Edr Wireless

Edr Wireless

Are these good specs for the Mac I'm getting?

I am buying a Mac Pro and these are the specs on it after I configured it.

Processor: Two 3.0GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon

Memory: 4GB (4x1GB)

Raid Card: Mac Pro RAID Card

Hard Drive: 750GB-rpm Serial ATA 3Gb/s

Graphics: NVIDIA Quadro FX 4500 512MB, Stereo (2 x dual-link DVI)

Display: Apple Cinema HD Display (23" flat panel)

Wireless option: Both Bluetooth 2.0+EDR and AirPort Extreme

Apple Keyboard and Mouse: Apple Wireless Keyboard and Apple wireless Mighty Mouse

By the way I was also thinking about putting Windows Vista on there using Boot Camp (and yes I know you have to have a Windows Vista installation disk to put it on the Mac) and was wondering how Vista would run because I intend on playing games that require a very good computer and only work on Windows.

So yeah just tell me if those are good specs and how Windows Vista and games for Windows Vista would run.

It's good specs for the system itself, but you might want to look at upgrading the RAM to 8GB once You Get that machine home, if you plan on doing anything that's heavily media-production intensive in Mac OS (such as Final Cut or Logic). Don't waste money on Apple's 750GB hard disk; for what you'd spend on it, you can go online and buy a pair of 750GB or even 1TB drives (and unlike PCs, Macs always come with restore disks).

The Quadro FX is only a good card if you plan on doing anything with engineering graphics or 3D rendering, like AutoCAD on Windows and Maya3D on Mac; the Radeon X1900 is only around 2% slower overall for general and gaming use, and you can use the extra money to get the 30" display if you want it. The Mighty Mouse sucks...not very ergonomic with the button placement and its actually kinda ugly; your money would be better spent on a keyboard and mouse set from Logitech or Microsoft (with bluetooth technology to connect them; either company's mouse will also give you more buttons). Make sure you do keep an Apple keyboard though; you never know when you'll need it for troubleshooting.

As far as Windows Vista for gaming, you'd be better off with a copy of Windows XP if you can find one. XP is more stable, gives better frame rates, has better driver support, and none of the Mac Pro video cards at this time are DirectX 10/Shader 4 compliant (and Mac video cards have historically been more expensive than PC video cards for the exact same thing, either directly from Apple or from ATI). If you do go with Vista, I would encourage you to keep an eye on http://www.themacelite.com/; this website and forum focuses on turning PC video cards into Mac video cards (I've converted a GeForce 6200 and a GeForce 7800 to work in my PowerMac G4, thanks to them). As Mac versions of the GeForce 8000 series and ATI X2000 series cards come out, they'll have how-tos of making them work with Mac Pro.

BTW, the post before me stated that Boot Camp is a Virtual Machine; it's not. Boot Camp allows Windows full access to an Intel-based Mac's hardware, and not emulated access. You have to restart to go between Windows and Mac OS, and you're given a start-up menu to boot either operating system. Parallel's Desktop and VMWare Fusion, on the other hand, allow emulated environments for Windows to run in. You can verify any of this information on CNet.com, PCWorld.com, and MacAddict.com.



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