[Kevin Olson]

yes the Benchwell test...

I got the GT8800 Nvidia.. but it's not as good as I thought.. or maybe the driver I have is...

What do you find isn't so good about it?

[Hervé]

Like I said... not very fast... specially with LW... 1.5 million polys ... very slow.. but maybe I have to fiddle with the param... or maybe wait for a new driver.. or maybe change the driver... no idea.. so many things you can do to a card...

[Kevin Olson]

Did you try it in windows via bootcamp using nvidia drivers by chance?

OS X 10.5.2 was also released not long ago that gave a graphics update

[Hervé]

there is no bootcamp for win XP64.. too bad.. so I've had to find all the drivers by myself... still missing the keyboard and audio...

[w i l l]

I did the same with my mac (xp 64). I found drivers here:

http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jsp ... 5&tstart=0

[Hervé]

good link... Thanks Will

BTW, I installed the winxp64 on a seperate HDD...

[Hervé]

also keyboard problems...

[w i l l]

My keyboard works ok. Only audio doesn't which I have had the need to fix.

[dilbert]

I don't want to start a Mac vs PC war, but it does seem like people go to a whole lot of trouble buying a Mac, and then jump through hoops to turn it into a PC. Maybe I'm missing something, but if you have to run Bootcamp, mess with the video card, not be able to use XP64 etc., then where's the benefit of the Mac? You can purchase a BOXX with the same chipset, and not have any of those problems right out of the box. Like I said, I'm not a hardware guru, so maybe there's a benefit of the Mac that I don't know about.

[Kevin Olson]

Im not sure, but I dont think boxx has dual quad core systems yet do they?

[dilbert]

Im not sure, but I dont think boxx has dual quad core systems yet do they?

They sure do, I've owned one for over a year now.

[Kevin Olson]

Which model is it? I was looking at their site the other day but all I could find was single quad core systems

no octos

[dilbert]

Which model is it? I was looking at their site the other day but all I could find was single quad core systems

no octos

It's the 3D BOXX 8400 series. It comes standard with two quad-core processors giving you 8 cores. You just pick which model processor you want.

http://www.boxxtech.com/Products/3DBOXX ... _Intel.asp

[Voidmonster]

The benefit of the Mac is that it costs $2,000usd less and supports significantly more ram.

It's fully possible to install a 64bit OS on the Mac, but you have to round up all the drivers yourself instead of using the automated Bootcamp method, and you need to have a hard drive dedicated to the OS (which is how I'd do it anyway).

That's not a difference worth $2000 to me, but I'm very much a do-it-yourself user. I don't think I've ever put in a tech support call for a computer in 25 years of use.

It's very easy for me to imagine good support being well worth that kind of money though.

(I'd never in a million years choose any of the upgrade options from either Apple or Boxx -- holy crap do they put you over a barrel for the prices of that stuff!)

[dilbert]

That's not a difference worth $2000 to me, but I'm very much a do-it-yourself user. I don't think I've ever put in a tech support call for a computer in 25 years of use.

It's very easy for me to imagine good support being well worth that kind of money though.

You hit the nail on the head there. For people like me (who know nothing about how to actually make a PC), it's important to take the PC out of the box, plug it in, and start work without any problems. BOXX is a little more expensive, however, you're right about the tech support. Every time I've called them, they answer their phone within a few rings, and instantly give you the tech support you need from someone who actually knows the system. Most other manufacturers seem to outsource their tech support to some guy in India who says his name is "John", but who doesn't understand plain English, which drives me crazy That alone is worth $2000 to me over the lifetime of the PC.