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Blasphemy Ahead: Make a MacPro a PC?

B

Boomba05

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jan 18, 2008
9
0
Let's start off by saying that I love Macs, I have nothing but Macs in my house (lets not count my wife's laptop :rolleyes:). I swore off Windows years ago.

Starcraft 2 came out. My MacPro struggles, to say the least. I looked into upgrading video cards, but my options are slim and expensive compared to the PC side of the house. So my question is:

Can I install Windows with Bootcamp, swap out the video card for a non-compatible one, and have a PC?

I've considered just building a separate PC, but I've already invested money for extra hard drives, memory, etc into the MacPro that I'd like to continue to use. (not to mention the price of the Mac to begin with.)

Any other suggestions?
 
Boomba05 said:
Let's start off by saying that I love Macs, I have nothing but Macs in my house (lets not count my wife's laptop :rolleyes:). I swore off Windows years ago.

Starcraft 2 came out. My MacPro struggles, to say the least. I looked into upgrading video cards, but my options are slim and expensive compared to the PC side of the house. So my question is:

Can I install Windows with Bootcamp, swap out the video card for a non-compatible one, and have a PC?

I've considered just building a separate PC, but I've already invested money for extra hard drives, memory, etc into the MacPro that I'd like to continue to use. (not to mention the price of the Mac to begin with.)

Any other suggestions?
Click to expand...


Yup. I did. Well, I kept my 8800GT in there for Mac stuff, but my HD5970 works a charm under Windows.

HOWEVER.

It will need special power cables. They're expensive. There's only two 6-pin power cables available, any more and you're **** outta luck or you got to convert optical drive molex / SATA power to 6/8pin.

Booting will just be a black screen until Windows boot starts. You'll need a Mac install for firmware upgrades etc., or when things go wrong. That means keeping a compatible graphics card, too.

Other than that, go on, have fun :)
 
Cocoia said:
It will need special power cables. They're expensive. There's only two 6-pin power cables available, any more and you're **** outta luck or you got to convert optical drive molex / SATA power to 6/8pin.
Click to expand...

Link for said cables?

Do you have Windows as the default in the boot order? I'm confused as to what you mean by the screen is black until Windows starts.

Do you swap the monitors to the 8800gt when you want to boot Mac?

Thanks!
 
grey screen is EFI bootloader and since his 5970 does not have efi firmware, it wont show the bootloader
 
Interesting thread - I have to say due to the apps and tasks I do I am more often than not in Bootcamp. Apple make great hardware but Windows 7 is (now) better (than it was in previous versions) and necessary for many things. I need both anyway as I tinker with apps in both environments.
 
Uhhh ... I think you might reconsider building a machine, only without Mac OS. Far less money, potentially better performance. Besides, disks are dirt cheap.

Or does it also need to run Mac OS as well?
 
willpower101 said:
So how do they connect hard drives if it's not via molex or sata power?
Click to expand...
There's 2x small 6 pin connectors on the logic board. The cables I linked in post #6 are the correct ones (smaller end plugs into the logic board connector, the larger end, which is a standard PSIG 6 pin, goes to the graphics card).
 
englishman said:
Interesting thread - I have to say due to the apps and tasks I do I am more often than not in Bootcamp. Apple make great hardware but Windows is better and necessary for many things.
Click to expand...

Ewww, lol. I have to disagree there. I do love the apple designs, but they use pc hardware. And OS X still tops win 7 (which by no means is bad- just not quite as intuitive or user friendly for certain things)

But as for OP, i'd just add a better graphics card, and keep the Mac one for whatever you want to do on that side of your machine
 
I wanted to play SC2 on my Mac Pro as well, had a x1900xt but didn't quite cut it. Found a Radeon 4870 on craigslist for $100, flashed it (found the exact rom for the card I had), and it works in both Mac/Windows, and I get 60 fps in SC2 (in Windows, only 30 fps in the Mac version sadly with identical settings). I bought a second power cable off ebay for $12.
 
Boomba05 said:
Let's start off by saying that I love Macs, I have nothing but Macs in my house (lets not count my wife's laptop :rolleyes:). I swore off Windows years ago.

Starcraft 2 came out. My MacPro struggles, to say the least. I looked into upgrading video cards, but my options are slim and expensive compared to the PC side of the house. So my question is:

Can I install Windows with Bootcamp, swap out the video card for a non-compatible one, and have a PC?

I've considered just building a separate PC, but I've already invested money for extra hard drives, memory, etc into the MacPro that I'd like to continue to use. (not to mention the price of the Mac to begin with.)

Any other suggestions?
Click to expand...

Yes, though you might want a GT 120 for Mac use (doesn't use any power cables) and you would need power adaptors as mention earlier
 
alust2013 said:
Ewww, lol. I have to disagree there. I do love the apple designs, but they use pc hardware. And OS X still tops win 7 (which by no means is bad- just not quite as intuitive or user friendly for certain things)
Click to expand...

I might have mislead when I said Windows 7 is better - I meant that this latest version is better than Vista etc - I didn't mean better than OSX. The Apple HW I find more cost effective in the long run for me as hardware goes and I'm happy to pay for style/convenience (like a car). I need both sw environments anyway so one box is great for me.
 
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