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Building a MacPro

nagal

By nagal,
in Mods and Overclocking

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shaanky98
shaanky98
Posted
Posted
Btw still selling damaged mac pro case with front panel logic board! Make me an offer!

 

Hally-7

 

I have 2 questions for you: First where did you buy your logic board; 2nd how bad is the damaged case can you PM me images of the case please.

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kevd_hackin
kevd_hackin
Posted
Posted

i have a question for anyone willing to answer, what apple parts doo you need to have to run a non patched copy of osx, i love my hack but would love to have real feel, with sleep and speedstep. I know you need a logic board(motherboard), probably powersupply, videocard, or have people had luck flashing the rom to make it look like apple parts. Thanks and sorry if this is off topic. Aslo has anyone had luck with a cheaper board?

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regrexion
regrexion
Posted
Posted

Hi to everyone!

I'm thinking to build my own Mac pro and this is the only discussion/site I found with someone that build a mac pro.

I've found a mac pro case on ebay with No logic board, cables, drive carrier's, cdrom carrier's, front firewire & usb board. Do I have to buy all the connection cables for the firewire/usb board or they are included with these boards?

Nagal...did you buy a case with boards included?

 

Thanks

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Bearcat
Bearcat
Posted
Posted

Sorry for being a little off-topic, but it's close:

 

I have a Mac Pro 2 x 2.66 Core 2 Dual machine, I believe it's a mac pro 1,1. It was bought right after the new octos were announced, and it went on sale in the refurb store, although it was new.

 

I have received a couple of processors. They are labelled as QQMV ES, which I believe are 2.66 Core 2 Quad processors, but run on a 1066 FSB. I think the equivalent retail processor is the Xeon 5350.

 

I decided to take the plunge and put them in. Once in, the machine fired up correctly and identified the processors as 2.66 Unknown, and the bus speed was correct at 1066, and it showed 8 cores. Activity Monitor also showed 8 cores.

 

I am very happy with the transplant.

 

One little glitch has surfaced, which I'm not sure is related to the processors. Occasionally when I close an application such as Safari, it closes, but on the dock it still shows the little spotlight under the application icon. When I right click on the application icon, the menu says "application not responding" and force quit, but force quit never forces the application to quit.

 

After a while I get a number of these stuck applications on the dock. The applications will start up again, but when these applications are stuck like this, the machine will not shut down. Use of the power button is required. This only started to happen after I put in the new processors.

 

I'm probably not going to switch back to the old processors, because right now it's just an annoyance, but I was wondering if anyone here with ES processors has experienced similar strange things???

 

thanks

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Coda
Coda
Posted
Posted
Hey....I found a B5034 661-3919 Logic board...not tested...for 200$

What do you think??

 

Usually, Not tested = not working. Especially on ebay.

 

If you still wanna by it, make sure there's a returns policy, and the seller is trusted to honour it.

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colombodk
colombodk
Posted
Posted

Mr Bean: great mod you're making; I check up on your progress regularly :-)

 

However, the Asus Z7S WS, no one seem to know if it works with the hacked mac os...?!

 

I am hoping that it works with the hackintosh os, but I've not heard any success stories?

 

Can you enlighten us?

 

PS: keep up the great work! :D

 

 

Yes, there is :)

 

Here is mine

 

Soz for off-topic guys, thought this might help Fabriciom

 

@ Nagal: Great going there, luv what you're doing. I have ordered a MacPro, with all alu-bits, some auxilliaries from Ebay (wefixmacs)

 

So, after my Hackintosh is complete, I will tackle the MacPro, might go the same route as you ;)

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teknojunkie
teknojunkie
Posted
Posted
This might be a dumb question, whats the difference between mac pro "1,1" "2,1" "3,1" enclosures?

 

the 1,1 the 2,1 and 3,1 are all almost the same except different specs, like the 2,1 basic was a quad core and the 3,1 basic is an 8 core. The 1 at the end represent the mac pro, if it was a 1,2 it would be a whole different with some new parts on the enclousures.

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  • 5 weeks later...
Uli Kunkel
Uli Kunkel
Posted
Posted

I've been following this topic for a while, but this would be my first post. I have decided to build my own Mac Pro, and have ordered most of the items short of Memory Card Risers, Logic Board, and Processors, so I think you might already see where I am going with this...

 

Does anybody have any strong information on the following:

 

1) What is the difference between the Early 2008 2.8/3.0 board as opposed to the 3.2 board? Is it simply a revision, (i.e. newer board), or is there added or detracted options to either.

