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MentalVizion

macrumors regular
Oct 30, 2013
144
3
Austria
I'm pretty much in the same boat as you, and I decided to just go for the EVGA Powerlink. Seems to be the easiest, safest and cheapest option.
 

kittonian

macrumors regular
Original poster
Aug 4, 2008
177
52
Austin, TX
OK @MIKX I am taking all of your advice except for moving the drives to the DVI cage. Here's the plan:

Dual mini 6pin to 8pin connected to the logic board
Dual SATA Power to 6pin (8in) connected to the two SATA connections in the DVI cage + 10in 6pin to 6pin extension (in case I need it for length) connected to the 6pin
EVGA Powerlink

If that doesn't do it I'm not sure what will :) Thank you again for all your help and advice.
 

kittonian

macrumors regular
Original poster
Aug 4, 2008
177
52
Austin, TX
@MIKX That's what I wrote. Dual SATA to 6pin (8in).
Then I also ordered a 6pin to 6pin 10in extension in case I need it for length.

I got the exact dual sata cable you linked (the 2 pack). I just bought an extension as well just in case.
 

kittonian

macrumors regular
Original poster
Aug 4, 2008
177
52
Austin, TX
Well, everything arrived today and it was very disappointing.

1. The Powerlink has two 8pin connections (not a 6pin and an 8pin) when connecting the power cables. Sure, you can change out the 8pin to a 6pin to connect it to the video card, but you still need two 8pin connections to provide the power.

2. The internal SATA connections are the extended power/data SATA connections and the Y cable that I was told to order does not work with these types of connections. Plus, that Y cable is dual SATA power (only) to 6pin not 8pin which is what is required with the Powerlink.

3. While moving a drive or two up to the DVI cage was mentioned, no reason was ever given as to why that is an absolute necessity. For anyone reading this, it is necessary to free up bays 2/3 from connected hard drives so you have SATA connections on the logic board to use to power the video card. Otherwise, there is no way to route the cable and put the Mac Pro chassis side panel on.

So, if you have a Mac Pro 4,1 or 5,1 here's what you need:

OWC Drive Mount Adapter (only required if you have more than 3 hard drives in the sled bays)

EVGA Powerlink

8pin to Dual Mini-6pin Cable (this connects to the EVGA PowerLink)

Dual SATA 15pin (male) to 8pin

SATA 22pin to SATA 15pin and 7pin Breakout Cable (qty 2)

Here's how it works:

1. Relocate your hard drive(s) to the DVI cage if necessary
2. Connect the Powerlink to your video card
3. Connect the dual mini-6pin to the logic board A/B connections and the 8pin to port 1 of the Powerlink
4. Connect both of the SATA breakout cables to SATA ports 2/3 (the corresponding drive bay numbers)
5. Connect the Dual SATA to the 15pin female ports of the breakout cable and the 8pin to port 2 of the Powerlink

That's it!
 

tsialex

Contributor
Jun 13, 2016
13,394
13,548
Well, everything arrived today and it was very disappointing.

1. The Powerlink has two 8pin connections (not a 6pin and an 8pin) when connecting the power cables. Sure, you can change out the 8pin to a 6pin to connect it to the video card, but you still need two 8pin connections to provide the power.

2. The internal SATA connections are the extended power/data SATA connections and the Y cable that I was told to order does not work with these types of connections. Plus, that Y cable is dual SATA power (only) to 6pin not 8pin which is what is required with the Powerlink.

3. While moving a drive or two up to the DVI cage was mentioned, no reason was ever given as to why that is an absolute necessity. For anyone reading this, it is necessary to free up bays 2/3 from connected hard drives so you have SATA connections on the logic board to use to power the video card. Otherwise, there is no way to route the cable and put the Mac Pro chassis side panel on.

So, if you have a Mac Pro 4,1 or 5,1 here's what you need:

OWC Drive Mount Adapter (only required if you have more than 3 hard drives in the sled bays)

EVGA Powerlink

8pin to Dual Mini-6pin Cable (this connects to the EVGA PowerLink)

Dual SATA 15pin (male) to 8pin

SATA 22pin to SATA 15pin and 7pin Breakout Cable (qty 2)

Here's how it works:

1. Relocate your hard drive(s) to the DVI cage if necessary
2. Connect the Powerlink to your video card
3. Connect the dual mini-6pin to the logic board A/B connections and the 8pin to port 1 of the Powerlink
4. Connect both of the SATA breakout cables to SATA ports 2/3 (the corresponding drive bay numbers)
5. Connect the Dual SATA to the 15pin female ports of the breakout cable and the 8pin to port 2 of the Powerlink

That's it!
You can use 2 miniPCIe 6-pin to 6-pin with Powerlink, no problem. Internally all +12V are bridged.

If you had to do all this for your GPU to work, maybe you have power problems with your GPU or your Mac Pro PSU.

I successfully used other 250W GPUs like 1080 TI and VEGA56 with just Powerlink and 2 miniPCIe 6-pin to 6-pin cables. Other people reports the same.
 

MVMNT

macrumors 6502a
Apr 28, 2010
534
708
A single ODD SATA connection is not going to provide the 75 W a 6 pin PCIe booster connector on the GPU expects . No where even close . You need to work off the backplane and grab 33 W + 33 W from two SATA HDD Bay connectors . If your SATA HDD Bays must be occupied with HDDs , then an alternative is to use an external PSU and drill holes into the side access panel of your Mac .

View attachment 888086
Why MUST a HDD bay be occupied to have to resort to that monster?
 

kittonian

macrumors regular
Original poster
Aug 4, 2008
177
52
Austin, TX
As a follow up to this thread, all of the components I mentioned above finally arrived today. I got it all installed and it works perfectly. We pushed Twinmotion to its limits and there were no shutdowns. In fact, the NVidia GTX 780 was noticeably quieter even when running with the Ultra settings across the board. I highly recommend the solution I posted above to ensure you get all of the power available to you with an upgraded video card such as this.

Good luck!
 
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