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Mac Pro MK II


aqua-mac
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;) Well I just had to respond to the fabulous effort by TorqueX86 in his G5 case!

 

Here are the first 2 shots of how far I have got, the back panel is still to be sorted, but you are looking at a full size ATX Asus P5E3 Premium Wireless @ n motherboard in a Mac Pro case!! How did I get it in you ask yourself and keep the shelf and HDD's in tact? I will reveal all at the weekend when I have a little more time. The sockets still need some work at the back but this time all the original Apple positions will hopefully be used. The front panel/power button is 100% functional and all original Mac Pro fans have been used but are controlled by the motherboard and revolve very slowly and are fully adjustable from the bios on this motherboard. It is virtually silent but is Quad powered at 3.6 GHz 1333 corsair DDR3 and has dual Nvidia 9800 GTX's!

 

newmacpro1.jpeg

 

newmacpro2.jpeg

 

 

:)

 

I am so enjoying the power, I don't want to have to take it apart again to wire up the back sockets!

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That looks unreal!!!..... I'm still yet to move mine along that far... cash is still very tight... Look forward to seeing how much room was required behind the shelf.. did you re-crimp the fan cables to make them fit on the Mobo? with both GFX cards in do you still can full access to all four hard drive bays?

 

Very very impressive Aqua-mac.

 

J.

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Yup all hard drives are accessible - all fan cables were rewired to fit 3 Pin PC fan outlets. Took some time to work out the wiring though. The very top PCI slot is not usable but both 16 x PCIe slots and the first PCI slot are fine. The secret was to cut a slot in the bottom of the case to let the motherboard drop down by about 4 mm. This allowed all the slots to line up! I am in the process of milling an aluminium cover for that will fix with socket screws on the underside. I will probably make it perforated too to aid cooling.

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holy {censored} aquamac, thats some skill.

 

if insanelymac was like facebook, i would give u a gift entitled "OSx86 God, this gift makes the owner pwn all"

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Thanks for the comments guys. Still a little work to do on this but nearly there.

 

Nice mod man, kudos. I'm looking forward to doing something similar for a friend. :D

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So did you have to cut both the shelf and the bottom of the case? I had just about pulled myself away from my MacPro mod... saw this and have been sucked back in! how are you doing the rear IO plate? I've been drawing up a frame that will allow for my motherboard supplied IO plate to clip in.. couple engineers at work a moaning about it.. :-p

 

 

J.

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Sexy!

 

I didn't actually know you could fit a full ATX *and* keep the 4 HD on the mac pro case! Thsi is really sweet! Can you explain in detail how you crammed it all inside?

 

SUper job, I think I'll do one myself next year! :)

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Thanks guys. I am not at home at the mo, writing this from a hotel room, but here goes:

 

I did not cut the shelf at all!

 

Basically, I cut a hole in the bottom of the case that allowed the motherboard to hang down by 4 mm. This is enough to align the card slots with the case. It does not have to be a big hole - in fact, it is a 10 mm wide slit that is wider in the middle to accommodate the motherboard lower heat sink. With my board, I only loose the use of the furthest PCI x1 slot at the opposite end - no great problem. The board slots under the HDD fixing rear bracket and does not interfere with it.

 

I have designed a 5 mm thick, aluminium plate to fit over the hole and will perforate it to look like the case front and aid cooling. To be honest, there is no need for the plate as all is hidden unless you turn the case over, but it should look like a std Apple fitment.

 

For the back ports, I will take a leaf out of TorqueX86's book and I am determined to keep the mac openings and fix together 3 USB, FW 800, FW400, optical, dual-lan, mic-in and sound-out just as Apple intended. I will put some more pics up at the weekend showing the slot in the bottom, but I have not finished the bottom cover yet.

 

I used this power supply as it has the power plug in the middle already. I did have to dremmel a bit from around the plug though to drop the plug by 5 mm. This does allow you to get the PS in without total removal of the fan support at the top of the case - but the fan had to go and I dremmeled out the fan grill in the middle of the support to allow the wires through the middle. I also removed the switch and bypassed it!

