Mac Pro Hardware list

[RawPower]

I've been reading many many threads about so many different potential configurations that my head is spinning. All I want to do is duplicate the current offering (09/23/2009 at the time of this writing) in the Apple store. Then I can compare prices and do my own tweaks to components later after more research, but I can't find a true baseline parts list for comparison anywhere.

 

Currently I can configure Quad Core Mac Pro on the Apple store like this:

 

(Mac Pro motherboard)

2.93GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon

3x1GB 1066MHz DDR3 ECC SDRAM

640GB 7200-rpm Serial ATA 3Gb/s

ATI Radeon HD 4870 512MB

One 18x SuperDrive

 

Can anyone point me to the most similar parts on NewEgg?

 

Thanks in advance!

[snokarver]

Don't do it, it's not worth it. 2.93GHz Quad Core Intel Xeon? If you're going that route, just buy a Mac Pro. That's a $1400+ processor. Go for something more like this http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=185097

 

Or even the Life Hacker build.

 

No, in some cases it will not perform as good as a Mac Pro, but in some cases it may perform better. But you can build it for $800-900 whereas your method would be over $2800 for the processors alone. If you've got $2000-2500 to blow, just send me a check

 

Don't go for a 640GB drive, just get a 1TB drive. Going with an i7 or C2D will allow you to not have to buy ECC RAM, so it will save you $$.

[vbetts]

He means, specs like that. Doesn't have to be a Xeon.

 

Simple though, let me get a whole list going for you.

[vbetts]

Okay, here's what I got. Only thing is, it is over $1k. But, for a decent I7 rig, this is a very reasonable price. And if you miss and match parts, it'll be cheaper by at least $100 or $200.

 

THIS IS IN NO CERTAIN ORDER ON PURPOSE. JUST THE ORDER NEWEGG PUT IT IN

 

CASE: $99.99

ABS Aplus

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16811215010

 

SATA CABLE: $3.98

Link Depot 3 ft. SATA II WITH LOCKING x2

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16812189145

 

MOTHERBOARD: $249.99

ASUS P6T LGA 1366 Intel X58

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16813131359

 

VIDEO CARD: $179.99

PNY GeForce GTX 260 Core 216

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16814133270

 

POWER SUPPLY: $109.99

Thermaltake 750w Modular

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16817153038

 

PROCESSOR: $279.99

Intel Core i7 920 Nehalem 2.66GHz LGA 1366

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16819115202

 

MEMORY: $65.99

mushkin 3GB (3 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16820226035

 

HARD DRIVE: $69.99

Western Digital Caviar Black 750GB 7200 RPM SATA

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16822136283

 

DVD DRIVE: $28.99

LITE-ON CD/DVD Burner - Bulk Black SATA

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16827106289

 

THERMAL PASTE: $6.99

Arctic Silver 5 Thermal Compound

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16835100007

 

MEMORY COOLING: $32.99

CORSAIR CMXAF2

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16835181008

 

PROCESSOR COOLING: $36.99

Scythe MUGEN-2

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16835185093

 

FANS: $111.83

*Noctua NF-P12-1300 120mm x3

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16835608004

*VANTEC 80mm x4

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16811999612

 

 

SUBTOTAL: $1,280.70

*SHIPPING: $32.59

GRAND TOTAL: $1,313.29

*NOTE- These are the best fans that are 120mm you can get. Top quality, and everything. The reason there are 3, the case has 2 120mm fans already. Well, scrap those for these two.

*NOTE- The 4 fans here are the most efficient I've seen on newegg for 80mm. 4 80mm fan ducts.

*NOTE- This shipping is based off of UPS 3 day guarantee. This is also based off of shipping to Toledo Ohio, so don't know how different it will be for you, but average price will be $30.

 

Like I said, this can still go cheaper. However, I don't think you'll use all 8 threads on this cpu...Me personally, I say do one of 2 things.

1.Go for a higher end Core 2 quad system, since motherboards, ram, and even cpu coolers are cheaper for the 775 platform.

or

2.Wait for support for the x55 platform to get better, and go for that. The I5 cpu is way cheaper, and the motherboards are too.

