Thursday 30 June 2011

Mac Pro - airport, mac pro


Just installed a card on my closeout 2009 Mac Pro. (2009 models don't come with Airport in the standard configuration for a single processor 266GHz)



The card you get should not look like the stock photo that shows mostly metal shielding. The right part is not fully encased in metal.



Installation is a bit tricky because of the antenna connectors, which are about the size of a pin head. Also, this is a sensitive electronics involved. Use proper grounding to reduce the risk of damage from static electricity, etc.



Briefly... shut the computer down and disconnect all the wires from your computer. Pull off the side cover. Lay the computer on its side, with the bottom of the computer closest to you. Pull out the processor tray on the bottom. (Brilliant design feature!) There are three small, short wires near the airport card connector. These have a clear plastic cover over the (fragile) gold plated connector, which will have to be removed. There are two antenna connectors on the airport card, so one of the wires seems to be a spare. (FYI, I used #2 & #3 because I couldn't get #1 to fit.) The connectors themselves are 90 degree, meaning the fitting is perpendicular to the length of the wire, so you will have to twist the wire to get the connectors to line up. This is the tricky part, because they are very thin metal.



Apple tells you to get this card installed professionally, and, after having done this, I can see why. It's not that it's so hard, but things can go wrong.



I installed the card, screwed it in with the provided phillips head screws and then installed the antenna wires. (It may seem easier to put the wires on first, but I had better luck when the Airport card was fixed in position. But YMMV.)



I put everything back together, reinstalled the cables, and the fired up the Mac Pro. Airport card was recognized, the signal level was as strong as it should be, and I was up and running after selecting the network I wanted. Apple Airport Extreme 802.11n Wireless Card for Mac Pro (MB988Z/A)

I bought my 2009 model Mac Pro, and like many I purchased a standard pre-configured machine. I was a little surprised to realize that it didn't include an Airport Extreme Wi-Fi card. This is the exact card that Apple would have installed in this machine had it been a BTO (Build-To-Order) machine ordered direct, and the Airport option was selected. It installs into the dedicated slot in the Mac Pro and connects to the internal Wi-Fi antennas already built into the machine. I have an Airport Wireless Extreme Base Station (the new model with 2.4/5 Ghz dual-band) and it connects up to it at the full wireless speed (300Mbits/second) and is very useful if your are transferring or moving files over your network. This is a very useful addition to my Mac Pro.

I purchased an in store model of the MAC Pro tower in 2009 without the Airport Extreme onboard wireless card. After a while of messing with some aftermarket USB wireless devices and getting fed up with third party software and inconsistent signal; I opted to try this out. This is a genuine Apple product. This is same product that you would have gotten had you special ordered yours or bought one recently. Installation for me was not to difficult however, as stated in other reviews it is a little tight and I had to figure out which of the antenna wires out of three where to be used. Hint No. three is for blue tooth. I am super pleased with this product and wish I had gotten it a long time ago.

I do Mac repair and upgrades both professionally and for friends and family. I've found that although this card is marketed exclusively for the 2009 Mac Pro, it actually works for all Apple Mac Pro desktop towers (except the new 2010 "Westmere" Mac Pro, which includes this card already).



The only requirement is that the computer is running OS X 10.5.6 or later. Oh yeah, and you should be comfortable working with small parts inside of a computer. - Wi-fi - Mac Pro - Mac - Airport'


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