Xserve 2008 video card mods

[nlistgarten]

Ive seen them going for next to nothing on ebay as of late. I built a hackintosh system using X5670s i got off ebay for $95 each.

I found the W5590s for about $60 apiece.

what would you wnat for one of those 3,1s?

To be honest I don't really know. I was going to put them up on EBay for ~$500 + free shipping but I think that might be pushing the upper limit of the range I can get for those. Granted the shipping (I haven't set up a freight account yet) and the box combined costs me about ~$100. I put the Xserve 2,1s up on EBay for ~$400, but I haven't gotten any bites yet.

How much would you want to pay for it, kwikdeth?
[doublepost=1455922163][/doublepost]

Thanks nlistgarten,

I'm glad that so many people have enjoyed seeing the modifications I've made to my Xserves, but more satisfying is the fact that many have been inspired to keep their own Xserves running a little bit longer by making simple changes that have dramatic effects.

Both my 2008 Xserves are still going strong, but while they're showing no signs of slowing down anytime soon, I'm working on a new project. Don't go ordering new quad-core Xeons for your Xserve3,1 just yet, the six-core Westmeres will be much faster. They aren't working yet and it's slow progress, but I have a couple of dozen modified EFIs left to test, and I'm confident one of them will work. Unlike the mod that upgrades MacPro4,1s to MacPro5,1s with genuine Apple firmware, I've had to take sections out of the MacPro5,1 EFI and replace parts of the Xserve3,1 EFI with it, then make it pass the tests that run on every boot designed to prevent this exact thing from happening.

I would love to take a 2009 Xserve or two off your hands, but there's a good chance that wherever you are, freight to Australia would be prohibitively expensive

Yeah I'm in California. It would probably be very expensive. To New York via UPS ground is $100. A package with two Xserves to melbourne took a week and cost ~$900 (I don't have a freight account so I couldn't look at sending it by ocean freight. I assumed that's much cheaper). I saw the netkas.org forum with a jamall007. I assume that's you, but I didn't know if you were still working on it. That's awesome! I have all of my surplus Xserve 3,1s running OS X 10.11. Does it make sense to install 10.6 Server on them and use Xgrid to network them? I am very disappointed that Apple removed support for distributed processing.

 

[jamall]

Does it make sense to install 10.6 Server on them and use Xgrid to network them?

I lost interest in Xgrid a while back because transcoding video is the only task I really throw at my cluster and Telestream Episode does such a good job of managing job queues and seamlessly employing multiple platforms. IIRC there was a java applet called Xgrid Agent that would enable Windows and Linux boxes to join an Xgrid cluster. It's been a few years, but it should be able do the same for newer versions of OS X that no longer have Xgrid components built in.

 

[nlistgarten]

Update:
I installed an Nvidia Quadro K1200 graphics card into the Xserve and it worked perfectly (after I got the Nvidia driver).

I am a high school student still living at home and my mother got really annoyed by the noise the Xserve was making (they're very loud and I don't have a rack to put it in).

So, I decommissioned my Xserve and bought a 2009 Mac Pro with 5.1 (2010) firmware and the same specs as my old Xserve. I moved the graphics card over as well. So now I can upgrade to hex core processors without a new EFI (good luck to you if you're still working on that). Just wanted to update you on that and thank you for the ideas you have given me. I hope I will still be welcome on this thread even though I am no longer running an Xserve.

 

[jamall]

nlistgarten, it's sad to hear you've left the Xserve behind, but excessive fan noise is one of this platform's serious shortcomings, so best of luck with your Mac Pro tower. I am still going with my EFI project, thanks for asking! It's great to hear of someone so young with a keen interest in hacks and mods. I'm not sure how that K1200 performs for gaming (in terms of architecture it seems to be very similar to the GTX 750 and GTX 850M with double the memory), but I have a couple of slightly older but more powerful video cards lying around just gathering dust that you're welcome to take your pick from if you wanted to add a second GPU that you can flash, overclock and otherwise experiment on without risking your Quadro K$1200 (I don't think we've heard the last of you, and I feel like I should be encouraging you in whatever way I can!) PM me if you're interested.

 

[nlistgarten]

This might be a stupid question but did they change PM function to be called a "conversation"?

