[Taskmaxter]

Hey there - I tried to do a search on this particular topic here and found bits and pieces, so thought I'd just ask the question. I'm really thinking about buying a Mac Pro system (moving from a PC) since I will use it for work and want expansion capability. I would like to install boot camp on it to run some XP Programs and a few games, but I keep reading that the Mac Pro and Boot Camp don't seem to get along together (yet) on other forums. Can you folks pleasegive me the skinny on this? Obviously, I see folks posting on here where they are running Boot Camp on Mac Pro's but it isn't clear to me their systems are working flawlessly or not. Any feedback would be great.
Thanks,
Task

[EricTheRed]

Seems to play games well. Printing works but Windows formating is retarded compaired to the Mac. It also runs web services like Paltalk but it has trouble switching audio between a USB mic and headset and external speakers (as in I cannot switch using windows audio control panel and the only work around I've come up with is to unplug the headset and restart windows).

[tomrock]

When I installed XP on a MacPro I had to slipstream SATA drivers into the XP install -- here's how I did it Mac Pro Windows XP Slipstream

I don't know if this is even still necessary but once I did that XP works fine for me. I just run the Office apps.

[ghporter]

There are "basic" SATA drivers in XP-SP2, but I've had problems with them on some AMD PC motherboards with embedded SATA controllers. Adding the drivers for the Mac Pro's controller is a Good Thing because you KNOW that they are being installed, and that you're getting the best driver for your hardware.

[Abbas]

I have bootcamp installed without any issues. I use it to play Guild Wars and NVN2 at the moment. I also have Office installed along with NOD32. Sometimes, I access the bootcamp partition from Parallels. Again, havent really run into any unsolvable problems.

-a

[Taskmaxter]

Thanks to you all for your feedback.. It sounds encouraging that folks are having success and I would like to go this direction. On another note, to keep from having bootcamp issues would you recommend any particular video card when building my system? It seemed from some threads that certain cards were problematic. Any other details or gotcha's I might need to take into account when configuring my system to purchase if I want to run Windows on boot camp?

[brokenjago]

Windows works pretty well except for the occasional blue-screen on startup for me.

[mkerr64]

I cant even install it a blue screen pops up saying this long script and all the HD just turn off


I am just going to wait for leopard

[Taskmaxter]

Thanks for your feedback. A couple of further questions:

1) Is the slipstreaming of the SATA drivers into XP still necessary, or was this a past issue that has now been resolved?

2) Is it necessary to have two copies of XP (one for Boot Camp and one for Parallels) or can the one copy be shared across the two? I believe I read that the two can share the same partition, but was looking to confirm.

Any other concerns I should consider if and when installing XP on a Mac Pro? Sounds like its a mixed bag for folks out there getting XP and Boot Camp to run together.

[ghporter]

Slipstreaming SATA drivers is not necessary IF the controller in your machine is properly supported by what's in XP already. In most Macs, this is the case so you're safe. I'm not 100% sure about the Mac Pro, but it's probably also covered. If you add some controller that comes with its own drivers, I'd add them to your install disc just to be on the safe side.

We have a sticky thread about the second question: you should have no problem using the same copy of XP for both.

[Cadaver]

The latest version of Boot Camp and the current EFI & firmware updates for the Mac Pro take care of the SATA driver issue the Mac Pro had when it first came out. The SATA drives run in full DMA mode (they were stuck in slower non-DMA/PIO mode when the Mac Pro first came out and required a thrid-party driver slipstream to fix).

I've got Win XP Pro running on my Mac Pro and it works 100% as expected. No driver slipstream was required (using a legit WinXP Pro SP2 install CD).

No problems printing to my network printer. No problems with the Apple 30" display - full 2560x1600 supported in XP. Installed the latest ATI Catalyst drivers for my X1900XT without any problems (and was even able to overclock the card a bit). Games such as HL2:Ep1 run perfectly. The drivers supplied by Apple allow for OS-controlled screen brightness on Apple displays and add support for the wireless card, bluetooth module, the Apple keyboard layout (including the media eject button) and all firewire/USB ports.

The only minor issue I've seen is WinXP doesn't see all 4GB of RAM in my machine, even with the /3GB switch in the boot.ini file (or whichever). I understand this is more of an issue with Apple's current BIOS implementation/emulation than the Mac Pro itself, and presumably is fixable when Boot Camp is out of "beta." However, for what I do, 2GB under Windows is sufficient for now.

Anyway, Boot Camp works like a champ. I've even got Windows installed on a separate hard drive to keep things cleaner should either OS need reinstallation.

My Windows partition is formatted with NTFS, so no problems there. The MacOS X can't natively write to an NTFS volume, so if ease of file swapping between OS X and Windows is something you want, consider formatting as FAT. For me, I prefer the more robust/fault-tolerent NTFS over OS X's ability to read/write to FAT, so I use a USB flash drive to transfer files across the two OS's when necessary.

[Taskmaxter]

Thanks guys - great feedback. Looks like I'm on my way to becoming a Mac Pro owner