Mac people running Windows please advise

[Urza]

I thought SP1 wasn't going to be out till 2009?
not sure if this is a vaild source

That article is almost a year old.

SP1 was officially released days ago, and that has been the set release date for a few months now. Its may not be on Windows Update for some people due to conflictions with specific hardware.

 

[b4nn3d]

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details...;DisplayLang=en

But this is important to read
http://windowsvistablog.com/blogs/windowsv...ows-update.aspx


If in running Windows Update you do not see Windows Vista SP1 listed, there are a number of good reasons for this (eight, in fact -- see the whole list). Below are a few of the most common reasons why you might not see SP1 on Windows Update:
You have not yet installed all the prerequisite packages you need for Windows Vista SP1. To install them, visit the Windows Update control panel and click on "check for updates."
You have a pre-release version of SP1 and need to uninstall it before installing SP1
You already have it. To determine if you already have SP1 installed, Open the Start Menu, right click on Computer and left click on Properties.
We released SP1 in these 5 languages: English, French, Spanish, German, and Japanese. If you have any other language installed, SP1 will not yet be offered to you. (You might not even know if you have an additional language installed -- check the Regional and Language Options control panel to see which languages you have installed.)
Back in February we announced that we'd be using Windows Update to help make the update as seamless as possible for our users. Windows Update will detect drivers that we know may be problematic when updating to SP1 and will not offer the service pack until an update has been installed.

 

[Hit]

http://store.apple.com/1-800-MY-APPLE/WebO.../family/mac_pro

I want a box dedicated to rendering videos...and saw this Dual Quad Core that can run Windows.... Would I get any performance boost from this over my 3.0 quad core extreme in regards to rendering?

Rendering? I assume you mean playing high graphics intensive games. Or high quality video editing.
Go build a PC.

For 2,800, you can do much better. Dunno about the processor though. A PC is a better investment though, cause you could always toss out the old processor if a newer one exists.

No it's not, Mac Computer's are much better
There just not made to run Windows

 

[Awdofgum]

my bad

In mid-April, SP1 will automatically download and install on Windows Vista–based PCs that have automatic updating turned on. This is the easiest and most convenient way to update a Windows Vista–based PC, and we strongly encourage using this method. You can, however, download and install Windows Vista SP1 manually from the Microsoft Download Center.

 

[b4nn3d]

http://store.apple.com/1-800-MY-APPLE/WebO.../family/mac_pro

I want a box dedicated to rendering videos...and saw this Dual Quad Core that can run Windows.... Would I get any performance boost from this over my 3.0 quad core extreme in regards to rendering?

Rendering? I assume you mean playing high graphics intensive games. Or high quality video editing.
Go build a PC.

For 2,800, you can do much better. Dunno about the processor though. A PC is a better investment though, cause you could always toss out the old processor if a newer one exists.

No it's not, Mac Computer's are much better
There just not made to run Windows

A LOT of applications run better on Macs with XP than Macs with OSX. To back up:
http://compreviews.about.com/od/general/ss/MacXP.htm
Almost everything runs better on XP in this test

 

[Urza]

By the way, if this thread starts degrading into a "DURR WINBLOWS VS FAGGOTOSH" thread where people are throwing around posts claiming one is better than the other without evidence, posts will start disappearing and warn levels will be bumped.

Keep it civil and factual.

 

[WeaponXxX]

If in running Windows Update you do not see Windows Vista SP1 listed, there are a number of good reasons for this (eight, in fact -- see the whole list). Below are a few of the most common reasons why you might not see SP1 on Windows Update:
You have not yet installed all the prerequisite packages you need for Windows Vista SP1. To install them, visit the Windows Update control panel and click on "check for updates."
You have a pre-release version of SP1 and need to uninstall it before installing SP1
You already have it. To determine if you already have SP1 installed, Open the Start Menu, right click on Computer and left click on Properties.
We released SP1 in these 5 languages: English, French, Spanish, German, and Japanese. If you have any other language installed, SP1 will not yet be offered to you. (You might not even know if you have an additional language installed -- check the Regional and Language Options control panel to see which languages you have installed.)
Back in February we announced that we'd be using Windows Update to help make the update as seamless as possible for our users. Windows Update will detect drivers that we know may be problematic when updating to SP1 and will not offer the service pack until an update has been installed.

My copies legal lol do I have to read it all?

I was wondering about the quality of hardware with Apple being better. Not better but uniform. Right now my Abit STILL has issues with my Raptor Drive

 

[FAST6191]

First it has to be said to some people here video machines have little in common with your games machines or CAD machines. True they are all high powered but the differences can be staggering.

Anyhow this time again huh Mr XXX. note I am now quite jealous I have spent a while designing something along these lines and for you to go and do it.......

If I recall it was video vegas you used but with a bit of effort you can still chain a few apps together (worst case scenario you go to lossless first: there are a fair few "streamable" lossless formats any decent editing machine can crank out faster than your encoder can make a "finished" article, more likely you will just have to make a batch file).

