Building a MacPro, Yes, a MacPro not a Hackintosh Options

[doobiedo]

Hi to everyone and thanks to nagal for starting this ride and all the others for the info to make this possible

Started this with the presumtion its going to take a while (thats what I told the other half ) , and luck would have it I found a case and powersupply about 1 day after deciding to take on this bit of fun.

Well after 6 weeks of online searches for parts I'm nearly finished and still within budget

[teknojunkie]

we need pics!

[Boot Camp]

Hi to everyone and thanks to nagal for starting this ride and all the others for the info to make this possible

Started this with the presumtion its going to take a while (thats what I told the other half ) , and luck would have it I found a case and powersupply about 1 day after deciding to take on this bit of fun.

Well after 6 weeks of online searches for parts I'm nearly finished and still within budget

we need pics!

Yes, pictures would be wonderful.

[doobiedo]

Nothing fancy or modified, it looks like a Mac Pro, with a few bits missing



Managed to get a pair of E5320 CPUs cheap, these will do me for now.



The only thing that has been bought new is the memory (4 Gigs).



If someone could tell me what size the two screws are that fix the memory cage to the enclosure, I'll be a happy chappie



Still looking for a Logic Board and a Graphics Card

[teknojunkie]

Very Nice! Where did you get your case from?

[doobiedo]

Very Nice! Where did you get your case from?

Thanks, I was lucky that at that present time a couple of cases were available in Europe on ebay, postage and taxes would have killed the idea if I had tried to get if from anywhere else.

[Boot Camp]

Nothing fancy or modified, it looks like a Mac Pro, with a few bits missing

Managed to get a pair of E5320 CPUs cheap, these will do me for now.

The only thing that has been bought new is the memory (4 Gigs).

If someone could tell me what size the two screws are that fix the memory cage to the enclosure, I'll be a happy chappie

Still looking for a Logic Board and a Graphics Card

What logic board version are you planning to use?

If you were planning on getting a 1,1 Logic Board, I would tell you to go to mac-pro.com, but they seem to be out at the moment. They were priced a little under $500. You could ask them when or if they'll be getting them back in stock.

If you are planning on buying an early 2008 logic board, they go for about $750 at applepalace and dvwarehouse. But you can find cheaper ones on ebay when they show up.

For the memory cage screws, nagal posted (#37):
"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."

What graphics card are you planning on using?

EDIT: More pictures!

[doobiedo]

Thanks for the info about the screws, read this whole thread about twice but somehow still managed to miss that

Logic Board: been hoping to get a cheap one on ebay but as of yet no luck, now opened a WTB thread in the Marketplace,
looking for either a 611-3919 or a 611-4307 board.

Graphics card is not a problem at the moment, might even buy a 7300GT just to get the show on the road and decide later what I want or need.

Will post some more pics in a couple of days when I've got more time

[Harloe]

doobiedo,

You mentioned about your budget! If you don't mind me asking what is your budget? I have tried to plan out this build financially and I didn't seem to really be saving anything if I just went out and bought a Mac Pro instead!

Thanks

[doobiedo]

@Kimosabe

I'm still within my budget so long as I don't buy a Logic Board

But seriously, I've planned for 1400€, I made a checklist with all the parts required to build this thing, I have
a maximum price range per part, it helped with quick decisions when searching for parts.

I could have built it cheaper, no 8 cores, half the memory, not all original apple parts, but then I could have just bought a used
Mac Pro for not much more, and wheres the fun in that

What did your planned build come to?

[Harloe]

Came to a hell of a lot for a Quad Core system. £1600 I managed to get to with an estimated price on the Logic Board of £400. I did have trouble finding Logic Boards though, I am currently planning a Hackintosh powered via EFiX. That way I can run Native OS X Leopard for about £700 (€863). That's with a Quad Core 2.4GHz, 2GB RAM, and an 8800GT.

But this Mac Pro build is so tempting but it is just so damn expensive. Guess I'll have to build my EFiX machine.

