New Purchase... opinions needed... or throw tomatoes...

[JeffG2]

I run a 32bit 3dsMax plugin that's critical to my work.

Would this prevent me from going to 64 bit?

[dapeter]

As far as I know you'll have to leave OSX on the machine and boot using Bootcamp... I don't think you can just install Windows on it, with the BIOS/EFI incompatibility. At the very least, you'll have to do some creative hacking to get it to work. There's a slew of drivers it installs to allow Windows to work with their motherboards.

That said, if you have to run Windows under Bootcamp, I'm not 100% sure you'll still be able to use a non-Apple graphics card.

If it's just to render with, why bother upgrading the video card anyway? Or, just buy 5 small Core 2 Duo machines?

[posterus]

its nice to see the macpro gaining popularity. you're going to love it. i cant wait to see some benchmarks. if you don't mind, pm me if/when you get around to rendering the benchmark scene.
-joe

[mdi]

I have the ATI in mine, and im really impressed how fast max is using DX with it.

[JeffG2]

i cant wait to see some benchmarks. if you don't mind, pm me if/when you get around to rendering the benchmark scene.
-joe

Will do! - Though it looks like I'll be stuck in 32bit more for a while till the anti-piracy garbage on a plugin I use is updated to 64bit.

[posterus]

check out avast if you haven't already. its what i use for 64 bit protection. seems to work just fine and its free. http://www.avast.com/

[JeffG2]

check out avast if you haven't already. its what i use for 64 bit protection. seems to work just fine and its free. http://www.avast.com/

Actually it's not anti-virus related, but the anti-piracy, copy protection software scheme (Pace Anti Piracy) used by a plugin I use quite a bit.

[suurland]

its nice to see the macpro gaining popularity. you're going to love it. i cant wait to see some benchmarks. if you don't mind, pm me if/when you get around to rendering the benchmark scene.
-joe

I already posted my result in the benchmark thread using a macpro.

/Thomas

[posterus]

hey thomas. just to make sure, your 1 minute time was with the dual quad core correct? i bought my macpro before the quad cores came out and am considering buying another one.
-joe

[suurland]

yes, dual quad 3ghz

/Thomas

[JeffG2]

bought my macpro before the quad cores came out and am considering buying another one.
-joe

Best price I found was from Macmall - they have a $200 rebate.