[snokarver]

Ok, well he said "I want to do is duplicate the current offering"...

 

Anyway, as far as your build goes:

This card has higher clocks and is $40 cheaper. A slightly different card but should perform and be cool.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16814127423

 

For the PSU, he doesn't need that much power and can save another $60 with:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16817703017

 

As far as the case and fans go, this will save another $120:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...2-234-_-Product

 

Cooling is rather easy when done efficiently. With the components listed, there's no need for 7 fans. That case has a ton of room and blocks the airflow. If he wanted 8 HDs in it, that'd be a different story. But for one or two drives, it just causes problems.

 

For the motherboard, he could save another $60 with:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...8-375-_-Product

 

And none of those changes would sacrifice quality or performance.

 

All of the test done on internal cooling fans like those memory cooling fans have shown that they don't help very much. It's much better to have clean airflow within a case that moves with the natural flow of the air.

 

But I agree with you on sticking with the 775 platform.

[RawPower]

Hey guys, thanks for your in depth answers. Very useful!

 

I've also been reading threads on 8 Core rigs for Hackintoshing and I got the impression that the cost of building your own rig is the same or more than buying a retail Mac Pro 8 Core. Is this still the case?

 

Right now I'm looking into building vs buying a workstation and while I have an affinity for Macs, I have no requirement to run OSX. However, if I build my own rig, I'd want to aim for OSX compatible components if at all possible. If it's the case that the Mac Pro 8 Core really is well priced, then it would be the obvious choice to just buy one, but if not then it might be worth going custom. Any/all opinions are welcome!

 

Thanks in advance.

[vbetts]

Ok, well he said "I want to do is duplicate the current offering"...

 

It still is. Nehalem. And also,

Can anyone point me to the most similar parts on NewEgg?

 

This card has higher clocks and is $40 cheaper. A slightly different card but should perform and be cool.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16814127423

 

A GTS 250 is a G92 chip. Which performs hell of a lot slower compared to the GTX 260. Speed of the core doesn't matter when it makes up for stream shaders, memory clocks, and frame buffer.

 

For the PSU, he doesn't need that much power and can save another $60 with:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16817703017

 

420watt psu even for a GTS 250 will not be enough. It would fry out everything in that system. Easily. Plus, that just looks like a PSU that you could throw around easily. Don't want a PSU you can lift in the palm of your hand with no problem. And you don't want to barely have enough power. You want head room.

 

As far as the case and fans go, this will save another $120:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...2-234-_-Product

That Lian Li case isn't as efficient with air flow as the ABS. Plus, the only reason there's more added onto the case, is because of fans. It's not the money he's saving on the case, it's the fans. And it's not just the fans for the case, but the cpu cooler and even the memory cooler.

 

For the motherboard, he could save another $60 with:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...8-375-_-Product

They blow out easily and is very very picky with ram, if it's not the right voltage then it blows out the whole board. That's why I didn't reccomend it at all.

 

And none of those changes would sacrifice quality or performance.

Yes, actually it would. Massively.

 

All of the test done on internal cooling fans like those memory cooling fans have shown that they don't help very much. It's much better to have clean airflow within a case that moves with the natural flow of the air.

There is no natural air flow in a case. That's why there are fans on all coolers, and in cases. That's the reason they're there. The fans are the air flow, the case just directs it. And what the hell tests are you reading? Never in my life have I seen tests that say case fans and other types of fans do nothing at all. I'm not trying to call you out here, but you have no idea what you're talking about. You're basically setting him up for failure.

 

Raw Power, well it'll be close in price. But then you need to look for more into it.

1.Upgrades. Upgrades for a PC will be cheaper, and a lot more options for you.

2.Overclocking and tweaking. You can't overclock a Mac Pro. The chipset is locked, and ecc memory does not overclock well for {censored}.

 

Macs are very nice computers, no doubt about that. But, if you don't have a real purpose for having the Mac, and if all you're gonna do on it is something like internet, music, video, and even gaming, getting a Mac is really not the best option for you. I would say even an i7 rig would be a bit overkill, considering that i7 doesn't show a massive performance boost in games versus core 2 quads. No programs aside from pro tools really use all 8 threads on the i7 platform.

