tommyd Posted August 8, 2006 Share Posted August 8, 2006 Has anyone had a chance to peek inside the new mac Pro? I'm curious as to what motherboard they used........thinking new build ideas! Tommy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cyrana Posted August 8, 2006 Share Posted August 8, 2006 Well, it has to be the 5000x line, but there are a few minor variations among them I guess. Someone here has to have one really soon since they're shipping now though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tommyd Posted August 8, 2006 Author Share Posted August 8, 2006 Yep, my searches haven't turned up anything definitive yet either. Should be fun to see what a little DIY can produce. "Hack Pro", anyone? Tommy Oh, and thanks for the links! Now off for some plotting and planning............... Tommy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dexos Posted August 8, 2006 Share Posted August 8, 2006 Well, it has to be the 5000x line, but there are a few minor variations among them I guess. Someone here has to have one really soon since they're shipping now though. Hope that's true, cause the 5000x 'Greencreek' has a much better memory performance than the 5000v 'Blackford'. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bofors Posted August 8, 2006 Share Posted August 8, 2006 Hope that's true, cause the 5000x 'Greencreek' has a much better memory performance than the 5000v 'Blackford'. Where do you see this information? To me it looks like they both deliver the same bandwidth as the Mac Pro, 21.3 GB/s. It is appear to me that if the 5000X were being used, the Mac Pro would have a RAM maximum of 32 GB with eight slots, not 16 GB as the 5000V would limit it to. EDIT: On the other hand, according to Intel's docs. (which are inconsistent on some issues) the 5000X is supposed to support the Mac Pro's 16x PCIe slot while the 5000V does not. But this review indicates otherwise: http://www.gamepc.com/labs/view_content.as...5000&page=2 EDIT 3: I accidently deleted my post above. Regarding the southbridge, it is supposed to be the 6321ESB according to Intel's documents, but others are referring to "ESB2" which may or not be the same thing: http://www.gamepc.com/labs/view_content.as...5000&page=2 EDIT 4: Apple's System Profiler refers to the Mac Pro southbridge as an "ESB2", see below. With the exception of the PCI details and clear discrepancy in max. RAM, the Intel S5000XVN appears similiar to Apple's Mac Pro board: http://www.intel.com/design/servers/boards/s5000xvn/ EDIT 2: It looks like these Tyan Tempest i5000XT (5000V) and i5000XL (5000X) boards might make decent Mac Pro clones as well: http://www.gamepc.com/labs/view_content.as...5000&page=1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joe The Dragon Posted August 8, 2006 Share Posted August 8, 2006 http://developer.apple.com/documentation/H..._PCI/index.html http://developer.apple.com/documentation/H...0608/index.html Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bofors Posted August 8, 2006 Share Posted August 8, 2006 Thanks Joe. Enterprise Southbridge Interface (ESI) The North Bridge and South Bridge ICs are connected by an Enterprise Southbridge Interface (ESI) bus, a high-speed, bidirectional, point-to-point link supporting a thruput of 1 GBps in each direction. ... PCI Express Architecture The Mac Pro has four internal, 2.5 GHz, PCI Express links connected to the North Bridge IC and South Bridge IC. The PCI Express slots are system and user configurable. The Mac Pro’s standard configuration is one 16-lane, double-wide graphics slot, two 4-lane expansion slots, and one 1-lane expansion slot. For information on PCI Express and the configuration options, refer to PCI Developer Note. http://developer.apple.com/documentation/H...0608/index.html Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bofors Posted August 8, 2006 Share Posted August 8, 2006 The SuperMicro X7DAE also looks like a good contender for a Mac Pro clone board with two 16x (mechanical) slots: http://www.pcconnection.com/ProductDetail?...SourceID=k22350 But at $572.86 with apparently no overclocking features, it is clear that most people around here are going to be building Conroe boxes instead. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cyrana Posted August 8, 2006 Share Posted August 8, 2006 Good job on the research, bofors. I'm just going to build a Conroe system myself I think, the Xeon stuff is a bit crazy and overkill. