Bought a Mac Pro...

[AlexMaximus]

I recognised, we are obviously a real close cmp fan campus here. Here is an idea I would like to share with all of you:

#1 Check out this webpage here:

https://www.cerakoteguncoatings.com

#2 Now go into the Gallery and check out the different colours for metal coating purposes. (there are crazy cool examples out there...

#3 Imaging one of us would send an empty Mac Pro Classic Tower in to coat it with one of their premium ceramic coatings ....

Here is the question: Which colour would you go for? Would it be a premium mat black finish to imitate the new iMac Pro, would you go for a gunmetal gray, ---- please throw me your colour ideas !!!!!

 

[Hooleydog]

OK Hooleydog, we are all waiting on that 3.1! Here is a preview of the parade we are throwing when you're done. And yes there will be other balloons.


View attachment 752017

LOL. Well it is done. I've installed the correct 3.2GHz Processors. Now I waiting for the wifi card to come (It's Sierra friendly).. But I have already installed Mountain Lion on a small drive.. When El Capitan is installed on the 250GB SSD, then I'll remove the Lion drive. But I did have one problem. The bottom ram overheated and the first red LED came on, so I turned off the Mac, and pulled the riser card it out.. Man those memory sticks were very hot.. But after letting them cool off, I reinstalled the them into my Mac and the problem went away. Could that be because I ran the computer with the side cover off...
[doublepost=1519310445][/doublepost]

I recognised, we are obviously a real close cmp fan campus here. Here is an idea I would like to share with all of you:

#1 Check out this webpage here:

https://www.cerakoteguncoatings.com

#2 Now go into the Gallery and check out the different colours for metal coating purposes. (there are crazy cool examples out there...

#3 Imaging one of us would send an empty Mac Pro Classic Tower in to coat it with one of their premium ceramic coatings ....

Here is the question: Which colour would you go for? Would it be a premium mat black finish to imitate the new iMac Pro, would you go for a gunmetal gray, ---- please throw me your colour ideas !!!!!

Oh I would go for red, as it's my favorite colour

 

[anika200]

Wow what a crazy project, good job.

Now please add up all the receipts you have spent and then give yourself a couple bucks an hour for labor and give us the final price.
I am really curious how it all fell out.

 

[Hooleydog]

Wow what a crazy project, good job.

Now please add up all the receipts you have spent and then give yourself a couple bucks an hour for labor and give us the final price.
I am really curious how it all fell out.

Well did cost a arm and a leg..But I did it since the case is in perfect condition (No scratches or marks), and still has the plastic on the bottom of the case.. But it was still way cheaper than when it was bought new in 2008..With a crappy graphics card and no SSD too....

 

[SamirPD]

Glad to see this project about to go live. Can't wait to see pictures and screenshots.

As far as the ram overheating, yes probably because you left the case open--many well-designed cases have been flow tested so they cool better when buttoned up properly. My Dell server that uses the same fb-dimms will floor all the fans at 12,000 rpm if you leave the top off to make sure nothing overheats--and it will still get quite hot. fb-dimms can get as hot as the processors--best to let them cool in the same manner before handling.

 

[Hooleydog]

Glad to see this project about to go live. Can't wait to see pictures and screenshots.

As far as the ram overheating, yes probably because you left the case open--many well-designed cases have been flow tested so they cool better when buttoned up properly. My Dell server that uses the same fb-dimms will floor all the fans at 12,000 rpm if you leave the top off to make sure nothing overheats--and it will still get quite hot. fb-dimms can get as hot as the processors--best to let them cool in the same manner before handling.

Ok, so the ram in my Mac gets as hot as the processors..

Oh, One thing... There's no chine from the speaker even though it's plugged in, is that normal..Plus I want a party with red Balloons please..

 

[Hooleydog]

All is finished with this build.. The Mac Pro boots to the log-on-screen. But the Bluetooth keyboard is not working, so can't type in the password. The OS X on the hard-drive is a freshly installed El Capitan 10.11.4 (I bought the Hard-drive with OS x installed on eBay). You see my intention is to clone the drive to the 250GB SSD drive that's on the PCI-E card, and boot right off that (I'll remove the 250GB SATA drive first)... Oh, That external USB hard-drive enclosure sitting top, contains (2) 2TB SATA drives in a raid configuration (4TB), so I'll use that to store all my Mac programs.. Though, I do like the look of the enclosure, as it sure does match the look of my Mac Pro, don't you think....