[snokarver]

It still is. Nehalem. And also,

 

That's not a duplicate nor "most similar".

 

What's "most similar" or a "duplicate" of a 2.93GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon?

2.93GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon

or

2.66 Core i7

 

??

 

Anyway, it's not worth arguing about.

 

A GTS 250 is a G92 chip. Which performs hell of a lot slower compared to the GTX 260. Speed of the core doesn't matter when it makes up for stream shaders, memory clocks, and frame buffer.

 

Show me one OS X app that those make a huge difference. Not to mention, you mention that "memory clocks" is important, yet the card you linked to was slower than the one I linked to.

 

 

420watt psu even for a GTS 250 will not be enough. It would fry out everything in that system. Easily. Plus, that just looks like a PSU that you could throw around easily. Don't want a PSU you can lift in the palm of your hand with no problem. And you don't want to barely have enough power. You want head room.

 

Then you don't know your PSUs. That's one of the better ones around. But the proof will come Friday when I put my build together, with that PSU. If I fry my GTS 250, you'll be right. Alas, numerous PC builders have seen my build and noted it's very good.

 

That Lian Li case isn't as efficient with air flow as the ABS.

 

That's not even remotely accurate. That Lian Li case has much less that is blocking the airflow than the ABS. All those drive bays are sitting side-to-side in the ABS, and blocking the airflow from the front. The ABS case even has a divider in the bottom compartment which greatly restricts airflow. Sure it's got a 120mm in the front, but then it has FIVE dividers blocking the flow to the back of the case. Then that bottom compartment only has a couple vents above the PSU to get that air out.

 

The top compartment of the case has no air inflow. I suppose the 120mm in the back could blow in, and the air can blow out through the top. It can suck air out, but sucking air in from the top isn't very efficient.

 

A case needs the easiest path as possible for cool air to come in and hot air to blow out. The ABS case doesn't allow for any of that. Blowing a lot of hot air around the inside doesn't do much for cooling.

 

The Lian Li case on the other hand, blow air in the front bottom, over the drives with nothing else blocking the air, and then up and out through the back 120mm. Sure I'd probably prefer the PSU at the bottom, but this design is still very efficient.

 

There is no natural air flow in a case.

 

Again, not even remotely true. Heat rises, it doesn't matter where it's at. Some have designed cases that actually function better without fans and a common technique to increase cooling is to remove fans because they often block the natural airflow or are counter productive to each other (eg, all blowing in.) I've seen some custom cases built that take great advantage of natural airflow and greatly decrease temps just by doing so - not increasing fans or anything else.

 

 

Never in my life have I seen tests that say case fans and other types of fans do nothing at all.

 

I didn't say case fans, just the ones that sit directly on the ram (or on a HD) and blow air on it. Moving air around inside does nothing. Cool air needs to come in, hot air needs to go out.

[vbetts]

That's not a duplicate nor "most similar".

 

What's "most similar" or a "duplicate" of a 2.93GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon?

2.93GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon

or

2.66 Core i7

 

They're the same thing. The only difference is not even half a voltage, and basic chip frequency. The i7 can be overclocked to 3ghz easily with no issue, where as with the Xeon you would have to get certain boards that support it, probably not get full support of it, and you need certain memory chips that run the same voltage with the cpu.

 

Show me one OS X app that those make a huge difference. Not to mention, you mention that "memory clocks" is important, yet the card you linked to was slower than the one I linked to.

When it's 216 stream processing cores versus only 128, plus slower memory, small frame buffer, and less amount of memory, it doesn't matter. How do Nvidia cards like this that only run at the most 700mhz on their high end solutions perform better than the ati 4890 series running at a 1ghz core? Plus, he said the most comparable. The gts 250 isn't even as fast as the 4850. The only reason I went with the 260 and not the actual 4870 itself, is because nvidia support in mac is way better than ati support, which also includes opengl support. It is the most comparable to the 4870 in mac. If he wants to go with the 4870, he can. He's only going to save like $10.

