Moving a Mac Pro to a LianLi case

dan_aka_jack

dan_aka_jack

dan_aka_jack

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Joined
8 Mar 2004
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409
Location
London, UK
Hi there,

I'm a long-time Windows user who's seriously thinking of jumping ship. The problem is that I have thousands of pounds invested in PC hardware and software. Not least of which is my lovely Lian Li V2100+ case with 8 x 500GB hard disks.

If I were to buy a Mac Pro, would I be able to move the mobo and the rest of the innerds to my LianLi V2100+ case so I could run up to 12 hard drives in the case?

Many thanks,
Jack
 
The mac pro case is designed for maximum airflow, to take everything out and put it in another case is a bit odd to be honest, that and it looks sexy.
You can plug 4x sata discs into a mac pro motherboard.
If I were you I would sell a lot of your existing equipment and leave the pro in its proper case.
 
Hey guys,

Thanks loads for all the replies.

I agree the Mac Pro looks nice and that the case has great air-flow. My reasons for swapping the Mac Pro to a LianLi case is simply to allow me to use more than 12 HDDs (with a PCI-E SATA RAID card) without having to resort to ugly and expensive external HDD enclosures.

Value judgements aside... In principal, is it possible to swap the Mac Pro system to another case or does Apple somehow lock the motherboard into the case? Or is there some sort of sensor which tells the system that it's in a non-certified enclosure?

Also, I should explain that my job is video editing. If I bought a Mac then it would be for fairly intensive video editing so I need a Mac Pro really.

Thanks again,
Jack
 
dan_aka_jack said:
OK, thanks. What form-factor is the Mac Pro mobo? The LianLi v2100 case can take loads of different form factors - it's a very big case!

Thanks,
Jack
Click to expand...

it's a unique Apple-only form factor, dunno what it's called.


I doubt your case will support it without mods. But I could be wrong.
 
yantorsen said:
it's a unique Apple-only form factor, dunno what it's called.
Click to expand...

It's antics like this that have kept me away from Apple for so long. I'm a big fan of open-architecture, standard-compliant stuff. Apple isn't and that really distresses me. I guess I'm just gonna have to learn to live with the straight-jacket that Apple supplies with all its systems.
 
Basically, there's no way I would recommend doing what you propose. You'll be messing around with thousands of pounds worth of hardware and will no doubt invalidate the warranty in the process. On top of that, there's no guarantee that its going to work anyway.

I very much doubt the hardware is going to be aware of the enclosure it is in, but in no way is that an indication that the motherboard is going to be easy to swap out. The concept of swapping out major components doesn't even enter the head of the designers when they put together these systems so you're on a loser from the start.

http://www.apple.com/macpro/design.html

Just looking at that case gives me a headache.
 
I looked at doing this as well and it is based on a custom BTX board so it won't fit in a Lian-Li as I was thinking the same thing.

I would suggest get a MacBook/Pro, or Mac Mini and then build yourself a MAC OSX86 box comparable in spec to a MAC Pro. :D
 
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Just buy a Mac Mini, I bought one two weeks ago, loved it so much (especially the OS) that I've since sold my PC, I am never going back ;)
 
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