Building a MacPro

[nagal]

It could be that they just dont work in a Mac Pro. I have not verified but I think you should be able to run off a single CPU so you can try them individual to see if maybe one is bad.

[Listed1st.com]

I've made a connection which I've got access to Clovertown CPUs: 2.66GHz at 1333MHz bus for $420 each ($800/pair) if anyone is in need. I've been completely unsuccessful in getting 1066MHz bus CPUs (2.4 of 2.66) for overclocking though I still wish I could get my darn 2.66GHz running at 3.3GHz! Just need to freeze them! or perhaps run them at a higher voltage? Anyone know some serious MP LogicBoard mod to force higher voltage to the CPU? Maybe solder the A/C input right to the CPU? (j/k)

[Listed1st.com]

Just awesome! This logicboard is absolutely bizzarre! It's got green LEDs all over it, a piercing blue one flickers when you plug in the power, the memory risers have a pair of green LEDs, it's got 7 buttons on the logic board, (Including the "PWR and RESET" where you see a spot for them on the current logic boards, so you can power it up without the front board connected. I'll upload photos shortly!

 

Oh, and it can run a debug mode at startup, don't know if all mp's can, but rather than the apple you'll see just the console doing it's thing!

 

Only thing, it won't sleep. It goes to sleep quick like normal, but when you move the most it cold boots... strange!

 

Nice thing is, the power supply in the huge montrosity of a case was a normal MP PSU, just slid right in my MP case I bought! Came with all the wires I needed as well. One thing I found was the DVD drives get their power from the LogicBoard! So plugging your 8800GTX (those of you who have) into the molex conectors for the DVD drives might not be a great idea!

[nagal]

Just awesome! This logicboard is absolutely bizzarre! It's got green LEDs all over it, a piercing blue one flickers when you plug in the power, the memory risers have a pair of green LEDs, it's got 7 buttons on the logic board, (Including the "PWR and RESET" where you see a spot for them on the current logic boards, so you can power it up without the front board connected. I'll upload photos shortly!

 

Oh, and it can run a debug mode at startup, don't know if all mp's can, but rather than the apple you'll see just the console doing it's thing!

 

Only thing, it won't sleep. It goes to sleep quick like normal, but when you move the most it cold boots... strange!

 

Nice thing is, the power supply in the huge montrosity of a case was a normal MP PSU, just slid right in my MP case I bought! Came with all the wires I needed as well. One thing I found was the DVD drives get their power from the LogicBoard! So plugging your 8800GTX (those of you who have) into the molex conectors for the DVD drives might not be a great idea!

 

What you are seeing is the boot up verbose mode, any mac can do that. That is cool it came with a real Mac Pro PSU! So if you go into System Profiler what Model Name and Identifier is it coming up as?

 

There should be 2 6 pin molex connectors on the motherboard as well just for PCIe video cards.

[Balamut]

[url="http://imageshack.us"][img=http://img301.imageshack.us/img301/5876/macprototypece9.jpg][/url]

 

Has anyone ever seen a RED Mac Pro LogicBoard like this!? I'm very very intrigued...

 

 

red = prototype

blue = production

[Balamut]

Guys,

 

I just found service manual for Octo Mac Pro (not the early 2008 one), if someone interested PM me and I will send it to you (I can put it on Rapidshare, but I don't know if we allowed to post that kind of thing on the board).

[digitalperformer]

 

Work in Progress... Finally got my cooling system from Koolance; also using some stainless steel tubing fittings that I had lying around. Order received dual 120mm 700W heat dissipating radiator, two 120mm fans, two Xeon block coolers, four memory block coolers and a ton of G 1/4 - 13mm compression fittings. Can't wait to put this {censored} together. In the meantime, I'm a few steps from completing custom Hard Drive / Opto Drive Carriers (Pain; however who wants to spend $250 on four HD and one Opto Carrier when you can make it yourself from a piece of sheet metal, sharpie, ruler, and cutting wheel). Will post my progress... peace and love.

 

[Listed1st.com]

Now that's a cool system (pun intended).

 

Do you have the logicboard and all the other goodies? My big question for you, how much power will the cooling system require? I ask because I just recently discovered that the molex connectors which power the optical drives, plugs into the logicboard, thus pulling huge amps from those ports for some of those crazy cooling systems (i.e. the peltier) isn't a good idea.

 

Are you planning on having you cooling fans speed controlled automatically or manually or at all? I've been saved by Nagal's transistor based thermistors (Could only fine them in bulk of 20, but hey, I might need extras).

 

 

Oh, and a general Shoutout: If anyone finds any information about that red prototype logicboard, I'd love to hear it, I'll even offer a small ransom if someone can get me the layout of all the jumpers on the board!

 

 

Have fun!