 

Then you don't know your PSUs. That's one of the better ones around. But the proof will come Friday when I put my build together, with that PSU. If I fry my GTS 250, you'll be right. Alas, numerous PC builders have seen my build and noted it's very good.

Don't know my PSUs? 420watts will not be enough. For one, the GTS250 takes 350watts and around 300watts idle, plus you're going to run an i5 which has a tdp of 95 watts, and goes up when overclocking a hell of a lot. That PSU is fine for something like a 3850, but a gts 250 it isn't! I would know, I have the same thing you do. You don't want to get cheap on the psus, if you don't burn out your gpu because of the voltage deficiency, then your machine will not operate well at all, will be sluggish, and can crash your system many times. Plus, Snow Leopard is openCL bound. Your card will always be used. I've also read your topic, no one has really commented on the strong points of the rig. Basically, it seems like they know some about computers, but not much to know weather the watts are enough. And you also realize that most systems today just the motherboard cpu and memory alone take about 250watts on average? Plus the hd, plus the optical drive, then you're gonna try to overclock increasing the power usage even more, then try to run a gts 250? That's around 500-600watts of power you need. You haven't shown any proof of any claim you've said. While I've explained to you what you don't want in a psu, and what you do want.

 

That's not even remotely accurate. That Lian Li case has much less that is blocking the airflow than the ABS. All those drive bays are sitting side-to-side in the ABS, and blocking the airflow from the front. The ABS case even has a divider in the bottom compartment which greatly restricts airflow. Sure it's got a 120mm in the front, but then it has FIVE dividers blocking the flow to the back of the case. Then that bottom compartment only has a couple vents above the PSU to get that air out.

 

The top compartment of the case has no air inflow. I suppose the 120mm in the back could blow in, and the air can blow out through the top. It can suck air out, but sucking air in from the top isn't very efficient.

 

A case needs the easiest path as possible for cool air to come in and hot air to blow out. The ABS case doesn't allow for any of that. Blowing a lot of hot air around the inside doesn't do much for cooling.

 

The Lian Li case on the other hand, blow air in the front bottom, over the drives with nothing else blocking the air, and then up and out through the back 120mm. Sure I'd probably prefer the PSU at the bottom, but this design is still very efficient.

There is no airflow in that case, the way Lian Li designs their cases is the heat goes from the front to the back. This is not efficient at all, because fans on video cards blow towards the front of the case and not the back. Going against it basically, it does have airflow. The 2 80mm fans take air out. Yes, heat rises, but heat is also trapped inside that case and needs let out. Fans push air out, yes it does happen naturally, but not enough.

Again, not even remotely true. Heat rises, it doesn't matter where it's at. Some have designed cases that actually function better without fans and a common technique to increase cooling is to remove fans because they often block the natural airflow or are counter productive to each other (eg, all blowing in.) I've seen some custom cases built that take great advantage of natural airflow and greatly decrease temps just by doing so - not increasing fans or anything else.

No, there aren't. Sure, some high end cases may not include fans, however they include fan ducts and slots for you to put fans in.

 

I didn't say case fans, just the ones that sit directly on the ram (or on a HD) and blow air on it. Moving air around inside does nothing. Cool air needs to come in, hot air needs to go out.

 

No! You do not point a fan inside the case! You point them out to release the hot air! Moving the air inside moves it out!

 

Let me ask you this, if fans do nothing in a machine, or air flow, then why do almost every major company that creates computers, or assemble them, include atleast 1 80mm or 120mm fan case, or slots for them? Why are there fans like the Noctua that have major high reviews? Because they do what they're suppose to do, move hot air out of the case. The ABS case is more efficient, because the heat let off by the cpu, gpu, memory, mobo, and psu are not directed toward the HDDs. They're separated.

 

I know all this about cooling, because I overclock like crazy. I need to know this, I need to know what fan does what, how much air it moves, how much tdp is being used, etc. That PSU does not even have dual 12v rails. Probably doesn't even have a full 12v rail to begin with. You can't go cheap with that. That psu doesn't even have 2 6 pin pcie connectors the gts 250 needs. You want more proof of everything I've said? Go to other forums like guru3d, xbitlabs, overclockers, and other major computer enthusiast forums like that and say you're gonna try to run a gts250 on a cheap psu like that. I'll do you a favor, and do it for you.

