[big K]

hello everybody !

i know some of you guys are using apples to work with windowsXP using bootcamp. how are your experiences ? is installation easy ? (and installing new hardware ?)
my main concern is if i am going for an 8core macpro and bootcamp how much ram is needed and how much can be used respectively ? (because as i understand bootcamp uses the 32bit winXP so the use of more than 3GB is not possible?!)

another thing is if i buy additional harddisks at a normal pc-shop, which work best with a macpro ?

hope to get some insight !
cheers
michael

[superbad]

You can use XP64. I didn't use the Bootcamp application at all. I bought a second hard drive, took out the OSX drive, installed XP on the new drive, then put the OSX drive back in. At startup, you get a boot screen if you hold the Option key. Works great.

[big K]

this sounds good.
any restrictions which hard drives to use ?

[jeffg]

I just did it and man, am I happy! This thing screeeeeeeaaaaammmmmsss!
It renders 10 to 12x faster than my previous Dual 2.66 Xeon. When I first saw it render I was literally stunned speechless.

The bootcamp installation was pretty easy. I had some video card issues to work through - I added an ATI x1900 and am using three moniters. I had to add something to the registry to get the two cards to work right.

On XP 32bit, I have gotten the 3gb switch to work using "/USERVA=2800" - other options didn't work for me.

I bought 4 gigs from macmall and saved about $400 USD over the Apple price.

Let me know if you need more info...

[big K]

hey jeff,

thanks for the enthusiastic info

"/USERVA=2800"

???
i have never heard of this. is it another option in the boot.ini to get the 3GB running?

again about the hard drives. will normal SATA drives work? any products working better than others?
i have assambled quite a few pcs on my own. is it as easy to change drives and graphics on a mac?

[jeffg]

"/USERVA=2800"

???
i have never heard of this. is it another option in the boot.ini to get the 3GB running?

again about the hard drives. will normal SATA drives work? any products working better than others?
i have assambled quite a few pcs on my own. is it as easy to change drives and graphics on a mac?

/USERVA=2800 was a tip I got from the Vray board. Apparently the MacPro will not accept the normal switch "/3GB "

I don't do SATA - so I can't comment.

You will never see a case as easy to work with as the Macpro. Everything is so intelligently laid out. It's so neat inside that my wife is always asking me to break it open so she can have a look - no lie.

When you open it you'll see what I mean.