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What is this clip/bracket in my G5 Power Mac?
- Thread starter Tony Danger
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In my experience, it's most often graphics cards. My GEForce 6800 Ultra engages the slots in my G5.
The other gfx card that comes to mind is the GEForce 4Ti. These came in a "short" and "long" version. The circuitry is the same on both, but the long one has several inches of "dead" circuit board to engage the slots. Apple actually recommended that the "short" version of this card be removed prior to moving the computer. The "long" version was made so that it could be shipped installed as a BTO option.
Here is an example of what Bunns is referring to, a Quadro FX 4500. (note the dead space)
I have the short version of this very same card in my G5 quad, and as mentioned I'm very careful when moving the G5.
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Couldn't you just score and snap off the "Dead" circuit board on the long Ti? obviously its not needed as being that long serves no purpose.
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why on earth would you need a card with that many ports on it?
1. Why the heck would I take a chance on damaging a rare and valuable card?
2. What would be the purpose of taking it off?
3. It is there for a reason-it's to provide mechanical support to a large and heavy card.
1. the the board has no traces in that section there is nothing to damage
2. most people with modded MDDs that card simply wouldnt fit.
3. you stated there is a short AND long version, so it really makes no difference
1. The chance exists, and as I said the cards are rare enough that I'm not going to hack one up. I just got another one on Friday after looking for one for nearly 6 months...you're certainly welcome to carve one up if you buy one.
2. What on earth kind of mod would keep a factory BTO card from fitting in an MDD unless you really carved the case up? Believe it or not, I actually have a few MDDs lying around and can pretty safely say that I know my way around the inside of one.
3. Did you not read where I said that the extra support was added for a reason?
That's nothing. Why on earth does that card have so many chips and stuff on it?!!
Haha that card looks silly... It's so big but the PCI connector pins are so small!
Well I don't use that type of network card but between my Apple router and the added network switch I have 10 output ports, and as of now all but 1 of them is being used.
Many reasons, hence why dual NICS are commonly fitted to workstations (e.g. the Mac Pro) or servers :
NIC teaming for faster transfer rates
Redundancy in case of a failure
Access to multiple segregated networks, e.g. storage network and a normal network
Virtualisation - can assign a physical NIC to a specific VM.
The quad NICs are commonly used in servers for virtual machine hosts and for routing between different networks. I've got a VPN server at work with one fitted.
Did you not read where I answered this question 3 times? I knew your Google skills were bad-I guess it extends to here too.
I don't get this incessant need you have to re-engineer things for no good reason. Sometimes things need to be changed to make something work, but most of the time a part is designed the way it is for a reason. I don't go around arbitrarily changing things in my computers without a good reason-doing so is a great way to permanently screw something up.
BTW, I'm pretty sure that when the card was extended for BTO Macs, all of them(retail and BTO) were extended. The "short" cards are fairly uncommon.
If you want to cut the circuit board off on one, go buy your own. As I said, I'm not going to cut up a card that I've spent 6 months looking for(after my last one died).
could you use Dual NIC for things like internet sharing? have the main net connection in one of the ports then have it share the other port to another computer or router?
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actually you didn't. you said its for support I GOT THAT THE FIRST TIME (I'm not a idiot)! what I asking is WHY it needs the extra support when they make one that doesn't HAVE that extra support?
Again, I answered that in my first post before you even asked.
The card was heavy enough that the "short" one could be damaged by moving the computer. The service manual for G4s specifically mentions this card, and says the short one should always be removed before moving the computer.
The extended card was so that Apple could install the cards in the factory and not have to worry about them being damaged in shipping.
BTW, I don't have a short Ti4600, but have a PC Quadro 4 in my parts box that is more or less the same card and in the "short" format. It's easy to see why Apple was concerned about it being damaged.
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i thought the removing card before moving the computer was about the G5 systems that this thread was about? (must have misread that statement) AFAIK except the 4Ti only the graphics card in g5 systems were long/heave enough to need that support rail.
There aren't even that many G5 cards that need it. The 6800 Ultra does, although it uses all but about the last half inch of the PCB. I think this is the only AGP G5 card that uses it.
The Quadro FX4500 and 7800GT are the other ones I'm aware of for PCI-e Macs.
didn't pretty much all cards available for the 1st Gen Mac Pro use it as well?
BTW, for anyone interested, here is a picture of a 4Ti(dead) laying on top of the computer, and one installed in it. The second picture is the installed 4Ti.
Although this isn't a G5(it's a G4) you can see how the card engages the support slots.
I have to say, too, that getting the card in this computer was a lot of fun
Although this isn't a G5(it's a G4) you can see how the card engages the support slots.
I have to say, too, that getting the card in this computer was a lot of fun
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BTW, for anyone interested, here is a picture of a 4Ti(dead) laying on top of the computer, and one installed in it. The second picture is the installed 4Ti.
Although this isn't a G5(it's a G4) you can see how the card engages the support slots.
I have to say, too, that getting the card in this computer was a lot of fun
Aww why's it dead?
Aww why's it dead?
No reason that I know of-it was working fine when I put the computer to sleep one evening, and then just didn't work the next day. The computer doesn't even recognize it. I've tried several tricks to bring it back to life-the contact have been scrubbed, and I've even tried baking it. I finally just had to concede that it was dead, although I still keep it around. The one I most recently bought was advertised as having a dead fan, and had planned on taking the fan off the the dead card to put on the good one(the fan on the good card ended up being fine).
It killed me, too, although admittedly I paid $40 for this card plus a super rare retail Mac Edition Radeon 8500 and a couple of games. The games really didn't hold much appeal for me, but the 8500 was probably worth $40 by itself.
I'm hoping that one that was delivered last Friday lasts longer than this one did. I've actually had three of these cards. The first was DOA, and the second worked for about a month. They are-bar none-the best OS 9 card you can get, however, and are no slouch under OS X(even though they lack Core Image).