Does radeon 5870 + Mac Pro 2008 + Raid Card = Work?

Confusing subject, I know. My question is, I have a 2008 Mac Pro with the Apple Raid card installed, running 10.6 - I wanted to know, will the Radeon 5870 video card work in this computer, considering that one of my power connectors is already powering the Raid Card? I think this video card needs two power cables and I think my computer only has two (one of which is being used on the Raid Card).
Can someone with this configuration confirm whether this card works or does not?

Good question, never thought about that, but there is an FAQ on RAID card, and there is likely a Tech Note as well.
http://www.apple.com/support/macpro
I scan the daily changes to tech articles:
http://support.apple.com/kb/index?page=articles
I assume you don't want to use a y-split and pull power through one 6-pin, even though you may not be overloading or running GPU to the point where it and RAID card would be an issue.
And avoid having to use a small 450W PSU in optical bay.

Similar Messages

PANIC! - Mac Pro 2008 RAID Card Vanished!

Hi all
Right I seem to have a major issue so hoping someone can help.
This morning I was using my MP there was a click the screen went blank and then the MP tried to reboot. The white light came on but the screens did not. I turn off the unit and all connected devices at the mains, waited a few mins and tried to re boot. The screen when blue but nothing loaded. I then got my old SL disk and booted from that. It booted and looking at disk utility there are no drives. Even worse I booted RAID utility and it tells me there is no RAID card!
Now in essence I have got no further due to having to leave for work but I thought I'd ask for advice / ideas before I got back to the machine tonight.
I will obviously try reseating the unit (with and without drives) but does it sound like the card is knackered!
If this turns out to be the case is there a way I will be able to (some how) access data off the three drives that were in a RAID 5 config. or is the data lost?
I do have a spare new battery for the card so would it be worth trying this as well?
Any pointers you could give would be appreciated.
Actually while were on the subject. If the card is dead then what card if any would you recommend to replace it with. (Not that I can currently afford to do this!). A actual Apple 2008 RAID card will be like Rocking Horse S**t to get hold of. It would need to be bootable and preferably do internal and external (but just internal would be fine)
Thanks
Steve

Ok this has got a bit strange
Once the init task had ran everything went green. So I then ran the Verify RAID set. again after a few days to verifying everything when green again. At this point the machine has not been powered down since 02/05/2012 @ 16.35
Sunday, 6 May 2012 02:06:34 British Summer Time
Background task completed: Task=RedundancyScrub,Scope=DRVGRP,Group=RS1
informational
Thursday, 3 May 2012 18:57:43 British Summer Time
Background task started: Task=RedundancyScrub,Scope=DRVGRP,Group=RS1
informational
Thursday, 3 May 2012 18:57:44 British Summer Time
Redundancy verification started on RAID set “RS1”
informational
Thursday, 3 May 2012 05:13:54 British Summer Time
Background task completed: Task=Init,Scope=DRVGRP,Group=RS1
informational
Wednesday, 2 May 2012 16:35:29 British Summer Time
Background task started: Task=Init,Scope=DRVGRP,Group=RS1
informational
Wednesday, 2 May 2012 07:18:37 British Summer Time
Controller detected disorderly shutdown without battery backup
critical
So I shut the machine down. All ok.
Now I have booted the mac up and I get the following:
Sunday, 6 May 2012 13:43:33 British Summer Time
Background task started: Task=Init,Scope=DRVGRP,Group=RS1
informational
Thursday, 3 May 2012 16:15:12 British Summer Time
Controller detected disorderly shutdown without battery backup
critical
Sunday, 6 May 2012 02:06:34 British Summer Time
Background task completed: Task=RedundancyScrub,Scope=DRVGRP,Group=RS1
informational
Thursday, 3 May 2012 18:57:43 British Summer Time
Background task started: Task=RedundancyScrub,Scope=DRVGRP,Group=RS1
informational
Thursday, 3 May 2012 18:57:44 British Summer Time
Redundancy verification started on RAID set “RS1”
informational
Thursday, 3 May 2012 05:13:54 British Summer Time
Background task completed: Task=Init,Scope=DRVGRP,Group=RS1
informational
Wednesday, 2 May 2012 16:35:29 British Summer Time
Background task started: Task=Init,Scope=DRVGRP,Group=RS1
informational
Wednesday, 2 May 2012 07:18:37 British Summer Time
Controller detected disorderly shutdown without battery backup
critical
As you can see it has added a 3 May - Critical after the 6th when everything was ok and it started a init run again!
The battery states it's charge
Any suggestions?
Do you think it will make a difference if I get a new battery for the RAID card? as I suppose it is 4 years old!
Cheers Steve

Mac PRo with raid card shipped with drive not suitable for raid?

