Mac and studio set up questions!!
Sam
Registered Users Posts: 7,419 Major grins
I am in the process of moving into my new (in my house studio) and buying a new Mac-pro. <?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" /><o:p></o:p>
<o:p></o:p>
This has generated a zillion questions and a few dilemma's.<o:p></o:p>
<o:p></o:p>
Here is a short list of what I am trying get straight. <o:p></o:p>
<o:p></o:p>
1. No matter how I move and or locate the computer / monitor / peripherals, I will need to extend some cables. <o:p></o:p>
<o:p></o:p>
I have determined I can extend the monitor cable to 10 meters if needed.<o:p></o:p>
<o:p></o:p>
2. I am having some difficulty with how to extend the USB 2.0 cable. Can I use an active USB extender? I will need about 20 to 25 feet. Is their another option to extend the USB cable?<o:p></o:p>
<o:p></o:p>
3. With regard to the INTERNET connection, how far can I run the Ethernet connection? If I were to use the airport card can I set up the INTERNET modem / wireless router in say another room and access, download / upload to the Internet over this wireless set up without compromising speed or data integrity?<o:p></o:p>
<o:p></o:p>
4. Does the airport card transmit and receive wireless?<o:p></o:p>
<o:p></o:p>
5. The Mac has an option for a raid card. If I set up the Mac and backups to use raid does the card offer an advantage over a software raid? Is this even a valid question?<o:p></o:p>
<o:p></o:p>
6. Which graphics card would you recommend, and why? I have sent in this question to Nvidia and am waiting for an answer. AMD actually has a phone and their customer / tech guy said the card offered through Apple was their second most powerful card and was recommended for photography.
Thanks!!<o:p></o:p>
<o:p></o:p>
Sam
<o:p></o:p>
This has generated a zillion questions and a few dilemma's.<o:p></o:p>
<o:p></o:p>
Here is a short list of what I am trying get straight. <o:p></o:p>
<o:p></o:p>
1. No matter how I move and or locate the computer / monitor / peripherals, I will need to extend some cables. <o:p></o:p>
<o:p></o:p>
I have determined I can extend the monitor cable to 10 meters if needed.<o:p></o:p>
<o:p></o:p>
2. I am having some difficulty with how to extend the USB 2.0 cable. Can I use an active USB extender? I will need about 20 to 25 feet. Is their another option to extend the USB cable?<o:p></o:p>
<o:p></o:p>
3. With regard to the INTERNET connection, how far can I run the Ethernet connection? If I were to use the airport card can I set up the INTERNET modem / wireless router in say another room and access, download / upload to the Internet over this wireless set up without compromising speed or data integrity?<o:p></o:p>
<o:p></o:p>
4. Does the airport card transmit and receive wireless?<o:p></o:p>
<o:p></o:p>
5. The Mac has an option for a raid card. If I set up the Mac and backups to use raid does the card offer an advantage over a software raid? Is this even a valid question?<o:p></o:p>
<o:p></o:p>
6. Which graphics card would you recommend, and why? I have sent in this question to Nvidia and am waiting for an answer. AMD actually has a phone and their customer / tech guy said the card offered through Apple was their second most powerful card and was recommended for photography.
Thanks!!<o:p></o:p>
<o:p></o:p>
Sam
0
Comments
Portfolio • Workshops • Facebook • Twitter
-USB cables have a recommended maximum length: 5 meters. even with powered hubs. So the spec says. I've used USB devices for many years with 25-ft cable runs. YMMV
-Wired Ethernet can extend for a very very long distances. Wireless depends on what's between the transmitter and receiver. What kind of Internet connectivity are you using? You have to run a real wire from the cable jack or DSL jack to the cable or DSL modem, and then from the modem to the router. That can be in a separate room from your Mac Pro if it is wirelessly equipped. My wireless can go 100 feet pretty well through a typical house.
--The airport card provides wireless receive/send capability to your Mac Pro. Most computers now have that built-in.
