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.

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

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.

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!

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

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

@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?

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.

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

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!!

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

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?

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.

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

Leopard retail should arrive tomorrow, I`ve installed both Windows XP and Linux just to make sure everything works without making a bang then sitting in the dark

Just a quick update, received my Retail Leopard DVD, tried to Install Leopard but the Installation stopped at the beginning with a Kernel Panic (appleintelcpupowermanagement problem), long story cut short, created an image from the DVD, restored the image to a usb harddrive, deleted the "appleintelcpupowermanagement.kext" and used the usb harddrive for the installation.

Installed 10.5.4 without any further problems and then upgraded to 10.5.5

Hi.
I have some questions for you.
1. I have a power supply ATX
- 1x 24/20-Pin
- 7x 4-Pin
- 1x 4-Pin
- 1x 8-Pin.
Can I use it or it's needs only original?

2. I have two processor Intel Xeon 5410 2,33 GHz 12 MB 1333MHz FSB Quad-Core. Wich of Logic Board should I buy for them?(661-4449 or 661-4307)

3. I can not find case for the Mac Pro . Can I use another case for Mac G5?
Thank you.

Hi,

1: From the knowledge I read in this thread I think you would be better off just buying an original Mac Pro PSU.

2: I think for the 54xx CPUs you would need a Version 3 board http://www.dvwarehouse.com/Logic-Board-for...76-p-35536.html

3: Mac Pro in a G5 case, never even thought about it to be honest, but there are usually a
few cases available on ebay, seach for case or enclosure under apple.

Bye

Just curious if anyone grabbed one of these to see if they can be retrofitted right into the Pro Intel/G5 case once the hole has been fabricated on the back panel of the g5/intel pro case?

Seems the user is right, the p45 motherboard would fit, the plate would snap in, and all the slots line up. For those that are not as good at fabricating, seems like it might be a good idea, I havent even gotten my G5 case, but my EFI-X (gigabyte p45-dq6) has been running flawlessly with a 8800gtx flashed to a fx5600. Now its just time to make the outside look a little better.

Thanks

-SepticDeath






Just curious if anyone grabbed one of these to see if they can be retrofitted right into the Pro Intel/G5 case once the hole has been fabricated on the back panel of the g5/intel pro case?

Seems the user is right, the p45 motherboard would fit, the plate would snap in, and all the slots line up. For those that are not as good at fabricating, seems like it might be a good idea, I havent even gotten my G5 case, but my EFI-X (gigabyte p45-dq6) has been running flawlessly with a 8800gtx flashed to a fx5600. Now its just time to make the outside look a little better.

Thanks

-SepticDeath






Just curious if anyone grabbed one of these to see if they can be retrofitted right into the Pro Intel/G5 case once the hole has been fabricated on the back panel of the g5/intel pro case?

Seems the user is right, the p45 motherboard would fit, the plate would snap in, and all the slots line up. For those that are not as good at fabricating, seems like it might be a good idea, I havent even gotten my G5 case, but my EFI-X (gigabyte p45-dq6) has been running flawlessly with a 8800gtx flashed to a fx5600. Now its just time to make the outside look a little better.

Thanks

-SepticDeath

First off, awesome job on the project!

------------------



I'm actually thinking about just using this as my case instead of spending $300-$400 on a mac pro case. You guys think it would work?

Also, what do ya'll think of these:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewI...em=220343453140

I know they're not the best out there, but on newegg...

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...afdd622d17b6456

So you could get 2 of these for $250 instead of $1500

Any insight?

Still looking for a logic board. I thought I had won one off ebay but I think the seller tried pulling a fast one on me at the very end to try and get me to pay more, which I didn't go for....

Thanks!

Sorry septicdeathm just wanted to say that you choose the wrong topic, this one is called : "building a macpro, yes a macpro not a hackintosh". Could be confusing for other users.

Lol I read some topic like this one. Some guy puts his logic board to Mac Pro Case but I wouldn't spend so much for that I'd go and buy a faster CPU for example

Or best buy directly a Pro, which is less losing time, probably less expensive but surely garanteed and working.

Mac pro service source is not a joke it is 178 pages composed.
You will never have perfomances without testing first, also with original parts.
Believe me, buying it is better and less expensive in any case.

Tony Conte and cavallo, if you buy straight a full functionnal MacIntel then you miss the fun of building one yourself. And this is the meaning of the "game".

