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Bought Mac Pro Case from Uk ebay..


goodl
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It arrived and is in great condition apart from a little nick out of the front top handle but not noticable unless you know its there. Sadly it has no drive sleds,front panel daughterboard or optical mounting frame, just the connector to the daughterboard for the power button (3 wire). starting the mod tonight hopefully. Asked Phil at scrumpymacs for a quote for some parts, got a feeling this is going to be an expensive mod...

 

Anyone who would like to pitch in with some tips would be gratefully recieved, I only have the link above for a guide and its a little light on detail

 

Will provide worklogs for interested parties

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  • 2 weeks later...

It's almost done, just the PSU to install properly (ie not dangling off the side , my hands are almost locked like claws from the manual labour and hacksawing, but a labour of love it has been. Getting my 800 GTX delivered today and I can pull the 7300 GT. Photos to follow! Front panel causing some head scratching.. anyone care to chip in?

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Hi Goodl, I am at almost the same stage as you. I switched on and booted my mac pro hackintosh last night, it lives! I have not looked at the power button/front panel yet though. That is my next job. My 8800 GTX is in position/fully working with Leo. My board is a ICH9 Gigabyte G33M-DS2R (or something like that). Things still to do, the cd drive is dangling as I did not get the cage with my case. Any ideas where to get this? There is another post here that explains the pinout but I have not had time to look yet. Try here & here

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I got it from Scrumpymacs in the end, they did me 2 sleds an optical cage and a front panel for £90, expensive but i wouldnt have been able to finish it without them so I'm not complaining. I'm typing it on this now! Havent got my front panel working yet apart from the on off button. My power LED is fried so I'm going to have to replace it.

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Hi Goodl,

 

Just saw your post, I also got my case from Phil at Scrumpymacs. It came with the drive sleds and front panel but no optical drive carrier, just ordered one from we love macs, never thought to ask Phil. Did he have one in stock? Powersupply is installed and all is working but there is still a lot to do. I havent looked at the power button yet, think I will wait till the weekend for that. I am still slightly in doubt about the power button connection. Presumably this is positive polarity and also so is the power button (on pins 6 & 8)? Also will the firewire work if we just plug into the internal FW800 port on a FW 800 Pci card. I have one in a machine at work, I may well bring it home over the weekend. Otherwise the only place to get 3.3v is from the firewire header I guess. I will take some pics this weekend to show you progress, but there is still much to do including working out the rear panel. I want it to look as authentic as possible. I have modded a G5 case before, don't know whether you saw that.

 

Regards,

 

aquamac

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Hi Aqua,

 

Zapro suggested taking 3.3v from a split SATA cable,I like your idea better.

Ive only got my power button working still.I cant face the sata splitting and soldering to get a working USB cable.My soldering skills are weak

 

Can you make me one if I paypal you some cash lol?

 

My power LED is dead,(thanks for the suggestions Zapro but its dead as flared trousers) shame that, Ill have to drill a hole and put a new LED behind it

 

Phil Scrumpy didnt have a optical bay in stock, I asked them to order it for me. 45 quid for a piece of tinfoil with some holes in it that should have been part of the case anyway. :P

 

how was the condition of your case and how much was it? Mine had a G5 side panel so I cant lock it shut

 

You lucky thing getting the front panel and sleds, they charged me 45 quid for those alone! :D

 

If you do finish it could you let me know if you have any more good ideas.

 

did you split the drive holders Zapro style to get your mobo in or save the other side as well?

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Hi goodl,

 

Well I think I paid for the front panel and drive sleds already as my case was £175. I noticed some of the others were £125 but had no drive sleds. The optical holder is costing me $80 so as you said not the cheapest way to get a case, but hey it is the business! My case has a small scratch on the front of the front handle. It annoyed me at first as the ebay advert said there were no detectable marks on this one, well I detected it within about 10 seconds, however I seem to have stopped noticing it now. I used a Gigabyte G33M-DS2R ICH9 board mini ATX board (Click Here), so have been able to save the whole upper partition and space for 4 drives. I have some big plans for up front with twin 120mm fans. Not sure whether to go watercooling yet, that can wait a while anyway. I will borrow the FW 800 PCI card from work and let you know if just plugging in the internal lead works. Will bring my camera home tonight too, and put up a pic of progress so far.

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Here are a few shots of my case so far. I sorted out the power button, led & audio so far, still have to tackle USB & firewire. Do you have any info? By the way your led might not have broken, it is very intermittant without the 3.3v connection, but is 100 % reliable when that connection is made.

 

sideshotc.jpeg

 

procasesideshot.jpeg

 

frontpanel.jpeg

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I bought a female IEC connector from Maplins and a right angle Male IEC and soldered a small power cable betweent them to get them to line up. Then used three long motherboard standoffs in a row per screw hole on the psu to give the correct distance. I the back I just strung it with zip ties to the remanants of the fan divider. bear in mind I had no base to support it like Aquas as I use a full ATX board and had to lose my 2 right hand drive bays to get the mobo to fit.

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Hi Ingab & goodl,

 

Like goodl, I plugged this lead into the back of the actual supply:

 

ap08j.jpg

 

Then I soldered it to a socket that I fixed into the mac pro socket hole, so it looks like an original socket. I used a 1000 Watt Jeantech PS with plug in cables on the back. This PS is longer than a std PS and just fits in with the 2 cd drives. Like goodl, I also had to remove the fan on the top shelf.

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Hi all,

thanks for the informations.

 

For now I spent my time thinking how to make the rear panel for the connections. I didn't want cut the case , so I thounght about desolding the connector on the MoBo, and to fix the only necessary connectors on the case.

 

Also i thought to buy a 500W power supply. Do you think that this can enough?.

 

Bye.

 

Andrea

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To be honest, I just pulled out the plastic insert round the old ports and found i could thread a network cable through the hole, I broke out the usb / firewire ports from the motherboard headers to the card slots and called it done. I didnt want to hack up the back for the sake of easily moved ports. As to your PSU, as long as its a good brand not a cheap one and your not running an 8800GTX it should be fine. Im useing a 550w one in mine but I have used a 300w and it worked just as well

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