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retrofitting wifi/BT on Mac Pro?

J

jaguarx

macrumors regular
Original poster
Jan 5, 2003
194
0
London
About to order a Mac pro 3Ghz/4Gb , I'm a coder so another 4 cores isn't going to do much for me. I was wondering if I don't get the Wifi and bluetooth modules whether I can buy and install them later if needed?
 
jaguarx said:
I'm a coder so another 4 cores isn't going to do much for me
Click to expand...

What? XCode automatically compiles you source in parallel across all cores (you would need at least 8 source files to use 8 cores though). Why would more cores not be good?
 
Yes, you can buy the WiFi and the BT cards online (I don't think I'm allowed to say where...) But they are fairly easy to install. I picked up the BT for $22 and the WiFi for $37. Took about 20 minutes to install both.
 
I went to the Apple Store in Lynnwood, WA and had both Airport and BT installed in my Mac Pro, total cost was $74 including tax and installation. For some reason, the store personnel were insistent on installing the modules for me. I guess they have had problems with self-installations by end-users. The modules get popped onto the motherboard and there are preinstalled wires that need to be connected to those modules.

Interestingly, I bought my Mac Pro from Powermax (see above posting) but they claimed not to have the Airport or Bluetooth modules yet from Apple.
 
BT & Airport install

I just installed these in my Mac Pro. They are not hard to install, but you will need a very tiny screwdriver that is magnetic. If not, good luck. The cables have little labels that come off or might have already come off. Cable #1 goes to BT. Cable #2 goes to the top of the Airport and the last cable #3 goes to the bottom of the airport.
 
I could not connect Cable 1 to the BT, it is only about 1 inch long, the BT cable reaches down to the BT place. For the Airport card I have cables 2 & 3 in use.

So I have 4 cables in all. What should the 4th cable be for? Its right under drive 1.
 
I thought it comes with BT. When I looked into ordering mine there was no BT option, just Airport. PCIe card would be easy too, right?
 
jaguarx said:
I code ruby and php =D
Click to expand...

Same here. Well not ruby but php/zend framework/dojo/postgresql apps. I have found 8 cores extremely useful for running virtual machines to mimic the staging and production machines locally. Virtual machines are also very useful for browser testing with various OSes. You may want to consider more cores.
 
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