New PC build. Intel quad.

[Timo]

Originally Posted by F5D

When comparing the prices, please remember that the 2008 mac pro's have 2 quad core xeons inside = 8 cores total, not just 1 quad core. The 2.8GHz quad Xeon processors cost almost 1000 euros alone! You can build a very good pc for less than 1000 euros if you choose intel core 2 quad processors and ddr2 memory etc. but if you build a pc using the same parts as the mac pro, the price will be about the same. If you buy a mac, it works when you turn it on. You can't really know whether a custom built 8 core pc will work without problems before you turn it on for the first time.

That is true. I'm taking a bit of a gamble with the Gigabyte GA-P35-DS4 mobo as I've recently heard it may suffer from unduly high DPC (Deferred Procedure Call) latencies, so I'm partly relying on the 7-day long distance selling laws to send it right back in case after testing it I experience the same.

However, I believe that Apple have shifted their focus away from Texas Instruments firewire chipsets on various product lines and use Agere now instead? Not sure how this'll stand to affect high-performance audio engineers as TI firewire has always been the benchmark to which all others were judged.

..Actually, doing a quick scan on sites/forums (GearSlutz, RME's site, Apple forums, amongst others) it seems people are having problems with the Agere chipsets and audio. Looks initially like it's mainly with the Santa Rosa macbooks/macbook-pros and iMacs, not sure about the others (desktops).
I guess in the current climate Apples don't necessarily work out of the box. FWIW, the price of the Apple Mac Pro I totted up was for a single 2.8GHz quad xeon, not dual-quad [oct].

I just visited Dell's website and calculated a price for a Dell Precision T7400 workstation computer with similar specs as the mac pro, 2x quadcore intel xeon 2.83GHz, 4GB ram etc. The price was about 3700 euros! The mac pro is alot cheaper, even if you decide to order the extra memory from apple!

Dell PCs only good for p0rno!:-

http://youtube.com/watch?v=mKIOsr9LioY

[AlexHall74]

Timo wrote:

Dell PCs only good for p0rno!:-

http://youtube.com/watch?v=mKIOsr9LioY

BWAHHH!!! ROFLMAO!

[F5D]

I agree, it is a shame that apple started using agere firewire chipsets in their laptops. However, the mac pro still have texas instrument chipsets. I checked this asap when I got my new mac. So, it is good news for audio people.

The single quadcore mac pro is pricey if you compare it to computers which you can build yourself. Anyway, it was easy for apple to offer such a computer because they already had the mac pro concept ready, just leave the other processor away. The core 2 quad processors offer a very good value for money. It is a shame that apple's cheapest "normal" computer costs about 1800 euros. They should absolutely sell a computer at the 1000 euro level offering a quad core processor and a case which would allow the user to add hard drives, memory etc. I even hope they would announce a new version of the mini that would be more like the old cube, not so small as mini, to enable using normal size hard drives, not laptop parts. Anyway, I am waiting that apple updates the mini to new specs because the pc of my parents is closing the end of its life and I want them to have a mac. That will make their (and my) lives easier.

Btw, lol to the Dell-video!