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nanofrog

macrumors G4
May 6, 2008
11,719
3
Hey I was reading your posts on some other guys thread regarding the same power issue and I was a little confused with what you said. You told the guy to use 2 ati cables and a 6 to 8 pin adapter for the other 6 pin cable. That is three cables but you did not state the location of third power source. I understand the two coming from the logicboard but where does the third cable's power source come from?
IIRC, the card had a 6 pin and an 8 pin socket. So one of the ATI cables needed an adapter (6 pin to 8 pin) with it.
 

BRIANinDIGITAL

macrumors newbie
Apr 4, 2009
12
0
IIRC, the card had a 6 pin and an 8 pin socket. So one of the ATI cables needed an adapter (6 pin to 8 pin) with it.

Yeah I know that, but where does the other end of that cable go to? The optical drive or a y splitter? Nevermind it goes to the optical drive.

Do you need an adapter to attach it to the 4 pin molex or does it plug straight in?
 

nanofrog

macrumors G4
May 6, 2008
11,719
3
Yeah I know that, but where does the other end of that cable go to? The optical drive or a y splitter? Nevermind it goes to the optical drive.

Do you need an adapter to attach it to the 4 pin molex or does it plug straight in?
The cable from ATI plugs into the logic board, then has a 6 pin end meant for the graphics card. If it's an 8 pin, an adapter cable is available.

For the 4 pin Molex to 6 pin PCIe, the Molex end plugs into the connector for the optical bay.

On the '09 models it would be different, as the optical bay(s) now contain SATA burners.

Perhaps this will clear things up a little. ;)
 

BRIANinDIGITAL

macrumors newbie
Apr 4, 2009
12
0
The cable from ATI plugs into the logic board, then has a 6 pin end meant for the graphics card. If it's an 8 pin, an adapter cable is available.

For the 4 pin Molex to 6 pin PCIe, the Molex end plugs into the connector for the optical bay.

On the '09 models it would be different, as the optical bay(s) now contain SATA burners.

Perhaps this will clear things up a little. ;)

Thanks Nano for your help.;)
 

BRIANinDIGITAL

macrumors newbie
Apr 4, 2009
12
0
The cable from ATI plugs into the logic board, then has a 6 pin end meant for the graphics card. If it's an 8 pin, an adapter cable is available.

For the 4 pin Molex to 6 pin PCIe, the Molex end plugs into the connector for the optical bay.

On the '09 models it would be different, as the optical bay(s) now contain SATA burners.

Perhaps this will clear things up a little. ;)

Hey nano for the optical bay connection do you need to split the 4 pin molex connection in order attach both end connectors of the 6 pin power cable or do you only need to plug one of the 6 pin ends? Right now I have unplugged both optical drives to get two available 4 pin molex connections.
 

BRIANinDIGITAL

macrumors newbie
Apr 4, 2009
12
0
Hey nano for the optical bay connection do you need to split the 4 pin molex connection in order attach both end connectors of the 6 pin power cable or do you only need to plug one of the 6 pin ends? Right now I have unplugged both optical drives to get two available 4 pin molex connections.

Nevermind. I tried it with just one connection.
 

10THzMac

macrumors 6502
Dec 17, 2007
376
0
Nevermind. I tried it with just one connection.

And did it work - I finally yanked out the optical drive cage and just found one molex as you note - is it in fact enough just to connect this? Does the card (which one) run OK without strange things happening.

Meantime I was cursing Apple for the case design - how have you routed the cable given that there is a plate and a drive bay blocking the most obvious route?

Edited - never mind - got it working with just one molex after grabbing an adaptor from PCWorld. Very pleased - thanks for this. Now have my Mac Pro case closed with the 8800 off the spare optical molex and the 285 off the two motherboard connectors. I still have no idea whether there is any way of powering a 295 internally, or if my latest power setup would still run if I had two opticals. I can only just get the cable routed though - quite why Apple needed to put a plate between the optical area and the cards area is a mystery.
 

diamond.g

macrumors G4
Mar 20, 2007
11,114
2,444
OBX
A GTX 295 is actually two GTX 285 cores (240 stream, 55 nm) running at the clock speed of GTX 260s for thermal management reasons.
Hmm, interesting. It looks like it could be the 285 with lower clock and mem speeds. At the time it made more sense for it to be a golden sample 260 with all the sp's unlocked. But the 285 core would make more sense.
 
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