--I'm not RAID savvy but the Mac Pro has lots of RAID capability with four drive bays. There are different types of RAID setups too. There are instructions from Apple, but even better third party solutions.
--For nuts and bolts Photoshop, the cheapest basic graphics card will work fine. 3D modeling, video production, and games tax a graphics card. Just make sure the card has outputs for two and maybe three external monitors, depending on your ambitions.
M
Caroline
The Airport card is a standard 802.11n wifi card. It will work with any standard 802.11b, 802.11g, or 802.11n wireless router.
A RAID can be useful as a disk for your images, or a Photoshop scratch disk that would be faster than using a single disk. I am not an expert on RAIDs, but what I have read is, you can set up a RAID in a Mac Pro with the internal disk bays or external ones. Either way, you can set it up using the included Apple Disk Utility, which I have done; but for highest performance you should get a RAID card. That's just scratching the surface; you need to define which form of RAID you want, prioritizing performance or data integrity, and if you choose one of the performance RAIDs, then having a solid backup solution is even more critical (as if it wasn't already).
If using Photoshop, I would use a graphics card that's on Adobe's list of supported cards. The more monitors you run the more video RAM you want.
WOW! sorry about that, I didn't see any colors.
Thanks for fixing it!
Sam
I bought an active USB extender cable and tested it at 32 feet. It seems to work perfectly.
An atempt to use an adapter to adapt the (ps2)? to USB and then plug this into a USB port on my presaent PC failed. I wonder if I bought another adapter, USB to Ps2 if that would work? This is in reference to the keyboard. The Mac will come with a USB connection so no big deal here.
Although I have not tested this the consensus seems to be that running monitor cable 25 feet will not be an issue. Also using a DVI to VGA adapter will be fine.
The info I have found indicates the Ethernet cable can be run at at least 50! if not a lot more without any issues.
The airport card does receive and transmit, I have been told that the airport card does not have all the options my Linksys has and that the airport security is weak. I am researching this.
So far I think I like the ATI Radeon 4870 card option. Still looking into this.
Drobo seems to be the back up option I will use.
Now I am working on selecting hard drives for the Mac Pro box. I am looking at brand, size, speed, and raid configurations.
I Will let everyone know the final results when they are available.
Sam
PS/2-to-USB keyboard adapters don't work on Macs. I have not liked Apple keyboards since the late 80s and prefer third party offerings. These days I use the Icekey by MacAlly. Fairly small and well designed.
Airport card security is as good as anything. The standard secure settings work for Macs and PCs--networking is pretty generic--the real problem comes when users open virus-laden files mindlessly. Fortunately Macs have very few real-life virus-related issues and Apple releases steady security updates to the OS.
RE: internal hard drives, in my Mac Pro there are four drives from three manufacturers. I also have four external drives from another manufacturer. They all are quiet and they all are fast and they all are reliable. I tend to go with non-retail OEM bare drives that have are intended for server use because they are better spec'd. New Egg is an excellent vendor for that. WD, Samsung, Hitachi, Seagate I recommend.
M
To clarify a little, I don't have the Mac yet. I am making sure all my ducks are in a row first.
I was going to try and physically locate my current PC where I intend to locate my new Mac. Hence the reference to the PS/2 to USB. The Mac keyboard has a USB connector, so location / distance isn't an issue.
My research ( seems) to indicates a single 4 core CPU at 2.66 is faster than dual 2.26 CPU 8 core tests done with CS3. I have not been able to find any tests done using CS4 and Lightroom 2.0. I am hoping that they can take advantage of more cores. If they can't I would think future upgrade would.
Also the singe CPU version limits you to 8Gb of RAM while the dual CPU version you could go to 32GB. So I am going to buy the dual core version because I believe 16Gb RAM is a viable usable amount at a good price point.
I will check out new egg.
Sam
If you want to still use your PC next to your Mac, you can purchase a KVM switch that lets you use a single keyboard and mouse for both machines. This is hardware. There may be a software solution that does the same thing if both machines are networked.
In the Mac world at least, Bare Feats is quite authoritative for testing hardware.
M