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Classic Mac Pro (2008/2009 model) + Radeon 5850 questions

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Mar 15, 2013
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I've been looking at 2008 Mac Pros on eBay, they go for about £500-600, (2.66GHz quad core model), is it worth it? I was hoping I could get one and just drop in a Radeon 5850.

About Radeon 5850, I have one lying around, is it possible to use it without flashing it? (I don't think I have a PC that I can use to flash it.) The Mac Pro would be running either Mavericks or Yosemite, which I believe has native support for 5850, or would I still need to flash it to be able to use it?
 
Can be used unflashed, but can also be flashed in a MacPro.

I wouldn't invest any money in a MacPro 3,1 and £500-600 is way too much imho.
 
Fl0r!an said:
Can be used unflashed, but can also be flashed in a MacPro.

I wouldn't invest any money in a MacPro 3,1 and £500-600 is way too much imho.
Click to expand...

That's good, I assume I won't get the bootscreen if it's unflashed (looked around, this seems to the case), which is fine, I'll be only using OS X anyways, but how does it work if I need to use recovery or the system is encrypted with FileVault2? (Login screen will appear before it boots, something like that.)

3,1 Mac Pro = Core2 based CPU, 4,1 = Nehalem/1st gen i7 based CPU, got it, so 2009 and later Mac Pro is what I need then.
 
The 4,1 can actually flash to a 5,1 and use Westmere CPU (e.g. X5690), which will give the machine a real performance boost over the stock max config (especially the multi core performance).

Anyway, without boot screen. I think there is no way you can utilise the recovery partition. The work around is to keep the GPU that come with your Mac Pro (usually it's a Mac card, or at least a flashed card), and install it (or keep it inside the Mac) when you need it.

For the password typing issue, I never use filevault, however, if you don't need to use mouse, the solution is simple. Do it without the screen, as long as you can type the correct password and hit enter, the machine will boot, right?
 
As long as the 5850 isn't a odd non-reference version it should be flashable for boot screens :)
 
I plan to upgrade the CPU sometime, but the default CPU (2.66GHz) will be fine for a while.

As for the bootscreen + login with FileVault2, I suppose I could press enter, type password and press enter, on my MacBook Pro (which is also encrypted with FileVault) I usually click on my icon, type password and press enter, haven't checked if I can do enter > type > enter.

As for flashing the GPU, I'm told that I can do it when the GPU is inside the Mac Pro, that's great and it looks like it can be done under OS X, which is even better.

Fl0r!an said:
As long as the 5850 isn't a odd non-reference version it should be flashable for boot screens :)
Click to expand...

Mine is a MSi Twin Frozr version, looked around for information on this, got nothing so far.
 
go to the netkas forum, the info is there for flashing GPU.

And it can be done with the Mac Pro (no need another PC), but I think it may need Windows (not sure if it can be done in OSX, or DOS if you have no boot screen).
 
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