Hi all,
I ordered a Mac Pro with raid card and a 1TB hard drive. The drive which came in the computer was WDC WD1001FALS which is not a hard drive rated for raid usage. On Western Digital's site they suggest using WD1002FBYS.
Is the model WD1001FALS the correct drive which Apple ships although one ordered the raid card?

The WD 640GB Blue, and WD 1TB Black are the only drive options for the mac pro; that's what you choose.
The RE3 (or FBYS) is not an option sold through apple. Buying the raid card, is not going to change the drive.
On whether to use the RE3 over the Blacks, it depends on how you will be using it. From what I've heard, the Blacks are enterprise drives themselves; basically with just a less robust firmware (no TLER). If you will have the drives on 24/7 in a raid 5, then yes, RE3 will probably be better. If not, I think the black will suffice; note the blacks are GREAT drives by themselves anyway.
The apple raid card can connect to both SATA and SAS drives internally, however most times people buying the raid card want to use it for SAS drives. There are a lot more cheaper and possibly a lot more stable options then apple's raid card if you are looking to use SATA drives.
Check amug:
http://www.amug.org/
A common problem with the apple raid card is the battery:
http://store.apple.com/us/product/MA849Z/B?mco=NDc1ODczNw
Lastly about enterprise drives, truthfully I don't see the difference really. I have enterprise drives in a 8-drive raid5 config running 24/7 as a server. 2 drives died on me after about 4 months. To top it off, they died within 10 min of each other, crushing the raid to pieces. Granted they were Seagate ES.2's, it's understandable
The boot drive of the server is a stock desktop WD drive and running 24/7. It's been running for almost 4 years straight.

Mac Pro included RAID Card?

Does the latest Mac Pro included hardware RAID card or software RAID if multi drive installed? Or it doesn't have RAID function?
Thank you

http://macperformanceguide.com/HardwareRAID-Main.html
http://macperformanceguide.com/Backup-mirror-vs-separate.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RAID
http://www.acnc.com/raid
Dual backups and just use Apple Disk Utility or SoftRAID for stripe arrays.
Otherwise RAID6 and then you get into $money$ and fine when you have 8TB or more.
But with 2x4TB drives in an array and cloned and backed up (hourly, daily, weekly backup sets) you can be fine.
Most people never seem to consider 3-drive mirror, then you maintain two if onne fails BUT with any array you still need backups and spares and often need to buy 'extra' drives to insure you use the same models.
Besides which it is something that is hard to just jump into w/o some background and experience and then as you grow into how and what works.
And no, RAID5 is not concatenated and can only be done with hardware RAID controllers (and not suited for today's TB drives the way it once was).
http://www.macgurus.com is where I go immersed into storage arrays 12-ish yrs ago on personal level.

Mac Pro 2009 RAID Card Prevents Sleep

Not a problem ... just an observation. After adding the Mac Pro Raid Card my 2009 Mac Pro won't sleep. Actually, it 'dozes' ... all programs stop and the displays go dark, but the computer fans keep slowly turning as the computer maintains power to the RAID card to keep the battery charged. Waking from 'doze' is faster than from sleep and energy consumption is minimal, but not zero ... maintaining the RAID card write cache and turning the fans takes some energy, but it seems that the hard drives are parked.
So, unless I plan to be on vacation, in which case I will do a shutdown, which will force the RAID Card battery to discharge, my computer is either awake or 'dozing'. Does anyone see a problem with that?

I think it was designed that way...
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1346
on the FAQ, the last question addresses the sleep mode. The problem with RAID 5 is that you have the gap problem and that is why the battery (should/is) there. If you lose any of the info on the cache, then you will have to re-build the strips....
(that is why I wanted ZFS as that problem is gone.. with RAIDZ)
It means more power consumption...