 

[SamirPD]

Super sweet! That enclosure is quite nice, and I bet it cools the drives quite well too.

As far as the keyboard, you can use just about any usb PC keyboard to get into the system and then see what might not have configured the bluetooth (or it might just be off). I actually have a wired keyboard just like that if you want a wired one to go with it too.

 

[Hooleydog]

Super sweet! That enclosure is quite nice, and I bet it cools the drives quite well too.

As far as the keyboard, you can use just about any usb PC keyboard to get into the system and then see what might not have configured the bluetooth (or it might just be off). I actually have a wired keyboard just like that if you want a wired one to go with it too.

Yep the enclosure is nice eh??, as for the Bluetooth keyboard..I gave up on it, and have ordered the same style but a USB instead. But I have a few questions.. First, How do I change the login name (It's Macbook at the moment) Second, I want to format the other SSD drive (500GB) to NTFS format, so I can install windows on it (instead of fat32) which is listed but not NTFS...

Oh, One more thing..On boot up from the SDD drive I keep getting this on the screen (It's to do with the SSD that the Mac booted off), so I click on ignore, and Mac boots to OS X.. Oh, The SSD drive on the desktop is shown in yellow. is that normal....

 

[SamirPD]

Yep the enclosure is nice eh??, as for the Bluetooth keyboard..I gave up on it, and have ordered the same style but a USB instead. But I have a few questions.. First, How do I change the login name (It's Macbook at the moment) Second, I want to format the other SSD drive (500GB) to NTFS format, so I can install windows on it (instead of fat32) which is listed but not NTFS...

Oh, One more thing..On boot up from the SDD drive I keep getting this on the screen (It's to do with the SSD that the Mac booted off), so I click on ignore, and Mac boots to OS X.. Oh, The SSD drive on the desktop is shown in yellow. is that normal....

Yep, quite nice. Too bad you ordered a keyboard...I actually have a box of the wired ones I need to get rid of.

I'm not sure about the login name (not too familiar with the OS), but as far as formatting the other ssd, go ahead and format it fat32 and windows will let you convert it to NTFS during installation.

As far as that error message, I think it's because the other SSD isn't formatted? If it is formatted, I'm not sure why it's saying that since it obviously reads it fine. Unless there's a bit of a version mismatch between the current OS and the OS that formatted the drive.

 

[Hooleydog]

Yep, quite nice. Too bad you ordered a keyboard...I actually have a box of the wired ones I need to get rid of.

I'm not sure about the login name (not too familiar with the OS), but as far as formatting the other ssd, go ahead and format it fat32 and windows will let you convert it to NTFS during installation.

As far as that error message, I think it's because the other SSD isn't formatted? If it is formatted, I'm not sure why it's saying that since it obviously reads it fine. Unless there's a bit of a version mismatch between the current OS and the OS that formatted the drive.

Your right, I haven't formatted the other SSD yet (Windows will be on it). Could that be the reason why I'm get that message... Oh, as for the boot SSD.. I did format it with El Capitan....

 

[Hooleydog]

Guys..All is running great now..No errors Phew!!. What I did was to format the 500GB SSD to efat for windows that I'll install (Fat32 wasn't a option), and the 4TB SSHD drive.. Well I made 2 equal partitions on it. One partition will be for OS X programs, and the other partition will be for windows programs, so inside my Mac is a 250GB SSD with EL Captian. The other SDD (500GB) will have windows 7 64bit on it, and then the other hard-drive is a 4TB SSHD, GTX 770 graphics card (4GB), PCI-E USB 3.0 card.. What a powerful mac Pro 2008 that I have made for myself eh?? (Compared to other Mac Pro's 2008 models)..

Oh, to boot from either OS what do I have to do for that...