[snokarver]

They're the same thing. The only difference is not even half a voltage, and basic chip frequency. The i7 can be overclocked to 3ghz easily with no issue, where as with the Xeon you would have to get certain boards that support it, probably not get full support of it, and you need certain memory chips that run the same voltage with the cpu.

 

Again, what's "most similar" or a "duplicate" of a 2.93GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon?

2.93GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon

or

2.66 Core i7

 

 

When it's 216 stream processing cores versus only 128, plus slower memory, small frame buffer, and less amount of memory, it doesn't matter. How do Nvidia cards like this that only run at the most 700mhz on their high end solutions perform better than the ati 4890 series running at a 1ghz core? Plus, he said the most comparable. The gts 250 isn't even as fast as the 4850. The only reason I went with the 260 and not the actual 4870 itself, is because nvidia support in mac is way better than ati support, which also includes opengl support. It is the most comparable to the 4870 in mac. If he wants to go with the 4870, he can. He's only going to save like $10.

 

Again, show me one OS X app that those make a huge difference.

 

 

For one, the GTS250 takes 350watts and around 300watts idle

 

False. http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/geforc...50,2172-10.html It's about 170W idle and 240W at full load.

 

I've also read your topic, no one has really commented on the strong points of the rig.

 

I'm not referring to my thread here as to the feedback I've gotten on it.

 

There is no airflow in that case, the way Lian Li designs their cases is the heat goes from the front to the back. This is not efficient at all, because fans on video cards blow towards the front of the case and not the back. Going against it basically, it does have airflow. The 2 80mm fans take air out. Yes, heat rises, but heat is also trapped inside that case and needs let out. Fans push air out, yes it does happen naturally, but not enough.

 

Again, it's still much more efficient than the ABS case. Not all video cards blow air towards the front of the case... I think most actually don't. If you go through the reviews on NE, you'll see the cards that do this, and it's very few.

 

In the ABS case, air can't go forward, back, up or down. There's too much in the way in the case.

 

 

No! You do not point a fan inside the case! You point them out to release the hot air! Moving the air inside moves it out!

 

Are you freaking trolling or something? You have to get cool air into the case for fans blowing out to be effective. If they're all blowing out, there's nothing blowing cool air in. You don't just move air around the inside of a case, you need to move cool air in, and hot air out.

 

Let me ask you this, if fans do nothing in a machine, or air flow, then why do almost every major company that creates computers, or assemble them, include atleast 1 80mm or 120mm fan case, or slots for them?

 

Did I say fans do nothing in a machine? Stop inventing things I didn't say to argue against.

 

I know all this about cooling, because I overclock like crazy.

 

I know a bit about PC cooling because I know several engineers who design computers and also deal specifically with cooling. I also know several people who have done extensive testing to see what actually cools a case more. But more importantly, it's the guys who work for major companies that have all the hardware (IR cameras, extreme heating and cooling facilities...) that are actual engineers designing and testing PCs that I listen to.

 

That psu doesn't even have 2 6 pin pcie connectors the gts 250 needs.

 

Look again.

[vbetts]

Again, what's "most similar" or a "duplicate" of a 2.93GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon?

2.93GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon

or

2.66 Core i7

 

Same thing, there will be no real benefits from 300mhz. And then it goes again, support, and you can't overclock on a mac platform like you can on PC.

 

Again, show me one OS X app that those make a huge difference

It's not about that. He wanted a card comparable to the 4870. The GTS 250 is not at all. It hardly compares to the 4850. The GTX260 compares a hell of a lot more.

 

False. http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/geforc...50,2172-10.html It's about 170W idle and 240W at full load.

Toms hardware? Seriously? Toms hardware has been known time and time again to print false reports. Their whole video card chart is all screwed to hell. That chart isn't even right, the 260 is hell of a lot more power hungry than the gts 250.

 

I'm not referring to my thread here as to the feedback I've gotten on it.

That doesn't tell me or anybody else {censored}.

