new mac pros

[lateralis]

how has no one mentioned this yet?

http://www.apple.com/macpro/

I'm betting these will make pretty good Civ 4 machines. anyone wanna buy a dual G5 tower? it may run fine on my current tower but I could probably justify a purchase given what I do even without the civ 4 factor but I'd still love to play a huge map with max civs on this machine just to see what it can do

 

[Cougarcat]

Awesome machines, but apple *always* under delivers when it comes to the graphics card. A $90 card in a $2500 machine?? Why, Apple, why?

 

[AlanH]

This is what I've been waiting for, but a decent graphics card makes the wait longer. Configure anything other than the GeForce 7300, and the UK delivery goes out to 3 to 5 weeks instead of 3-5 days. What's a 7300 likely to do for Civ4?

 

[Cougarcat]

It would probably do just fine with most modern games, but that doesn't excuse apple from using an $80 card in a Pro machine. A user review here said he can run civ IV with everything on high.

If I were in the market for a Mac Pro, I'd get a dual 2.0 xeon with a radeon x1900. Price comes out about the same.

 

[lateralis]

there was a tom's hardware review that said that the 7300 line was so so for gaming. this one is the top of that line but even given that, I personally would wait on the ATI card, and I of course would splurge on the dual 3's, couple 500 gig HDDs and at least 4 gigs of RAM. its only money right

my config, before 3rd party drives and RAM (stock apple HDD and 2 gigs installed, all 512s) came to like $4198 with applecare - a must on a machine with a first gen chip IMHO.

edit: I should probably add that I do some 3D design for a living so wouldn't be a COMPLETELY gratuitous purchase, just mostly.

 

[AlanH]

I don't need that level of graphics. the most demanding graphics app I have is Civ4 Everything else I use does just fine on my current Geforce 4MX. So I'll get it with the basic 7300 card and 2 GHz CPUs - four cores at 2 GHz are going to keep up with my typing speed just fine

The whole idea of getting a tower is it's upgradable. So I can get faster CPUs and video as and when I feel the need, just as I did with my Sawtooth over the last seven years. And with eight Ram slots there's no way I'll buy more than the minimum RAM from Apple.

[UPDATE]
Oh well! I've ordered my 2.66GHz/Dual-Xeon/2GBytes/Geforce 7300 Mac Pro. Watch this space for a Civ4 performance report next week. I fully expect to be blown away by its general performance

 

[lateralis]

I'm simultaneously totally psyched for you and hate you guts for getting to order one.

 

[gfeier]

I don't need that level of graphics. the most demanding graphics app I have is Civ4 Everything else I use does just fine on my current Geforce 4MX. So I'll get it with the basic 7300 card and 2 GHz CPUs - four cores at 2 GHz are going to keep up with my typing speed just fine

The whole idea of getting a tower is it's upgradable. So I can get faster CPUs and video as and when I feel the need, just as I did with my Sawtooth over the last seven years. And with eight Ram slots there's no way I'll buy more than the minimum RAM from Apple.

[UPDATE]
Oh well! I've ordered my 2.66GHz/Dual-Xeon/2GBytes/Geforce 7300 Mac Pro. Watch this space for a Civ4 performance report next week. I fully expect to be blown away by its general performance

Same here, except I've got a delivery date of Sept 19th (OUCH!) for the same rig but with the X1900 XT. I'm thinking ahead to Civ5.

 

[AlanH]

I can get a better video card when and if I want to play Civ5. Meanwhile I get to play with my twin Xeons for an extra month

 

[JoAT]

Oh well! I've ordered my 2.66GHz/Dual-Xeon/2GBytes/Geforce 7300 Mac Pro. Watch this space for a Civ4 performance report next week. I fully expect to be blown away by its general performance

My jealousy is making it impossible for me to be happy for you.

Currently, my "New Mac Fund" contains about $275. Only $1,900.00 more to go until I can get me a new beastie too.

JoAT

 

[gfeier]

I can get a better video card when and if I want to play Civ5. Meanwhile I get to play with my twin Xeons for an extra month

Enjoy! It's just that I'm about to retire and I need to load up on the hardware while I can still afford it.

 

[promethean_beta]

So, I've been an iMac user since I gave up my Performa in 2000, and I've been generally satisfied, with one notable exception: I can't play Civ4 on my G4 iMac (it's only 2 1/2 years old!). And there are no upgrades I can get that would ever make Civ 4 (or really any new game on the market) reasonably playable.
So I'm considering a Mac Pro, mainly because I can envision using it for a good bit longer than 3 years (esp. if I can upgrade just about any part of it).

Does this sound reasonable to you all?

If so, I need a moniter, and 700 dollars strikes as rather pricey for a 20" lcd. Any better deals out there?

Apologies for the rambling,
Promthean_Beta

 

[SalmonOfDoubt]

I'll stop lurking now and introduce myself!

I've been a Mac user for about 15 years and I'm going to school for Industrial Design.

promethean_beta, I just bought a Samsung 940mw to compliment my old style 23" cinema display. I bought it because is has a 1440x900 output @ 8m/s. It also has a built in TV tuner with Picture-In-Picture. I like the idea of playing civ and watching TV at the same time (one has to be serious about procrastination).

You can get it at CDW for $375. It was a little hard to come by in the past few weeks, but since mine got shipped, I think the stocks have been replenished.

edit: grammar (how tacky is that on my first post?)

 

[lateralis]

I LOVE your name.

and a quote from the author:

"Never ask a man what computer he uses. If it's a mac, he'll tell you. If it's not, why embarrass him?"

 

[AlanH]

I use a couple of side-by-side 17" LCDs at 1280 x 1024 each (or I did until last week when one of them gave up the ghost). Nice and flexible, 2.5 million pixels, and these days you can do it for $300-$400 from someone like Samsung or Iiyama. The down side is you don't have more than 1024 pixels height, but that isn't really a worry for the stuff I do. Most cards can drive two screens, and certainly all the Mac Pro video options would handle them.

 

[JoAT]

You know, the more I look at them, the ONLY gripe that I can come up with about the new Mac Pros is that you don't save more by downgrading to the 2.0GHz Xeons. I mean, you give up 666MHz per processor and you only get $300 back?

Other than that, I think this is the best Mac tower Apple has offered in a long time.

 

[AlanH]

Yes, I decided to stick with the 2.66GHz option as the saving wasn't very big.

 

[SalmonOfDoubt]

Think of it this way:

After the specs came out I went to the Dell website and compared their DP Xenon 2.66ghz. If you spec it out as Apple does, it comes to $3,400 (with a little play because they don't carry the same default graphics card).

You got a great deal on that horsepower!

 

[Mordac]

Hi All:

After playing Civ 3 on my 466 MHz G4 for several years, I thought it was time to upgrade my computer and favorite game. So, on Tuesday I ordered the new Mac Pro with lots of memory, a decent graphics card and a 23" Apple monitor. The monitor arrives next week the Mac Pro on September 7.

I'm picking up Civ 4 today and will test fly it on my trusty G4. It'll be interesting to compare the game play between the two platforms.

 

[AlanH]

It'll be interesting to compare the game play between the two platforms.

Welcome

Unless you have a stonking graphic card in your 466 MHz G4 you'll struggle even to play Civ4 on it. It's painful on my 1 GHz G4.

The comparison will be night and day. On your new Mac, it will fly ... I hope!