Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Status
The first post of this thread is a WikiPost and can be edited by anyone with the appropiate permissions. Your edits will be public.

stcm

macrumors member
Aug 30, 2020
48
34
Japan
I setup a "sound proof closet". lol
It's almost silent, but not cool..fugly.., so I need XRackPro2.

2021-04-02 00-28-36.JPG 2021-04-02 00-31-32.JPG 2021-04-02 00-30-51.JPG

For the next work, I plan to make power cable and make PSU external.

2021-04-03 04-22-48.JPG 2021-04-03 04-24-03_1617392674598.JPG 2021-04-03 04-24-44.JPG
 

stcm

macrumors member
Aug 30, 2020
48
34
Japan
I bought the Quadro K3100M because I wanted to make good use of the mxm slot😏
2021-12-22 22.47.05.jpg
2021-12-22 22.47.13.jpg

First, I attached QK3100M to Xserve2009, but black screen.
So I flashed bios with nv_flash via ssh to QK3100M.
(like a some iMacs.)

The next reboot, the screen was visible!! but it's glitching🤥
2021-12-22 22.46.49.jpg

I tested different versions of bios, but the results were the same. OC too.
(BTW the screen blanked at half the progress bar while booting Big Sur)
Please help me if you have any advice.
Thanks.
 

Ludacrisvp

macrumors 6502a
May 14, 2008
797
363
I bought the Quadro K3100M because I wanted to make good use of the mxm slot😏

First, I attached QK3100M to Xserve2009, but black screen.
So I flashed bios with nv_flash via ssh to QK3100M.
(like a some iMacs.)

The next reboot, the screen was visible!! but it's glitching🤥
I tested different versions of bios, but the results were the same. OC too.
(BTW the screen blanked at half the progress bar while booting Big Sur)
Please help me if you have any advice.
Thanks.
Interesting choice of GPU, it's not as performant as other MXM options and less supported with newer macOS versions.
I went the WX 4150 route (which is basically an AMD RX 560X, and about 200% faster vs K3100M based on techpowerup) on mine, the MXM slot also has only 2 PCIe lanes.

Anyways, the glitching to me says either incorrect VBIOS or it is more likely a faulty / failing card.
Is there another system you can test this GPU in?
 
  • Like
Reactions: stcm

stcm

macrumors member
Aug 30, 2020
48
34
Japan
Interesting choice of GPU, it's not as performant as other MXM options and less supported with newer macOS versions.
I went the WX 4150 route (which is basically an AMD RX 560X, and about 200% faster vs K3100M based on techpowerup) on mine, the MXM slot also has only 2 PCIe lanes.

Anyways, the glitching to me says either incorrect VBIOS or it is more likely a faulty / failing card.
Is there another system you can test this GPU in?
Thank you for your reply!
Unfortunately I don't have any other environment what I can test mxm...

This time, I got a tested product (mb on windows), so I didn't think about the possibility of GPU was broken.
btw Do you think that the Xserve rom is the cause? Now, my XS has X5590 and originally rom.
I also bought the Xeon X5690, so I'm planning to test again with the MP5,1 rom.

e: The attach images are the benchmark at that time ;)

2021-12-23 20.54.45.jpg Screen Shot 2021-12-23 at 20.56.14.png
 
Last edited:

stcm

macrumors member
Aug 30, 2020
48
34
Japan
Please answer my boring questions if you ain't annoying.
I'm planning to overwrite XS3,1 with cMP firmware.
Apparently my XS'll loss S/N as a side effect.
I fully understand that the solution to this problem is to insert the original S/N.
So I decided to use OC to insert the original serial number.

But Idk where to insert the original S/N...
Needless to say, I'm aware that this question a very rudimentary and silly question. And I know this question is a topic that has no relation with the Xserve.
Anyways….
Please tell me if I should insert to A, B or C (or all of them).
I'm sure B doesn't matter, but I don' know I should insert to the Datahub or to the Board as S/N.
Regards.
Screen Shot 2021-12-24 at 03.13.37.png


It may I'm misguided; if It might that I really need attention about other part.
Sry to my broken English... Пожалуйста, прости меня.
 

Ludacrisvp

macrumors 6502a
May 14, 2008
797
363
Please answer my boring questions if you ain't annoying.
I'm planning to overwrite XS3,1 with cMP firmware.
Apparently my XS'll loss S/N as a side effect.
I fully understand that the solution to this problem is to insert the original S/N.
So I decided to use OC to insert the original serial number.

