Kane Adams Posted December 27, 2007 Share Posted December 27, 2007 Well your doing and awesome job so I would not worry about it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Korrupted Posted December 28, 2007 Share Posted December 28, 2007 That logic board is a monster, probably a good 4.5 inches longer than an ATX, so I don't think it would fit in any other case + all the IO rear panel issues there would be. I got my case off ebay, but they don't come up very often. Hack Pro I am looking for a Mac Pro logic board that is not working as I want to cut off the rear sockets (USB/Firewire/lan/sound) and wire them into my case. If anyone knows where I can find one it would be much appreciated. Do you happen to know the dimensions of the Mac Pro mobo? (L,W,H) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nagal Posted December 28, 2007 Author Share Posted December 28, 2007 Do you happen to know the dimensions of the Mac Pro mobo? (L,W,H) 15" x 10.5" x 7" . L x W is approx and H is a guess as I am not sure how tall the memory riser cards are but it will not be taller than 7 ". Picked up the processors today. So wait, they say 2.4 GHz 1066 FSB? Yes that is correct. These are engineering samples not even OEM chips. They have a 9x clock so with the BSEL mod will bump them to 3.0 GHz 1333 FSB :censored2: Here is the dirty on these chips http://www.cpu-world.com/sspec/QQ/QQYK.html And here is a link to how to perform the BSEL mod http://www.o0o.it/pro/. So easy, its not even funny. Hardest part is going to cutting a piece of electrical tape that thin. It will for sure be an after coffee event.Even if they do not go to 3.0 GHz with BSEL, 8 cores at 2.4 GHz is nothing to be ashamed of :censored2: I will start things off without modding them and once everything looks good and stable then let the fun begin. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Korrupted Posted December 28, 2007 Share Posted December 28, 2007 That's in inches, right? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nagal Posted December 28, 2007 Author Share Posted December 28, 2007 That's in inches, right? Yes. Sorry about forgetting that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nagal Posted December 28, 2007 Author Share Posted December 28, 2007 Note: Avoid using ApplePalace.com. They state they have items in stock on their website but as I just found out from a phone call its not true as my order was going to be held until Jan 25th because Apple does not have the memory riser cards. Nice of them to inform me of this. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skyhighmac Posted December 28, 2007 Share Posted December 28, 2007 Nagal, just to let you know, I think you can put up to 32gb in a mac pro. BTW, how did you get engineering samples? You shouldn't even need to hack anything because you are using base apple parts (logic board), except flashing your video card. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nagal Posted December 28, 2007 Author Share Posted December 28, 2007 Nagal, just to let you know, I think you can pot up to 32gb in a mac pro. BTW, how did you get engineering samples? You shouldn't even need to hack anything because you are using base apple parts (logic board), except flashing your video card. Everything I have read says the MacPros are limited to 16 GB not that is really a limit to me. Maybe they have changed that to 32 GB now? I got the engineering samples off of eBay. They show up on occasion there. Yes, there should be no hacking involved at all which will be nice. I am curious if my PC NVidia 7300GT will work using NVinject. Its just curiosity mostly as I have a real Mac NVidia on the way. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skyhighmac Posted December 28, 2007 Share Posted December 28, 2007 OWC sells up to 32gb. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nagal Posted December 28, 2007 Author Share Posted December 28, 2007 Good to know. OWC is where I got my memory from as well. Their prices are awesome and once I have the cash will get another 4GB from them. Now is that a screen shot of your MacPro? 32 GB is kind of overkill but at todays prices is not that expensive Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skyhighmac Posted December 28, 2007 Share Posted December 28, 2007 No, thats no my mac pro yet, it will be soon . Not really. Just did a google search for "mac pro 32gb." Its not overkill for somethings. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nagal Posted December 29, 2007 Author Share Posted December 29, 2007 Did a little work last night not much as still waiting for more pieces to arrive. After reading aqua-mac's comments about the two additional SATA ports on the mobo, I dug this out of my box o {censored} It slides into any free slot on the PCI cage and turns internal SATA connections into external connections. I really have no need for it right now but figured I would throw it in I had to cut some of the front fan housing away so I could plug in the SATA cables. It also became necessary as Apple uses SATA connectors to connect the front panel USB ports on the front panel board to the logic board. I found it on ApplePalace.com but it was a $30 cable. So I got my mini-hacksaw, removed a piece big enough from the fan housing so I could just use a normal SATA cable. I will try to get some pics of it later not sure. I did not take pics before hand so now would have to remove some stuff. My bag of a 100 M3.5 screws showed yesterday so I put in the memory cage and front fan housing. Stupid me forgot to get some LONG M3.5 screws for the memory cage but luckily I found some long 6-32 that only have about 1/8 inch of thread on the very tip. These worked well enough to secure the cage and not strip anything. The cage actually takes 2 very long M3.5 screws then 2 very short M3 screws to secure. I have plenty of M3s so that was not an issue. There is not much space between the front fan housing and the memory cage. This may be an issue with the after market heat sinks I ordered. I could have gotten the Apple ones but at a little over $100 each, I said no thank you. Worse case scenario is I have to remove the memory cage and fan housing then create a way to mount the fans up front myself. The Apple heatsinks also have a temp probe on them. Way? I have no idea as the Xeons have built in temp sensor. Anyways, another trip to the box o {censored} and I returned with 2 thermal sensors from an old dual Slot 1 motherboard. I do not see why these will not work but it is a wait and see. No big deal as this is what DIY is all about So I am waiting on the following Heatsinks - should arrive today but I may have to wait until Monday if the package is too big to fit in large mailboxes at my apartment complex. Memory raiser cards - probably arrive Wednesday Power Supply - who knows, ApplePalace said they were shipping Friday so it should be Wednesday Video Card - Maybe by Friday Yes, video card. After doing some research it is highly unlikely my current video card will work AND do to the space requirements would not fit in the first slot which from what I can tell is the only electrical 16x PCIe on the logic board. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aqua-mac Posted December 29, 2007 Share Posted December 29, 2007 Hi Nagal, This really is coming on nicely! Everyone should have a box o {censored}!! Unfortunately I seem to have accumulated a lot of them and I never know which one to look in. What heat sinks did you order? You are right, Apple did not leave a load of space there. Graphics choice is a little limited at the moment on mac pro's Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nagal Posted December 29, 2007 Author Share Posted December 29, 2007 Thanks aqua-mac, I just wish it would come along a bit quicker I ended up getting Thermalright HR-01X mainly because you can change their mounting direction. It is going to be an interesting fit for sure. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aqua-mac Posted December 29, 2007 Share Posted December 29, 2007 Well they certainly look the biz! If they are too big, maybe you can trim the grey plastic shroud and still be able to keep the fans and support. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kane Adams Posted December 30, 2007 Share Posted December 30, 2007 Thats what these are for lol J/K. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skyhighmac Posted December 30, 2007 Share Posted December 30, 2007 They do look a bit big. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nagal Posted December 30, 2007 Author Share Posted December 30, 2007 Thats what these are for lol J/K. lol! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nagal Posted December 30, 2007 Author Share Posted December 30, 2007 I got the heat sinks today. For some reason the Post Office did not deliver them but a quick call and I verified I could pickup the package at the Post Office. It is odd that the package was there but the carrier did not even attempt to deliver it today. Anyways, I will be getting that $30 back since they failed to deliver in 2 days Here are the beauties straight out of the box I quickly found out that these heat sinks were not going to mount into the stock mounting. For one, Apple used M3.5 screws (just like the rest of the motherboard mountings) and the heat sinks came with what appears to be 6-32 which I am taking is standard for Xeons in the PC world. The second thing, was the heat sink mounting was not aligning with the retention brackets on the motherboard. There was no other choice but to come up with my own mounting method but first all the stand offs in the case for the CPUs needed to be removed Before attack of the pliers After.... its hard to see the difference Next I had to spend some time figuring out a mounting method. My main concerns where keeping the heat sinks tight and not bending the board due to pressure and weight. I ended up with a very simple design that looks to provide this. I started by removing the screws that came with the heat sinks for mounting them to the motherboard. Since I no long had stand offs to help support the weight of the heat sinks, I needed screws long enough to touch the case to help provide that support. A trip to the box o {censored} (not being my first case mod I have LOTS of nuts, bolts, screws) I dug up some socket