 

2) Does anybody have an understanding of whether any old Harpertown will do, or is it specifically the 5xx2 chips that apple chose that will function, (does the EFI sniff out the processors, or does it just detect Clock, FSB, etc., and have a preset ID for that chip)? Something tells me, (but I can't confirm), that the EFI isn't responsible for "naming" the processor, but that it simply sends specs, and it is a series of software steps that eventually "name" it. I admit however, that after only two Hackintoshes, I am absolutely unsure of what I just stated :D

 

The reason I asked question 2 is because of my following plan...

 

I want to take a readily available 54x0 Chip, and BSEL mod it to run 1666 FSB. It is a simple mod that I have performed with desktop chips, and others have been doing with Xeons since the 1066 FSB chips.

 

Sorry for the long post as my introductory one, but I am obviosly at a stand-still as far as ordering the final pieces for this project. I either get a ver 2 octo @ 1333 w/ 667 MHz Ram out of it, (not bad), or for the exact same price, a 2008 octo @ 1666, with 800 MHz Ram. And actually GHz for GHz, the Harpy processors are actually selling quite a bit cheaper than their older brothers, so I could save money by going with the newer setup.

 

Anyways, thanks in advance for any and all help offered. As well, thanks to all for this thread. I had been planning on building my own mac going all the way back to the G4's and G5's, but this is the first solid info I had found on the subject in the years that I had been searching. Hats off.

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THEVERTIGO
THEVERTIGO
Posted
Posted

Is there anybody out there who can tell me if:

 

1. an early 2008 2.8/3.0 logic board is compatible with the v. 2 (8X) enclosure (except that the standoffs for the memory cage needs to be adjusted and then obviously getting a new cage. Will the older power supply and cables work?

 

2. an E5420 processor will work as is, without having to mod anything, in a early 2008 2.8/3.0 logic board?

 

Thanks

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  • 2 weeks later...
Listed1st.com
Listed1st.com
Posted
Posted

I think you'll find no difference in the logic boards with the different speed CPUs, they should all be the same, only differenc eis the faster chips.

 

 

 

I've been following this topic for a while, but this would be my first post. I have decided to build my own Mac Pro, and have ordered most of the items short of Memory Card Risers, Logic Board, and Processors, so I think you might already see where I am going with this...

 

Does anybody have any strong information on the following:

 

1) What is the difference between the Early 2008 2.8/3.0 board as opposed to the 3.2 board? Is it simply a revision, (i.e. newer board), or is there added or detracted options to either.

 

2) Does anybody have an understanding of whether any old Harpertown will do, or is it specifically the 5xx2 chips that apple chose that will function, (does the EFI sniff out the processors, or does it just detect Clock, FSB, etc., and have a preset ID for that chip)? Something tells me, (but I can't confirm), that the EFI isn't responsible for "naming" the processor, but that it simply sends specs, and it is a series of software steps that eventually "name" it. I admit however, that after only two Hackintoshes, I am absolutely unsure of what I just stated :)

 

The reason I asked question 2 is because of my following plan...

 

I want to take a readily available 54x0 Chip, and BSEL mod it to run 1666 FSB. It is a simple mod that I have performed with desktop chips, and others have been doing with Xeons since the 1066 FSB chips.

 

Sorry for the long post as my introductory one, but I am obviosly at a stand-still as far as ordering the final pieces for this project. I either get a ver 2 octo @ 1333 w/ 667 MHz Ram out of it, (not bad), or for the exact same price, a 2008 octo @ 1666, with 800 MHz Ram. And actually GHz for GHz, the Harpy processors are actually selling quite a bit cheaper than their older brothers, so I could save money by going with the newer setup.

 

Anyways, thanks in advance for any and all help offered. As well, thanks to all for this thread. I had been planning on building my own mac going all the way back to the G4's and G5's, but this is the first solid info I had found on the subject in the years that I had been searching. Hats off.

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  • 3 weeks later...
deleted_account
deleted_account
Posted
Posted

Hope everyone is well. I haven't been on this thread in awhile, just finally caught up with the pages I've missed!

 

I was wondering about the following: (bringing this thread back up!)

 

1) I'm aware the size has been mentioned before, I believe somewhere around 16" wide...Is the Mac Pro motherboard officially an E-ATX motherboard? I just want to confirm that, since I'm trying to fit it in an E-ATX Chassis. (I know the Mac Pro chassis is beautiful, it's just I want to integrate all my Hard Drives and Optical Drives together, all-in-one Chassis, not have 2 separate External Enclosures for both tasks)

 

2) I'm also aware I would need to have Mac Pro CPUs in order for the EFI to detect it, can someone confirm that? CPU fans with EFI? (does it matter since they're fanless heatsinks)

 

3) The Mac Pros' Power Supply and Fans are Proprietary. Is there a possible work-around to be able to allow PC Power Supplies through some cable converters? EFI detects certain fans, would it allow PC fans?

