Wifi AC & Bluetooth Airport Card for Mac Pro 4,1 and 5,1

[ShawnF]

I saw this being sold on ebay by MacVidCards.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/261539736448?ssPageName=STRK:MESINDXX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1436.l2649

According to the product specs:

Breath new life into your model 4,1 or 5,1 Mac Pro (2008) by upgrading your Wifi and Bluetooth Airport Card. Upgrading from “n" band to the newer “ac” band wireless standard will increase your maximum data stream to 1.3 Gbps (3x faster than the stock Airport card). This also supports the Bluetooth 4.0 LE standard. Together these upgraded standards will allow users to take advantage of OSX Yosemite’s new features, Handoff and Continuity.

Purchasing an ac band wireless router will allow you to surf the web on an entirely diferrent channel than your neighbors (useful for crowded urban areas). Users with very fast internet connections will see improved performance and all users will experience vastly superior wireless file transfer speeds over their wireless network.

Sounds interesting. I emailed the company asking if they had installation instructions and they said there were working on it.

 

[flowrider]

Posts #144 and #145.

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1748061/

Lou

 

[crjackson2134]

I'll let you know in a couple of days. Mine should be here by Monday.

 

[MacVidCards]

Will have a link for our instructions in a few hours.

Our solution is unique in that there is no kludgy "USB-routed-outside-the-case" and back in.

Connecting the antennae wires isn't fun, but you only have to do it once.

When completed, Mac Pro looks like it always did, no extra wires dangling about.

100% internal, no soldering, cutting,welding or glueing.

 

[lexR]

Will have a link for our instructions in a few hours.

Our solution is unique in that there is no kludgy "USB-routed-outside-the-case" and back in.

Connecting the antennae wires isn't fun, but you only have to do it once.

When completed, Mac Pro looks like it always did, no extra wires dangling about.

100% internal, no soldering, cutting,welding or glueing.

Exactly as intended... looking forward to receiving mine, purchased this morning via ebay!

 

[crjackson2134]

Ordered mine a couple of days ago, can't wait.

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Our solution is unique in that there is no kludgy "USB-routed-outside-the-case" and back in.

This is quite important to me personally. A totally elegant/professional solution. Anything less wouldn't be worthy to me.

 

[ZombiePhysicist]

Will have a link for our instructions in a few hours.

Our solution is unique in that there is no kludgy "USB-routed-outside-the-case" and back in.

Connecting the antennae wires isn't fun, but you only have to do it once.

When completed, Mac Pro looks like it always did, no extra wires dangling about.

100% internal, no soldering, cutting,welding or glueing.

Got mine, put a quick review here:

https://forums.macrumors.com/posts/19401468/

Glad to hear there will be instructions. It works great, thanks!

 

[TomTomTuning]

Woohoo, I just ordered one!
http://www.ebay.com/itm/261543458348?ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1439.l2649

Here's a link to their instructions: http://www.macvidcards.com/wifi-and-bluetooth-card-installation-in-a-41-or-51.html

 

[crjackson2134]

Resolved

Installed mine today. It's working, however it doesn't seem to support Handoff / Continuity in Yosemite. I have it turned on in the settings, but it's not showing as supported in the System Profiler under BT section.

If anyone knows how to correct this, let me know please.

 

[ShawnF]

Installed mine today. It's working, however it doesn't seem to support Handoff / Continuity in Yosemite. I have it turned on in the settings, but it's not showing as supported in the System Profiler under BT section.

If anyone knows how to correct this, let me know please.

Oh dear. Doesn't sound good....

Hope you can find a solution and make it work.

 

[crjackson2134]

Resolved

I'm hoping I've just overlooked or misunderstood something about the setup. I've sent a message to MacVidCards, hopefully he'll see this and have a solution.

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because only DP2 had the option to see that, starting in DP3 it only shows up as you see it

ask anyone running DP4 to do same screen shot, it only says "BT Low Energy supported - yes" now

The fact that you get option in General is the proof it works. People with BT 4.0 but no WiFi AC don't get option
Thanks !!!

Got an answer, seems all is well.

 

[MacVidCards]

If you go to Yosemite section of this forum you will see that Apple only had the 3 functions supported list in USB in DP2.

You can see for yourself by first installing original DP1 and then do first update.

Everyone got so excited when they thought that all that was needed was BT 4.0 that Apple changed how this is reported.

Now the only sign is if it says "BT LE supported - yes" and then LMP version needs to be 0x6.

The final piece (that you only see if running very latest 94360 based AC WiFi) is the "General" section for System Preferences will have a "Enable Handoff" section that is missing for non compliant machines.

If you look around you will see LOTS of people with 2011 Macbook Airs crying because in DP2 they had the "3 yes" bit under Bluetooth but now they no longer have "Handoff enabled" in General because they don't have AC wireless. They can hack kexts to enable, but who wants to do that when they can avoid it?

