Mac Pro 1st Gen questions

[maxp]

I have just inherited a first gen Mac Pro, woohoo...downsides: it comes with no power supply, no cpus and a 7300gt graphics adapter

My questions are:

1 - I know OSX needs an apple graphics card to boot, is it possible to put the 7300gt in one of the slower PCIE lanes and put a PC graphics card in lane 1/full speed lane and still have it boot? If not, what are my options? I intend to use my PC gfx card only when booting to Windows.

2 - Power supply - Are there any PC PSU's that will work with this? What are my cheapest options?

3 - CPU - Are the bare minimum CPUs the Wolfdale Xeons? Will any desktop CPUs be compatable? I assume the machine runs fine with just one cpu? Does the motherboard need apple specific heatsinks or are the Intel/OEM okay to use?

Thanks

 

[666sheep]

1. Yes, you can put 7300 in other than 16x slot. BTW, OS X doesn't need graphics card to boot, only to display video. You can even use MP headless, with no card installed.

2. PSU must be original Apple due to pinouts difference between PC and Apple ones. AFAIK nobody successfully converted PC PSU to work with MP or MP PSU to work with PC

3. minimum CPU is Woodcrest, not Wolfdale (this one won't work at all). MP 1.1 and 2.1 firmware supports only Woodcrests and Clovertowns (51xx and 53xx series). It would run with one CPU no probs. Apple heatsink is required due to sensor mounted on it. Without this sensor connected, fans will spin at full revs.

Officially only FSB 1333 CPUs will work, but there's a trick called BSEL mod which allows to run 1066 CPUs @1333: http://www.o0o.it/pro/

 

[maxp]

Cool, thanks for the detailed reply. Ive just opened the machine and there are *no* cables, nor any of the interior chassis parts (no fans, cages, nothing!)

I am considering ebaying the lot as im expecting this to potentially be a writeoff as I still need all the wires, cages (i think), heatsink, cpu psu, and disk drive.

What would you guys do?

 

[Cindori]

making a frankenmac is expensive, time consuming, and usually leaves you with relatively low performance anyway.
my 2 cents.

 

[chipchen]

you're better off parting out what you DO have... then buying another Mac Pro.

by parting out what you do have, you can still probably get a good amount of money... and used mac pro's of the first gen have been going for less than $1000 i thknk

 

[666sheep]

It will cost too much to make it up and running again if you have only logic board and incomplete casing. Especially as there must be a reason why someone parted this machine out ... Even if you'd get needed parts cheaply, there's a big chance that logic board is fried and you'll end with a bunch of useless crap.

 

[lewdvig]

eBay it!

Sometimes the parts are worth more than the whole. Although you are missing the best parts.