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tommyd Posted August 9, 2006 Author Share Posted August 9, 2006 Overkill indeed, but it sure would be a screamer! Thanks for all of the input, if i decide to go nuts on a box I'll keep the board posted. Tommy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bofors Posted August 9, 2006 Share Posted August 9, 2006 The way I see it is that you are much better off going with a real Mac Pro until Asus or whoever releases an overclocking 771 dual socket motherboard. Then you can consider buying the cheapest Woodcrests, the 5110's at 1.6 GHz, for about $250 a piece and perhaps put together something for about $1500+ that is faster than Apple's 3.0 GHz top of the line at $3000+. Until then, if you really need something like this, going with the "standard" 2.6 GHz Mac Pro for $2500 is the way to go. Otherwise, people are already building great Hackintoshs with Conroe on 975X motherboards. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dexos Posted August 9, 2006 Share Posted August 9, 2006 Where do you see this information? To me it looks like they both deliver the same bandwidth as the Mac Pro, 21.3 GB/s. It is appear to me that if the 5000X were being used, the Mac Pro would have a RAM maximum of 32 GB with eight slots, not 16 GB as the 5000V would limit it to. EDIT: On the other hand, according to Intel's docs. (which are inconsistent on some issues) the 5000X is supposed to support the Mac Pro's 16x PCIe slot while the 5000V does not. But this review indicates otherwise: http://www.gamepc.com/labs/view_content.as...5000&page=2 EDIT 3: I accidently deleted my post above. Regarding the southbridge, it is supposed to be the 6321ESB according to Intel's documents, but others are referring to "ESB2" which may or not be the same thing: http://www.gamepc.com/labs/view_content.as...5000&page=2 With the exception of the PCI details and clear discrepancy in max. RAM, the Intel S5000XVN appears similiar to Apple's Mac Pro board: http://www.intel.com/design/servers/boards/s5000xvn/ EDIT 2: It looks like these Tyan Tempest i5000XT (5000V) and i5000XL (5000X) boards might make decent Mac Pro clones as well: http://www.gamepc.com/labs/view_content.as...5000&page=1 I've done in the last weeks a lot of tests with Greencreek and Blackford Boards and the Greencreek has a so called Snoop Filter which prevents memory collisions and improve performance... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lilos Posted August 9, 2006 Share Posted August 9, 2006 Ok what is NB? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bofors Posted August 9, 2006 Share Posted August 9, 2006 MacInTouch has post the Profile (attached) of their Mac Pro, note that Apple is calling the southbridge an ESB2. They have also post some initial benchmarking for the Mac Pro: http://www.macintouch.com/#tips.2006.08.08 MacProProfile.rtf Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bofors Posted August 10, 2006 Share Posted August 10, 2006 Here is AnandTech's report on the Mac Pro chipset: http://www.anandtech.com/mac/showdoc.aspx?i=2811&p=3 I think they know less than we do. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vinnie-The-Phoo Posted August 15, 2007 Share Posted August 15, 2007 Hi Dexos, I have a S5000XVN mobo with dual Clovertown procs. I have tried installing uphuck 10.4.9 and cannot get OSx86 to install succesfully. Working for Intel I managed to get some demo stoock :-) ... I would kill to get a MacPro replica running ? Please can you share any experiences and kernels/patches you loaded to get a running OXx86 ? thanxxxx Vince I've done in the last weeks a lot of tests with Greencreek and Blackford Boards and the Greencreek has a so called Snoop Filter which prevents memory collisions and improve performance... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gotoh Posted August 15, 2007 Share Posted August 15, 2007 Hi Dexos, I have a S5000XVN mobo with dual Clovertown procs. I have tried installing uphuck 10.4.9 and cannot get OSx86 to install succesfully. Working for Intel I managed to get some demo stoock :-) ... I would kill to get a MacPro replica running ? Please can you share any experiences and kernels/patches you loaded to get a running OXx86 ? thanxxxx Vince instructions are posted all over the forum... It should not be different than any other hackintosh install process. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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