and very experienced opinion. I write this, because the idea of purchasing a fully-loaded Alienware PC only to have to run an old recycled OS due to Vista also being crap just gives me the hebejebes.

After that rant, i will try to balance it: If you were thinking of getting an imac, id say go with a PC, strictly due to the upgradeable cheap video cards. However since youre thinking macpro, get a mac. SL on a mac runs great. As long as it can handle the power. And you dont need to upgrade any antivirus DATs or worry about being a part of the Storm Botnet

Honestly, I fantasize that SL runs well on Ubuntu.

A mac is a PC. A pretty PC that just happens to come with a different operating system.

Court,

I've also been weened on Windows platforms back to 3.1 and I really am tired of the continual battle keeping everything in order. I've been involved with computers in one form or another for more years than I care to admit to, and at this point, I'm really burned out.

I was intorduced to Mac's in my current position as a databbase analyst. Although I still use a PC with XP at work and at home, Mac's are available at my office. They seem to be so simple to use. Kinda,, "No Fuss, No Muss" which appeals to my 'Burned Out', status!. I went through the new Lepoard tutorial and think it's fantastic. (Although I understand Vista is similar,, to a point). I plan to visit an Apple Store to,,"Test Drive" a Mac Pro. If I find that I can add a high end Nvidia card with no power issues, and SL along with EVE preform with no problems, I think I just might join the increasing PC converts into the Mac world. I will ask more questions as suggested by others who have answered this post on the MAC users Group.

May I take this opportunity to thank all who have helped in reqarding my initial question! You're all a great group of folks!!!!!!!

That always annoyed me. What is a Mac then if not a personal computer? Is it state owned (a SC; state computer)? If so, where is mine? Or maybe a village had scrapped up some money to get a Mac and it is village owned? A VC (village computer)? I know Apple likes putting I in front of everything. I mean i. um . . .IC . . . IC iC impersonal computer . . . international computer . . . intergalactic computer . . . . Intel Computer . . .

Same here. I look at my computer as just an appliance that serves a function in my home, like my TV, DVR, or Microwave oven. But we all have something that we are passionate about, that others won't grasp.