The Mac Pro SATA performance issues under Windows XP have been solved. Thanks to plinden for the find.
After a few failed attempts last night, I finally got the right combination of drivers slipstreamed into my Windows XP install CD, resulting in normal SATA performance (~119MB/s burst rates vs. 3.9MB/s) with the Mac Pro under Windows XP SP2.
With the fix applied, I can start benchmarking this thing under Windows XP and finish up Part III of our series on the Mac Pro. No ETA on it yet, let me see how long benchmarking takes, but I can see myself being done by the end of this week with an article live early next week.
After a few failed attempts last night, I finally got the right combination of drivers slipstreamed into my Windows XP install CD, resulting in normal SATA performance (~119MB/s burst rates vs. 3.9MB/s) with the Mac Pro under Windows XP SP2.
With the fix applied, I can start benchmarking this thing under Windows XP and finish up Part III of our series on the Mac Pro. No ETA on it yet, let me see how long benchmarking takes, but I can see myself being done by the end of this week with an article live early next week.
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Tegeril - Monday, October 2, 2006 - link
After reading this commentary on why the bandwidth was severly hampered, I made the connection that an optical drive that I thought was failing had inadvertantly reverted to PIO mode and I was able to remove the device, re-add it and get it back to proper DMA operation, thus saving me some cash.Thanks :)
Pr1mus - Thursday, September 21, 2006 - link
Just to let you folks know, it looks like the recent http://www.apple.com/support/downloads/macpromid20...">Mac Pro EFI Firmware Update 1.0 from Apple also fixes the problem permanently, according to a post on http://www.macintouch.com">Macintouch. (Look under the Wednesday "Notes and Tips" section.) That update seems to be introducing its own problems, though, so YMMV.rklaver - Friday, September 8, 2006 - link
Followed the instructions, worked like a champ.MemberSince97 - Thursday, September 7, 2006 - link
Hi Anand, I was curious if your guys were going to a performance review of RC-1 vs XP.Take Care, Bob
terrabit - Tuesday, September 5, 2006 - link
Hi.,The Dot Mac account met with severe bandwidth restrictions.
The updated website address is:
http://macprojournal.com/">http://macprojournal.com/
This has the Mac Pro / SATA / XP fix fully documented online.
Thanks.
davecason - Friday, September 1, 2006 - link
Has anybody tried the following steps instead of re-installing (I don't have a macpro to test on so I cannot try it):* Install XP SP2 normally.
* Download Intel's 5000X chipset drivers and install them.
* Download Intel's 631 xESB chipset SATA drivers (version 15/05/2006 7.4.0.1 005) and install them.
* Re-enable DMA using the steps listed at this link: http://winhlp.com/WxDMA.htm">http://winhlp.com/WxDMA.htm
xtremejack - Thursday, August 31, 2006 - link
Anand,Would you do a Tulsa review sometime? Just like sometime back you compared a Paxville 4P with an Opteron 4P. It would be great to know how much life Netburst still has in it. Thanks.
michael2k - Wednesday, August 30, 2006 - link
I've a serious question... does anyone here know or have any experience in using Windows PE on a Mac? I'm imagining using the drivers burned into the Boot Camp CD in a PE image, perhaps even a (gasp) Vista PE image.Then place said PE image on a USB key, and you can boot any up to date Intel Mac into PE, right?
Konq - Tuesday, August 29, 2006 - link
Since these systems use EFI to boot, is overclocking even possible? Are there EFI tools in the public domain? Can you do it while in BIOS/XP mode?It appears Intel really made these processors with wide speed margins and it might be interesting to at least get the standard 2.66 processors to 3 Ghz.
Konq - Tuesday, August 29, 2006 - link
http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?p=27703...">http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?p=27703...I converted the web page and re-posted it about half way down. You don't need the "spyware" removal stuff if you don't want them. There are other remarks earlier on how to fix other things in the thread (sound).