 

[DJTEMPO7]

So... I realize this displaces all of your work listed here... but... would you (or anyone else) know of a dual-output PCIe video card that would fit INTERNALLY in the XServe 2.1? Could I use something designed for a Mac Pro?

 

[nlistgarten]

So... I realize this displaces all of your work listed here... but... would you (or anyone else) know of a dual-output PCIe video card that would fit INTERNALLY in the XServe 2.1? Could I use something designed for a Mac Pro?

Yes! What you're looking for is a single slot card that does not require external power. I have a PNY/Nvidia Quadro K1200. It's a good, fast, low power card with 4GB of DDR5 RAM and I'd recommend it wholeheartedly. The biggest downside is it costs $300. Also, because of the confined space, use a program like iStat Menus (or your hand) to keep a watch on the temperatures (mainly if you're doing graphics card heavy stuff like rendering); You don't want your Xserve overheating. Let me know if you have any questions!

 

[kwikdeth]

XFX makes (or used to make) single-slot HD7750s and R7-250E's that do not require external power. Might fit the bill, though they are getting a little hard to find. I paid $90 for mine. 1GB GDDR5. not a powerhouse but decent enough.

 

[DJTEMPO7]

Would you happen to know of a dual-output card that would fit INSIDE a 2008 XServe 2.1?

 

[nlistgarten]

Would you happen to know of a dual-output card that would fit INSIDE a 2008 XServe 2.1?

The Nvidia Quadro K1200 works very well (~$300). Just make sure you download the Nvidia for Mac drivers before you put the card or you'll get a kernel panic. If you do anything GPU-intensive, watch the internal temperatures on your Xserve after you first put the card in to make sure they're in an acceptable range. The K1200 takes up some space, so just be careful. Use something like iStat Menus to do this. Let me know if you have any questions.

See my post above for pictures of the card mounted in an Xserve 3,1.

 

[jamall]

An Asus GTX 780 ti mounted and ready to be installed on a 2009 Xserve. Test results to come...

 

[mikebw]

Jamall,
Would installing a better video card have any effect on the video displayed via Screen Sharing? We have a couple Xserve 2,1's sitting in our rack stuck on 10.6.8/10.7.5, but it seems easy enough to bring them up to 10.9 at least with little effort. Wondering if it is necessary to put in a new video card if we are only going to bring them back as servers.

Thanks
-mike

 

[jamall]

Hi mike

Yes, installing better video cards would eliminate that horrible lag experienced over Screen Sharing, but there may be an easier way. I believe there was a special dummy video dongle available from NewerTech which tricked the Xserve into loading video drivers which were then used to render the remote desktop. I'm not sure how readily available they still are though. If you've got free PCIe slots then even the most basic Radeon HD 5450 intended for a PC can be had for $20 or less and would have the desired effect. The cheapest single-slot card with Mac EFI (so it gives you access to the boot screen) would be a used Nvidia GT 120, but last time I checked they were just below $100, and I refuse to pay that much for a sh*tty 8 year-old low-end video card! If you want to cram as much power as you can into your Xserve without any extra hassles, a single slot GTX 750 ti, which is completely bus-powered, can be had found for not much over $100.

 

[mikebw]

Hi mike

Yes, installing better video cards would eliminate that horrible lag experienced over Screen Sharing, but there may be an easier way. I believe there was a special dummy video dongle available from NewerTech which tricked the Xserve into loading video drivers which were then used to render the remote desktop. I'm not sure how readily available they still are though. If you've got free PCIe slots then even the most basic Radeon HD 5450 intended for a PC can be had for $20 or less and would have the desired effect. The cheapest single-slot card with Mac EFI (so it gives you access to the boot screen) would be a used Nvidia GT 120, but last time I checked they were just below $100, and I refuse to pay that much for a sh*tty 8 year-old low-end video card! If you want to cram as much power as you can into your Xserve without any extra hassles, a single slot GTX 750 ti, which is completely bus-powered, can be had found for not much over $100.

I think we actually have a few spare GT120's (were used for 3rd monitors on our MacPros that have since been upgraded to GTX 680's.) to try out. Thanks for the tip.

