New mac pro, Tiger 10.4.8, fcp 5.1.2, aja kona 3..totally unimpressed

I am working on a mac pro 3gz 2 x dual core intel with tiger 10.4.8, FCP 5.1.2 and an aja kona 3 card and guess what? It is no quicker than my old G 5 that died a death. To say I am displeased is an understatement. To then hear from the reseller that the new Intel processors may like the Aja Kona card just ****** me off. To then hear that the new Intel machine will run properly on the new OSX Leopard which may be available after Christmas leads me to believe I have been cheated. This system is slow...it beachballs...it drops frames..and I know..did you do this? or did you install that? Yes I did, all correctly, no pirate software..I know what I'm doing...nearly £5000 spent (almost $10,000) and I'm no more ahead than I was last year. The machine takes a few tries to boot. Do I send it back?...is not this stuff tested before it leaves the showroom like a fine automobile?
I don't have the time to send the machine back anyway..I work in advertizing and deadlines are
the holy grail. Phil in the UK

Just curious. Do you have more than 2gigs of ram n the Mac Pro? If so, yank them and see what happens.

Michael Horton
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Phil i was about to put a Kona3 inside one of our mac pros but now you've made me think twice...
At the moment one is hooked up to an Aja IO box and the other has a KonaLHe inside it. I had a few issues with the IO box and the mac pro but recently with the release of drivers for SATA cards from Sonnet i was going to do some shuffling around...

Mike is there any documented info about this 2Gigs or more issue with the Mac Pro's? ours have 4GB and i'd like to find a bit more info about it?!

Phil,

if the machine isn't even booting properly, then obviously something is essentially wrong with your rig. An no, you shouldn't be getting beach balls, dropped frames, etc.

Did you purchase from a regular Apple dealer or an authorized Apple Video Solutions source? If you're not that knowledgeable in the installation, setup and troubleshooting area, the latter will indeed pre-install, configure and test before delivering the gear. They'll also provide much better support than the regular Apple dealer who is mostly selling iPods, notebooks, etc. Try to locate one in your area, and they should be able to get someone over to do some on-site work to get you up and running. It's not free, but will save you a lot of problems down the road.

hth,
Clay

Thanks guys...yes the Apple dealer is good..very good for the UK. I was told that until Leopard comes out..Intel mac pros will not work to their capabilities. The boot drive had a repair disk permissions and it helped. As for the card, at first it would not read then I had to put it into another slot..it worked, however it does require a ref in..new to me for a desk top. It is OK just and is not the rip snorting bad ass machine I had hoped it would be. Yes we yanked the RAM 2 gb and it has helped..thanks.

I would run the Hardware test disc on it. Sound like maybe you have some bad parts and may have to send it back.

Intel Macs run fine today. As long as the software is universal, which includes FCP Studio and the current OS.

I know this isn't much help, but I've been on Intel Towers that do rip. There is NO REASON it should fail to boot up and beach ball and dropped frames on simple playback. Better to return than to keep a dud.

No, they're not tested like a fine automobile. It's just a computer. I just bought a new car 4 months ago and found one of the window buttons faulty out of the factory. So cars aren't tested that well either. You were just unlucky. Sorry mate.

Chi-Ho Lee
Film & Television Editor
Apple Certified Final Cut Pro Instructor

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Mike is there any documented info about this 2Gigs or more issue with the Mac Pro's? ours have 4GB and i'd like to find a bit more info about it?!

No. Just heard about it from CalDigit. Everyone was having problems. It was a controller card/Raid thang. 32bit/64bit issue. It was just fixed a couple days ago. Thought maybe this might be part of the problem with Phil.

Michael Horton
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As for the card, at first it would not read then I had to put it into another slot..it worked

What speed slot is it in mate - have you/did you try chaning the PCIe port configuations to make sure its running at full speed?