Q: 2006 Mac Pro connected with a fiber patch cord
I want to connect this fiber optics patch cord to my Mac Pro from 2006 , does a PEX1000MMSC would do the job or you recommend something else?
Mac Pro
Posted on Jan 28, 2016 12:24 PM
That card will work in your Mac Pro at least up to and including OS X version 10.9.5 (Mavericks). They do not say if it will work with later versions i.e. Yosemite and El Capitan.
There have been quite a few similar products that have turned out not to be compatible with El Capitan but I would think there is a good chance it would work with Yosemite.
For the benefit of others, there are four typical reasons for wanting to fit an Ethernet card to a Mac Pro.
- To add an additional network connection
- To add a faster network connection, e.g. 10Gbps
- To replace a faulty built-in connection
- To support fibre for the purposes of a longer distance connection
The SonnetTech card listed by Grant is a 10Gbps card not a 1Gbps card and will therefore only work with a 10Gbps network switch connection. As it is possible to do 1Gbps Ethernet over copper cable for a distance of 100 metres it seems that no-one else bothers to make a 1Gbps card for Macs.
An alternative approach would be to get a cheap network switch which supports a 1Gbps fibre connection and locate it next to the Mac, then run standard twisted pair (copper) from the Mac to the switch at 1Gbps, and run a fibre 1Gbps link from the switch back to the rest of the network.
Posted on Jan 29, 2016 6:37 AM