Thanks! Ill budget the time/$$ for an AUX PSU install just to be safe. I may eventually want to throw two cards in it once the drivers are available and a 2nd PSU will make me future proof.
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Pixlas 4.1 Mac Pro mod
- Thread starter AndreeOnline
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Thanks! Ill budget the time/$$ for an AUX PSU install just to be safe. I may eventually want to throw two cards in it once the drivers are available and a 2nd PSU will make me future proof.
Thank you all for the great ideas been thrown around and been used on this subject , but after much head scratching I have decided to go with this method ! I hope it inspires more people
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This looks super clean to me, how did you do that’s?
Just like others I was going to use the PSU pin base for soldering the wires too ! but it is just too tight with 16 AWG wire so that was a no . So then I started thinking if I could source the Delta Electronics spade fittings in the motherboard plug ? again nothing . Then it dawned on me the plug socket has just enough room to solder the wires to the sides of the connectors .
So having a good look at the main plug it appeared that it has a small snap-in piece that retains all the terminals ! this easily removed using a sharp knife allowing the black plug to slide off ( I marked the orientation as the plug will fit flipped over ) . The only thing I will say is you need a lot of heat to solder to the terminals I had my ATTEN 8502D SMD Rework station turned up to 450c to allow me to get the heat using a 2.5mm chisel tip in the iron ! also I needed plenty of quality flux due to the high heat . After all the hot fingers there is just enough room to slide the terminals back in even the negative with 3 16 AWG wires soldered to the terminal shoulders , then just snap the plastic retainer back into place .
Thank you Kindly , can I just say I am not taking anything away from the original concept , that was a fantastic find ! I am just showing a alternative option for us OCD owners
Thank you Kindly , can I just say I am not taking anything away from the original concept , that was a fantastic find ! I am just showing a alternative option for us OCD owners
Dezzy. Looking to perform your mod. Which cables did you use to solder these to. I want to make sure I am getting the correct load. These are what I am looking at. Thanks!
https://www.moddiy.com/products/modDIY-Pre%2dmade-18AWG-Sleeved-Electrical-Wire-(Black).html
EDIT: Re-reading your post and see you used 16AWG. Do you think 18 will fit?
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Alright, I finally built up the courage to attempt this, and successfully completed the Pixlas mod. Some things to keep in mind if you have no idea what you are doing with wiring (like me ):
Yellow wires are +12V
Black Wires are ground/sense
If you are doing PLEASE take out the PSU. It saved me a lot of time and headache after attempting the first time with it in. (Not enough room to work)
I used the T-TAP method and got them from here.
I used the yellow clips and blue crimps to connect the PSU cables to the ModDIY cables.
I could have aligned them better but the clips were difficult to get on.
Here is the first test fit with a 970:
And the final product with the RX 580 and GTX 970:
A couple of snags that I encountered was that the machine would not POST afterwards. A simple reseat of the CPU tray fixed this. I also had a bad connection on one of the cables that I "crimped" with a pair of pliers. I would highly recommend that you use dedicated wire crimpers. I did this mod primarily to run a VEGA card, but prices have since been skyrocketing. Currently using a 970 for its CUDA performance in Premiere and AME and the RX 580 for Final Cut.
):Yellow wires are +12V
Black Wires are ground/sense
If you are doing PLEASE take out the PSU. It saved me a lot of time and headache after attempting the first time with it in. (Not enough room to work)
I used the T-TAP method and got them from here.
I used the yellow clips and blue crimps to connect the PSU cables to the ModDIY cables.
I could have aligned them better but the clips were difficult to get on.
Here is the first test fit with a 970:
And the final product with the RX 580 and GTX 970:
A couple of snags that I encountered was that the machine would not POST afterwards. A simple reseat of the CPU tray fixed this. I also had a bad connection on one of the cables that I "crimped" with a pair of pliers. I would highly recommend that you use dedicated wire crimpers. I did this mod primarily to run a VEGA card, but prices have since been skyrocketing. Currently using a 970 for its CUDA performance in Premiere and AME and the RX 580 for Final Cut.
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Yes and no. FCPX no longer uses the RX 580 for rendering/export, only for HQ playback unfortunately. FCPX automatically defaults to the GTX 970 for the render/export. For Premiere and AME it works great, and the 970 is very fast. If you use the Metal API it uses both GPU's but is somehow slower than the GTX 970 by it's self.
Have you tried connecting monitor(s) to just GTX970? Looking at nMP, the working GPU is not the one that gives screen output AFAIK...
At the moment I'm satisfied with GTX970 in FCPX (much better than GTX980 a year ago). Not perfect but they're going somewhere.
The problem i had while trying to run GT120 and GTX980 (120 only for bootscreen) together is that GT120 was doing all the work in FCPX and that was painful...
Good job on the mod, btw!
Haven't tried it yet, will try now!Have you tried connecting monitor(s) to just GTX970? Looking at nMP, the working GPU is not the one that gives screen output AFAIK...
At the moment I'm satisfied with GTX970 in FCPX (much better than GTX980 a year ago). Not perfect but they're going somewhere.
The problem i had while trying to run GT120 and GTX980 (120 only for bootscreen) together is that GT120 was doing all the work in FCPX and that was painful...
Good job on the mod, btw!
EDIT
Tried, but no cigar. Honestly, I underestimated the power of the GTX 970, I notice no immediate difference in performance in relation to the RX 580. Only real difference is export speed.
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Yeah, try different monitor connection. Or even try to swap slot of the cards to see if that make any difference.
Originally tried swapping, but didn't change anything. I believe the reason why is that macOS sees the "validated" drivers "GTX 970" over its own "R9 XXX" which is technically "unsupported" in relation to the 970. This may be fixed with 10.13.4 possibly.
No. Just if you are running two 8 pin GPU's. Even with two 8-pin GPU's you can run of the mini 6-pins, but must be weary of the current, or it can shut down the Mac Pro.
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Actually is the Current, not the Voltage. Voltage is always 12V.
H9 or Dezzy, could you please help me out. Looking for a pin out for the 8 connector. Going to perform Dezzy's solder job but need to know how to plug in the wires appropriately on the 8 pin connector side. Thanks for your help.
You better get a 8pin cable and mod it. There is a pin inside each slot of the 8pin connector. Without that pin, you can't install the wire properly.
Therefore, unless you have the pin (and the tool to fix the pin on the wire), buying a 8pin cable directly and just mod the other end is a much easier choice.
Correct. These are the wires I purchased which should be a push in.
https://www.moddiy.com/products/modDIY-Pre%2dmade-18AWG-Sleeved-Electrical-Wire-(Black).html
From what I am seeing pin 1 - 3 is 12v and the rest is ground?