Mooner's HackPro (Gigabyte Z68MX-UD2H-B3 in Mac Pro case)

[mooner]

Nope... It's not an IDE port -- it just uses the same connector... Electrically, it is an Apple-specific (Mac Pro 2009-specific) pinout... So, you can buy a cheap IDE cable for one end (to plug into the front board), but you're going to have a fair amount of work cutting it up and splicing on appropriate connectors to get all the ports working.

They did the same thing on my version of the front panel by using a SATA connector for the USB ports. Screwy, but I'm sure they did it just for cost purposes -- a high volume connector like that with similar electrical performance characteristics would be cheaper than using something Apple-specific...

If you're using an Apple chassis, there is nothing quick or easy about building a Hackintosh...

PS: As much as I have enjoyed building my HackPro, I don't think I'll ever do it again... Maybe I'll upgrade my system a couple times (Ivy Bridge is looking pretty sweet), but I will probably never try another case mod. Too much work...

 

[mrmeister]

Hmm, ok, i don't want to be put off by this though. Maybe i'll try and get a 2006 case instead with the single FW800 and FW400. That sounds like it might be easier to do partly because it's been done before and yourself and others have documented guides on this website and others (thank you for that by the way!).

I can't see myself doing it any time soon. Its an idea that i've had for a while now. Being a music student in college i have a Macbook Pro 15" for the portability and power, but i was just interested in a desktop unit as well, so that my Macbook wasn't absolutely everything. I have far too many external hard drives too and i just wanted something more localised. I looked into building some kind of home server that i could access from anywhere, but A) it looked complicated, B) i still wanted to use Mac, so i'd need to build a hackintosh anyway (because the Mac Mini server wasn't enough for my needs and still fairly expensive, and the Mac Pro server is just out of the question due to price) and C) i think i'd have issues with my ISP about trying to access (upload and download) large amounts of data back and forth from my Mac to home server. With the amount of recordings we do, it'd be at least 50GB a month going back and forth, which is why i have so many externals.

I just want to be able to use my Macbook as the 'middle man'. It's still great for what it does, and i'm getting by at the moment, but i know that desktop systems are generally far more powerful, and these Macbooks overheat so much when i have a lot of tracks each with multiple instances of different audio processing on them...

As i say though, i'm a student, so money isn't exactly floating around me at the moment I think i'll start saving for up to a couple of years and then go all out and just buy all the hardware i need then. Who knows, maybe there'll be some new guides up by then too? I'll be sure to keep checking and try to stay an active user in these forums though!

 

[neilhart]

...

Ummm, after viewing your pictures the connections on the your panel is different to what i'm looking at. The 2009 model has a 44-pin connector for 1 audio, 2 USB and 2 FW800... Would this be the same process of buying a FW800 PCI card with an internal port, or would i have to do something different?

Again, thanks for your help

Well if your front panel has the FW800 internal port then I assume that it would work the same. You would use a patch cable to connect to the PCIE FW/USB card;s internal FW800 port. This cable was part of the Mac Pro harness that I had.

I'll bet it is documented. Google it and check IM and Aquamac sites.

neil

 

[mrmeister]

It doesn't have the FW port on the inside, only the 44-pin connector

 

[AusafK]

Hi There I am planing to finally get round to modding a Mac pro 2009 Case however i was hoping anyone could provide me with the images as Mobile me shutdown.
thanks

 

[mooner]

Hi There I am planing to finally get round to modding a Mac pro 2009 Case however i was hoping anyone could provide me with the images as Mobile me shutdown.
thanks

Done... Images are reposted... Hopefully Dropbox is here to stay...

 

[Jeffinslaw]

It looks like the website you linked to for the SAS to SAS connector isn't available anymore. Do you know of somewhere else to get it? I'm looking for some cables to do something like this but with a RAID card.

I'm looking for 1x SATA to 1x SAS and the SAS "barrel" adapter.

I can find the 1x SAS to 4x SATA cable.

If anybody could help me, that would be great!

Jeffinslaw

 

[mooner]

It looks like the website you linked to for the SAS to SAS connector isn't available anymore. Do you know of somewhere else to get it? I'm looking for some cables to do something like this but with a RAID card.

I'm looking for 1x SATA to 1x SAS and the SAS "barrel" adapter.

I can find the 1x SAS to 4x SATA cable.

If anybody could help me, that would be great!

Jeffinslaw

Try this:
http://www.maxupgrades.com/istore/index.cfm?fuseaction=product.display&product_ID=330&ParentCat=332

 

[Jeffinslaw]

It looks like the website you linked to for the SAS to SAS connector isn't available anymore. Do you know of somewhere else to get it? I'm looking for some cables to do something like this but with a RAID card.

I'm looking for 1x SATA to 1x SAS and the SAS "barrel" adapter.

I can find the 1x SAS to 4x SATA cable.

If anybody could help me, that would be great!

Jeffinslaw

Try this:
http://www.maxupgrades.com/istore/index.cfm?fuseaction=product.display&product_ID=330&ParentCat=332

Thanks but I'm not sure what I'm looking at there because the pictures are all of the same for the different items.

Jeffinslaw

 

[mooner]

It looks like the website you linked to for the SAS to SAS connector isn't available anymore. Do you know of somewhere else to get it? I'm looking for some cables to do something like this but with a RAID card.

I'm looking for 1x SATA to 1x SAS and the SAS "barrel" adapter.

I can find the 1x SAS to 4x SATA cable.

If anybody could help me, that would be great!

Jeffinslaw

Try this:
http://www.maxupgrades.com/istore/index.cfm?fuseaction=product.display&product_ID=330&ParentCat=332

Thanks but I'm not sure what I'm looking at there because the pictures are all of the same for the different items.

Jeffinslaw

Hi Jeff-

I'm not sure what you think I can do about it. They've got a crappy website, what can I say??

The page I referenced is for this product (which is what I used):


P/N Part Description
SZ-DCMSAS-R14X
MaxConnect SAS/SATA Link for PCI Express Controller with MiniSAS to 4x SATA Cable
MaxConnect SAS/SATA Link
MiniSAS to 4x SATA Cable