Mac Pro (2009) RAID Card - Can't create RAID Set

Hi Everyone,
I have a Mac Pro 4,1 (Model 2009) running Mavericks 10.9.2. with the Apple RAID Card installed. I got 4 new SAS Drives (Dell Toshiba MK2001TRKB) which I'm trying to configure into a single RAID5 set.
OS X detects the individual drives and with Disk Utility I can partition and/or format the individual drives. However when I try to create a RAID5 set using RAID Utility, the card won't create the RAID set. Ik keeps on showing the white-blue stripped progress bar. Tried creating a RAID0 or RAID1 with just 2 drives, but the card just doesn't create a RAID set.
Anyone got a clue why this isn't working?
Thanks,
Sander

Manualy erased all 4 the drives and it worked instantly. System is now initializing the volume :-)
Still a bit strange. All 4 the drivers where brand new. I did some further testing and if I select the partion tab and just create a new partition on each drive, it still doesn't work. I have to select the erase option in Disk Utility and just do a simple erase on each drive in order to be able to create the RAIDset.
Anyway, Thanks for the advise; performance even during initializing is pretty fast. I'm curious to see what kind of performance I get aftet the initialization is completed.

Has anyone experience Mac Pro Server RAID card failure?

RAID card of our company's Mac Pro server broke twice in less than 12 months, resulting in our server being out of office for more than 11 weeks for repair. I really would like to know if we are just unlucky or if this kind of hardware failure happened also to other people?
Thanks for your help.

Hi
I know it's no consolation to you but judging from my experience I think you've been unlucky.
I've installed Apple RAID Cards in numerous XServes and MacPros at many sites and apart from the rare battery failure they've all gone OK and are still working as intended AFAIK.
HTH?
Tony

HD and Mac Pro - Optimal RAID configuration?

I'm fairly new to RAID, but have done a fair amount of reading over the past few weeks. I currently only have 1 external drive setup as mirrored RAID (1.5TB).
I do a lot of HD video work (as well as a lot of PShop/Illustrator/AE) and just ordered a new Mac Pro (to arrive in a few weeks). I'm curious to know what you may suggest configuring my system like with the following components. I don't want to have to buy anything else right now, nor do I think that I'll have to.
I've got:
1. New Mac Pro with RAID card and 4 identical SAS 300GB internal drives (no, didn't order those all from Apple)
2. An external 1.5 TB WD drive
3. Two external 500GB WD drives
Of course, I want the best of both worlds of speed and redundancy. I had been considering RAID 5, but the more I thought about it, I thought maybe RAID 0 was the way on some of the drives, then create another array making use of the externals and/or Time Machine to take care of the redundancy. I have this super machine coming, and just want to be sure I'm making most efficient use of it all. Any opinions on how you'd set this up, very welcomed.
I typically work on short projects, I'm not a filmmaker. Client work is usually between 2-15 minutes per clip, and once its done, it can be archived. I've got a ton of old data and large photo library and all the space needs you may imagine with HD video and photography, but I'll certainly have room to spare and play with. How would you work with these 7 drives?

There is a significant difference between 'running incompatible' software and using a version that has some vestigial system checks. The software is quite capable of running as it should. The issue I experienced has nothing to do with the factors that make it not supported (which is significantly different than incompatible). While your statement is true, its not properly applied. Fact is, FCP HD is NOT incompatible with the Mac Pro.
The quick fix of ignoring the scratch location did the job. Taking that option vs spending money has nothing to do with wisdom, rather discernment. It runs just fine now, cost me nothing to get it running, and isn't something I have a huge need for anyway. So this somewhat pretentious attitude isn't needed.

Mac Pro 2008 and ATI Radeon HD 5770

According to many other threads in this forum the ATI Radeon HD 5770 graphics card is said to work fine with the Mac Pro 2008 (model no. 3,1) though the Apple Store lists the Mac Pro (Mid 2010) under system requirements. Well, before I’m going to upgrade my Mac against Apple’s will, I’m just curious to know if anyone has found out why Apple restricts the compatibility to Macs from mid 2010 on. Is there an issue that affects only a small number of machines? Or is there a software incompatibility popping up under rare circumstances? What is the reason for this? Why does Apple not grant downward compatibility?

