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2 23" ACDs on Mac Pro only one firewire 400 connection on the back

K

kalex

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Oct 1, 2007
1,341
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I just picked up a second 23" ACD for my Mac Pro and ran into a small problem.

there is only one firewire 400 connection on the back and its already connected to my first ACD. for those of you who have 2 ACDs how to do connect both firewire cables to the Mac Pro?

thanks


Alex
 
They probably don't connect the second one. Do you need the firewire ports active on both displays? Because the Firewire cable only needs to be plugged in to use the Firewire port on the back of the display.

If you do need/want it, you can get FW800->FW400 adapters that will let you plug the display into the Firewire 800 port.
 
kalex said:
I just picked up a second 23" ACD for my Mac Pro and ran into a small problem.

there is only one firewire 400 connection on the back and its already connected to my first ACD. for those of you who have 2 ACDs how to do connect both firewire cables to the Mac Pro?

thanks


Alex
Click to expand...

Nope!, i don't use either of the FW ports for my 2 ACD's. This is because I rather use the ports on the MP for my external FW drives.

Works for me, hope it helps.

JM
 
You could plug it into the one on the other Cinema Display if cable length allows for it. I doubt you'll really ever be using 4 FW 400 devices at any one time, but I bet a few people need to; regardless, you don't need to plug in the firewire.
 
If you have the need to plug in the 2nd monitors FW into the macpro, you will have to buy an internal (PCI or PCI-x, not sure) firewire card. I did that with my PMG5.
 
The USB, FireWire, DVI, and power cables all run through one cable and branch off at the end. If you go by Apple's diagrams, they don't branch soon enough for the DVI to be plugged into the back and the FireWire to be plugged into the front at the same time.

I don't know how accurate the diagrams are, but that's what I'm thinking.
 
Tallest Skil said:
The USB, FireWire, DVI, and power cables all run through one cable and branch off at the end. If you go by Apple's diagrams, they don't branch soon enough for the DVI to be plugged into the back and the FireWire to be plugged into the front at the same time.

I don't know how accurate the diagrams are, but that's what I'm thinking.
Click to expand...

Good point i have never owned an apple monitor so i wouldn't know. You could always get an extension.
 
Thanks everybody for answers. I guess its true that i won't use 4 devices at a time. so if it comes to it, i can just swap something out.

One more question, is there a slowdown between using a FW400 connection on the Mac Pro vs. using one that is going to the ACD?


thanks

Alex
 
kalex said:
Thanks everybody for answers. I guess its true that i won't use 4 devices at a time. so if it comes to it, i can just swap something out.

One more question, is there a slowdown between using a FW400 connection on the Mac Pro vs. using one that is going to the ACD?
Click to expand...

No. No slowdown. And just to reiterate what was said above, you can get a simple adapter to plug the 2nd monitor's FW400 cable into the FW800 port on the back of your Mac Pro (though you'd then lose your FW800 port) if you really need 4 FireWire ports up front on your displays.
 
kalex said:
One more question, is there a slowdown between using a FW400 connection on the Mac Pro vs. using one that is going to the ACD?


thanks

Alex
Click to expand...
Well if you max out the connection then yes. But if you only have one thing connected to the monitor then it will be full speed. If you have lets say 4 hard drives then yes you won't get the full speed as you could max out the firewire 400.
 
thanks for letting me know. i don't have that many devices right now so i'm good and if need be i can always piggy back of the devices.


alex
 
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