Windows 7 64bit on the Mac?

[PGD]

Does it work ok?

And will it help with rendertime etc very much?

Currently working a Intel Duel Quad? so 8 core 2.79GHz Mac with Bootcamp and Window XP 32bit. I get crashing sometimes when rendering test frames on the machine, and just recently while network rendering also, which I think is down to memory usage. So I'm just wondering if the move to 7 would help, but I'm a noob when it comes to operating systems. Any advice very welcome

[rmejia]

I have a Mac Pro and run Windows 7x64 in boot camp. Have not had any problems. The crashing is probably due to memory problems from the x32 ram limitation. I have 10gb ram in my computer.

[PGD]

Thats just what I wanted to hear

Anyone else running this set up successfully?

[GLASS-CANVAS]

yeah, at home I have a Mac Pro with Win7x64 as a boot camp. Works flawlessly

[jstrob]

NEVER BUY A MACPRO please!
I have a macpro with windows 7 and everything run smoothly except in my wallet. I explain: I bought two computers just to compare. They have the exact same settings: Nehalem xeon dual quad cpu 2.26ghz, 12 GB of ram, win 7 x64. One is a macpro that cost me 5000$ and the other is a custom build by myself with parts from Newegg that cost me only around 2500$ (now still around 2400). Believe it or not even if they have the same spec my custom built computer is faster at rendering. not a lot but consistently faster. so for the same price you could build two computers which will be more than 2 times faster!

Also I got awful experience with their customer service. I got bad ram and they did not want to change it. They wanted me to bring the whole computer and they were saying my problem must be due to windows, when I knew it was the ram (I tested it and it was failing).

[rmejia]

At the time when I bought the Mac Pro it was actually less expensive than comparative other computers from Dell, HP, etc... I bought it with the default configuration and bought the extra ram and hard drives separately which was a lot less expensive than buying it from Apple.

[GLASS-CANVAS]

Yeah, I'm with rmejia on this one. I bought a stock 3GHz Mac Pro and then added all the extra stuff myself. Most recently I put in a 160BG Intel X-25M SDD for the system and apps, and it feels like the thing just tripled in speed! The base price for a Mac Pro is competetive, just don't buy Apple's overprices componant upgrades.
I've built various workstations in the past (including my company's entire render farm), but nothing ever came close to the Mac's build quality, which is insanely high.

[jstrob]

For sure the macpro case is beautifully built and absolutely silent. There are almost no cables inside, almost everything just plug directly which looks pretty neat and must help to bring down temperature. But I'm curious to see the exact price difference even by buying the hard rive and memory elsewhere. I think it will still be almost double in price. In the end the only thing that matters to me is the price, the service (how fast I can get a replacement part) and the speed it will render. And I agree Dell and HP and Boxx are sometimes even more expansive than Apple. If money is not a concern I would buy Dell before a mac they have very good service and quality.

[fabriceb]

yep, same as glass canvas here. I've built many systems and couldn't find any cheaper than my macpro at the time. You do need to run 64bit to stop it crashing at render, but that's true with any OS. (That is if you have more than 3gig or ram which you should have!)