PSU for mac pro case

[mightydood]

Hi all

Just starting my first case mod. It's 2006 mac pro.
Want to take the guts out of a atx psu and stick it in the casing of the mac pro psu.

It needs to be about 800 (or less if need be) and small enough guts to fit in easily.

I'm looking at the seasonic line, but just want to check regarding any experience here about stuffing some new guts in!

Any help greatly appreciated!

Thanks

 

[neilhart]

I am not sure that you need an 800 watt power supply. I used a 500 watt and have had 4 3.5" hard drives, 2 SSDs and the Optical drive in my Mac Pro along with a GF 460 and have not seen a need for more power. If you are going to run old technology, then the might be a need, however today's tech does not draw much power. My Mac Pro hack can be seen here: http://www.tonymacx86.com/case-mods/28892-neilharts-mac-pro-hack.html . And sorry that there are only 4 photos of the PSU re-packing.

There are any number of good examples; use Google.

neil

 

[mightydood]

Hi neil

Much appreciation for the response!

I have noticed that less power is needed nowadays. And this is for audio use and so no big mutli gpu setup or anything.

You have similar demands so I will shifty down to 5-600w range.

Thanks for the advice!

PS Been looking at various setups on this site and others and yours sticks out and already taken a lot of ideas from you, so thanks again!

 

[mightydood]

Also I assume it's better to get non-modular?

 

[spence4]

Hi dood, I just finished a Mac Pro build and I used a Silverstone sfx psu. Sfx is a smaller size that seems to pair well with itx sized builds. I like it because the thing can fit inside the Mac Pro psu housing out of the box. I mean you can't really do that as the airflow wouldn't work but once you get the case off there is plenty of room for positioning and airflow. Two negatives are that it is modular - not a huge deal as like I said there is so much room to play around with. The other negative is that it is 450W. It is gold so that's a good 450, but I have relatively modest needs so I didn't need much more. Good luck with your build.

 

[minihack]

Just as an add on to what Spence said, that Silverstone supply is tiny! Here is a pic of it in my HTPC set-up currently being used. You can see that in my build it sits a little above the IO shield of my Zotac board but still only comes to just slightly higher than the top of my GTX 660, so is a good candiate for re-bodying (probably without the need to remove from the original Silverstone case and therefore can keep warranty).

 

[mightydood]

Hey guys

Thanks for that info...!

The SFX series looks great, BUT that 450W is a worry and may limit my future proof.
I used the calculator and I was near the 450w mark and I may want to add a card etc in future. I like to have a bit of an overhead.

However looking at the other silverstone stuff... looks like it will be better anyway as they seem smaller than other manufacturers...!
Thanks!

 

[neilhart]

minihack - to go off topic - why have we not seen this case documented here? Or did I miss it somewhere along the line?

neil

 

[mightydood]

Going to go with Silverstone ST55F-G

Small than most other psu and good reviews.

Thanks all!

 

[minihack]

minihack - to go off topic - why have we not seen this case documented here? Or did I miss it somewhere along the line?

neil

Okay, okay. I will do.

It had a few innovations in it that I was thinking of getting some design protection on. It is water cooled using the re-cycled G5 system, it has the dvd drive and an SSD in a pocket layer underneath the mobo and a few other tricks to make it look clean as well as small and powerful. In the end though I think I will go open source on it (!) as it all spreads the knowledge. Another thing to do in the new year.

Happy New Year to you all by the way......