Apple does marketing and doesn't do a bang-up job on writiing technical requirements on hardware upgrades and testing. It doesn't make sense, there is no reason for not just "works with 10.6.5 or later on ALL Mac Pro models."
something nice and clear and so avoids all the questions and discussion.
Radeon HD 5870 versus 5770
2008 has PCIe 2.0 so no lose of bandwidth.
And I guess you ignored the numerous comment section on the product page? where people said it works.
ATI Radeon HD 5770 MC742ZM A

Can i install a usb 3.0 pci express card in a mac pro 2008

Can I install a PCI express USB 3.0 card in my Mac Pro 2008? Will it support the higher speed?

No.

2009 Mac Pro upgrading graphics card to GTX 680 mac. What is the best version of AE and PP and OSX to have?

Hello,
I have a 2009 Mac Pro 4.1
Mac OSX version 10.6.8
Processor - 2 x 2.26 GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon
Memory - 24GB
Graphics Card - ATI Radeon HD 4870
I use After Effects and Premiere Pro daily for my work. I am not too technically minded. I want to update and improve my machine as much as possible and am thinking of buying an SSD drive to replace my current start up disk. I also am thinking about getting the GTX 680 mac version graphics card. I have read many online discussions regarding OpenCL and CUDA, many discussions with mixed feelings about the improvements the 680 gives an older Mac Pro - some people say it is amazing others say the improvements seem minimal or worse.
What I want to know is if I purchase the SSD and 680 graphics card what is the optimal OSX - 10.8 or 10.9? and what is the optimal versions of AE and PP to have - CS6 or CC? Also what settings and what additional drivers would I need to consider?
I contacted an independent authorised mac reseller and he thought it was a bad idea to put a new graphics card and get the latest OSX in an old machine and tried to sell me a used 2010 Mac Pro, but I think it would be more cost effective to get the SSD and 680 instead, it's just I read the occasional horror story on a forum and I worry about making the wrong choice, I rely on my Mac Pro to make a living!
Thanks in advance

Thank you for the valuable information Eric, I think I will go with the 680 but I understand that it wont be fully utilised on my old Mac Pro.
Perhaps I will replace my startup/applications hard drive with a 480GB SSD. My other 3 bays are full with 3 x 2TB Hard drives that have media on them so I have no spare room for a dedicated SSD drive for AE cache. But could I put a 250GB SSD into one of the PCI-E slots using something like - SSD SuperSpeed Upgrade Kit for Apple Mac Pro 2008 2009 2010 2012 | eBay
Would this be my best solution? Is it a relatively simple installation, does anyone have any experience of a similar setup?
cc_merchant, thank you for the reply, I am aware you have to pay monthly payments for CC, that is no problem.

3 Tb hard drive in Mac Pro 2008?

Hello
I've bought a 3Tb Western Digital Caviar Green Hard Drive, put it in a Welland enclosure, formatted it with Windows 7 into three partitions (all exFAT), two just over 1 Tb and the third only 32 Gb. I was hoping that my Mac Pro 2008 would be able to see it, but no. Any hints?
Cheers
Morrie K

anything written about "max drive capacity" was pure nonsense and marketing based on just what was available at the time and meaningless. there are no such limits and it would fly in the face of SATA and GUID
Apple implemented GPT back in 10.4.6 (earlier but very hard to know and test too)
You can throw some 4TB drives in there.
The only product that does not: Apple Pro RAID card! it is limited to 2.2TB drives.

Mac Pro 2008 Apple Cinema Displays are black and there are start up issues

I have a Mac Pro 2008 Dual quad 2.8 GHz. I have two Apple Cinema Displays (graphics are the standard ATI Radeon HD 2600 – 2 dual link DVI. I have 4 2-GB RAM sticks (8 GB total).
Neither of my displays are showing anything. Their power lights are on but they are completely black throughout the start up process. In addition when I try to boot up with both graphics cards installed, I get nothing – no beeps no chimes. If just one card is installed (either card in either slot) the computer beeps, chimes and makes the sounds of booting up, but not a flicker on the displays. RAM does not seem to be the issue as I have tried booting with several configurations of RAM sticks with no negative or positive effects. I tried booting up with Hard Drives 1 & 2 removed with no effect. I have tried several different start up moods and have reset PRAM.
My guess is that there is something wrong with the motherboard. Or is it possible that both graphics cards are bad?