[Boot Camp]

Came to a hell of a lot for a Quad Core system. £1600 I managed to get to with an estimated price on the Logic Board of £400. I did have trouble finding Logic Boards though, I am currently planning a Hackintosh powered via EFiX. That way I can run Native OS X Leopard for about £700 (€863). That's with a Quad Core 2.4GHz, 2GB RAM, and an 8800GT.

But this Mac Pro build is so tempting but it is just so damn expensive. Guess I'll have to build my EFiX machine.

Instead of making a cheaper computer (compared to building a mac pro), you could spend twice as much for a high-end hackintosh! w00t!

HD:___VelociRaptor 150GB (Boot Drive)_________$160*
GPU:__EVGA GeForce 9800 GTX SSC Edition______$200*__(Would have chosen the GTX 280, but not supported at the moment)
PSU:__Antec TruePower Quattro 1000W_________$120*
RAM:__Patriot Viper 4GB(2GB x 2) DDR3 2000_____$300*
MOBO:_Asus Rampage Extreme X48_____________$389
CPU:___Q9650 3.0GHz________________________$550
Total:______________________________________$1719 = £1320
*Mail-In Rebate

I can dream.

If you do build a hackintosh with a Q6600 2.4Ghz, 2GB RAM and an 8800GT, I'd recommend upgrading to 4GB of RAM or some higher amount. I guess it depends on what you are going to use your computer for, but if you plan on using apple pro programs, adobe applications, other resource intensive programs or like to multitask, a couple more gigs of ram will make a very noticible difference.

[Harloe]

Yeah I plan on adding a couple extra gigs over time, probably the pay cheque after. Debating what to do at the moment. Build my EFiX Hackintosh, or a Gaming PC. I don't really want to combine the two together because using an EFiX Hackintosh requires sacrificing hardware to go with the HCL.

So I would like the two machines separate. Anyone wanna give me a push in a direction? lol

[madur0]

Guys, I think I found the PERFECT back plate for the Mac Pro Mod!!! This case has a sliding ATX back plate and an attached ATX motherboard plate. Take a look:

IQ-WIN 500 tower case

Review of IQ-WIN 500

The part this is most interesting for us is this:...........GET IT!!

[tugalo]

does anyone know if just any ol' nvidia geforce 8800 gt will work with this mac logic board 661-4449 or does it have to be the apple branded graphics card?

[Boot Camp]

does anyone know if just any ol' nvidia geforce 8800 gt will work with this mac logic board 661-4449 or does it have to be the apple branded graphics card?

Yes a PC 8800GT will work, BUT it must be flashed with the mac 8800GT bios in order to work (which is not guaranteed to work on every card).
Everything you need is here: http://www.reduser.net/forum/showthread.php?t=9689

[tugalo]

Well thats a bit too much trouble for me but the price difference almost makes it worth it... So an apple branded 8800gt would work with no problem though right?

[doobiedo]

Well funnily enough I've just managed to hopefully solve my lack of a graphic card problem with just this method, waiting for a PC EVGA 8800GT that I've won on ebay.

[Boot Camp]

Well funnily enough I've just managed to hopefully solve my lack of a graphic card problem with just this method, waiting for a PC EVGA 8800GT that I've won on ebay.

Have you successfully gotten the card to work? Pictures wanted.

[doobiedo]

Have you successfully gotten the card to work? Pictures wanted.

Sorry for the lack of updates but I couldn't really give a answer..........till now

Received not one but two logic boards end of last week , managed to get a good deal on both so I thought why not, If one doesn't work or get lost in the post, then I'll still have a chance to finish this thing this year.

Tested the card first in the Mac Pro, just to see what it looks like when it shouldn't work, and just as I thought, a black screen. The graphic card was flashed in my dual boot hackintosh (OS X/ XP) booting from a Freedos cd, plugged it back into the Mac Pro and now a grey screen instead of a black screen. The card "EVGA 512-P3-N801-AR" works and can be flashed to be used with EFI32 or EFI64 Mac Pro and it only cost me 80€.

Will take some pictures tonight

And here they are, it's not fully built, just testing to see whats working and whats not. Thats why the cabling is a bit of a mess, I'll be testing the other Logic Board shortly.




Spare parts