 

-

[digitalperformer]

Hey... the fans consume 9.6W.. the pump consumes 18W. 27.6 Watts total. That port can power two opto drives which should be 1.5A per drive or 36 Watts total. I might just power the fans directly from fan ports on logic board and pump from opto drive bus. Nonetheless, in the clear whatever route I decide. Has anyone confirmed success with Harpertowns on ver. 2 logic board? I'm still trying to discern the difference between socket 771 and LGA 771; both are refered to as the same--- socket J. Haven't found anything useful to answer this... Could someone please shed some light on why these two references are used to describe socket J.

 

Thanks

[Bearcat]

I'm still trying to discern the difference between socket 771 and LGA 771; both are refered to as the same--- socket J. Haven't found anything useful to answer this... Could someone please shed some light on why these two references are used to describe socket J.

 

Thanks

 

My understanding is this:

 

Socket J is named after the codename "Jayhawk", and refers to Intel's socket naming. They tend to name things socket M, socket T, etc.

 

Socket J is implemented as a Land Grid Array (LGA) of 771 contacts, thus the LGA 771 naming of the number of contacts and the grid. The use of Socket 771 is used by some motherboard manufacturers, who don't wish to use the Intel nomenclature of Socket J or LGA 771, but they all refer to the same thing.

 

The is the same for other socket types such as Socket T, LGA 775, and Socket 775, which are all the same thing.

 

I don't know if I answered the question, but I think the answer is Socket J, LGA 771, and Socket 771 are all the same thing.

[Listed1st.com]

I must agree with Bearcat, from what I researched they are all the same thing. One thing to note however, is the new CPUs the Mac Mini uses, though they are the same pin and socket, there is some sort of different configuration, thus the new 800MHz bus chips won't work in the Mac Minis (Aside from the bus speed being different, the pin configuration, though the same format, the pinout is different).

 

The Socket M (I think 471) is what's used. Chips such as the T7200 vs T7500

[digitalperformer]

Thanks for the insight... if possible see if you guys can dig up some tech note that can resolve this enigma... don't get me wrong I believe that you are correct BearCat. Thanks again.

[Listed1st.com]

So a little wiki action tells us "Socket J (also known as Socket 771 or LGA 771)" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socket_J

 

 

Also, I read about a new 45nm Chip in the Xeon form, the x5200 series! Curious to know if they'd work in the Mac pro, the ideal chips looks to be the X5260, But at $995 each 3.3GHz dual core chip, I'm thinking I'll pass on it. (Found one on ebay)...

 

And so sad that I wasn't able to get the Dempsey core working, I would have had so much fun with a 4.3Hz Quad Core Mac Pro! Granted it'd probably run about that same speed as a 3.0GHz Woodcrest core, but still...

[Balamut]

Here is the service manual for 8 core mac pro (not early 2008)

 

http://rapidshare.com/files/99020958/macpro_8x.pdf.html

 

Connectors for logic board are on page 91.

 

 

Also, does any of you know where I can get the logic board for early 08 mac pro's ? Looked and called pretty much everywhere and everybody and none of them have it yet.

Any help or hint on this will be greatly appreciated

 

Thanks

 

EDIT: Forgot to mention that there is a small difference between mac pro and 8core mac pro in enclosures and logic board.

[digitalperformer]

Hey guys... a quick heads up on Mac Pro fasteners (screws)... http://www.microfasteners.com/ Just got my order for the odd sized metric screws for the logic board's standoffs; (M3.5). 50 pieces dirt cheap. You can purchase all fastner needs for around $20 bucks; that's how much it cost me for ever screw they that was needed. Use www.applepalace.com parts list to organize your fastener list, they list them with size description.

[Listed1st.com]

I found thoses pictures I took of the 3.3GHz 8-core, all I got was 5 minutes of use before the heatsink thawed out. The photo of the heatsink was when it was all frosty, and hitting 90 Gigaflops was pretty cool! But it's just not cost effective to use 1 can of air duster per 5 minutes of use, gets expensive! You can see the tape I put on the heatsink, this allowed me to fill it up with the freezing liquid which just boiled off within minutes.

[digitalperformer]

Does anyone know what maximum power can the optical power harness handle? Two drives @ 1.5 A each = 36 Watts. I need to squeeze 45.6 watts = 3.8 A. 20 gauge cable is rated for 3.3 A = 39.6 watts. Thank you....

[Listed1st.com]

So I finally got the front fan assembly and wired up the thermal sensors (Thanks Nagal) so I've included a snapshot of system profiler....

 

Turns out I've got model identifier M43ADP1,1 Fun stuff!

 

I also, for kicks and giggles, put in a production memory riser and it worked just fine. Strangly enough, there are 2 jumpers down by the CPUs and if I change them my system decides that it only has 1 processor with 7 cores! (Yet activity monitor shows 8 cores, and the performance doesn't change).

