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Need solution to an old Mac Pro Hackintosh conversion problem

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Feb 28, 2015
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Motherboard
MSI Z97M Gaming
CPU
i7 4790K
Graphics
GTX960
Mac
  1. MacBook Pro
  2. Mac Pro
Mobile Phone
  1. iOS
This is to do with the modification of the hot swap drive bay SAS wiring harness.

Some information is available from users Mooner and ptmay but the information is old (2011) and most links are now broken or do not work.The power to the harness seems easy enough to sort with the purchase of a male Molex 43020-0801 from here: http://uk.mouser.com/ProductDetail/Molex/43020-0801/?qs=th8CuLdcYnnUcp9LIcG6sw== along with it's associated pins. This can then be wired to the ATX SATA power cabling to provide the 2x supplies needed for the four drives. A modern up-to-date wiring diagram would be helpful if anyone has one.

The main problem seems to be the SAS to SATA conversion. The 2011 links are to a site in the US and I have been unable to get a response via email from this company. Does anyone have information where the parts for converting the Apple SAS connector to a four wire SATA cable are available in the UK or Europe?

I'm sure that there are more like me who want to convert a Mac Pro case and want to retain the original hot-swap bays but who live in Europe and can't get parts.

Any help as to where to obtain the necessary parts would be appreciated.
 
You could try to find something like this http://www.datastoragecables.com/sas/adapters/minisas-sata/SM-084-C.html

Edit I think this will actually work:
Remove one of the boards fromthis and mount it to the case:
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/2-Port-SF...I-Slot-Profile-Mounting-Bracket-/151217774383

Use one of these to connect to the SATAs on the motherboard:
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Mini-SAS-SFF-8088-26P-to-4-X-SATA-7-Pin-Cable-1-Meter-/291295358081

Thanks for the info it will aid my search for parts. Unfortunately the links point to sellers in the US and I am trying to find parts in the UK

The adaptor is easier to find over here, its the 8088-SATA cable that is proving more difficult to find.
 
Last edited:
You may want to try Aliexpress. I have found many small and difficult to source parts from their numerous suppliers. Shipping by China post or Hong Kong post does take time but DHL or EMS is usually a choice.
 
Thanks for the info it will aid my search for parts. Unfortunately the links point to sellers in the US and I am trying to find parts in the UK

The adaptor is easier to find over here, its the 8088-SATA cable that is proving more difficult to find.

The links under the edit section of my post were for ebay UK, but I guess the seller of that cable was in the US.
Alibaba or Ali Express might be a better option direct from China
 
So this is what I have ended up with:

1849903-a.jpg
http://www.scan.co.uk/products/lycom-st-187-dual-sff-8088-to-sff-8087-low-profile-pcie-host-adapter


and

$_1.JPG


I wanted to try to source both items from within the UK but I could only find the adaptor, which ironically was in stock at my main parts supplier. The cable was a different matter, there were many for sale on Amazon UK but all of the sellers were based overseas so in the end I choose one from a seller in Hong Kong, when this arrives I will test both items and report if they work together.

The ongoing build log for my Mac Pro conversion can be viewed here:

http://www.tonymacx86.com/mac-pro-mods/171682-my-mac-pro-hack.html
 
OK

So all the parts have arrived and been installed. Connected a HDD to bay 1 switched on and................nothing, the drive is not recognized.

This is the set-up:

Untitled-19.jpg

The Apple cable connects to the top of the board and the new cable connects to it's corresponding socket then on to the four motherboard SATA headers.

I don't yet know how I'm going to diagnose this.
 
OK

So all the parts have arrived and been installed. Connected a HDD to bay 1 switched on and................nothing, the drive is not recognized.

The Apple cable connects to the top of the board and the new cable connects to it's corresponding socket then on to the four motherboard SATA headers.

I don't yet know how I'm going to diagnose this.

I have done some testing. First I checked if my modification to the four separate drives power supply's was correct. All drives need a +5v and +12v and two ground. I broke apart an old hard drive and used the connector with some test leads soldered to the correct terminals to attach to each hard drive bay. I powered up the machine and used a multimeter to test the voltages at each bay.

Untitled-24.jpgUntitled-25.jpg

As can be seen I have the correct voltages at each bay.

Then I tested the data side. Each SATA connection requires power and data connections. The data connections consist of three ground connections, a transmit+ a transmit- and a receive+ and receive- as can be seen here:

hdsata2_engadget_howto.jpg

I checked the SFF 8088 cable and it has all of the cores to be able to pass all four drive connections (28) from one end to the other.

I then checked the SFF 8088 to SFF 8087 converter. I found that there were not enough lanes to transfer the required (28) connections from the input socket to the output socket. Using a multimeter I found that for every seven connections I was short of the Receive+ and Receive- this is why the drives are not recognised.

So the use of a SFF 8088 to SFF 8087 converter and a SFF 8088 - four SATA is the wrong combination for this job.

I then managed to get in touch with the owner of maxupgrades.com and ordered part# SZ-DCMSAS-R14X. This consists of an SFF 8087 to 8087 female to female adaptor/coupler and it's associated SFF 8087 to four SATA cable.

unnamed.jpg

This but without the PCIe raid card

This should pass all 28 connections from the Apple drive bays to four SATA connections to the motherboard.

I'll report back when the items arrive from the US.
 
Do you think its possible to just cut the SAS cable and just solder 4 SATA cables to it? I would love to use the neat SAS to SATA but it costs $60. Having hot swaping is not worth that much to me.
 
Do you think its possible to just cut the SAS cable and just solder 4 SATA cables to it? I would love to use the neat SAS to SATA but it costs $60. Having hot swaping is not worth that much to me.

If your not bothered about the hot swap bays or keeping the 'Mac Pro' look why not just do away with the SAS wiring loom and install a regular 3.5" drive rack which will allow you to use ATX power connectors and regular SATA cabling. You can even get a 5.25" - 3.5" adaptor to install a regular hard drive in the lower of the two optical drive bays.
 
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