Mac Pro 1,1 for Folding@home

[CaptCrunchBerries]

I was given an old Mac Pro 1,1 with 32 GB of FB-DIMMs and two dual core CPU. I was able to source 2 Quad Core Xeon X5365s and a ATI Raedon 5770 on the very cheap (practically free). With this setup, I was able to install OS X 10.11 El Capitan using Pike R. Alpha's boot-loader - http://piker-alpha.github.io/macosxbootloader/

 

Would anyone know if this would be a viable system for Folding@home? I know power consumption would be an issue, but that's about it. Thanks in advance for the comments.

[QFA350]

Good luck with your power bill.....

You can fold but you need to work out if a machine that old and inefficient is going to be worth it.

[HrutkayMods]

On 8/2/2016 at 3:13 AM, CaptCrunchBerries said:

I was given an old Mac Pro 1,1 with 32 GB of FB-DIMMs and two dual core CPU. I was able to source 2 Quad Core Xeon X5365s and a ATI Raedon 5770 on the very cheap (practically free). With this setup, I was able to install OS X 10.11 El Capitan using Pike R. Alpha's boot-loader - http://piker-alpha.github.io/macosxbootloader/

 

Would anyone know if this would be a viable system for Folding@home? I know power consumption would be an issue, but that's about it. Thanks in advance for the comments.

Know this is kinda late, but that was my system in a nut shell (doing a YouTube series currently on it BTW if you're interested it's on ep 20 now, if you haven't, I'd recommend updating your EFI and SMC [covered in the series also]... Anyway). I soon realized the 5770 was a horrible folder and swapped to a GTX 960 (went from 25,000 in 2 to 3 days, to 80,000 or higher per day). CPUs fold nicely still but they suck some major power. You'll need a boot camp of Windows to use the GPUs though, OS X doesn't support GPU folding. (I covered how to install Win 10 x64 also). It's viable it's just a power hog and you need a better GPU. I suggest a MacVidCards GT 120 (for boot screens) and whatever other GPU you want.

 

EDIT: apparently you can at least choose and add a GPU in OS X now (dunno if it works), I just tested it... still it works better in Windows I think

[CaptCrunchBerries]

On 8/29/2016 at 11:47 PM, HrutkayMods said:

Know this is kinda late, but that was my system in a nut shell (doing a YouTube series currently on it BTW if you're interested it's on ep 20 now, if you haven't, I'd recommend updating your EFI and SMC [covered in the series also]... Anyway). I soon realized the 5770 was a horrible folder and swapped to a GTX 960 (went from 25,000 in 2 to 3 days, to 80,000 or higher per day). CPUs fold nicely still but they suck some major power. You'll need a boot camp of Windows to use the GPUs though, OS X doesn't support GPU folding. (I covered how to install Win 10 x64 also). It's viable it's just a power hog and you need a better GPU. I suggest a MacVidCards GT 120 (for boot screens) and whatever other GPU you want.

 

EDIT: apparently you can at least choose and add a GPU in OS X now (dunno if it works), I just tested it... still it works better in Windows I think

Thanks for the advice. I'll surely checkout your YouTube series.