Oh if it is for fun no problem, but is not a Mac pro, it seems to be if you like to believe in an illusion life is an illusion commerce.
The problem here is that new user may believe that it is, you know what i mean?

So from reading this thread, 54XX Harpertown xeons wont work on the 661-3919 logicboard?

its beautiful, i need one. if i can get a cheap mac pro case, im just gonna rip the stuff out of my hackint0sh and dump it in there, maybe use some apple parts so i can boot retail ;D, can anybody give me a link to a case? nothing inside tho

decided to built my 1st mac pro. wanted to bid a mac pro case off ebay and grab a macpro 2,1 logic board at dvwarehouse for $500+. hope they ship to asia country. Anyone bought anything from dvwarehouse before? how was the service?

I have a new MacPro Intel Case that I would like to sell. I was going to use it as a project, but never got around to it. Let me know if there's interest and I can post details...

Click to view attachment

anyone tried to install only one memory riser card will it boot?

I think that you have not read the full thread from the beginning. Nagal is talking about building a REAL macpro, check the pictures at the start of the thread. Some commentators wrongly talked about building a hackintosh and this is not not he good thread here.

<h1 class="itemTitle">Does anyone know if 2x Intel Xeon W5580 Quad 3.2G">hz LGA1366 Nehalem CPU will work on this mac pro logic board 661-4307 i bought -
</h1><h1 class="itemTitle"></h1>

no. from a quick google search, that board is designed for Intel Quad Core Xeon processors which are socket LGA771. LGA1366 is a completely different socket altogether and will not support the physically larger Nehalem processors which are LGA1366.

Hi thanks for quick response, ok i will have to give those chips a miss, can you recommend an chips which are LGA771 and are compatible with my 8-Core board?

Cheers Sam

You should look into this processor:

Intel Xeon X5355 - SLAEG

That CPU has G0 stepping for better power efficiency compared to the B3 stepping.

8mb L2 cache and 2.66ghz clock speed will perform very well with the 1333mhz FSB. These are probably the same or very similar CPUs offered in the Mac Pro at this time.

I'm not sure if that logic board supports a 1600mhz FSB which is why I don't recommend that as it may not be worth the extra money.

The X5460 is probably the fastest CPU you can use with that board safely...I'm not sure if the X5482 will work, that's the 1600mhz FSB model @ 3.2GHz

Hi, im interested in the X5482 cpu, there are 2 on ebay for bidding £1200 (330334554672), thats overpriced isnt it? As for that price you could almost buy a brand new mac pro 2009 Nehalem.

Regards Sam

that's very overpriced, X5482 should be 800-900 euros possibly less, but they are also still new, the price hasn't had a chance to go down.

overclock dual nehalem-EP 5500 series ?

so far have not found any info , on OC and dual lga 1366 ?
building an mac pro,.... is more like an exercise, since you won't save any money,...
maybe, considering, more flexibility, aka, memory, etc, but loads of work,...

also the lower priced xeon E5504 +,.... 2Ghz,.... don't seam to appealing,....
compared to a stock i7 920 with and mobo to OC 3ghz+ ,....
also architecture wise,... the server boards with RDIMM,... heat your room,...
my new pick for a case, is storm scout, has a grip, or a 4U rack mount
since a machine like that, you'd wanna use, it, and not always at home,... (studio/etc,...)

looking for:
- dual xeon mobo lga 1366 to OC /overclock ?
- OC xeon nehalem lga 1366 ?

hi guys,

im looking to start my build of a mac pro. i was looking for cases and only could find early 2008 models. will the 2008 case work if i build a 2009 model. i looking at build 8 core one .

oh and all of your build look amazing. this is my first build of anything so i have my fingers crossed. any advise for a newbie.

Im selling a damaged mac pro case - great condition however the bottom 2 legs have come away from the tower (easy fix) £50 + shipping

Also selling an untested 2007 mac pro logic board very rare to find £150 + shipping

Please email me for pictures or for more information

Sam x

Do you still have the case available?

Hi all,
I'm building a mac pro and I'm using the 661-4307 board. I wanted to know which heatsink I could use for the CPU besides those apple, without to modify the front fan.

Thanks in advance and best regards.

Andy

Hi andy you can use the oem intel heatsinks which come with mounted fans. just ebay socket 771 heatsinks and any of them will do really - however if you get the fans this does increase the noise level of the mac pro.

Thanks for a replay.

I resolved buying two mac pro haetsink form Applecomponents with one memory riser card.

Bye