The "least intensive" thing you can do is hold down Alt/Option at Startup. Thsi invokes the all-in-ROM Startup Manager, which will light up the screen gray or blue, then attempt to draw an Icon for each potentially-bootable Volume attached (if any). It works as if in slow motion, so you must be patient. If no activity after about two minutes you may count that as a failure.
The next most intensive is to attempt to boot from an incorruptible source of software, such as an Installer/Utilities DVD. This again uses the "one-size-fits-all" display driver, and attempts to load software off the DVD. The dark colored Apple is loaded off a drive -- it is not present inside your Mac.
The next most intensive step is to attempt to boot into Safe Mode. This also uses the "one-size-fits-all" display Driver, and does a disk check as it starts up, adding five minutes to the startup time. It then drwas a login screen and deamds your username and password, even if you normally auto-login.

Adding USB 2.0 ports to a Mac Pro 2008

Hi,
I love my Mac Pro 2008! Great machine, awesome performance, but I need more ports Who needs only three USB ports in the back, that's a joke!
Anyways, I just bought 2 StarTech 6-port USB 2.0 PCI cards from an online vendor, but quickly found out that it didn't fit my Mac. The description of the card even says it is compatible with Mac OS X. I suspect that Apple have changed the PCI slots for something else in the Mac Pro 2008. What are they and can we buy USB card that fit those slots? If so where? I am desperate for more ports.

You may have stumbled upon or checked some of the support pages?
http://www.apple.com/support/macpro/
- which has a link to an article titled "about your PCI Express slots"
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=304122
Specs 2008: http://support.apple.com/kb/SP11:
PCI Express expansion7
Three open full-length PCI Express expansion slots
One PCI Express 2.0 x16 slot
Two PCI Express x4 slots
And of course support for up to four PCI Express video cards; Fibre Channel; Mac Pro RAID.
You could install a powered USB hub, or FW/USB2, as long as you have free slots for more. I have FW800, a 1x Sonnet Tempo (couple storage drives), and a 4x Tempo (multiple RAID sets; Port Multiplier card and multi-drive enclosures and 4 channels).

My Mac pro 2008, not running after the Apple logo, i rebooting and i rebooting

My Mac Pro 2008 no boot afther the Logo Apple, reboot, reboot and reboot only, and in XP, the graphic is pertubed with bad graphics ... the mémory it's good, and i thinks my card graphic is out. SRY for my english, it's not my language. Help my please, my apple care is finished 10/2011, and i will repared itself. Many thanks. Alain Muno

Not saying this IS your problem, but … I just went through avery similar problem with Mac Pro3,1. Here is my story.
On boot of any Mac OP system drive, internal or externalHDD, (Lion or Snow Leopard), original Mac Pro install CD, Snow Leopard CD,nothing. (Would only go to gray screen,apple logo, spinning gear that would stop spinning after about a minute.) But, it would boot on XP drive. However, in XP, on Windows black startupscreen, had alternating columns of two different patters of blue dots and XPgraphics were not as they should be (larger icons on desk top, slow response,different size of desk top (maybe 600x400 when it should have been1024x768). Supplied hardware test showedno failures. Took it to shop. Their better diagnostics showed nofailures. All peripherals (my drives, myCDs, etc, disconnected. (NOTE: they didnot try a new video card since they did not have one.) Still would not start even using their drives(external or internal). Shop tried a newlogic board. That did not work and theyput the original one back in. Shop saidall they could come up with was new processors. This was not a cost effective option and they had none to try.
After thinking about it more, I figured it could be thevideo card: the original 8800 GT that came with the Mac: that it was so bad itwould not start in Mac OS but would limp along in XP. I was all set to buy another vid card one-bay just to try. While doing thatresearch, came across several articles on the Internet that discussed vid cardfailure due to micro-cracks in some solder joints. These develop due to age/heat cycles. The proposed fix was to ‘reflow’ the solder. Figured it was worth a try before spendingthe money on a new vid card. Found thesedetailed instructions on youtube. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T7um_hZYom4 I followed the procedure, put the vid cardback in, and now it works just fine.
I did not and would not do this until I had ruled outeverything else. But, it has worked forothers and it did work for me.

Does radeon 5870 + Mac Pro 2008 + Raid Card = Work?

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