Mac Pro Ram

[noah_swanson]

I'm going to be getting an older MacPro (2 x 2.66Ghz dual-core Xeon) to use as a DP. Does anyone have a recommendation for memory for this? All I can see is that its DDR2 PC2 5300 FBDIMM. I'll be putting at least 8GB of RAM in it; if you think more is required feel free to swing some suggestions my way. I've provided some links below.

o http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820161299&cm_re=FBDIMM--20-161-299--Product
o http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=3601247&CatId=10

Thanks,
Noah Swanson
Imaging Specialist
Enterprise Desktop Services
Phone: 309-765-3153
SwansonNoah at johndeere.com

[jarednichols]

As it's a DP and not handling your database, I'd think 8GB would be fine. I'd be more concerned with storage space and ensuring that's plentiful. I know the standard hard drive that came with that Mac Pro wouldn't handle our current JSS storage needs so take a look at what you'd need.

j
---
Jared F. Nichols
Desktop Engineer, Client Services
Information Services Department
MIT Lincoln Laboratory
244 Wood Street
Lexington, Massachusetts 02420
781.981.5436

[dderusha]

I’m going to be getting an older MacPro (2 x 2.66Ghz dual-core Xeon) to use as a DP. Does anyone have a recommendation for memory for this? All I can see is that its DDR2 PC2 5300 FBDIMM. I’ll be putting at least 8GB of RAM in it; if you think more is required feel free to swing some suggestions my way. I’ve provided some links below.
On 11-06-03 8:22 AM, "Swanson Noah" <SwansonNoah at JohnDeere.com> wrote:

o http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820161299&cm_re=FBDIMM--20-161-299--Product

* http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=3601247&CatId=10

Noah-

There is a application called mactracker.

Mactraker displays the mac, and all the information that pertains to that system. Pretty handy for memory information on specific macs.
I prefer kingston

I think 8GB is sufficient for a distribution point, we have 4GB in most of ours.

Thanks

Dan De Rusha

Thanks,
Noah Swanson
Imaging Specialist
Enterprise Desktop Services
Phone: 309-765-3153
SwansonNoah at johndeere.com

[bentoms]

+1 mactracker.

Also I'd worry more about drive & network throughput.

Regards,

Ben.

[noah_swanson]

We've got a relatively small caspershare folder so I was looking at x2 1TB (mirrored).

[Bukira]

Id recommend the Mac Ram, we currently we have 32GB of Ram per DP and
our new servers will have 64GB of ram, the more ram the less accessing
the drive,

Our images are very large, up to 120GB complied images and if your
imaging a lot of macs at once the ram really helps, network throughput
is also vital but then disk I/O is not as important,

Criss

Criss Myers
Senior IT Analyst (Mac Services)
iPhone / iPad Developer
Apple Certified Technical Coordinator v10.5
LIS Development
Software Management Team
Adelphi Building AB28
University of Central Lancashire
Preston PR1 2HE
Ex 5050
01772 895050

[noah_swanson]

The site this machine will be at will also be used as a Software Update Server. Any additional concerns given that information?

[rockpapergoat]

i think your bottlenecks will be disk and network, not RAM.

how many clients are you serving from this box?

[noah_swanson]

Around 50.

[rockpapergoat]

for 50 clients, don't fret too much. if it's a SUS and casper respository, you'll be fine with the specs you mentioned. i've hosted more with less capable hardware and few issues.

[bentoms]

I never use monolithic images & have had a mac mini server with 4GB ram being a dp, NetBoot & asus replica for 120 clients. No problem.

Also never built more than 8 macs off it at the same time. If that helps.

Regards,

Ben.

[RobertHammen]

With the extremely low price of SATA drives I'd buy a couple of 2 TB 7200 rpm drives with a large cache, and mirror those. Not advocating "enterprise class" drives, as those are expensive. That gives you plenty of "breathing room" in the future. Everyone has different experiences, mine says to stay away from Seagate, as literally every Seagate drive I've had in the past 2-3 years has failed well before the warranty period, but YMMV.
On Jun 3, 2011, at 8:41 AM, Swanson Noah wrote:

Also a plug for OWC (http://www.macsales.com), as they, like you, are in IL and thus any purchase is 1 day away via ground shipping. Their website also helps you determine which RAM modules you need for which Mac model you have...

[John_Wetter]

I'd agree that 8GB is plenty for supporting 50 macs. At one time, that's what our JSS server had and it was doing JSS, netboot and more...

Now the JSS is be enough that it's on it's own. The main performance boost I've seen with more RAM is for Netbooting. FOr fileserving, bumping memory gives diminishing returns after 8GB at this point.

John
--
John Wetter
Technical Services Manager
Educational Technology, Media & Information Services
Hopkins Public Schools