 

Again, it's still much more efficient than the ABS case. Not all video cards blow air towards the front of the case... I think most actually don't. If you go through the reviews on NE, you'll see the cards that do this, and it's very few.

 

In the ABS case, air can't go forward, back, up or down. There's too much in the way in the case.

No, it's not. There's a reason high end cases are designed like that, for better airflow. That's why companies are slowly migrating away from the standard setup to this.

 

Are you freaking trolling or something? You have to get cool air into the case for fans blowing out to be effective. If they're all blowing out, there's nothing blowing cool air in. You don't just move air around the inside of a case, you need to move cool air in, and hot air out.

Not from the back you don't. The front, yes. The back and top, that's where you get rid of the hot air.

 

Did I say fans do nothing in a machine? Stop inventing things I didn't say to argue against.

All of the test done on internal cooling fans like those memory cooling fans have shown that they don't help very much. It's much better to have clean airflow within a case that moves with the natural flow of the air.

Yes you did actually.

 

I know a bit about PC cooling because I know several engineers who design computers and also deal specifically with cooling. I also know several people who have done extensive testing to see what actually cools a case more. But more importantly, it's the guys who work for major companies that have all the hardware (IR cameras, extreme heating and cooling facilities...) that are actual engineers designing and testing PCs that I listen to.

The PC you basically tried to build for the OP would blow out due to not enough wattage provided by the psu for the system. This tells me you don't have too much info on this at all.

 

Look again.

1 6 pin, 2 4 pins(One for the cpu, one for the main power) 1 20 pin, 6 4 pin molex, 1 4 pin floppy, and 2 sata ports.

 

You're not helping your case at all, except by repeating over and over the same thing basically. You're going for just enough, which is never something you should do for a system like this. Maybe your engineer friends could tell you this.

[snokarver]

Again, what's "most similar" or a "duplicate" of a 2.93GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon?

2.93GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon

or

2.66 Core i7

 

Apparently you're not seeing this, so I'll spell it out even more clearly:

2.93GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon = 2.93GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon

2.93GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon ≠ 2.66 Core i7

 

This is so incredibly basic I'm absolutely blown away you don't get it. I guess if you can't understand that concept, I shouldn't have any hope that you'll understand the rest of the stuff.

 

 

That doesn't tell me or anybody else {censored}.

 

So? Why do I care?

 

Toms hardware? Seriously? Toms hardware has been known time and time again to print false reports. Their whole video card chart is all screwed to hell. That chart isn't even right, the 260 is hell of a lot more power hungry than the gts 250.

 

http://techreport.com/articles.x/16504

http://www.guru3d.com/article/inno3d-gts-2...o-review-test/4

http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/video/dis...li_6.html#sect0

 

 

No, it's not. There's a reason high end cases are designed like that, for better airflow. That's why companies are slowly migrating away from the standard setup to this.

 

Putting up a bunch of walls that block the fans DOES NOT CREATE BETTER AIRFLOW. Well designed cases do not do this. Well designed cases allow for easy exchange of cooler outside air and warmer internal air.

 

 

Yes you did actually.

 

Look at what I said again. I said "internal cooling fans like those memory cooling fans" - the ones that just blow air around on the inside. This would be as opposed to fans that exchange air externally like most case fans.

 

 

1 6 pin, 2 4 pins(One for the cpu, one for the main power) 1 20 pin, 6 4 pin molex, 1 4 pin floppy, and 2 sata ports.

 

Good job, now go look at the card again...

 

You're not helping your case at all, except by repeating over and over the same thing basically. You're going for just enough, which is never something you should do for a system like this. Maybe your engineer friends could tell you this.

 

It's not "just enough", there is room for overhead as well. You're right, if I want to drop in 10 drives, go SLI, add a few more burners... it's not enough. But that's not what I'm doing nor what is similar to the Mac Pro.

 

Anyway, if you want to discuss this more we can probably take it up via PM. I'll build my system tomorrow, and do a power test with it to see just how much the full system draws under full load.

[Zaap]

Not trying to toss fuel on the fire, but I find it impossible not to say: 7 case fans, plus RAM fans(??) plus the usual CPU/GPU/PSU fans... Sorry, all of those extra case fans really aren't nessisary.

