5,1 1080 plus the stock card ok?

[Selsk]

Hi all. I recently built my friend a 5,1 12 Core with a ssd, upgraded bluetooth/wifi card and a GTX 1080. We had some problems (which might have just been a power surge) which resulted in a dead bottom tray and the flashing red light of doom.

I originally had the two 6 pin power cords for the 1080 which is recommended on these forums.

When our problem occurred, luckily the computer store that we purchased the Mac from replaced the bottom tray. Anyway...they said they do not recommend the 2 cables and now we are just using one (single) of their cables.

Everything is working fine now. Benchmarks great etc. Sorry for the long story.

My question is. Can I also put in the original Mac graphics card A1310 NVIDIA GeForce GT120 as well as the 1080. Reason being, my friend recently did a software update and got a black screen (of course). So he had to bring the machine back to me to switch cards and update the Nvidia drivers. Not a big deal, but I just want to know if it would be safe "power wise" to have the two cards in there. So if he ever wanted to do another software update he could just switch the cable in the back etc.

 

[bsbeamer]

Is your GTX 1080 a single 8-pin version? You will need to power that card with dual mini 6-pin to single 8-pin.

There is an issue with dual GPUs and NVIDIA drivers on some machines with some OS versions. Not 100% sure what versions you're on, but be aware of that. Believe there's a full thread discussing the issue.

 

[h9826790]

My GT120 only serve as the Mac EFI part of the 1080Ti, normally nothing is connected onto it. So, may be that's why no issue on this setup.

(For info, GT120 + RX580 does cause issue, which makes some photos become transparent in Photos apps. But GT120 + 1080Ti is fine on my cMP).

 

[ActionableMango]

The GT120 was not a stock or original card in a 5,1. So I assume that the store sold you a flashed 4,1 and committed fraud if they listed it as a 5,1.

 

[Selsk]

The GT120 was not a stock or original card in a 5,1. So I assume that the store sold you a flashed 4,1 and committed fraud if they listed it as a 5,1.

Thanks for all the responses guys.

ActionableMango.... I just ran the model number off the back and yes the machine is a 4,1 which must be flashed.
Model: A1289 EMC: 2314
Mac Pro 2.26 8CX/6x1G/640/GT120/SD

Which f*cking pisses me off because he didn't get an amazing deal on the thing. All I told him was to find the latest 5,1 Mac Pro that was the 12 Core. I feel like an idiot for not checking on that sooner. I'm going to let my friend know asap and see how he feels about it. I hope he can get some compensation from the LA based computer store.

 

[ActionableMango]

Thanks for all the responses guys.

ActionableMango.... I just ran the model number off the back and yes the machine is a 4,1 which must be flashed.
Model: A1289 EMC: 2314
Mac Pro 2.26 8CX/6x1G/640/GT120/SD

Which f*cking pisses me off because he didn't get an amazing deal on the thing. All I told him was to find the latest 5,1 Mac Pro that was the 12 Core. I feel like an idiot for not checking on that sooner. I'm going to let my friend know asap and see how he feels about it. I hope he can get some compensation from the LA based computer store.

In case they try to justify the fraud by claiming they are the same once flashed, they aren't. Here are the improvements for a 5,1:

• Components are 1-4 years newer (less likely to fail from age)
• Much faster video card (5770 or 5870)
• AMD video card instead of Nvidia (Apple has optimized their software for AMD)
• Three monitor connections instead of two
• More VRAM (1GB instead of 512MB)
• More memory (3GB instead of 1GB)
• Larger capacity hard drive (1TB instead of 640GB)
• Airport Extreme card included as default instead of optional
• Faster ram included (1333MHz instead of 1066, even on models with a 1066 processor)
• Reports itself as a 2010 (or 2012) instead of a 2009
• Faster CPUs (2.4GHz vs 2.26GHz for the dual CPU model)
• Newer SMC firmware with some bug fixes (this is not changed via the firmware flash)
• Standard CPUs instead of delidded CPUs (for the dual CPU model), making upgrades significantly easier and safer

A couple of these bullet points might not apply, for example they upgraded the memory, but those upgrades still don't make this a 5,1.

On the flip side, it sounds like they stepped up to the plate with a rather expensive CPU board replacement even though it might have been your build actions that caused the problem. That's a fairly nice move on their part. Personally I might consider it a wash at that point.

 

[Selsk]

In case they try to justify the fraud by claiming they are the same once flashed, they aren't. Here are the improvements for a 5,1:

• Components are 1-4 years newer (less likely to fail from age)
• Much faster video card (5770 or 5870)
• AMD video card instead of Nvidia (Apple has optimized their software for AMD)
• Three monitor connections instead of two
• More VRAM (1GB instead of 512MB)
• More memory (3GB instead of 1GB)
• Larger capacity hard drive (1TB instead of 640GB)
• Airport Extreme card included as default instead of optional
• Faster ram included (1333MHz instead of 1066, even on models with a 1066 processor)
• Reports itself as a 2010 (or 2012) instead of a 2009
• Faster CPUs (2.4GHz vs 2.26GHz for the dual CPU model)
• Newer SMC firmware with some bug fixes (this is not changed via the firmware flash)
• Standard CPUs instead of delidded CPUs (for the dual CPU model), making upgrades significantly easier and safer

A couple of these bullet points might not apply, for example they upgraded the memory, but those upgrades still don't make this a 5,1.

On the flip side, it sounds like they stepped up to the plate with a rather expensive CPU board replacement even though it might have been your build actions that caused the problem. That's a fairly nice move on their part. Personally I might consider it a wash at that point.

Yea my friend ended up not being too concerned. Apparently he knew it was going to be a bit of a franken-mac. The guy was more open with him than I thought. At least now it is a 12-core with 64GB of ram, a 500gb SSD and a GTX 1080. Oh yea and the latest wifi/bluetooth card...airdrop works! It should have more than enough power to some 3d product mock-ups. Thanks again for your help everyone.