Here's the run down of all the parts that I needed:

8 Core 2008 Apple Mac Pro 3.1 Matched Pair 3.2GHz QUAD X5482 SLANZ XEON CPUs 3,1...
$169.99 + ship $8.45

250GB 3.5" SATA HARD DRIVE WITH OSX 10.11 EL CAPITAN PRELOADED FOR MAC PRO...
$39.99

Power-Supply-DPS-980BB-614-0409-Apple-Mac-Pro-A1186-3-1-OEM-980W-2008...
$79.99

Mac Pro Fan for Power Supply 3,1...
$12.95 + ship $6.70

Mac Pro 3,1 complete wiring harness...
$39.99 + ship $10.00

Mac Pro 3,1 Processor Heat sink Cover...
$3.45 + Ship $9.64

Dual SATA III to PCI-E X1 SSD Adapter card for MAC PRO OSX 10.8-10.12...
36.20 + Ship $3.20

Samsung 850 EVO 250GB Internal SSD mSATA III...
$99.99

Samsung 850 EVO 500GB Internal SSD mSATA III...
(I already had that for a while)

Hitachi/LG BH40N Blu-ray 6x Burner and 16x DVD±RW DL SATA Drive...
$44.99

ORICO PME-4U 4 Port PCI Express to USB3.0 Host Controller Card for Mac...
$28.99

Apple Mac Full-Size White Bluetooth Wireless Keyboard A1016...
$29.99

16GB (4X4GB) Memory for Mac Pro Early 2008 (x2)...
$53.75 (x2)

Enclosure mSATA SSD to 2.5" SATA Convertor Adapter Card SSD Case Black...
$6.99

NVIDIA GTX 770 Signature 4GB Video Card for Apple Mac Pro w/CUDA and 4K Ready...
$310

New Wireless Silent Mouse For Apple Mac And Laptop Computer 2.4G Silver White...
$13.57

Apple Mac Pro A1186 2008 Speaker Assembley 815-9561...
$4.48

Apple Mac Pro 3,1 Early 2008 Logic Board + 2x Xeon 2.8Ghz CPU 820-2128-B + Heatsinks..
$109.99

Arctic Silver 5 AS5-3.5G Premium Thermal Compound 3.5 g grams Paste Grease...
$5.09

Genuine Mac Pro 3,1 Memory Riser Board 820-2178-B (x2)...
$19.95 (x2)

Apple Mac Pro A1186 Intel Xeon Quad Core 2800 MHz 250G 1GB DVD-RW computer...
(I needed the case)
$110.00 + ship $50.07

Apple Mac Pro A1186 Early 2008 Front Panel USB FireWire Audio Board 820-2022...
$19.97

Apple Mac Pro A1186 3,1 815-9221 Front Fan assembly w/PCI Card Guide 922-8497...
$22.62

Apple Mac Pro A1186 Early 2008 815-9399 Memory Cage with Fan...
$23.99

 

[anika200]

Not bad at all, I thought it would have been more. What a machine. I always liked the looks of those cases and I bet it feels solid too.

 

[Hooleydog]

Not bad at all, I thought it would have been more. What a machine. I always liked the looks of those cases and I bet it feels solid too.

More what..It has all the best in it. Including the 3.2GHz CPU's (No expense spared)..But I'll tell you one thing. The Mac sure does boot up fast from the mSATA drive, and the case in perfect condition too...

 

[OS6-OSX]

..Plus I want a party with red Balloons please..

Hooleydog, we tried to contact you about the party to celebrate the completion of your 3,1. You missed the best MR party to date! Everyone was there. I won't say any names but after having a few too many, a member actually put a lamp shade on his head! I thought that only happened in old movies from the 50's and 60's. Dude, where were you? We even had the red balloons you wanted!

 

[Hooleydog]

Hooleydog, we tried to contact you about the party to celebrate the completion of your 3,1. You missed the best MR party to date! Everyone was there. I won't say any names but after having a few too many, a member actually put a lamp shade on his head! I thought that only happened in old movies from the 50's and 60's. Dude, where were you? We even had the red balloons you wanted!


View attachment 752945

Darn I was out for dinner (Lobster tail yum), so Please reschedule the party..

 

[SamirPD]

Awesome!

Were you able to install windows 7 on that exfat partition? Because I thought win7 required NTFS.

 

[Hooleydog]

Awesome!

Were you able to install windows 7 on that exfat partition? Because I thought win7 required NTFS.

Hi. I haven't tried it yet. But if I remember installing on a PC..I make a partition and just install windows 7. It will auto format to NTFS, so should be the same on my 500 SSD drive (I haven't formatted that)...

 

[SamirPD]

Hi. I haven't tried it yet. But if I remember installing on a PC..I make a partition and just install windows 7. It will auto format to NTFS, so should be the same on my 500 SSD drive (I haven't formatted that)...

It should. Just be sure to make sure you disconnect all your other drives as I've read that the Win7+ installers don't like seeing more than the drive they're installing to.

