Planning: The Watercooled Mac Pro

[ElAwesome]

Hey guys,

first of all: Maybe I'm in the wrong forum in here, but I'm not going to build a hackintosh (at least not now).
I want to watercool my 2009 Mac Pro. This sounds crazy, I know. Very few people have done that before.
I'm planning to mod a Mac Pro to get it water-cooled.

Also I want to create a new transparent acrylic sidedoor, to see the beauty from inside, and obviously place a few LEDs.

As there almost no free space inside the Mac, I will need to use an external radiator. I bought a PowerMac G5 which houses the Rad, res and the pump. All of them are powered by a second PSU unit.

This mod would include modding the original CPU heatsink, because without it, the Mac refuses to boot. Then, although it uses regular LGA1366 CPUs, I need no create a custom plate for the CPU water block because the logic board of the Mac doesen't have the usual holes for the coolers.
The GPU isn't going to be a problem since I already use a flashed PC EVGA GTX 570 in it.

I want to do no metal work to the case, that means if I want to, I can build everything back to how it used to be. The heatsink will be the only thing I have to take apart. I will get the tubes outside of the case through a special PCI bracket.

Little sketch how I want it to be:

I wanted to ask you guys what you think of this idea?
It's a hell lot of work, but in the end a wonderful Mac would be created, that no one ever did before in this way.

Thanks!

 

[rehpotsirhc]

There's so much extra room in a G5 / Mac Pro case when you're using a micro ATX or ATX board and such air flow that I don't get why you'd want to use an external radiator and res.

 

[ElAwesome]

There's so much extra room in a G5 / Mac Pro case when you're using a micro ATX or ATX board and such air flow that I don't get why you'd want to use an external radiator and res.

I'm not gonna build a Hackinotsh, I'm gonna modify my existing Mac Pro. No new parts are used, I use the original Mac Pro parts.

 

[minihack]

I think it is a nice idea, but why not put the radiator and reservoir on the back of the Mac Pro? It'd be great to have a large tube reservoir on the back to see all the cooling. It wouldn't mean drilling the Mac Pro because you could make a mount panel that had holes to match the perforations on your Mac Pro and use 3mm fixings through the mesh.

If you really want to use the G5 case to house that stuff then you should go to town on it - huge radiator inside, enormous reservoir on the top shelf and enormous clear side door.....maybe put a fish tank in there too.

 

[Dschijn]

With my MacPro 1.1 I just cooled the GPU with water and an external radiator.
The tubing got out by using one the PCIe Slots.

 

[ElAwesome]

I think it is a nice idea, but why not put the radiator and reservoir on the back of the Mac Pro? It'd be great to have a large tube reservoir on the back to see all the cooling. It wouldn't mean drilling the Mac Pro because you could make a mount panel that had holes to match the perforations on your Mac Pro and use 3mm fixings through the mesh.

If you really want to use the G5 case to house that stuff then you should go to town on it - huge radiator inside, enormous reservoir on the top shelf and enormous clear side door.....maybe put a fish tank in there too.

Thanks.
I measured around with the rads and came to the conclusion that for an efficient LCS I need an external rad. And I have a G5 case left anyway so that's pretty cool.
I'll rather do Acrylic side door on the Mac Pro, not on the G5. There's more to see inside the MP

Dschijn: Yes, saw your GPU cooling system. You got me on the idea with the PCIe holes

Is it true that the reservoir needs to be the highest placed element in the system?

 

[Jeffinslaw]

Thanks.
I measured around with the rads and came to the conclusion that for an efficient LCS I need an external rad. And I have a G5 case left anyway so that's pretty cool.
I'll rather do Acrylic side door on the Mac Pro, not on the G5. There's more to see inside the MP

Dschijn: Yes, saw your GPU cooling system. You got me on the idea with the PCIe holes

Is it true that the reservoir needs to be the highest placed element in the system?

Not necessarily. You just need to have the reservoir before the pump so the pump never runs dry. Talk to me if you are interested in learning the specifics of a watercooling loop. I spend most of my time over at OCN so I have learned a TON about watercooling over there.

Jeffinslaw

 

[ElAwesome]

Not necessarily. You just need to have the reservoir before the pump so the pump never runs dry. Talk to me if you are interested in learning the specifics of a watercooling loop. I spend most of my time over at OCN so I have learned a TON about watercooling over there.

Jeffinslaw

Thanks!
Would you mind PMing me some basics about WCing? Thanks!!

 

[Dschijn]

So… it seems like you need to build something yourself to attach the cooler to the logic board. I have seen water cooler mods, which custom made a holder by cutting thick acrylic glass. You could use the dimensions of the coper part of the original cooler.
I will attach some pictures of a water cooler whose holder can be removed and replaced:

 

[Jeffinslaw]

Thanks!
Would you mind PMing me some basics about WCing? Thanks!!

The site isn't allowing me to PM you

Jeffinslaw