 

And yeah, 750W is -IMHO-a fair bit overkill. An actual 8-core Nehalem MacPro uses around 320W at full load, 120W idle- this with 2 i7 Xeon CPUs. Since we're talking a single CPU, a decent 500W PSU is plenty, and yes, one could get by with 420W provided no crazy overclocking + dual video cards + tons of add-ons. There is sometimes a tendancy to greatly overestimate how much power modern PCs actually require.

 

And if noise levels mean anything to you...

 

Even by themselves, 4 80mm fans each cranking out 55.2 dBA(!!!) each... Ouch! My ears hurt. (On second thought, maybe one does need 750W just to move all that air around! )

 

Turn on a real MacPro, and you'll hear... near silence. It doesn't need a wind tunnel or a nuclear power plant to run it. You can run a farm of them in a studio enviroment where noise levels have to be low, and conceal any noise they make with minimum effort- the mark of true workstation-class equipment.

 

Turn on a PC with so many fans with such high dBA levels as the above spec, and you'll hear... well, not even your own thinking.

 

It's not that hard to cool a modern PC without airflow levels capable of levitating the box. Sorry to say, but I really don't think virtually any PC used under any normal circumstances really requires $140 of the budget spent on fans.

 

By the way, not trying to create or fuel any argument with this, just adding my 2cents.

[JBLanteigne]

That debate...

 

vbetts against snokarver

 

that's pretty funny.

 

I agree with most of what vbetts said...

 

and about the cpu thing snokarver, you're simply close minded, we know that a 2.93GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon is a 2.93GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon. It's just that the i7 is cheaper, overclocks better and gets the job done. You remind me of people who don't believe that OS X runs on any computer...

 

About vbetts' 7 fans.. yes it's a lot.. but considering the possibilities of the mobo + i7 combo, investing 100$ on fans is well worth it if you overclock your cpu to 4ghz.

 

Personally I'd go with the gigabyte ud5 extreme.

[snokarver]

and about the cpu thing snokarver, you're simply close minded, we know that a 2.93GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon is a 2.93GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon. It's just that the i7 is cheaper, overclocks better and gets the job done. You remind me of people who don't believe that OS X runs on any computer...

 

Closed minded? Did you read my first post in this thread? I said that the Xeon wasn't worth it, that it wasn't worth duplicating the Mac Pro. I'm simply pointing out that the Xeon is the Xeon and the i7 is the i7. It's really simple logic.

 

And, yes, I would say I don't believe that OS X runs on any computer. Try a Casio watch for example. It's a computer, does OS X run on it? No.

 

About vbetts' 7 fans.. yes it's a lot.. but considering the possibilities of the mobo + i7 combo, investing 100$ on fans is well worth it if you overclock your cpu to 4ghz.

 

Could still be done with 3-4 fans and a well designed case. What's this thread about again? Overclocking an i7 to 4GHz? Oh, duplicating the Mac Pro hardware, that's right.

 

Did you look at the air restrictions in the ABS case? Did you note all four of the links I provided pointed out vbetts's statement about GTS250 power consumption isn't accurate? Did you look at the PSU and video card I posted to see his statement about needing two 6-pin power connectors is false? You agree with all that?

[diogan]

A larger power supply is probably not required, but considering there isn't a drastic cost difference (depending on which models you're looking at), it's probably not a bad idea to go with the high wattage. More overhead should extend the life of the PSU, not to mention you know you're fine if you want to add in new hardware in the future.

 

As far as the Quad Xeon vs. the i7 - it seems like the performance is close enough you might as well save the money and get the i7. I generally prefer to run the Vanilla kernel, so if it were me i would probably just stick to a really nice Core 2 Quad until Apple moves over to i5 and i7 (assuming they do).

[snokarver]

Got my system assembled. I stress tested it. Maxing out the CPU (all cores), the GPU, 3.5GB of RAM active and the fans cranked all the way up (other than the CPU and PSU fans which are temp controlled), the max peak draw was 220W.

 

I'm actually kinda surprised it's that low considering the rated max draw of the gfx card + CPU is greater than that.