When DP2 came out and 2011 MBA owners were all happy about "3yes" status it upset a bunch of people who had paid twice as much for a MBP that DIDN'T have BT 4 at the same time. So now we have DP3 and DP4 where those same 2011 MBA no longer have the checkbox under General.

 

[crjackson2134]

Wifi AC & Bluetooth Airport Card for Mac Pro 4,1 and 5,1

Seems to be a bit confusing for those of us that haven't really been digging into the issue. Mine seems to be working fine and I don't mind paying to play, so I'm a happy camper. Thanks again for all your help.



- Charles

 

[w33z3r]

Was just wondering what kind of speed increases are you guys seeing with 802.11ac over 802.11n?

With my trendnet WDN4800 I tend to max out at like 35Mbps over wifi


Thanks!

 

[TomTomTuning]

I ordered the card Friday evening and it arrived today all the way from California. Now thats some seriously fast shipping!

Install was relatively easy, it's a tight fit and the antenna connectors are a bit of a pain at first but once you figure them out, it should go by relatively easy.

So when I opened up the MacPro5.1 I realized my wireless card only had two antenna connections. I was a bit concerned at first but I decided to pull the card out anyway, lo and behold the 3rd cable was tucked under the card with a rubber sleeve over it.

I installed the card and used that rubber sleeve to protect the extension cable (instead of using electrical tape).
I decided to leave the BT card in place since it's not harming anything.

Click to enlarge


So far most of the new Handoff/Continuity features appear to be working. I'll have to do more testing though.
I've noticed the Bluetooth connection to my phone disconnects but I don't think that really matters.

So far I've tested:
- Hand off between iMessage, Email and Safari.
- SMS appeared in my Messages app but it appears I am unable to reply to SMS.
- While on the computer a phone call came in but I could not accept the call at the time to test.
- AirDrop works great.

 

[jameslmoser]

I installed mine, and bluetooth and wifi both work, I see "ac" listed as one of the wifi standards, but I don't have anything mentioning low power under bluetooth. I see it on my macbook pro, just not on the mac pro?

 

[TomTomTuning]

I installed mine, and bluetooth and wifi both work, I see "ac" listed as one of the wifi standards, but I don't have anything mentioning low power under bluetooth. I see it on my macbook pro, just not on the mac pro?

Are you on Yosemite? DP4 or PR1?

Check out my screenshot above, you can see where mine shows "Bluetooth Low Energy Supported: Yes" under Address. I'm on PR1.

 

[jameslmoser]

Are you on Yosemite? DP4 or PR1?

Check out my screenshot above, you can see where mine shows "Bluetooth Low Energy Supported: Yes" under Address. I'm on PR1.

I'm not on any of those on the Pro, still on Mavericks. I was under the impression that so was crjackson2134 and his posted screen shot shows it. This was something that was added to Yosemite then so I guess I shouldn't be worried?

 

[TomTomTuning]

I'm not on any of those on the Pro, still on Mavericks. I was under the impression that so was crjackson2134 and his posted screen shot shows it. This was something that was added to Yosemite then so I guess I shouldn't be worried?

It doesn't show when I boot into Mavericks, so that probably answers your concerns.

Click to enlarge:

 

[crjackson2134]

Yeah, mine either. Mavericks report tool isn't aware, nothing to do with the hardware.

 

[jameslmoser]

Yeah, mine either. Mavericks report tool isn't aware, nothing to do with the hardware.

Good to know. Thanks guys!

 

[MacVidCards]

The thing to look for in Mavericks is the "LMP Version"

If it says "0x6" you have BT 4.0

 

[jameslmoser]

The thing to look for in Mavericks is the "LMP Version"

If it says "0x6" you have BT 4.0

It does. =)

 

[PopinFRESH]

"Breath new life into your model 4,1 or 5,1 Mac Pro (2008) by upgrading your Wifi and Bluetooth Airport Card."

I'm curious if anyone can confirm that this will work on a Mac Pro (2008) which is the Mac Pro 3,1 model. As the quoted line above is not very clear about it's support.

If it does support it I will definitely be looking to order one once OS X 10.10 releases and we have verified that this will work with Handoff & Continuity. MacVids if you can post any relevant information on the support and if you have already put up an install guide for the Mac Pro 3,1 I would love to look over it.

Thanks in advance!

EDIT: I found MacVidCards tutorial for the Mac Pro 3,1 (2008)
http://www.macvidcards.com/wifi-and-bluetooth-card-installation-in-a-31.html

As well as the listing for that Airport + BT4.0 card on eBay
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Wifi-AC-Blu...153?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item35da42ee49

Incase any other Mac Pro 3,1 (2008) owners stumble across this in hopes of using Continuity!

-PopinFRESH

 

[ibarnett]

Just completed the upgrade on my 5.1
Working very well.
I have to say though, that those little antenna connectors are the most frustrating thing I have ever done!!
Well worth it though.