Untouched outside look Mac Pro

[Shanghaidaddy]

Great job. What's the specs?

 

[bigjimmy]

this is sick！ nice build

 

[DarthRadar]

Hi gents,

I've been reading on these forums for years and also had already build two Mac Pros with the help of articles posted here. My latest project was fitting my main workstation into a Mac Pro Case with the front and back completely untouched from the outside while the insides are cleaned up and functional. Here it is:

View attachment 242681

I used custom lasercut aluminium plates I designed in 3D for exactly these components. The backplate is mounted to the original motherboard pins and the new MB is mounted in the center. This is so I could use the gap between backplate and case as well as the gab between rear I/O ports and MB to hide a ton of adapter cables.

View attachment 242682

The backplate also bends forward as a new mount for the SATA Drawers, which each also have a laser-cut adapter plate. I re-soldered the front button and LED without the use of the original front assembly. The most difficult part was the custom graphics card mount, which I hope I never have to touch again. Since I don't have sheet metal folding machine, I designed all plates so I could fold them by hand. They never lined up perfectly and the actual build is quite a bit crooked and scratched.


View attachment 242683

The original donor was a fully functional first gen Intel MP from ebay. I used a lot of paper prototypes for different designs, ultimately the planing and re-fitting was the most amount of work.

View attachment 242684

I wanted to have the original port at the rear, so I used a SFX PSU inside the original PSU Case which is connected to the original power plug. The PSU is upside down and his little space for air, so I used some of the old passive coolers as spacers.

Most importantly the build runs cool and stable thanks to the giant BeQuiet cooler. No other fans were requiered.

Anyway I just wanted to thank you guys for your great forum, I could not have done it without you!

Cheers
Pascal

Awesome build! Looks great!

Hi gents,

I've been reading on these forums for years and also had already build two Mac Pros with the help of articles posted here. My latest project was fitting my main workstation into a Mac Pro Case with the front and back completely untouched from the outside while the insides are cleaned up and functional. Here it is:

View attachment 242681

I used custom lasercut aluminium plates I designed in 3D for exactly these components. The backplate is mounted to the original motherboard pins and the new MB is mounted in the center. This is so I could use the gap between backplate and case as well as the gab between rear I/O ports and MB to hide a ton of adapter cables.

View attachment 242682

The backplate also bends forward as a new mount for the SATA Drawers, which each also have a laser-cut adapter plate. I re-soldered the front button and LED without the use of the original front assembly. The most difficult part was the custom graphics card mount, which I hope I never have to touch again. Since I don't have sheet metal folding machine, I designed all plates so I could fold them by hand. They never lined up perfectly and the actual build is quite a bit crooked and scratched.


View attachment 242683

The original donor was a fully functional first gen Intel MP from ebay. I used a lot of paper prototypes for different designs, ultimately the planing and re-fitting was the most amount of work.

View attachment 242684

I wanted to have the original port at the rear, so I used a SFX PSU inside the original PSU Case which is connected to the original power plug. The PSU is upside down and his little space for air, so I used some of the old passive coolers as spacers.

Most importantly the build runs cool and stable thanks to the giant BeQuiet cooler. No other fans were requiered.

Anyway I just wanted to thank you guys for your great forum, I could not have done it without you!

Cheers
Pascal

 

[karoli9]

Hi gents,

I've been reading on these forums for years and also had already build two Mac Pros with the help of articles posted here. My latest project was fitting my main workstation into a Mac Pro Case with the front and back completely untouched from the outside while the insides are cleaned up and functional. Here it is:

View attachment 242681

I used custom lasercut aluminium plates I designed in 3D for exactly these components. The backplate is mounted to the original motherboard pins and the new MB is mounted in the center. This is so I could use the gap between backplate and case as well as the gab between rear I/O ports and MB to hide a ton of adapter cables.

View attachment 242682

The backplate also bends forward as a new mount for the SATA Drawers, which each also have a laser-cut adapter plate. I re-soldered the front button and LED without the use of the original front assembly. The most difficult part was the custom graphics card mount, which I hope I never have to touch again. Since I don't have sheet metal folding machine, I designed all plates so I could fold them by hand. They never lined up perfectly and the actual build is quite a bit crooked and scratched.


View attachment 242683

The original donor was a fully functional first gen Intel MP from ebay. I used a lot of paper prototypes for different designs, ultimately the planing and re-fitting was the most amount of work.

View attachment 242684

I wanted to have the original port at the rear, so I used a SFX PSU inside the original PSU Case which is connected to the original power plug. The PSU is upside down and his little space for air, so I used some of the old passive coolers as spacers.

Most importantly the build runs cool and stable thanks to the giant BeQuiet cooler. No other fans were requiered.

Anyway I just wanted to thank you guys for your great forum, I could not have done it without you!

Cheers
Pascal

Could we see a more detailed building process with pictures?

 

[dddirtman]

nice clean build...
great idea to offset the mainboard...

 

[kstearnes]

I am about to embark on building my first hackintosh and came across your post. I must say this is EXACTLY how I want mine to look when I am done. Nice to know that it is possible, just with a little forethought and planning. Once again nice work.

 

[JasonM71]

This is a fantastic build/mod. Well done, and thanks for posting.

 

[John V]

Gorgeous build! Congrats!

 

[Techyrod82]

brilliant!

 

[gibbo592]

A great build any chance to get copies of the 3D plans I like the way you have mounted the hard drives really clean