MP 1,1-5,1 Mac Pro 2,1 doubts and problem

[1985dan]

Hi everyone, I have a Mac Pro 2,1 with no hard drive and no graphics card which I intend to restore, but I want to check that it will function well before spending money in a hard drive, a GPU and more RAM. I plugged it in and the Superdrive works, the RAM trays lights turn on, the motherboard diagnostic lights all light up except the CPU failure ones and the last one to the right that says EFI, and the fans seem to work properly according to the current temperature. However, the ports don't seem to work properly: my phone doesn't charge in any of the 5 USB ports, so I tried plugging a pen drive to see if the light turns on, but it only does so for one second and then it turns off. I don't have any firewire device to check if it's just the USB ports or every port. I already tried more than 10 SMC resets and it is still the same. Any ideas? What else should I check to see if it works properly before sinking any money into it? I would really appreciate if you answer. Thank you for reading.

 

[vinaypundith]

You'll really need to get at least a basic graphics card, to at least be able to see what the computer is doing. An NVidia GeForce 7300GT usually sells for $25 or less.

 

[1985dan]

Thank you. And once I get a gpu and a hard drive what should I do?

 

[MIKX]

For a GPU I recommend a Sapphire HD 5870 which can be EFI flashed to give the pre-boot drive selection screen.
Plenty of people here can help you flash the HD 5870. I recently installed one of these in a friend's cMP 2,1.
Works very well on a 2,1.