Unknown cards in Mac Pro 1,1/2,1

Aivia

I just closed a deal on a mac pro, not too sure what model it is exactly but from abit of googling I found it was either a mac pro 1,1 or 2,1 with an ati 4870.

If the attached image works I would like to ask, Does anyone know what the 2 cards are just above the graphics card which also seem to be connected are?

I wont be able to pick up the pc for afew days so its just driving me mad that I cant figure out what these cards are (it would also be nice just to know what they are to do some research beforehand)

If anyone knows what they are please let me know.

Thanks.

Image : http://i.imgur.com/xaV1umo.jpg

bonzodog2

A view of the connectors might give a clue

Aivia

The only other pic I have is of the rear

Image : http://i.imgur.com/bV3wgM4.jpg

Not the best pic but gives you a rough idea of what it could be.

beauf

The look like S-Video

Aivia

Yeah it looks like s video and a dvi like connector (to me the dvi shaped connector looks abit off but like it could still be some kind of dvi)
I still haven't found anything like these cards yet even to just get a rough idea of what they might me.

ED E

Yeah, its got DVI and SVIDEO out so its probably a workstation/acceleration card of some sorts.

Aivia

I dont think its a dvi connector though, there is a 100% dvi connector on the 4870 along with a mini display port on the bottom but the dvi like connector on these cards doesn't look the same. It looks like it has a slot in the connector

ED E

Oh, looks like SCSI maybe now that you say it. Higher res would be helpful

Aivia

I currently dont have the mac to take any nice pictures of it, I will have it Thursday this week.

SCSI did originally come to mind when I saw these cards but its well before my time so I really wouldn't know much about the way they look or what they do to be honest. Plus the s video really confused me because then I thought it was some kind of display card but then the cards had no kind of cooler on them what so ever so.... this is the reason why I made the post, it was just really getting to me.

beauf

ED E wrote: »

Oh, looks like SCSI maybe now that you say it. Higher res would be helpful

I world have said scsi only the s video port also scsi kinda gone at the point this machine was in use no

beauf

What are you going to use it for

Aivia

I just decided to buy it as it was a reasonably good deal, I know the original use for these kind of pcs was workstation but I might make it into a light gaming pc just for fun.

Also as a disclaimer I know that you can buy way better hardware for gaming rigs that would be way better suited than an old mac pro. Its just that this one was up for a good price in my area and I really like the way they look.

Im looking forward to getting it on Thursday as it will be pretty fun figuring out all of the specs (kind of difficult when all these macs look the same and you are working off 2 pictures)


Anyway back to the cards, I just googled some pics of scsi cards because I have never seen them and like I still dont think thats the right card.
I appreciate the comments tho

ED E

This one got under my skin, so I had to answer it.



Its a pro tools accelerator. Used for DSP(Signals proc) on DAWS(Digital Audio Workstations).


That PC is coming out of a recording studio, or previously did.

Aivia

Ahh there we go, Thanks for that.

To be honest I would have never figured it out until I got it, and even then would probably be stuck.
Thats a pretty cool background to have a mac come from. Good to know it has some story.

Aivia

Just to ask, is there any kind of a market for these or are they too old?
I wouldn't have any of the equipment to use them anyway so if they are still usable today I could just sell them on.
If not they are still some pretty cool cards to have anyway

beauf

Oh keep them and play with them.

Low end mac on face book is a good resource.

beauf

I'd love to play with one but I have no room for a desktop like that

PropJoe10

I got one cheap a few months ago (Mac Pro) and it's a great machine. CPUs are outdated and power hungry but I got El Capitan running on it with an SSD and an upgraded cheap graphics card and it runs lovely. Also plays games pretty well considering its age.

Aivia

I quite like older hardware as long as its cheap and you can get some decent performance out of it (like a pentium 4 eating power but lagging hard trying to play 1080p video is just pointless)

I would love to get a 4,1 or 5,1 but they are still quite expensive, like even the 1,1 - 3,1 can be quite pricey if you dont wait for a good deal to come up.

I'm going to try learn a bit more about osx or mac os (whatever they call it now) just so if I ever have to use some kind of mac I'm not completely lost. I have the iso for El Capitan but I don't know how to install it, still trying to go from 10.5 - 10.6 in order to get some other kind of a boot thing. Yeah I don't know.

PropJoe10

Aivia wrote: »

I quite like older hardware as long as its cheap and you can get some decent performance out of it (like a pentium 4 eating power but lagging hard trying to play 1080p video is just pointless)

I would love to get a 4,1 or 5,1 but they are still quite expensive, like even the 1,1 - 3,1 can be quite pricey if you dont wait for a good deal to come up.

I'm going to try learn a bit more about osx or mac os (whatever they call it now) just so if I ever have to use some kind of mac I'm not completely lost. I have the iso for El Capitan but I don't know how to install it, still trying to go from 10.5 - 10.6 in order to get some other kind of a boot thing. Yeah I don't know.

The 4,1 and 5,1 are still very pricey. You can pick up old 1,1 Mac Pros for cheap on eBay these days - and they still make a fine Windows computer if you can be bothered trying to install it. The EFI is 32 bit on those old machines which is the main sticking point for running modern operating systems.

They are just damn fine computers. The cases are absolutely vintage - they don't make computers that solid anymore unfortunately! Love my 2,1 and am hoping to get another few years out of it at least.

Aivia

I own a 3,1 so I do have the 64bit efi, hopefully I can get windows working on that.

I can fully agree that this thing is extremely well build, all of the aluminim is so thick and it is quite an open design which gives it some good airflow.

I would still love to get a 4,1 or 5,1 as I own an x58 system with an overclocked x5650 (6 core 12 thread xeon)
Now just imagine two of those cpus working together!!

beauf

What do the numbers mean...5,1

Aivia

I dont know if they have any more significant meaning other than just as a model identity, They made the mac pro from 2006-2012 so you kind of have to specify what model you are talking about as it ranged from the earliest (1,1) dual socket 771 xeon with 4 cores and ddr2 to the latest (5,1) dual socket 1366 with 12 cores and ddr3 ram. There of course are all the other models with different configurations in between

PropJoe10

Aivia wrote: »

I own a 3,1 so I do have the 64bit efi, hopefully I can get windows working on that.

I can fully agree that this thing is extremely well build, all of the aluminim is so thick and it is quite an open design which gives it some good airflow.

I would still love to get a 4,1 or 5,1 as I own an x58 system with an overclocked x5650 (6 core 12 thread xeon)
Now just imagine two of those cpus working together!!

I actually got Windows 10 running on mine by starting the installation on a regular PC. Then, transferring the drive over to the 2,1. Worked fine. Just a bit slow to get past the boot screen but flies after that!

They are great machines. Considering the price you can get a 1,1 or 2,1 at now, they are very sturdy and fast computers for either MacOS, Linux or Windows. Seen some people on Reddit and YouTube that've added very modern graphics cards to theirs for gaming and apparently the bottlenecking isn't too bad at all.

TerrorFirmer

In fairness unless you were playing very unintensive or old games the 1,1 or 2,1 would be hopeless for the latest AAA titles. They're based on the old Core 2/C2Q architecture.

It would be the 2009 models onwards with the 1st generation i5/i7 based Xeon's that would fare somewhat OK with a half decent card (though would bottleneck anything above low to mid range card in many of the latest games).