head 6-32 1.5" stainless steel screws and nuts. The screws were a little too long but bolt cutters quickly fixed that. The box o {censored} was severely lacking in washer so a quick trip to Lowes and I had a lot of #6 and #8 washers and only $3 lighter in the wallet. My mounting design is simple, a #6 washer fits almost perfect tight into the hole of the motherboard where the retention bracket was. #8 washer is large enough to apply pressure to the #6 washer in the hole AND the motherboard. a nut holds everything in place. The down side of my design is you have to remove the motherboard from the case to remove the heat sinks. Here is a pic of what I am talking about, notice the bottom left mounting shows the #6 washer inside the whole of the mother board. This was just the test fitting. I did apply electrical tape to the side of the #8 washers that touch the motherboard just to be safe. After the test fitting and seeing it was going to work, time to put it all together. Here is a picture of the CPUs with Shin Etsu thermal grease. Shin Etsu is better (or so it is said) than Arctic Silver 5 and I prefer it as it comes in a little syringe which makes it easier to apply than AS5. I did not do the BSEL mod to the CPUs yet so once everything works, I am going to have to tear it all apart just to do that. I did reapply the thermal grease after the picture was taken since I messed up the bottom CPU. Both heat sink on Motherboard back in the case! I thought it was going to be a total pain trying to get the motherboard with the heat sinks attached in but it wasn't at all. The wires hanging over the heat sinks are part of the thermal sensors I mentioned in a previous post, I just have not attached them and secured the extra wiring. At this point, my camera died so no more pictures. I will say this, the high drain batteries I got at Radio Shack lasted about 10 times longer than normal batteries in my camera. So I know where I am going tomorrow morning After getting the motherboard in it became apparent the front fan housing AND the memory cage were not going to just fit back in. I spent my time focusing on the memory cage first. The memory cage is kind of useless. Its main function seems to be to direct air flow across the memory and provides some minor support for the memory risers. I know Apple engineers its Pro case very well but the case is so open air flow to any components should not be an issue, that is why I *think* the memory cage is a bit useless. Luckly, the fan on the rear of the memory cage is easily removed from the cage. The fan assembly also has the guides/supports for the memory raisers so I will have at least 1/2 of those. I have already figured out how to mount the rear fan without the memory cage. Not sure if this makes any sense but I hope to get some pictures up tomorrow once I get some more batteries. As for the front fan housing, I will probably ditch it completely and come up with a way to mount the 2 front fans without it. I really wanted to keep as much as possible intact but its a DIY project so improvise is the key Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nagal Posted December 30, 2007 Author Share Posted December 30, 2007 I solved part of my front fan problem. The heat sinks came with some wire clips that are made just for mounting a fan to the heat sink. So, why re-invite the wheel? I have some ideas on how to mount the other fan off of the fan on the heat sinks just need to make a trip to the hardware store tomorrow to hunt down some materials. I managed to get one more picture out of my batteries so here is the one fan attached. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aqua-mac Posted December 30, 2007 Share Posted December 30, 2007 Great pictures, keep them coming! Those sinks look awesome and the attachment method you have come up with was a good bit of thinking on your feet, good ole box o {censored} I say! On my Hack Pro, for the rear fan, I simply drilled 4 holes in the rear fan housing and used some socket head bolts to bolt it to the housing, then refitted that to the case. If you cut the memory housing at the front, can you still use it, or will you have to remove too much for it still to be useful? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kane Adams Posted December 30, 2007 Share Posted December 30, 2007 The heat sinks are monsters . lol Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skyhighmac Posted December 30, 2007 Share Posted December 30, 2007 Looking good! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aqua-mac Posted December 30, 2007 Share Posted December 30, 2007 Your heatsinks certainly have a bit more muscle than these std jobs: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nagal Posted December 31, 2007 Author Share Posted December 31, 2007 Rear fan done but still working on the front fan as my first idea did not work. Not too surprised as it was expecting too much of those wire clips. I will post some pics later I am off to the hard ware store for front fan mounting idea #2 as the box o {censored} let me down on this one Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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