Hi,
I'm faced with a problem. I've ordered the previous Mac Pro system late November early December. Altough ordered in Europe was it supposed to be assembled in the US.  Eight weeks on I got a notice that they were unable to put togeather the system as they have no parts for it. (dunno what took them 8 weeks to realize it) Note: this was the top of the line macpro. Now they are able to provide me with the new system however AVID is not as fast with the updates as one would wish...

The following problems arise that I need your inputs on:
- The new mac pros are shipped with leopard and the Apple support said that they do not advise and don't think that tiger will run on them. Any experiences or wisdom out there that could help?   
- Also the new systems have new graphic cards. It seems that none of them have been tested for  AVID. Has anyone had a chance to see if any of them work properly? I'm looking at the NVIDIA Quadro FX 5600 as an option (expansive as hell) as thats the only Quadro FX that comes with it and I assume AVID will continue the tradition of using this NVIDIA family.

Any wisdom is welcome as I have less than two weeks to get this rolling as the feature I'm working on has zero time to spare.

Thanks for your help in advance
David

I have been successful putting Tiger on a couple of new laptops. You could try that first. If it doesn't work, I have had excellent success running Media Composer v 2.7.7 on Leopard. You have to do a little work replacing the interlok extensions and removing the Midid drivers but, after that, the system has been pretty stable.

Thanks for the quick reply,
Could you provide for a link or a rundown of the specific changes that I'd need to do?
Would you dare run into a feature with such a "pretty stable" system?

And would you happen to have any input on the graphics card issue?

Cheers,
David

GFX Cards for the Mac are pretty easy. Basically, any card that apple supports that also supports Open GL, Quartz Extreme and has a min. of 128 megs of vram will work.

I can't point you to anything to get Avid working on Leopard as it is completely unsupported and only a few of us nuts are giving it a go just to test.

However, I can tell you that you install the app, when you launch it will tell you to go find new interlok extension, go to the website to which you are pointed, download and install them. Then remove the Avid midi drivers and the system should work.

I would cut a feature on my Leopard system (and I've never said that before) it works very well.

If you are concerned though, why not try downgrading it to Tiger first?

BLKDOG:

If you are concerned though, why not try downgrading it to Tiger first?

Thanks again for the reply,
I definatly will try it just wanted to know if there are any other options if I can't... as the Apple support predicted.

Cheers,
David

From Hardmac.com

Many of you have asked us if it is possible to run the new Mac Pro under Tiger. If you ask Apple, they will say it is impossible to install (Tiger), which is correct. The machine will not boot off any MAC OSX 10.4.xx dvd.

Lots of readers have contacted us to explain a workaround. There are in fact two solutions:

- Install OS X 10.4 and all its updates on a hard drive from another machine, then connect it to the Mac Pro Octo, which will now work with the hard drive.
- Start the Mac Pro in Target mode ("T" at boot up) and connect it via firewire to an Intel Mac running Tiger. Perform an installation from the Intel Mac onto a disk of the Mac Pro Octo, including all updates.

In both cases, the Mac Pro Octo will boot up (Tiger) and function normally. It is understood to be possible to clone a disk (on the Mac Pro Rev 2) from a disk that is already "in production" on another machine.

Even if there are no problems, you must remember that Apple have not validated the new Mac Pro running under Tiger. You must take into account that the risks of bugs, crashes and performance problems are greater than normal.

We just got delivery of a 8Core Mac Pro - shipped to us with 10.5 install disks.

I can confirm: it booted, installed and ran perfectly with some 10.4.9 install disks we have here. (Initially I tried some 10.4.4 disks which did not work - then found the 10.4.9 disk which did.)

I now have 10.4.11 running happily on my new 8 core.

(Note: I then insterted a SATA drive into one of the empty bays - formatted it for Windows and used the 10.5 install disk to install the Boot Camp drivers - which works well for us.)

Thanks for the info above. I hope to be there in the next few weeks.

Another question on the 2008 Mac Pro: If using a Mojo SDI, is it still necessary to have a firewire card in order to provide a separate bus for capture by firewire and firewire drives?

Yes it is.

BLKDOG or anyone else : Are any of your working 2008 Mac Pros using a Mojo?

I've succeeded in installing and running MC 2.8 on a 2008 Mac Pro with OS 10.5.2, QT 7.4.1. Removed the AppleMIDI drivers, updated the Interlock as advised. However it's not playing with either a new Mojo SDI or and older (known working) Mojo. Getting flamthrower error on any attempt to play any media. Deselect the DNA and it plays right away. Mojo is only thing on the native FW bus. Tried new project, new user, repaired permissions. Any ideas?

- Larry Asbell

It's not the CPU Larry, it's Leopard. the Mojo won't play with that OS. I've tried.

hey there-

 

did you end up having any success with this?  I have a 2008 8 core coming to me and realized a little to late the I'm screwed to say the least!  I have an analog mojo.  Any info you have would be great.  Thanks.

Rich

Larry Asbell:

Thanks for the info above. I hope to be there in the next few weeks.

Another question on the 2008 Mac Pro: If using a Mojo SDI, is it still necessary to have a firewire card in order to provide a separate bus for capture by firewire and firewire drives?

BLKDOG:

Yes it is.

So which have you had success with or which are supported ?