build your own mac pro ?

So long as you can find a working board cheap enough, and a case (with PSU), then it's do-able using pretty easy to find components.

My two quad-core xeons in my Mac Pro were only £62. The memory has set me back less than £100 (and I have 22GB of it), and you can use any SATA drives you fancy.
 
paradigm said:
So long as you can find a working board cheap enough, and a case (with PSU), then it's do-able using pretty easy to find components.

My two quad-core xeons in my Mac Pro were only £62. The memory has set me back less than £100 (and I have 22GB of it), and you can use any SATA drives you fancy.
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So mobo would be hardest to find, and maybe case with PSU...most GPU's can be flashed to be used in a mac ? or only ones that were used in mac's ?
 
Pingwing - how far did you get with your case mod? I am about to have a crack at a g5 mod tomorrow, wish me luck!
 
sHo0sH said:
Pingwing - how far did you get with your case mod? I am about to have a crack at a g5 mod tomorrow, wish me luck!
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Good luck!

The build log summed it up, got it in bits, sprayed the inner cage white then black and got stuck. My black coat was rubbish (it rained a little making some of the paint run) and I haven't gotten into fixing that up :( The outer bit needs bending a little more and I need a power button as the one on the case looks pretty naff.

Did get hold of a matx motherboard tray though so when I find out what computer I get for uni I could just fix the case up for a nice gaming pc one day (the log I think covers just about everything that happened)
 
bastic said:
Most GPU's can be flashed to be used in a mac ? or only ones that were used in mac's ?
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Depends on which generation of Mac Pro motherboard you obtain.

If its a 1,1 or 2,1 then a GeForce 8800 or Radeon 5770 are your best bet, you can also use the 4870 without hassle.

Flashing the ATI cards depends on which you obtain, if its a 5770 then you need to create your own by following guides out there on the internet (i'll link them when I get home). The 4870 is easier, as the Zeus Flashing Tool will do that for you.

As for the 8800, I'm not 100% sure, as I went down the 5770 route in the end (most powerful card I could get to work for little outlay).

If you get anything newer than a 2,1 then you'll have 64-bit EFI, which opens up a whole load more options for GPU.
 
paradigm said:
Depends on which generation of Mac Pro motherboard you obtain.

If its a 1,1 or 2,1 then a GeForce 8800 or Radeon 5770 are your best bet, you can also use the 4870 without hassle.

Flashing the ATI cards depends on which you obtain, if its a 5770 then you need to create your own by following guides out there on the internet (i'll link them when I get home). The 4870 is easier, as the Zeus Flashing Tool will do that for you.

As for the 8800, I'm not 100% sure, as I went down the 5770 route in the end (most powerful card I could get to work for little outlay).

If you get anything newer than a 2,1 then you'll have 64-bit EFI, which opens up a whole load more options for GPU.
Click to expand...

sounds complicated....
as for now, I will have to postpone this idea as I would need to sell my PC...it may not be too easy ...
 
It's definitely do-able! I followed a build on a popular Mac Forum, this guy got a Mac Pro case, the Mac Pro logic board, some Xeons, the FB-DIMM memory and went to town on it.

Turned out really good in the end and apparently cost a fraction of buying one retail at the time!
 
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