02-18-2008, 03:31 PM

Does anyone know if the Mac Pro will boot with only one CPU installed? And will it display anything with an unmodified, unflashed PC graphics card installed? I wouldn't expect it to work in OSX, but would it boot from say, a Linux CD or Memtest and display the appropriate screens for that? I'm thinking it won't, but I'm hoping it will... it would make my life considerably easier right now.

02-20-2008, 12:15 PM

Nobody huh?

I just ordered a 7300GT, 2 2GB FBDIMMs and a single 2.33GHz Cloverdale (quad core) for this thing. We'll see how it goes... hopefully it just works, because the machine came with no CPU, GPU, or RAM, and I have no spares that'll work in this thing to debug it if it's not happy with something. x.x

02-20-2008, 01:19 PM

You bought a barebones Mac Pro?
I don't know about booting other OS'. I would guess BootCamp wouldn't be needed if you can normally boot to an XP disc. Since BootCamp is a required piece of software, you might have trouble.
The processor should work fine. The RAM will be ok if there is a heat spreader. The video card would work with Windows but your guess is as good as mine if it works with anything else.
How do you know the rest works btw?

02-20-2008, 02:11 PM

I have no clue, to be honest, if the board, power supply, and optical drive work. All I'm going on is that the previous owner had proof that it worked before he pulled the CPUs, graphics board and RAM for another system. Fortunately it was cheap (<$300), so it's not that big of a deal to me if it doesn't work. I'll just use the CPU and RAM in one of the intel skulltrail boards that's coming out sometime in the next few months.

02-20-2008, 02:18 PM

Yea, could probably sell that cast for $150+ easily. The logic board would sell for a lot too so that's a good find, even if it doesn't work out as planned.

02-20-2008, 02:40 PM

Well, the case isn't worth anything as it doesn't really have one. But the board would be worth at least $100 or $150, I'm sure.

02-20-2008, 03:04 PM

the mac pro cases pull quite the premium actually for what they are.

02-20-2008, 03:11 PM

Oh I should mention... the 7300GT I bought is an Apple card; I found a...stomachable.... deal on one on Ebay ($70-still $40 too much for a piece of [censored], but acceptable). I'm hoping everything works so I can pick up another 2.33, another 4-8 gigs of RAM ('s so cheap right now I might as well), 2 or 3 more 750s and an 8800.

02-20-2008, 05:11 PM

Replacement cases are like $250 or something.
Yea, I lucked out and picked up a pair of Mac 7300 GT's on eBay for $70. What a steal. I gotta wait till tomorrow to drop them in. They're nice cards despite what people say.

02-20-2008, 05:14 PM

Oh they're fine cards. They're just too slow for me. The 4 year old 6800GT in my current PC desktop is faster.

02-20-2008, 05:18 PM

hehe, my last computer with a graphics card had a geforce 4 440 or 420. It was like $20 at the time. Slower than the 6800 GT? Jeez!
Well, good luck. Let us know how it goes!

02-20-2008, 06:03 PM

Yep; by a very significant margin, too:
http://www.gpureview.com/show_cards....=431&card2=202

I'll post back once the parts all show up... the CPU and the RAM and the drive will be here tomorrow. Dunno about the graphics card. I might go ahead and throw either my untested ES PCI-E 6600 in it, or my dad's x550, and see if it'll boot.

02-22-2008, 03:11 PM

Got everything last night, works fine. Haven't tried a PC graphics card. Not gonna bother, don't wanna screw around with it too much.