Mac Pros (and cons)
in [UK Mac]
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From: James Dore on 22 Jan 2010 12:03 On Fri, 22 Jan 2010 16:01:07 -0000, SM <info(a)that.sundog.co.uk> wrote: > James Dore <james.dore(a)new.ox.ac.uk> wrote: > >> > Interesting. My next thoughts are about replacing the Radeon HD 2600 >> XT >> > although it does seem nice and quiet. >> >> I equipped my Geforce 8800 and the Radeon HD4870 with these: >> >> http://www.kustompcs.co.uk/acatalog/info_2855.html >> >> No issues on the 8800 in the 18 months or so. Not tested the Radeon yet; >> I'm repainting the office.... > > I'd be interested how you get on with the 4870 with the passive cooler. > They're out of stock at the link above but pretty cheap. I'll report on that when I have the office reassembled. (Painting the desk still at the moment). Next week mebbe.... > You mentioned (I think) putting in a SATA optical drive. Did you have to > fit a cable to a socket in behind the grey plastic fan housing or is > there a cable already in place where the PATA cable comes out? I had to fit a cable into the socket. IIRC, once I got the CPU cover off, the fans just pulled out, although certain articles talk of some being held in with screws. http://www.anandtech.com/mac/showdoc.aspx?i=2832&p=3 is useful, and I thought I had a doc that showed the exact process, but it has vanished from my bookmarks... Cheers, -- James Dore New College IT Officer james.dore(a)new / it-support(a)new
From: SM on 22 Jan 2010 15:11 James Dore <james.dore(a)new.ox.ac.uk> wrote: > On Fri, 22 Jan 2010 16:01:07 -0000, SM <info(a)that.sundog.co.uk> wrote: > > > James Dore <james.dore(a)new.ox.ac.uk> wrote: > > > >> > Interesting. My next thoughts are about replacing the Radeon HD 2600 > >> XT > >> > although it does seem nice and quiet. > >> > >> I equipped my Geforce 8800 and the Radeon HD4870 with these: > >> > >> http://www.kustompcs.co.uk/acatalog/info_2855.html > >> > >> No issues on the 8800 in the 18 months or so. Not tested the Radeon yet; > >> I'm repainting the office.... > > > > I'd be interested how you get on with the 4870 with the passive cooler. > > They're out of stock at the link above but pretty cheap. > > I'll report on that when I have the office reassembled. (Painting the desk > still at the moment). Next week mebbe.... Looking forward to that, but not sure I'd dare mod a brand new card. > > You mentioned (I think) putting in a SATA optical drive. Did you have to > > fit a cable to a socket in behind the grey plastic fan housing or is > > there a cable already in place where the PATA cable comes out? > > I had to fit a cable into the socket. IIRC, once I got the CPU cover off, > the fans just pulled out, although certain articles talk of some being > held in with screws. > > http://www.anandtech.com/mac/showdoc.aspx?i=2832&p=3 is useful, and I > thought I had a doc that showed the exact process, but it has vanished > from my bookmarks... I'd seen this: <http://www.xlr8yourmac.com/feedback/mac_pro_ext_sata_case_kit.html> but not actually how to fit a SATA optical drive. Looks like there's a single screw holding the grey fan housing. The eSATA card which wouldn't work in the G5 running 10.5 now is working fine in the Mac Pro, which is nice. Stuart -- cut that out to reply
From: SM on 25 Jan 2010 03:10 SM <info(a)that.sundog.co.uk> wrote: > > I had to fit a cable into the socket. IIRC, once I got the CPU cover off, > > the fans just pulled out, although certain articles talk of some being > > held in with screws. > > > > http://www.anandtech.com/mac/showdoc.aspx?i=2832&p=3 is useful, and I > > thought I had a doc that showed the exact process, but it has vanished > > from my bookmarks... The link above is for the 1st gen Mac Pro. This PDF goes into fiddly detail about fitting eSATA extenders to the spare SATA sockets. <http://eshop.macsales.com/tech_center/manuals/eSATAextender/NWTMPQXES2. pdf> > I'd seen this: > > <http://www.xlr8yourmac.com/feedback/mac_pro_ext_sata_case_kit.html> > > but not actually how to fit a SATA optical drive. Looks like there's a > single screw holding the grey fan housing. Thankfully the 2nd gen Pros (I discovered) are easier to deal with: pull off the processor heat sink cover, remove a screw from the bottom of the grey fan assembly, remove the screw at the top which passes through the MB, gently pull out the fan assembly. The two SATA sockets are easily accessible. I ran a SATA cable up into the optical bay alongside the PATA ribbon and used a 4-pin to SATA power adaptor lead to connect to the lower optical bay power plug. The LG H20L Blu-ray drive needed the front cover of its tray removing to clear the Mac Pro's lower optical orifice. Apparently the 2009 Pros have only one spare SATA socket since the other is used for the stock optical drive. I got a kernal panic (long time no see) by ejecting a WD RAID connected via eSATA PCIe card then powering down the enclosure - no hot swapping allowed. This is mentioned on the xlr8yourmac page linked above. Stuart -- cut that out to reply
From: James Dore on 12 Feb 2010 04:32 On Fri, 22 Jan 2010 16:01:07 -0000, SM <info(a)that.sundog.co.uk> wrote: > James Dore <james.dore(a)new.ox.ac.uk> wrote: > >> > Interesting. My next thoughts are about replacing the Radeon HD 2600 >> XT >> > although it does seem nice and quiet. >> >> I equipped my Geforce 8800 and the Radeon HD4870 with these: >> >> http://www.kustompcs.co.uk/acatalog/info_2855.html >> >> No issues on the 8800 in the 18 months or so. Not tested the Radeon yet; >> I'm repainting the office.... > > I'd be interested how you get on with the 4870 with the passive cooler. > They're out of stock at the link above but pretty cheap. Finally, I've got the wretched office painted and cabled, and the kit is in. I put the passively-cooled Radeon in last night, and it started up without issue. I haven't had chance to throw anything serious at it yet, but it has been running overnight rebuilding the Raid1 disk and installing nearly 1GB of updates. No wobblies from the Graphics card, and the LED cinema display is nice :-D Cheers, -- James Dore New College IT Officer james.dore(a)new / it-support(a)new
From: SM on 12 Feb 2010 18:43
James Dore <james.dore(a)new.ox.ac.uk> wrote: > >> I equipped my Geforce 8800 and the Radeon HD4870 with these: > >> > >> http://www.kustompcs.co.uk/acatalog/info_2855.html > >> > >> No issues on the 8800 in the 18 months or so. Not tested the Radeon yet; > >> I'm repainting the office.... > > > > I'd be interested how you get on with the 4870 with the passive cooler. > > They're out of stock at the link above but pretty cheap. > > Finally, I've got the wretched office painted and cabled, and the kit is > in. I put the passively-cooled Radeon in last night, and it started up > without issue. I haven't had chance to throw anything serious at it yet, > but it has been running overnight rebuilding the Raid1 disk and installing > nearly 1GB of updates. No wobblies from the Graphics card, and the LED > cinema display is nice :-D Thanks for the update and glad to hear it's going well - BTW how loud was the card before the mod? I've not had a huge amount of use from my 'new' Mac Pro but a 7-instance local cluster in Compressor went like the clappers compressing for a DVD. Which was nice. Stuart -- cut that out to reply |