Very cheap wifi solution for 2006 Mac Pro 1.1

[eyup]

Hi Ya'll,

I bought a cheap used mini wifi-pci card for a Hackintosh laptop project, as the native card for the Lenovo 3000 N200 doesn't work with OSX.

On ebay found a compatible PC card:
HP NX6325 EY345EA MINI-PCI EXPRESS LAPTOP WI-FI CARD 407254-002 BCM94311MCAG 34

Worked a treat. So got to thinking - would it work in my wireless MacPro 1.1 - and wey hey - it does!!

Simply plug cables 1 and 3 into the card (2 is for bluetooth) - i just fixed it down with one of the screws from the laptop.

All for £1.50 inc p&p - wey hey!

 

[owbp]

Great post at the right time!
I'm looking at the moment at few BCM94321MC cards from HP Compaq Pavilion DV9700 for about 4 usd.
How did you get to cables 1 and 3 being the wires for the WiFi?
I am asking because it has 4 cables (1, 2, 3 and BT) and some post/YTclips says that 2 and 3 are Wifi, 1 is Bluetooth, others says something completely different and so on...

Asking because seller won't give me warranty unless I install it at his store, so it would be nice to be 100% certain what wires to plug the first time.

 

[eyup]

heh - i subsequently found conflicting info on which cables too - but followed this guide:

http://www.tweaking4all.com/hardware/apple-computers/mac-pro-wifi-2008-2012/

Probably will work with any two apart from BT cable.

Tip: Connect the cables before you insert the card! Mucho easier. And put the card into the slot (sits on an angle) then insert the retaining screw into the hole and use screwdriver to press it down and screw in.

Let us know how you get on.

 

[owbp]

Thanks again, will do and report back what the result was.

 

[owbp]

Rough few hours.
I've never had screw fall into the computer before and now it happened two times...
First try nothing (OS X and Win) but it finally worked once i cleaned connections and put WiFi card in and out a few times.

Probably will work with any two apart from BT cable.

I found in Mac Pro service manual that they also say to use connections 1 and 3.
Thought that strength of signal would be better than it is, but speeds are all ok.

Now just to find similar bargain on Bluetooth (2.1, just for keyboard and/or mouse/trackpad, no fancy 10.11 functions)!

 

[eyup]

gereat!

aye - always a good idea to get an eraser on old contacts - oxidisation or something - i thought i had a dead CPU when i upgraded from an old server, till i was told to get a rubber on the contacts ;-)

What you working on? A macpro 1.1?

 

[owbp]

Yes, 1,1 from the signature - great machine whole 10 years later (with just few upgrades).

 

[eyup]

Ah haa your sig - me too, 10 years - damn fine machines, upgraded mine to the max but just this week built an i7-6700k hackintosh so it's gonna be sitting in a dark corner soon, or maybe ebay... boo hoo

 

[owbp]

I'm in the similar boat as you, but still trying to decide should i build a relevant hack (2016 components) or wait just a little bit more for that and buy a Mac Pro 4,1/5,1 in the meantime (stupid thing, but the machine i wanted since it first came out).
Reason vs heart, tough one!

 

[eyup]

Maybe this will persuade you...

i7-6700k oc to 4.5ghz - stable

The Macpro 1.1 with 8 core X5365 3ghz does a Youtube Premier render in 12mins - my hack does it in 4.

Power usage down too!

Had a GTX970 already so figured what the hell - glad I did - everything is snappy!