 

[Versacepoptart]

Just picked up a early 2008 Xserve. What are some mods that you recommend me doing? i don't want to cut up the case at all but otherwise am up for anything to play around with

 

[nlistgarten]

Just picked up a early 2008 Xserve. What are some mods that you recommend me doing? i don't want to cut up the case at all but otherwise am up for anything to play around with

Congrats! What are the specs? Are you looking for graphics suggestions or suggestions in general? If you're looking for general suggestions, I'd look at RAM and processor upgrades.

 

[Versacepoptart]

i picked up the early 2008 model with dual 2.8GHz processors and 4GBs of ram. i also went ahead and picked up a GT 120. I am definitely thinking about relisting it and selling it and picking up a 2009 model to be able to use DDR3 Ram. what are you thoughts?
[doublepost=1482015998][/doublepost]also might want to return that GT 120 and look at something a little beefier. any suggestions?

 

[nlistgarten]

i picked up the early 2008 model with dual 2.8GHz processors and 4GBs of ram. i also went ahead and picked up a GT 120. I am definitely thinking about relisting it and selling it and picking up a 2009 model to be able to use DDR3 Ram. what are you thoughts?
[doublepost=1482015998][/doublepost]also might want to return that GT 120 and look at something a little beefier. any suggestions?

It depends on the money. A 2009 Xserve (unless you can get it for free) will be very expensive (I sold one with dual 2.26 ghz quad cores and 32gb of ram for $650 + shipping about 6 months ago). I'm not sure if it's worth it unless you need a newer OS or RAM for some reason. If you look through this thread, you'll see a couple of graphics card suggestions. I personally love my Nvidia Quadro K1200. (I'm currently running 2 4K monitors @60Hz with no problems. That being said, the K1200 is expensive - $300.) I have a bunch (10x 1GB) RAM sticks I think work on the Xserve 2008. I'd be willing to send them to you if you pay cost of shipping (assuming they're the right type).

 

[Versacepoptart]

Oh wow that would be awesome. i can definitely pay for shipping

 

[jamall]

I agree with nlistgarten, the cost of upgrading to an '09 Xserve is still quite high, and they're no longer officially supported by the current OS either, so you'd be bumping into many of the same obstacles. Definitely relist that GT120 and get a newer nVidia card - the GTX 1050 Ti, GTX 750 Ti and the GT 640 are all the most powerful cards of their generations that don't require additional power to be connected, so those or anything below them that can be found in a single-slot model will be suitable. All cards in nVidia's 900 series required additional power as far as I'm aware. The other upgrade I'd recommend is faster storage as your three drive bays are limited to 150 MB/sec. You can get PCI Express cards to mount an SSD or two on, and some of the more expensive versions of these also have additional USB 3.0 or SATA 3 connectors as well. It's a little complicated but still possible to flash reasonably cheap OEM RAID cards from HP, Dell and IBM to work in a Mac if you like a bit of a challenge.

 

[Versacepoptart]

would either of these work? http://www.ebay.com/itm/EVGA-GeForc...986842?hash=item41ba17a85a:g:UfMAAOSwJ7RYVd7U or http://www.ebay.com/itm/Galaxy-Nvid...673245?hash=item211c98711d:g:iXcAAOSwOtdYU1zb

Also i know you both advised against it, but i found a 2009 for only $50 more than i paid for the 2008 so i went ahead and bought it. i think its worth the 50 bucks to be able to use DDR3 memory. Also I'm very interested in the PCIe conversion. Where would i find more information on this? I've also seen people use non RAID cards, i would be interested in this as well. It would be ideal to get 3 x 2TB Drives in this if possible.
[doublepost=1482078278][/doublepost]on second thought, being able to use an SSD would be amazing now that i think about it.

 

[nlistgarten]

would either of these work? http://www.ebay.com/itm/EVGA-GeForc...986842?hash=item41ba17a85a:g:UfMAAOSwJ7RYVd7U or http://www.ebay.com/itm/Galaxy-Nvid...673245?hash=item211c98711d:g:iXcAAOSwOtdYU1zb

Also i know you both advised against it, but i found a 2009 for only $50 more than i paid for the 2008 so i went ahead and bought it. i think its worth the 50 bucks to be able to use DDR3 memory. Also I'm very interested in the PCIe conversion. Where would i find more information on this? I've also seen people use non RAID cards, i would be interested in this as well. It would be ideal to get 3 x 2TB Drives in this if possible.
[doublepost=1482078278][/doublepost]on second thought, being able to use an SSD would be amazing now that i think about it.