 

Also, there are 3 jumpers between the PCIe slots, I'm guessing they'll manually control which slot get's how many lanes. another nice feature is 2 additional 4-pin fan plugs on the board

 

Anyone have any requests as to haev my try anything with this board? I'm feeling a little more daring with it than I am with production boards that cost a fortune.... (And no requests to use it as target practice).

 

Oh, and a general shoutout: It will NOT sleep! I put it to sleep, the power light dims like normal, I press the"anykey" and it wakes up to a cold boot. any ideas on how I might fix this? Also, it always boots in console, how might I go about changing that? Thanks crew!

[nagal]

So I finally got the front fan assembly and wired up the thermal sensors (Thanks Nagal) so I've included a snapshot of system profiler....

 

Turns out I've got model identifier M43ADP1,1 Fun stuff!

 

I also, for kicks and giggles, put in a production memory riser and it worked just fine. Strangly enough, there are 2 jumpers down by the CPUs and if I change them my system decides that it only has 1 processor with 7 cores! (Yet activity monitor shows 8 cores, and the performance doesn't change).

 

Also, there are 3 jumpers between the PCIe slots, I'm guessing they'll manually control which slot get's how many lanes. another nice feature is 2 additional 4-pin fan plugs on the board

 

Anyone have any requests as to haev my try anything with this board? I'm feeling a little more daring with it than I am with production boards that cost a fortune.... (And no requests to use it as target practice).

 

Oh, and a general shoutout: It will NOT sleep! I put it to sleep, the power light dims like normal, I press the"anykey" and it wakes up to a cold boot. any ideas on how I might fix this? Also, it always boots in console, how might I go about changing that? Thanks crew!

 

Glad those thermal sensors worked for you. How is your fan speeds? I still have one fan (the top fan of the two front fans) that always wants to run full speed.

 

As for your sleep. I lost sleep function when I upgrade to 10.5.2 so it might not be your board if you are running 10.5.2. just a thought.

 

No idea about fixing the booting in console. Normally, you can set a Kernel Flag (-v) in com.apple.Boot.plist but I doubt that will help you as it is something you manually need to set. I wonder if one of your many jumpers sets that?

[digitalperformer]

Anyone seen any info on a successful Harpertown boot on Macpro2,1 ?

[Listed1st.com]

Both fans run at 500RPM (Though I keep them at 900 for good measure, and because my chipset heatsink is about 1/2 the size of the production boards). I'm assuming you did a SMC reset for the fan issue? I ended up buying a front fan assembly and just hitting it with the dremel so it fits fine with those huge heatsinks, they do an amazing job! I'm running a fresh install of 10.5, also, strange thing. The boot issue didn't seem to start until I hit all of the buttons on the board (SMC reset and all).

 

Does your system have the same issue when sleeping of just cold booting? I wonder if it's somewhere in the EFI that's not telling it to pull the data from memory...

[nagal]

Anyone seen any info on a successful Harpertown boot on Macpro2,1 ?

 

I still have not heard anything about the Harpertown on the 2,1.

 

Both fans run at 500RPM (Though I keep them at 900 for good measure, and because my chipset heatsink is about 1/2 the size of the production boards). I'm assuming you did a SMC reset for the fan issue? I ended up buying a front fan assembly and just hitting it with the dremel so it fits fine with those huge heatsinks, they do an amazing job! I'm running a fresh install of 10.5, also, strange thing. The boot issue didn't seem to start until I hit all of the buttons on the board (SMC reset and all).

 

Does your system have the same issue when sleeping of just cold booting? I wonder if it's somewhere in the EFI that's not telling it to pull the data from memory...

 

I cannot remember if I tried a SMC reset yet. I will give that a go tonight. My issue with sleep was that it just would not wakeup at all, I would have to power cycle it to get it back up and running.

[Listed1st.com]

Okay, Awesome! Red Logic Board #2 arrived today, I was led to believe it was a non functioning unit. But I couldn't just let it sit untested, so I fired it up... Boom! It works flawlessly! It even has the production firmware! System Profiler shows it as a Mac Pro 1,1! Crazy! It sleeps just like it should and everything! So looks like I'm going to need to rip out the other board I have, or someone reading this thread is going to tell me how to copy the firmware and flash it onto my other red board, and all us folks who have these prototype firmwares will be freed!

 

Anywho, added a few higher res pictures just for kicks,

 

Oh, and on the "Who's lapped their CPU?" thread I took some before and after pictures of a core solo CPU I "lapped" with a cute story about how I lapped the CPU in my Macbook Pro... haha! I think it's kinda funny!

 

http://forum.insanelymac.com/index.php?sho...mp;#entry674455

[teknojunkie]

looking good so far after you get all that make it look factory even more by buying all the iternal casing and all that

[deleted_account]

Listed1st.com, nice pics! and oooh shiny red protoype mac pro logic board. sorry if i missed it, which CPU Heatsinks are those you're using in the photos?