 

CA-014-HP_400.jpg

 

17-128-014-06.jpg

 

Watch this space and thanks for the encouragement!

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Here are a few more pics:

 

This one shows how the base was done - A dremel is your friend! This will be covered by an aluminium plate when I have finished it.

 

macprobase2.jpeg

 

macprobase.jpeg

 

The back plug on the Hiper power supply:

 

macprobackplug.jpeg

 

insidemacpro2.jpeg

 

The top of the motherboard up against the shelf. There was still a bit of work to do here as at this point the FW plug could not quite fit. A little bit of dremeling though and I got that up and running. I also recon the Apple Sata plugs will just go in with a bit of fiddling!

 

Here is a pic of the board:

 

2069_l.jpg

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How did you attach the power supply inside the case so it won't fall out when you plug/unplug the cable at the rear of the case ?

 

Gr8 work btw :rolleyes:

 

I'm waiting for my GA-G33M-DS2R mb to start the project, because the GA-G33-DS3R won't fit :/

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If you look at the picture of the power supply I used above, the socket is already in the middle so I only had to lower it. I cut a thin strip of aluminium and araldited it to the inside of the supply to maintain the original size hole that the plug fits in. The supply itself is screwed to the shelf!

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I have a recommendation and a question:

 

Recommendation: You really ought to place a rubber insulated edge cover around the small opening at the bottom, if by any chance the mobo touches the case you'll cry sour tears...

 

Question: I would like to buy for my case the Mac Pro processor "box", that thingy with the hole where you change the RAMs on a MP, and the left hand side grey plastic cover. Where do I get them, and what price should I expect to pay?

 

Kudos again, I'm all fired up to improve my mod now :)

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Hi Torque,

 

All housings were bought from this seller on ebay. I would send them a message to see if they still have the parts you require.

 

As far as insulation is concerned, the rear of the motherboard is insulated with self adhesive rubber strip. This whole area will be covered up soon with an aluminium plate.

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Aqua, you plainly have too much time and too much money.. My G5 case and all the parts, bits and bobs to mod it have been in my closet since I bought them last year :D

 

I'm either too busy to get started, or lack the money to begin. One of the two is always going on for me :P

 

Nonetheless, beautiful Hack Pro

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Hi Dark,

 

Ha Ha! Saving for the bits is still fairly hard work, but time I have little of. The parts were bought over a period of 3 - 4 months, but other parts were sold to pay for them. I usually do bits in the evenings when I get home from work - but my social life is a bit {censored} at the moment for sure. :blink:

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Hi Torque,

 

All housings were bought from this seller on ebay. I would send them a message to see if they still have the parts you require.

 

Hey Aqua,

 

Would you know the product code for the parts I need? If I knew the precise code I might attempt buying them from the local Apple shop where I bought the new G5 case... But I need the part codes, as there is a quite big language barrier, I'm a brit expat living in Asia... :)

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Hi Torque,

 

memory cage + rear fan (922-7679)

 

http://www.welovemacs.com/9227679.html

 

Front fan assby (922-7699) Only one fan included.

 

http://www.welovemacs.com/9227699.html

 

Optical Drive Carrier (922-7729)

 

http://www.welovemacs.com/9227729.html

 

HDD Carrier (922-7728)

 

http://www.welovemacs.com/9227728.html

 

Processor cover (922-8527) I think? Not sure about this one.

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Hi Torque,

 

Processor cover (922-8527) I think? Not sure about this one.

 

Ace, Aqua, those are all the parts I need! I'll go have a fight at the Apple store in the weekend and try to bring the sacred metal at home :queen:

 

For "processor cover" I meant the aluminium duct attached to the rear fan that you kindly indicated to me. That was awesome :P

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Torque,

 

Here's all the part # for the MAC PRO courtesy of mac-pro.com

 

Processor cover part # is 922-7710. Which is also what I need. I inquired and its expensive here in Canada about $50 plus tax so i might just have to improvise to fill the gap.

 

Keep up the good work guys.

post-178892-1217133439_thumb.jpg

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