 

4) Finally, a purchased Retail Leopard OS X would detect all the software (updatable) and hardware legitimately? This one is a must. (Yes, I'm aware I'm definitely voiding Apple's warranty, but that shouldn't be the problem. Should there be a problem, I would put everything back in the case. However, I know I'm taking the risk)

 

5) Items I'm sure of that I don't need to worry about being detected are: Memory (RAM), Hard Drives, Optical Drives, my PCI-Express Video and Sound Card that is Apple-compatible, as well as my PCI-Express RAID card. (it's time for me to get rid of my Powermac G5 and iMac G5, haha)

 

Essentially, I plan to purchase a Refurbished Mac Pro and basically move its components into an E-ATX Chassis that can allow 7x CD/DVD Drives (for the purpose of Media Duplication, a service I offer along with my Video Production work) as well as 8x Hard Drives (for the purpose of backups and Hosting Server for my websites), everything else would be as-if it's in a Mac Pro chassis since I will be using all of its hardware.

 

6) IF I don't go the Refurbished route, out of curiosity, anyone know where I can find the Mac Pro motherboard? (MAC-PRO, and ApplePalace seem to not carry that item anymore?)

 

*If item 1) is answered "no" please disregard the rest! :)

 

 

 

Look forward to hearing back from you guys! Any kind of help would be appreciated. No more OSx86 for me...spent way too much time on it, though it was succesful, it was fun while it lasted.   :)

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  • 3 weeks later...
ednedesigns
ednedesigns
Posted
Posted

Hello,

 

I have read this fabulous thread from the beginning, wow! I will be following in some of your footsteps. I am going to get my Mac Pro one piece at a time like the Johnny Cash song.

 

I have procured the tower, along with the 4 fans, various mounting brackets etc. I want to verify what enclosure I have so I can start lining up compatible components.

 

Can anyone help me?

 

Thanks,

 

ANDY

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  • 2 weeks later...
x86now
x86now
Posted
Posted

I bought a pair of memory riser cards from Mac-pro via their website for $89.00 a while back

 

Is it possible to use non-Apple memory risers with the Mac Pro motherboard? That might save some money.

 

Also - has ANYONE ever modded a PC power supply to power the Mac Pro motherboard? That power supply is one pain in the butt when you're building a Mac Pro.

 

Power Supply, Motherboard, Memory risers, Miscellaneous wires and connectors, video card......these seem to be the headaches.

 

Anybody know which connectors on the Mac Pro motherboard are non-standard? Sata should be ok but what about all the others? One can always use firewire or usb for audio but what about the power plug? Does the Mac Pro motherboard use a non-standard plug for power? ATX Socket 775 motherboards use a 20 or 24 pin power plug. What does the Mac Pro motherboard use?

 

It would appear that the way to do this inexpensively is to get older Xeons, use an older motherboard with 667mhz memory, and fit it in a server case (will this work?) or just make a new mounting board for the motherboard and use something home-built or an acrylic case that is adaptable. That can't be so difficult. I've never respected much of Apple's case work. The Mac Pro case is not quiet or particularly well designed for cooling if you've following the current state of the art. So if one can avoid the considerable expense of the case, and somehow power the thing without that very proprietary power supply, and use non-Apple memory risers one could assemble this for a few hundred dollars.

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TCMW
TCMW
Posted
Posted

x86now, I'm not sure if Apple Logic Board has a standard Extended-ATX form factor or not (I don't have a pc E-ATX case or Mobo to make a comparison), but surely you can adapt any case with enough space inside to fit the logic board with a bit of work. But then you have two BIG problems: first of all the cost of a server case (Apple's is expensive, but any server case in general is!) the second are the mobo's outputs: you can't just find a suitable "mask" as you would for a pc. I don't think you're gonna save any buck with that (not considering days of work and mess).

 

In my honest and personal opinion, if adapting a case (maybe one you found for free) could be a way, modifying a psu to work with a mac is simply useless and dangerous: a good 1000w psu and the Apple one cost exactly the same, plus you need to buy all the plugs, spend two-three nights in soldering cables and if you make one single mistake you fry a 800$ worth Logic Board... :wacko:

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