So I have to ask what software do you want to use and how do you plan on using the machine?
Also am I to assume you still do not use encoder cards (I am certainly not suggesting one: they are often "single threaded" and 8 free PCI slots are not quite so easy to come by), I am just curious and would like to know so I can factor stuff in)?

Going to have to break with accepted practice and use myself as an example, I tend to use the freeware/open source stuff (avisynth+megui or HCenc (MPEG2) is my usual combo) as it works and works well (and decent encoding software costs as much if not more than my entire setup for a years license). I have not done it but they all have provisions or are fairly easily made to have 8 threads. Most are simply apps that can break streams (bad word there I know) into segments and render those but others can do calculations across multiple threads.
This is probably where any advice from me comes unstuck though: I seem to recall you are an editor whereas I am more of an encoder/restoration type so while we swim more or less in the same waters that are some notable differences: you probably have several sources whereas I frequently have the one (and maybe a simple overlay) and a massive script.

Were it up to me I would say have an editing machine (I can easy send my sources/scripts to the encoder, it may be slightly harder for your though) and do some stuff with a dual gigabit etherlink (or something better) hooked up to your encoding monster (which may or may not even have a monitor, even via KVM switch) after that.
My examples which most likely serve no purpose whatsoever

Spoiler

Speed:
I render a fair bit of PAL DVD MPEG2.
MPEG4 (A)SP- (and I assume then basic/older WMV like wmv9: not sure if you do web stuff these days): not bad either either.
MPEG4-AVC: my stock e6600 does my PAL DVD encodes in nor much under real time (about 20fps) even with deinterlacing (DGBob is my usual tool here). High profile, no restrictions, a few b-frames naturally although I guess I widdle that away by only doing a single pass with a scan beforehand.

In all truth your biggest problem will likely be serving the video (and that comes under more than possible but a bit complex) but leaving software aside it will be drives that are the problem: already some of the simpler tasks (transcoding MPEG2 for instance, even single thread) find themselves limited by drivespeed rather than CPU/Ram/whatever. Granted I run a single 7200 rpm drive in my machine and throw stuff to external drives via USB but it should be noted*
If it is just an encoder (i.e. no long term storage) I say go have a look in server land drives or even ram based with a nice UPS and depending on how it goes a RAID of some form.
Not to mention you could even dare I say it run linux if you wanted on said 8 core beast (dodging some of the Vista issues and still enabling windows editors to be used), desktop it may or may not do but this sort of thing is what I would argue it is for as this is into the backwaters of server country. Now however I am into conjecture and will shut up before I end up doing research.

Things to consider: Dual processor is not new although it is somewhat new to the "mainstream" market Intel have just started on these boards/machines (Skulltrail):
http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/Skulltrail-Q...view-30181.html
Ignore the fairly important issues for a second to consider it or more like the "retail" version (you can buy them already but it is firmly in early adopter territory) that is likely to appear in the not too distant future. Cheaper than the mac and I would argue easier to work with.

*feel free to slap me upside the head and say well durr or hopefully a more civilised equivalent. Also feel free to discuss software solutions (not sure how much help I will be as anything I have done like this is using low powered (i.e. wireless 802.11b network to my laptop using content I have highly engineered for the task) and/or theoretical and lacks commercial software which should help things).

 

[WeaponXxX]

Yes Video Vegas is my BREAD and Butter. However I have 11 other machines to do compile film with. However for web distribution to WMV I do feel that Vegas offers truly some fine output.

The machine in question would Output AVIs (Uncompressed or DV) and Wmvs 24/7

I have recently used Xilisoft's Video Converter as it seems to be the only App I can program to cut up a 3 hour movie into 2 minute segments.

I use Windows Remote Log In Feature to Access any PC at any time. Not sure how to do this on any other OS.

Personally myself all the software I use is Photoshop, Dreameaver, Office, Vegas and Nero and of course mIRC to talk to my friends

So assuming I get equipment ultra fast it would be nice to have it do other things...but then again if I found a miracle machine...I'd probably swap out all units.

No I don't use encoder cards.

Of course my biggest problem right now is the OS. One of my printer crashes Office Files, Applications randomly stop working especially Firefox and its just a mega pain in the ass. XP ran flawlessly. So if your thinking I should switch software and stay on the same OS...well Vegas and Photoshop work great for me, its everything else about Vista. I work with 20Gig Files all day so transfering on Vistas new problematic OS is killer.

 

[Mangofett]

What are you compiling? Pirated movies in >1080p?

 

[arctic_flame]

What are you compiling? Pirated movies in >1080p?

I was under that WeaponXxX was some kind of producer/director, so they wouldn't be pirated?

 

[SavageWaffle]

Just build a PC.

 

[WeaponXxX]

Well downloaded SP1 for Vista, got my first Blue Screen of Death today accessing my U3 jump drive. LOL I recently went to an apple store and tried to recruit one of their sales people to my company. We shall see if he bites and then I can have an in house Mac guy to advise. Personally I just hate downtime, I hate error screens, I hate stupidness like my printer not printing, me selecting cancel, it saying it is canceling, me having to reboot to get it to cancel. Was there any truth to XP SP3 using quad cores more appropriately like Vista?