But Idk where to insert the original S/N...
Needless to say, I'm aware that this question a very rudimentary and silly question. And I know this question is a topic that has no relation with the Xserve.
Anyways….
Please tell me if I should insert to A, B or C (or all of them).
I'm sure B doesn't matter, but I don' know I should insert to the Datahub or to the Board as S/N.
Regards.
View attachment 1933050

It may I'm misguided; if It might that I really need attention about other part.
Sry to my broken English... Пожалуйста, прости меня.
If you use the patched rom flashing tool I posted here it will not lose the Serial number as it flashes The Mac Pro rom as an update instead of wiping it and putting a blank one on.
 

Ulysses_UK

macrumors member
Jan 3, 2022
30
9
Part 5: GPU

By default the Xserve 2009 was sipped with a preinstalled MXM-B GT120M card. But basically any iMac MXM GPU will run just fine in place. But every single Apple MXM GPU is unsupported starting with macOS 10.14 Mojave. So to overcome this there are also two solutions.

5a) MXM GPU with metal support
Just stick to the iMac GPU upgrade thread. As for now two customized versions of modern GPUs are available WX4150M and WX7100M. These two GPUs allow the stock boot screen to be rendered and are fully supported starting with macOS 10.12.6 Sierra.

5b) 1-slot PCI-e GPU with metal support
Just stick to the GPU List for Mac Pro thread. Currently using wx4100 on my machine and it survived 90 degrees celsius of hot air out of my first CPU test attempts being mounted without built-in fan (passive cooling only), so we can consider it as Xserve-proof GPU. :p

5c) MACVid GPU for Mojave
No comments here...
So pleased to find this thread. I have an X serve 3,1 which is running 12cores nicely with the mac pro 5.1 144 rom and original serial number. I've also modded the cooling, to silence this beast, but, My question is about GPU performance on the MXM slot.
I have a bus powered MSI rx 560 4gb, running great, but, i am interested in getting back boot screen and freeing up a PCIe slot by going with an MXM solution like a wx 4150. My concern is that it's only going to utilise 2 lanes on the pcie 2.0 mxm slot. As thats how the mxm slot is setuo on the Xserve i beleive.

How much of a hit is that on performance vs using the full the pcie 2.0 16x slot? Be happy to post some scores to aid in a comparison?

I like nvme boot drives and a thunderbolt card, using the mxm slot creates this possibility, but, not sure if i am giving up performace doing so.
 

Ludacrisvp

macrumors 6502a
May 14, 2008
797
363
I have a bus powered MSI rx 560 4gb, running great, but, i am interested in getting back boot screen and freeing up a PCIe slot by going with an MXM solution like a wx 4150. My concern is that it's only going to utilise 2 lanes on the pcie 2.0 mxm slot. As thats how the mxm slot is setuo on the Xserve i beleive.

How much of a hit is that on performance vs using the full the pcie 2.0 16x slot? Be happy to post some scores to aid in a comparison?
well I don't have the RX560 to do any comparisons, but i do have the WX4150 in MXM slot.

Here was one of the benches i ran, not sure what work you are doing with your 560 to provide a comparison to.
OpenCL:
Metal:
 

Ulysses_UK

macrumors member
Jan 3, 2022
30
9
well I don't have the RX560 to do any comparisons, but i do have the WX4150 in MXM slot.

Here was one of the benches i ran, not sure what work you are doing with your 560 to provide a comparison to.
OpenCL:
Metal:
Hi, Thanks for the reponse. My Xserve is flashed to mac pro 5.1 and 12 core, only 16gb ram, so this is not exact comparison. I switched to mojave to keep it as close as i can. Seeing big difference in performance.


Open CL:
Metal:

Seeing a big difference.
WX4150 4gb on MXM OpenCL Score 13536, Metal Score 14168
Rx 560 4gb on PCIE OpenCL Score 20043, Metal Score 20448

I'm thinking that the mxm slot with 2 lanes is the bottlenecking performance.
Though More testing ideally on same machine would be needed to confirm that.

I still think MXM is a good option, especially if you want to run lastest version of os x and need both pcie slots for nvme and thunderbolt/usb.

Thanks for posting. I think i am just going to live with using SSD on the SAS/SATA sleds.
 
