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Thunderbolt on old Mac Pro (2008?

Hi guys,


Is it possible to get Thunderbolt on one of the old Mac Pros (2008)?

I've heard there might be some PCIe to Thunderbolt cards, but can't seem to find anything that looks like it will work.


Is it just not an option?

Mac Pro / 2.8gHz Quad Core Intel Xeon / 4Gb RAM / 320Gb HD / 320Gb HD /150Gb HD, Mac OS X (10.6.6), RME FF400 / Logic Pro 9 / ProTools 9

Posted on Mar 30, 2015 3:44 PM

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Posted on Mar 30, 2015 3:51 PM

No. The reason you can find any is because no one has been able to make one for the old Mac Pro. The requirements of ThunderBolt can't be met with a PCIe card in the Mac Pro. Hence, the reason Apple release the cylindrical Mac Pro in late 2013.


About the only thing you can do to get as close as possible is to put a PCIe USB3 card and use that instead. Of course that will not support anything that is configured only for ThunderBolt. It will work with a lot of other stuff though.

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Mar 30, 2015 3:51 PM in response to James Arter1

No. The reason you can find any is because no one has been able to make one for the old Mac Pro. The requirements of ThunderBolt can't be met with a PCIe card in the Mac Pro. Hence, the reason Apple release the cylindrical Mac Pro in late 2013.


About the only thing you can do to get as close as possible is to put a PCIe USB3 card and use that instead. Of course that will not support anything that is configured only for ThunderBolt. It will work with a lot of other stuff though.

Apr 2, 2015 4:07 AM in response to Allan Eckert

Ahh, I gotcha.

That's a shame, looks like I'm going to have to go without for now then.

And it's a specific Thunderbolt device I was looking to use, so sadly the USB3 option wouldn't be useful here. Thanks though!


I've actually got thunderbolt on my MacBook Pro (2012 model) and it's an 8-Core, whereas my MacPro is only 4-Core.

I'm almost tempted to sell the MacPro and utterly pimp out my MacBook Pro. There can only be so much life left in the MacPro anyway, do you think?

Although, it's still going strong...

Apr 6, 2015 7:45 AM in response to James Arter1

The 2008 came out before Nehalem - it used Hapertown 5400 Penryn processor so if it is a 4-core, that is it. It is easy to add a 2nd processor.


FBDIMMs are rather heat prone and yet in 2013 cheaper and better FBDIMMs that run 10*C cooler showed up and there are a lot of pulls from servers. 667MHz DIMMs will also work and are cheaper and cooler as well. If you have not replaced or upgraded your RAM, you might want to.


Throw in an SSD if you haven't is a huge improvement too. Whether SATA II or III or one of the newer blade PCIe-SSD that offer 700-1100MB/sec (basically better than SATA III PCIe SSD).


HT started in 2009 4,1 models with Nehalem processor and later Westmere is just a subset of same socket.

Thunderbolt on old Mac Pro (2008?

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