Mac Pro/Bootcamp users, a moment of your time please...
 

I need to start replacing my video PCs later this year, I was just going to build new ones and budgeted $4k to $5k each and started shopping for the parts and dreading the ordering and assembly, thats when I thought about the Mac Pro.

I was looking at them late last year while researching a possible switch to a Mac-based workflow (decided against it at the time) but the specs are very close to what I would build at about the same cost.

I did a little research into Boot Camp and it seems I should be able to run XP and all my apps on the Mac Pro but I need to be very sure before I invest a sizable (for me) amount of cash into it.

Anybody have any experience/issues with Boot Camp/XP Pro with Vegas, Premier, Procoder, Sound Forge, Acid, Sorenson Squeeze, Cleaner, DVD Arcitect, Photoshop, ACDSee, Frameshots, Boilsoft Splitter or other video apps?

Any input would be appreciated :)

i use paralles to run outlook and trillian. if you boot right into windows you actually dont notice its a mac. havent noticed any incompatibilities

Thanks for the input, that's what I had heard but wanted to hear it from others. I hadn't considered using parallels, I just want XP to run all my apps on the Mac flawlessly, (well... as flawlessly as XP can ;)
anybody else?

We used/use many of those programs also and I have had no issues with using boot camp to run them. FYI you will defiantly do better if you can migrate some of the programs you are using to native mac applications as I have found they run better and faster in most cases.

I'm not a total mac fan boy.. I have a iMac and also a high end PC. I'll likely be selling the iMac and then upgrading to a Mac Pro some time in the next year.

The deal is.. Mac's hold their value. You spend that $4k on the Mac and you can sell it in a year with maybe a 20% loss. Then you can upgrade to the next model and always be running the top model at a minimal price.

Try to spend $4k on a high end PC and even a week later you would likely be hard pressed to get $3k out of it.

Thanks, that's what I needed to know, I agree about running native mac programs, late last year I used a borrowed Mac to check out Final Cut and liked a lot of what I saw, but on the other hand I didn't like the roundabout ways you have to do some things that are second nature to me using Vegas etc. plus there is a codec compatibility issue with the HDV intermediate avi I've been using for my back-up archive, so for now I'll be sticking with XP.

This is also playing a part in my decision making process, I plan on replacing 1 PC with a Mac Pro per year for the next 4 years, I don't know if a 4 year old Mac Pro will be worth much but I'm sure it will be worth more than a 4 year old PC :thumbsup