Last edited:

Ulysses_UK

macrumors member
Jan 3, 2022
30
9
Part 4: Storage

By default the Xserve suports 3 types of local storage which offers us a choice between 3 SATA/SAS 3.5 inch drive bays, SSD connector on the LOM board and a Superdrive. There are 2 different HDD daughter board types available depending on the configuration, the RAID one with some heatsinks, RAM chips on it and coupled with a backup battery power, and the non-RAID one with an LSI controller in JBOD mode. To spread more confusion there are also two types of HDD caddies available, the SATA one and the hybrid SAS/SATA one. The logic is simple there - the less possible hassle configuration is a non-RAID daughter board connected to hybrid SAS/SATA caddies with SAS srives inside. It is the only way to use HDDs larger than 1TB. The hard way - a G5 daughter board with SATA connectors attached to a PCI-e SATA3 controller (in process, already got 2 Helium 10TB SATA HDDs with no possibility to return them). There is also an unsoldered SATA 7-pin connector, which is possibly available and wired.
But flashing the v144 EFI firmware from Mac Pro allows the usage of NVMe with APFS on it natively, so this is the preferable choice for performance

I love this thread and I'm grateful for the information for the forgotton X Serve 3.1

Just wanted to chime in on the Xserve 3.1 Storage Situation. For Non Raid Backplane. The default config is that the drive sleds "apple drive modules" (ADM's) are custom SAS connectors. It's possible to get full SAS ADM's. Though most will be using SAS to SATA ADM's. The limit is 2.2tb on these. Not 1TB. In practical terms you can have three 2tb drives. You can also use any HDD or SSD drives so long as they are backward compatible with SATA 1.5Gb/s .


I'm currently using a Crucial MX500 1tb and Kingston A400 960GB in the SAS to SATA Drive sleds and have been for over a year. Of course nowhere near NVME speeds, but, still night and day differnce compared to HDD. Yet to try a 2tb SSD.

We also have a weird SSD ZIF connector for a 1.8" SSD on this model, similar drives have been used on the macbook air 2.1. This option was only available at purchase, perhaps something could be made to utilise it though.
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: Flint Ironstag

hydrostaticpdx

macrumors newbie
Dec 9, 2012
4
0
I love this thread and I'm grateful for the information for the forgotton X Serve 3.1

Just wanted to chime in on the Xserve 3.1 Storage Situation. For Non Raid Backplane. The default config is that the drive sleds "apple drive modules" (ADM's) are custom SAS connectors. It's possible to get full SAS ADM's. Though most will be using SAS to SATA ADM's. The limit is 2.2tb on these. Not 1TB. In practical terms you can have three 2tb drives. You can also use any HDD or SSD drives so long as they are backward compatible with SATA 1.5Gb/s .


I'm currently using a Crucial MX500 1tb and Kingston A400 960GB in the SAS to SATA Drive sleds and have been for over a year. Of course nowhere near NVME speeds, but, still night and day differnce compared to HDD. Yet to try a 2tb SSD.

We also have a weird SSD ZIF connector for a 1.8" SSD on this model, similar drives have been used on the macbook air 2.1. This option was only available at purchase, perhaps something could be made to utilise it though.
Yes, that is correct. Some years ago I used the XSERVE 3,1 with two 2 GB drives in the trays. BUT, the noise increasing was terrible due to faster running of the fans. The 2 TB drives need more energy and produce more heat. Removed it after a while. :(
 

Champagne_5S

macrumors newbie
Jan 30, 2018
16
18
Netherlands
First, I attached QK3100M to Xserve2009, but black screen.
So I flashed bios with nv_flash via ssh to QK3100M.
(like a some iMacs.)

The next reboot, the screen was visible!! but it's glitching

Did you attach a heatsink? With a TDP of 75W even the original GT120 heatsink may be way too small for this graphics card.
 
  • Like
Reactions: stcm

Ulysses_UK

macrumors member
Jan 3, 2022
30
9
Yes, that is correct. Some years ago I used the XSERVE 3,1 with two 2 GB drives in the trays. BUT, the noise increasing was terrible due to faster running of the fans. The 2 TB drives need more energy and produce more heat. Removed it after a while. :(
I've been using 2x2tb drives for a while without issue. The noise increase is unlikely to be caused by additional power requirements of any hard drive though. The power requirements for hard drives don't scale according to size. The rotational speed is more the issue. Either way they consume around 15w whatever the storage size. More likely the Xserve detected non OEM apples drives and ramped up the fans... that i have seen. Quite eccentric Xserve behavior.

