Mac Pro Case Mod

[spence4]

Sounds good. I would handle the USB exactly the same as you, solder the back of the Mac Pro logice board to a USB header that I then connect to mother board. However, will be very interested to see how you make the connection between the motherboard and the Ethernet port on the old logic board. Good luck and looking forward to seeing your work.

 

[coronaflyest]

Just got this bad boy today, I'm going to get some work done over the weekend. I still dont know which video card I'm going with, which is an important decision for my build. Another thing does anyone know if there's a mini pci wifi + bluetooth that I can use.

 

[spence4]

It is my understanding that none of the mini pcie combo cards work for OS X except for the combo card in the MacBook Air but that has a proprietary connector that no one has done a pin out for yet. You could take one of the billion of wifi cards put it in a mini pcie to pcie adapter and then just tape a bt board from a an old MacBook onto it and connect the bt board via a USB header... That's what I did. I took the back shield off the adapter and used the Mac Pro built in antennae so the back looks clean.

 

[coronaflyest]

Oh ok, cool. I was going to be purchasing a wifi mini pci so I just wanted to be sure before I placed that order, but I will be using a usb Bt dongle . I was test fitting the rear i/o board im going to have to do some more cutting and I don't have the standoffs that I will be using yet or the video card to know for sure how much space I need.

 

[coronaflyest]

The ethernet port was harder than what I expected but I got it working, I'm only going to be using one port. All 3 usb are soldered rear i/o is almost ready. At this time the rear i/o looks a little messy im going to be sleeving the wires and will post pics once it looks neater.

 

[shokka9]

That board is sweet!

I used an Atheros AR5B93 half Mini PCIe card (no combo cards work - as I wanted to use the Intel one), works fine together with a Targus BT dongle.

Good luck with getting it all in the case etc, you should be fine.

 

[spence4]

Oh ok, cool. I was going to be purchasing a wifi mini pci so I just wanted to be sure before I placed that order, but I will be using a usb Bt dongle . I was test fitting the rear i/o board im going to have to do some more cutting and I don't have the standoffs that I will be using yet or the video card to know for sure how much space I need.

I'm not trying to **** on your Wheaties here, but to me it looks like you have your motherboard a little far away from the back of the case in these pictures. That will not matter if you are using HD4000 graphics, or a pcie extender, but if you planned to use a discreet GPU plugged directly into a PCIe lane, you might not be lined up correctly. Anyway, it looks as though I will be out of luck with the original logic board piece which means my hopes and dreams are on you eelhead!

 

[coronaflyest]

I'm not trying to **** on your Wheaties here, but to me it looks like you have your motherboard a little far away from the back of the case in these pictures. That will not matter if you are using HD4000 graphics, or a pcie extender, but if you planned to use a discreet GPU plugged directly into a PCIe lane, you might not be lined up correctly. Anyway, it looks as though I will be out of luck with the original logic board piece which means my hopes and dreams are on you eelhead!

I will have to wait till I get my graphic card to see how I'm going to place the mother board i also need to get some standoffs to mount it are there any draw backs if I do need a pci extender?

 

[spence4]

I will have to wait till I get my graphic card to see how I'm going to place the mother board i also need to get some standoffs to mount it are there any draw backs if I do need a pci extender?

Not that I am an expert but I don't think there are any drawbacks to the pcie extender- I would probably go that route if I was to do it again so I could use the piece from the old logic board.

 

[coronaflyest]

I finished up the front and rear USB wiring pics have been updated of what this mod is going to look like.