Must I buy a Apple-Specific GPU or RAM?

[tysontabs]

Hello all, I am unsure if this question has been asked before but, is it possible to install any PCI-E graphics card into the slot on the mother board or, do I have to buy Apple specific GPU's

Dido for the 6400 DDR2 Ram.

I will be buying the base-line MP in late march and would like to avoid the enormous cost of Apple's hardware when I can easily walk down the street and pick-up a good graphic card or ram for a fraction of Apple's cost.


Thanks

 

[mactastic1971]

For the RAM... To dissipate the heat

 

[tysontabs]

O.K. for the ram, I've seen the OWC page and I'll look into getting that for sure but, I will not have any problems installing a GPU or other I/O card such as a USB expansion card into the slots?

Thanks for your rapid reply!

Tabs

 

[mactastic1971]

O.K. for the ram, I've seen the OWC page and I'll look into getting that for sure but, I will not have any problems installing a GPU or other I/O card such as a USB expansion card into the slots?

Thanks for your rapid reply!

Tabs

No probs... Im in between stuff at work right now.
Hmmm. Unfortunately, Im not sure about the slots. I will let someone else respond. As for the RAM, make sure you get RAM with sufficient sized heatsinks otherwise you're going to have one noisy little puppy !!!

 

[nonarKitten]

O.K. for the ram, I've seen the OWC page and I'll look into getting that for sure but, I will not have any problems installing a GPU or other I/O card such as a USB expansion card into the slots?

Thanks for your rapid reply!

Tabs

Absolutely NO a generic PC card will not work in any Mac, be it PowerPC or Intel based. Up until Intel, PowerPC could simply not execute the x86 initialization code - now that we have Intel CPU's were closer, but because Macs use EFI, they still don't work as no GPU manufacturer includes EFI extensions (that I know of anyway).

Note, however, that a generic PC card WILL work with Boot Camp, when booting into Windows. Conceivably, the Boot Camp BIOS extensions COULD be patched to include code to start GPU's up before booting into OS-X, but I don't think anyone's tried.

 

[Mercuric Oxide]

Only an Apple GPU will boot and run OSX.

Any other GPU will work, but only under Windows (except ATi crossfire and nividia SLI (might be away to go around this))

 

[TEG]

The GPU may be due to drivers.

The RAM, any compatible RAM will work.

TEG

 

[Arjy]

For ram, you need to use FB-DIMMS, so you dont need apple's, but make sure you get fully buffered or they wont work.


graphics card you need to buy from apple since those are made for the mac pro specificly, with drivers and everything.

 

[tysontabs]

Ok, I've found some memory for the MP on the OWC site and I would like to know if I can install six giga-bytes of it on the riser cards. I would install four on the one (4X1 GB chips) and two (2X1 GB chips) on the other. Is this possible?

Tabs

 

[Arjy]

Ok, I've found some memory for the MP on the OWC site and I would like to know if I can install six giga-bytes of it on the riser cards. I would install four on the one (4X1 GB chips) and two (2X1 GB chips) on the other. Is this possible?

Tabs

Don't see why not. Go for it.

 

[Umbongo]

Ok, I've found some memory for the MP on the OWC site and I would like to know if I can install six giga-bytes of it on the riser cards. I would install four on the one (4X1 GB chips) and two (2X1 GB chips) on the other. Is this possible?

Tabs

Yes it is possible, but 2x2GB is cheaper and will allow more room for expansion. 2x2GB on the top riser and 2x1GB on the bottom will work fine.