Wow! How much did you pay for the 2009? I managed to sell mine for $450 more than my 2008 lol. 2009 is better, I only advised against it due to cost.

No, neither of those cards will work. They're both too tall. You need to find a true single-slot card (they're hard to find). Also, if you're running an Apple OS, DO NOT GET THE GTX1050! My understanding is that Apple has not released drivers for the GTX10 series so this card will not work!

Do you still want the 10x 1GB of DDR2 ECC RAM that I have (still free + shipping).

 

[Versacepoptart]

Yeah it was a steal haha okay ill keep looking

 

[kwikdeth]

the GTX 1050 Ti, GTX 750 Ti and the GT 640 are all the most powerful cards of their generations that don't require additional power to be connected, so those or anything below them that can be found in a single-slot model will be suitable.

there's additional caveats with those cards which you need to keep in mind. GTX750 series were not supported even by the alternate nvidia drivers until yosemite. im not quite sure when 1xxx series started being supported, if they are at all yet. you'll need to keep what OS supports what cards when you're selecting your card. I think for the 2008 xserve, if its limited to lion, the best you can get is probably going to be this:
http://www.evga.com/products/product.aspx?pn=01G-P3-2642-KR
AFAIK Lion 10.7.5 will support 600 series cards. earlier versions will not support 600 series.

on the AMD side, the best you can get is the 6670 for Lion. sapphire made a low profile card which will fit. good luck finding one, ebay's gonna be your best bet and you might even need to order from europe. i saw a bunch that sold recently for around $30 from the UK.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102958

that one is probably gonna be the most powerful. 128-bit GDDR5.

 

[jamall]

I apologise for misleading you, kwikdeath is absolutely correct in saying that none of Nvidia's Pascal-based cards (1050, 1060, 1070 and 1080) have MacOS drivers yet because Apple hasn't put any of Nvidia's latest generation GPUs in any shipping Macs. Until they do the GTX 750 Ti is the most powerful supplemental-powerless card that's compatible from Nvidia. MacOS Sierra apparently supports the latest generation of AMD cards (I haven't had any experience with AMD since Mavericks because Nvidia just worked) so something like this HIS RX 460 would be ideal, although I wasn't able to find any info on pricing or availability.

I'm running macOS Sierra on both my 2008 and 2009 Xserves, and it was much simpler than back in the days of mirroring a supported Mac's hard drive and manual plist edits thanks to a great little utility called macOS Sierra Patcher. It downloads the latest Sierra installer from Apple, creates modified install media, and tweaks a few things specific to whichever Mac you have. Just remember to switch to the post-install utility before restarting once your installation is complete in order to apply the patches.

Also keep in mind that single slot cards with coolers on their heatsinks that occupy a second slot were actually designed to operate inside ATX cases with minimal and poorly directed airflow. With their cooling fans removed and just a bare heatsink exposed to the constant high-volume airflow inside a server case, the handful of cards I've tested have had no problems running and were only a few degrees warmer than when they were inside regular PCs with their fans intact. On that basis a friend let me hacksaw off a significant portion of the heatsink on a brand new GT 710 for his Xserve and we're still friends.

This Nvidia GT 640 has already been flashed with Mac-compatible EFI so gives you access to the boot screen, but it seems a little expensive next to this GTX 645 at half the price and this more powerful GT 740, both of which lack EFI. This Radeon HD 6750 is quite reasonably priced but isn't very powerful by today's standards. PassMark is a handy way to gauge relative performance, although application-specific performance can vary wildly from generalised benchmarks so research any particular apps you might need to use. The netkas.org forums contain a wealth of information on how to go about flashing a PC Card with Mac EFI if you really want access to the boot screen from your new card, but I've always just left the original graphics intact for emergencies and have never felt the need to go down that path. HTH

jamall

Edit: I just saw your question about faster storage. I'm currently running a slightly modified Sonnet Tempo with two SSDs stacked together in a striped RAID as my boot drive, but regret not getting a Sonnet Tempo Pro Plus with its extra eSATA ports instead. There are other Mac-specific options like the Apricorn Velocity and this SEDNA card, but several of the cheaper cards that don't specify Mac-compatibility have been found to work and it all depends on the chipset being used. This Intel SAS RAID card would be great too, but you'd need to mount your SSDs somewhere else.