Mac Pro 2008 Front Panel PWR and LED only

Hi all,

I'm working on a 240 AIO cooled Mac Pro 2008 mod, most of the work is done except the power LED.

I've read through the forum including posts like this: https://www.tonymacx86.com/threads/mooners-hackpro-gigabyte-z68mx-ud2h-b3-in-mac-pro-case.20826/

However, some old images are lost.

I understand that unlike 2009/2010 Mac Pro, this front panel needs power to work, including the LED. I also traced the LED pin from the switch, it's not directly connected to the 8 pin mini plug.

I would prefer not to involve any big D connector to supply power jut for the LED. My last resort will be soldering some jump wire to hack it.

Are there any easy way to get it working?

Never mind, I couldn't wait for the answer so I made a 6 pin connector to the PSU with 4 wires including 3.3v, 5v, 12v and GND.

mad86 said:

Never mind, I couldn't wait for the answer so I made a 6 pin connector to the PSU with 4 wires including 3.3v, 5v, 12v and GND.

Click to expand...

If you could detail it with pictures, it would be helpful for others to do this too. I've never been able to understand the how to hook up power....whether it's via PSU or via the Motherboard through another port.

Have the LED(+) from the panel to the HDD(+) pin on the motherboard. this is what i did & works fine. you need to solder wires directly to the button though.

lfhlaw said:

If you could detail it with pictures, it would be helpful for others to do this too. I've never been able to understand the how to hook up power....whether it's via PSU or via the Motherboard through another port.

Click to expand...

I decided to do some grunt work and found out that all the voltages needed are also supplied by an SATA Power cable. I've attached the pinout from the SATA and the cut SATA wires. I've got a lot of those over the years from builds. So I chopped the very end of the SATA cable and tested the wires vs ground and found the different voltages.
I then cut the end of the Mac Cable that goes to the mother board and labeled the wires. Now I just have to connect those lines to the correct ones that go to the front panel of the Mac and I should be good to go I hope.

Hello, mad86! Keep in mind that not all connectors will work if you want to install the alternative LED smart strip lights in the front, so if you are planning to replace lights, make sure that the strip lights you are planning to install are compatible with the big D connector. Otherwise, you risk wasting your money and time. If you have any questions regarding the proper type of connectors, I will be glad to help you. Reach me via PM messages or answer here on this topic.

I tried soldering the original SATA Headers from apple to be able to connect to the motherboard. it worked fine on windows but for some reason im getting unusable speeds on Hackintosh. any idea why?