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neilhart's Mac Pro Hack

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Nice mod where did you get the SAS/SATA adapter and cable assembly. I don,t have a mac pro case but I might be able to use it on my HAF 939. How did u convert the power.

Thanks
 
Goto this link (mooner's Mac Pro hack): http://www.tonymacx86.com/mac-pro-m...kpro-gigabyte-z68mx-ud2h-b3-mac-pro-case.html and look at post number 6.

neil

Hi Neil,
I've read your post about your Mac Pro Mod, your job was very outstanding.:thumbup:
Now I followed the method of using MaxConnect SAS/SATA Link, a miniSAS(SFF-8087) female to female connector/adapter sold by MaxUpgrades(My motherboard is Asus P9X79 WS), but found no matter I made whichever connection(connection 1: hard drive-->Apple SATA Harness SFF-8087 connector-->this Link-->SFF-8087 to 4xSATA cable-->motherboard; connection 2: hard drive-->Apple SATA Harness SFF-8087 connector-->this Link-->SFF-8087 to SFF-8087 cable-->LSI 3ware 9750-4i Raid Card-->motherboard),I still can't get my drives recognized/detected by motherboard's BIOS, after thorough test/examination by myself, hard drive engineer of a data rescue company and technic engineer of Asus local Service Center today, I found my motherboard, hard drives, all the cables, the Link and Raid Card were all good, so what is the problem exactly? :?:

I was told that the connection 1 was incompatible with the motherboard and unable to work/get recognized as normal SATA connection no matter what BIOS version it is.:( I thought the connection 1 was intuitive and easy, but it won't work. So I think I have to discard connection 1 and keep connection 2, right?

Regarding the connection 2, the engineer used their own hardware to test whether this connection works, he first set up the drive configuration via "create unit" function in the Raid Card's BIOS and then the Windows in his system drive which was connected directly to his motherboard and not connected together with other secondary drives via Apple Harness cable COULD successfully recognize those secondary drives.:)

However, I want to boot my OS directly from the system drive via connection 2(= boot from the Raid Card, no any hard drive is connected to SATA port of the motherboard), he said this way will require help from a server specialist who has the skill to do the work. Is this way that difficult to a normal PC/Mac user like me to set up? I knew you have made identical connection as my connection 1 here, so I am very curious about how you made it work/how you made your drives recognized in the motherboard BIOS and OS and fully functional? And, do you know how to boot from a Raid Card like mine?

Really really eager to hear from you soon.

Thanks in advance.
 
Hi Neil,
I've read your post about your Mac Pro Mod, your job was very outstanding.:thumbup:
Now I followed the method of using MaxConnect SAS/SATA Link, a miniSAS(SFF-8087) female to female connector/adapter sold by MaxUpgrades(My motherboard is Asus P9X79 WS), but found no matter I made whichever connection(connection 1: hard drive-->Apple SATA Harness SFF-8087 connector-->this Link-->SFF-8087 to 4xSATA cable-->motherboard; connection 2: hard drive-->Apple SATA Harness SFF-8087 connector-->this Link-->SFF-8087 to SFF-8087 cable-->LSI 3ware 9750-4i Raid Card-->motherboard),I still can't get my drives recognized/detected by motherboard's BIOS, after thorough test/examination by myself, hard drive engineer of a data rescue company and technic engineer of Asus local Service Center today, I found my motherboard, hard drives, all the cables, the Link and Raid Card were all good, so what is the problem exactly? :?:

I was told that the connection 1 was incompatible with the motherboard and unable to work/get recognized as normal SATA connection no matter what BIOS version it is.:( I thought the connection 1 was intuitive and easy, but it won't work. So I think I have to discard connection 1 and keep connection 2, right?

Regarding the connection 2, the engineer used their own hardware to test whether this connection works, he first set up the drive configuration via "create unit" function in the Raid Card's BIOS and then the Windows in his system drive which was connected directly to his motherboard and not connected together with other secondary drives via Apple Harness cable COULD successfully recognize those secondary drives.:)

However, I want to boot my OS directly from the system drive via connection 2(= boot from the Raid Card, no any hard drive is connected to SATA port of the motherboard), he said this way will require help from a server specialist who has the skill to do the work. Is this way that difficult to a normal PC/Mac user like me to set up? I knew you have made identical connection as my connection 1 here, so I am very curious about how you made it work/how you made your drives recognized in the motherboard BIOS and OS and fully functional? And, do you know how to boot from a Raid Card like mine?

Really really eager to hear from you soon.

Thanks in advance.

I do not understand your problem. The link adapter and 4 SATA cables to my motherboard worked without issue.

neil
 
neilhart, what is the brand and model of that card you have that gives you 3 USB and a couple firewire ports?

I used the BYTECC PCIE USB/Firewire card, BT-PEFWBU2 sourced from Newegg. I just checked the Newegg web site and they no longer stock the card.

Sorry that it is not readily available.

neil
 
I do not understand your problem. The link adapter and 4 SATA cables to my motherboard worked without issue.

neil

Sorry, my description was too complicated.
I tried connection 1: hard drive-->Apple SATA Harness SFF-8087 connector-->this Link-->SFF-8087 to 4xSATA cable-->motherboard, but my motherboard couldn't recognize my drives. Do you think whether it is a compatibility issue between SFF-8087 data and motherboard's BIOS?

Thanks.
 
warrenk.tw - it worked for me on the MSI X58 motherboard.

Is your mod for the SATA power complete?

Are the drives spinning up?

What other PCI or PCIE cards are in the bus?

When this is working correctly, you will see your hard drives in the BIOS setup screen. I would think that if your system is not seeing the hard drives, that there is a open circuit / miss-wire.



neil
 
guys one question if I may,

is the original apple power supply (mostly 980W) even applicable to the pc components? Is it even worth it? Its quiet expensive on ebay and other e-shops 250-350 dollars :-/
 
guys one question if I may,

is the original apple power supply (mostly 980W) even applicable to the pc components? Is it even worth it? Its quiet expensive on ebay and other e-shops 250-350 dollars :-/

From my perspective it is not. The ATX power supply required by today's PC motherboards is the standard. The Apple power supply is not well documented and few (if any) have documented a successful conversion to PC ATX usage.

For a Mac Pro if you can lay your hands on the original sheet metal, I advise re-packaging an known good ATX PSU into that sheet metal.

neil
 
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