I couldn't test that now though as I don't use the stock fans.
 

stcm

macrumors member
Aug 30, 2020
48
34
Japan
Hello.

I finally overwrote my XS with MP5,1 Rom last month.
It had very useful effects such as speeding up memory and PCIe, and became to be able to use two Х56хх CPUs.

But one problem happened.
MP5,1 rom can no longer wake up from sleep mode.
It mayn't be a serious problem, but I feel it a bit inconvenient.
Have you been able to fix this issue?

BTW, I attached the two error logs with replacing the video card.
Thanks.
 

Attachments

  • err.txt
    3.1 KB · Views: 177

ezylstra

macrumors member
Oct 7, 2017
51
19
I love this thread and I'm grateful for the information for the forgotton X Serve 3.1

Just wanted to chime in on the Xserve 3.1 Storage Situation. For Non Raid Backplane. The default config is that the drive sleds "apple drive modules" (ADM's) are custom SAS connectors. It's possible to get full SAS ADM's. Though most will be using SAS to SATA ADM's. The limit is 2.2tb on these. Not 1TB. In practical terms you can have three 2tb drives. You can also use any HDD or SSD drives so long as they are backward compatible with SATA 1.5Gb/s .


I'm currently using a Crucial MX500 1tb and Kingston A400 960GB in the SAS to SATA Drive sleds and have been for over a year. Of course nowhere near NVME speeds, but, still night and day differnce compared to HDD. Yet to try a 2tb SSD.

We also have a weird SSD ZIF connector for a 1.8" SSD on this model, similar drives have been used on the macbook air 2.1. This option was only available at purchase, perhaps something could be made to utilise it though.
If you have a non-RAID backplane -AND- you get SAS trays, by masking off Power pins 1-3 on the drive you can use SAS-4 drives. There was a signaling change on pin 1 (I think) from earlier SAS that causes the drive to spin down if you don't mask the pin off. I have 3x6TB SAS drives, RAID0, in my Xserve3,1. Working great for 2 years now.
 

Ulysses_UK

macrumors member
Jan 3, 2022
30
9
If you have a non-RAID backplane -AND- you get SAS trays, by masking off Power pins 1-3 on the drive you can use SAS-4 drives. There was a signaling change on pin 1 (I think) from earlier SAS that causes the drive to spin down if you don't mask the pin off. I have 3x6TB SAS drives, RAID0, in my Xserve3,1. Working great for 2 years now.
Ok that is great, what is the speed like, big performance difference from sata?
Thats is a interesting possibility.
I have never used a SAS drive. My caddies all have SATA connectors.
SAS Noob question: how would one identify a SAS caddy?
 

Ulysses_UK

macrumors member
Jan 3, 2022
30
9
Just upgraded my Xserve 3.1( flashed to mp 5.1) to Monterey, and upgraded the GPU to a 6600XT using an additional PSU.

Why let the mac pro owners have all the fun?

Bios flashed the 6600XT on a PC using Syncretics excellent Patcher tool. Guide here: https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/amd-radeon-rx-6800-xt-6900-xt-for-macos.2262295/page-37

Then used OCLP to setup Monterey 12.4, had to install without SIP, then re-enable.

Really happy with the results. Driving a 4k display this make a big difference.
As I cant run Big Sur anymore with this GPU. I cant directly compare if it feels snappier because of the GPU or Monterey. Probably both.

Anyway Geek Bench Scores,

OpenCL 58003, Metal 79757 with the 6600 XT 8GB
OpenCL 20043, Metal 20448 with the Rx 560 4gb.

Detailed results.

OpenCL
Metal 79757
 

stcm

macrumors member
Aug 30, 2020
48
34
Japan
I'm not using the backplane as sleep fails in highsierra and later versions. Instead, I made a usb storage tray using an ADM dummy tray. It is very easy to use&useful.
 

osxster

macrumors member
Mar 7, 2012
58
53
Hello,

For people who have upgraded the MXM video card, what heat sync did you use that doesn’t interfere with the slot above? Has anyone tried a non flashes video card that was supported by OSX using OCLP? I do get a boot screen with a Radeon RX590 due to OCLP, was curious if that works for non Apple flashed MXM video cards which are compatible with OSX.
 