 

[Hooleydog]

Guys... Now that I have Mojave up and running on my Mac Pro 2008 (that I put all the guts into a 2006 case). Now, I have ordered a whopping 64GB ram for it, so I can't wait for the ram to arrive(I'll sell the 32GB ram.. Any takers).. The graphics card in my Mac is a Geforce GTX 770 4GB....My poor wife has a imac 27' (She paid a lot of $$$$ for it new).. But my old Mac is way faster than hers, and the work getting all the parts.. Plus case didn't cost that much..

 

[AlexMaximus]

Great Project! You did pick the right GPU. This is a super strong tower, especially with those rare 3,2 CPUs - a decade later.

Apple will have a very hard time to match the durability of those towers with their upcoming 7.1 MP and I am curious
How those super expensive iMac Pros will stand the test of time 9 years from now..

 

[Hooleydog]

Hi, I don't think those iMac pros will stand the test of time 9 years from now. But the 2008 Tower Macs has because they were way ahead of their time when they came out (Fully up-gradable)...Desktop PC's back then then only had max of 4GB ram.. The Mac Pro 3.1 all the way up to 32GB, as for the graphics card (That I bought)... It was a PC one. But the seller re-flashed it for Mac use with the apple boot screen too... However, I most probably go for a even higher Graphics card later on....

The mighty Nividia GTX 980 Ti 6GB, is the card that I will get.. Also... I love the super strong case too (Nice looking). But they are very easy to scratch, so I'm very careful with it..
[doublepost=1552173827][/doublepost]Guys.. Does anyone know where I can get the Mac pro bios for a Geforce GTX 980 Ti 6GB graphics card Please..

 

[Darmok N Jalad]

Hi, I don't think those iMac pros will stand the test of time 9 years from now. But the 2008 Tower Macs has because they were way ahead of their time when they came out (Fully up-gradable)...Desktop PC's back then then only had max of 4GB ram.. The Mac Pro 3.1 all the way up to 32GB, as for the graphics card (That I bought)... It was a PC one. But the seller re-flashed it for Mac use with the apple boot screen too... However, I most probably go for a even higher Graphics card later on....

The mighty Nividia GTX 980 Ti 6GB, is the card that I will get.. Also... I love the super strong case too (Nice looking). But they are very easy to scratch, so I'm very careful with it..
[doublepost=1552173827][/doublepost]Guys.. Does anyone know where I can get the Mac pro bios for a Geforce GTX 980 Ti 6GB graphics card Please..

Yes and no. Your desktop PCs May have been limited, but the Mac Pro was not priced like a desktop PC. It was a workstation, so your equivalent PC workstations would have the same capabilities, as they were running the same Intel Xeons and chipsets. I bet a proper x58 board could handle lots of RAM, as it really came down to the Xeon’s ability to support more. Still, the cMPs are awesome hardware. Mac of All Trades has some for decent prices. I’d consider getting one if I didn’t already have a 2017 5K.

 

[Hooleydog]

Oh, I thought that the large case Mac Pro's are Desktop computers..But I do have 2 Dell workstations that I use as Desktop PC's.. One is a T5500, 2 Quad core 3.6GHz processors, 36GB ram.. MSI Radeon RX 580 Armor 8GB Graphics Card, 256GB SSD, and 2TB SSHD. The other is a huge T7500 with 2 6-Core 3.46GHz processors, 96GB ram.. A Geforce GTX 1080 TI 11GB Graphics card, 500GB SSD, and 2 4TB SSHD drives.. Both SSD's are on a 6G card (For fast loading win 10 Pro)..

 

[pl1984]

Hi, I don't think those iMac pros will stand the test of time 9 years from now. But the 2008 Tower Macs has because they were way ahead of their time when they came out (Fully up-gradable)...Desktop PC's back then then only had max of 4GB ram.. The Mac Pro 3.1 all the way up to 32GB, as for the graphics card (That I bought)... It was a PC one. But the seller re-flashed it for Mac use with the apple boot screen too... However, I most probably go for a even higher Graphics card later on....

HP workstations easily exceeded 4GB of RAM many often meeting the 32GB official maximum of the Mac pro and a few exceeding it.

As for durability I do not consider the cMP to be all that durable. It is easily damaged in shipping and it scuffs / scratches easily. It's a nice design but durability is not as good as the Z6x0 and Z8x0 series systems.