[demonic_bunny]

Since I plan on it being my next machine, I was wondering how flexible it is towards upgrading? I mean, As much as I love the iMacs, the built in display and lack of upgrade room just isnt for me. SO, I really got no option other then the Mac Pro (I LOVE finding excuses to buy expensive new toys xD)

Anyways, lets say somewhere down the line I want to upgrade my RAM (prolly be doing that off the bat, Apple charges WAAAY too much for RAM), do I need a special kind of RAM? Is it easy to install? (I'm retarded when it comes to messing around with a computers innards)

What about hard drive? This should be easy right? Just slide more drives into free bays?

Video card has me worried. With the 7300s just not cutting it for me, I'm hoping that Apple either updates this at Macworld, or I can Newegg a decent 8 series card (hell, maybe 2, SLI ftw), would that work?

Another important feature, processor. Can I get a bigger, better, Dual or Quad Core chip down the line (again, Newegg), and swap it for the Dual Core Xeon, or should I watch my wallet weep as I drops hundreds on the highest end chip?

Anyways thats it for now, feel free to add anything else that might come in handy. Thanks

[peeb]

Ram and hard drives are easy on the iMac and Pros. What are you using the graphics cards for?

[Simon]

RAM is easy. Make sure to get the proper FB-DIMMs. And yes, they're expensive.

HDDs are even easier. Get any SATA disk, open the MP, pull out a free carrier, put the rive in the carrier, and slide the carrier back in firmly. Done.

You can replace the GPU with any of the others Apple offers for the MP (X1900 XT or Quadro FX 4500). You can also install other PCIe cards sold for PCs, but you'll only be able to use them under Windows or Linux.

Finally you can also update the CPUs. Any currently available dual-core Woodcrest (Xeon 51x0 series) or quad-core Clovertown (Xeon 53x0 series) should work. Right now they're fairly expensive (anywhere from ~$300 to ~$1200 a piece) though and depending on what you do the benefit cannot justify the cost. It depends a lot on what MP you have now and what kind of performance requirements you have.

[demonic_bunny]

haha well I'll prolly only be running photoshop and flash for the most part, maybe some games here and there. Its more that I want a crazy awesome Mac, as opposed to I need a crazy awesome Mac

[~bash $]

Of course Simon's spot-on all around. In addition, there are some great videos for installation of memory and the hard drives (which are stupid-easy to install!) on Other World Computing's Site. Of course, don't forget to buy the memory from them too. Very reasonable prices. (Not affiliated)

Regarding the video card, my understanding of this is that certain cards are flashed with particular Apple-specific firmware. Thus every X1900XT card is not alike. Can someone please confirm this or relegate me to the corner of my room?

Finally, the Apple folks have told me several times that the Mac Pro processors, while socketed, may be coupled to a specific firmware that doesn't work with other processors blah blah. I don't actually buy it but am wary since I've heard it from several such persons. Again, has anyone aside from Anandtech actually done this?

[Peter]

Originally Posted by Simon 

You can replace the GPU with any of the others Apple offers for the MP (X1900 XT or Quadro FX 4500). You can also install other PCIe cards sold for PCs, but you'll only be able to use them under Windows or Linux.

Could I install a seperate video card simply for Windows?
Looking for a Mac Pro for OS X + Windows Gaming.

[SierraDragon]

Bunny-

For a maximum Mac Pro wait a month or two. New MPs (in particular new graphics choices) are 99.9% certain between now and the end of November. In general all but the CPU are upgradeable. Even though CPUs can usually be upgraded, for most setups it is not cost effective to do so because if one buys a top-end box by the time the CPU is outdated enough to be seriously limiting, so is the overall architecture of the box.

-Allen Wicks

[mduell]

Originally Posted by Peter 

Could I install a seperate video card simply for Windows?
Looking for a Mac Pro for OS X + Windows Gaming.

Yes, you can have one Apple-blessed video card installed for use in OS X and Windows, and another installed just for use in Windows.

[Simon]

Originally Posted by Peter 

Could I install a seperate video card simply for Windows?
Looking for a Mac Pro for OS X + Windows Gaming.

Yep, I know a guy who did just that. He hasn't encountered any problems.

[UnixMac]

If/When CS3 or FCP get to where they can really use the 8 core cpu's to their fullest, I plan to swap out my dual core 3.0's for quads.. I would think I could sell my dual core's on ebay for 50% of the cost of the quad's based on what I see as today's prices.. I saw Duals going for about $900 and Quads for $1250.. as for "How customizable".. Apple claims 33,000,000 possible configs.. how? I have no idea, but they claim it!

I too am waiting on a good SLI option for graphics to replace my X1900XT which is really dated from a "latest and greatest" standpoint.

[Simon]

Originally Posted by UnixMac 

Apple claims 33,000,000 possible configs.. how? I have no idea, but they claim it!

Go to the AppleStore and multiply the number of options. You'll easily get their number. Does that mean anything? No, it's just marketing baloney.