Ludacrisvp

macrumors 6502a
May 14, 2008
797
363
Hello,

For people who have upgraded the MXM video card, what heat sync did you use that doesn’t interfere with the slot above? Has anyone tried a non flashes video card that was supported by OSX using OCLP? I do get a boot screen with a Radeon RX590 due to OCLP, was curious if that works for non Apple flashed MXM video cards which are compatible with OSX.
I'm using the nVidia Quadro Q1000 MXM heatsink ... cheap on eBay and way better thermals vs attempting to use the GT 120 heatsink (which admittedly did work ok). Likely the chance of interference will change depending on the card you choose to install above it. I didn't have any clearance issues with my 4 slot mSATA SSD controller installed above the GPU. ( https://www.addonics.com/product/intro/47 )

I did not buy from this seller, but here's an example, and other nvidia MXM cards seem to use this heatsink as well, be mindful to location as shipping time is high.

I can use OpenCore to get a boot screen from it both flashed and non-flashed, when flashed I do believe you have to hold alt/option if you want to see anything prior to the OS loading if you aren't using OpenCore.

I've also flashed the Mac Pro 5,1 upgrade rom, and installed a westmere CPU (L5640).
 

osxster

macrumors member
Mar 7, 2012
58
53
I'm using the nVidia Quadro Q1000 MXM heatsink ... cheap on eBay and way better thermals vs attempting to use the GT 120 heatsink (which admittedly did work ok). Likely the chance of interference will change depending on the card you choose to install above it. I didn't have any clearance issues with my 4 slot mSATA SSD controller installed above the GPU. ( https://www.addonics.com/product/intro/47 )

I did not buy from this seller, but here's an example, and other nvidia MXM cards seem to use this heatsink as well, be mindful to location as shipping time is high.

I can use OpenCore to get a boot screen from it both flashed and non-flashed, when flashed I do believe you have to hold alt/option if you want to see anything prior to the OS loading if you aren't using OpenCore.

I've also flashed the Mac Pro 5,1 upgrade rom, and installed a westmere CPU (L5640).

I just installed
I'm using the nVidia Quadro Q1000 MXM heatsink ... cheap on eBay and way better thermals vs attempting to use the GT 120 heatsink (which admittedly did work ok). Likely the chance of interference will change depending on the card you choose to install above it. I didn't have any clearance issues with my 4 slot mSATA SSD controller installed above the GPU. ( https://www.addonics.com/product/intro/47 )

I did not buy from this seller, but here's an example, and other nvidia MXM cards seem to use this heatsink as well, be mindful to location as shipping time is high.

I can use OpenCore to get a boot screen from it both flashed and non-flashed, when flashed I do believe you have to hold alt/option if you want to see anything prior to the OS loading if you aren't using OpenCore.

I've also flashed the Mac Pro 5,1 upgrade rom, and installed a westmere CPU (L5640).
I'm using the nVidia Quadro Q1000 MXM heatsink ... cheap on eBay and way better thermals vs attempting to use the GT 120 heatsink (which admittedly did work ok). Likely the chance of interference will change depending on the card you choose to install above it. I didn't have any clearance issues with my 4 slot mSATA SSD controller installed above the GPU. ( https://www.addonics.com/product/intro/47 )

I did not buy from this seller, but here's an example, and other nvidia MXM cards seem to use this heatsink as well, be mindful to location as shipping time is high.

I can use OpenCore to get a boot screen from it both flashed and non-flashed, when flashed I do believe you have to hold alt/option if you want to see anything prior to the OS loading if you aren't using OpenCore.

I've also flashed the Mac Pro 5,1 upgrade rom, and installed a westmere CPU (L5640).

I just purchased an NVidia Quadro K1100M for it from the bay, it was from a Dell. It came with a long heat sync on a tube that I just hung out the back of the server for now. I have no boot screen (expected), but it does boot up into OSX and I eventually get video. I notice the Xserve doesn't like something about it. My Lock Light is now amber, and when I power on the Xserve, all of the CPU meter lights blink two times, you get a pause, then they blink 3 times. The server than boots up and seems to work fine. I guess I can leave it this way, kind of curious why the Xserve doesn't completely like it though. Not sure if it can be fixed without refreshing the video card.
 
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.