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Build a Mac Pro with replacement parts?!

kellen said:
Is this even cost effective doing for the dual processor versions? I understand using an i7 would be cheaper for the single cpu, but how much savings are we talking with the dual cpus?
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If you were to buy the parts straight from websites such as mac-pro.com and applecomponents, macrecycling, welovemacs and macpalace, then no it's definitely not cost effective because they will nickel and dime you to death. I've been looking for 2 months now on eBay and strike when something I need is listed at a cheap price. I struck gold with my case: 190 for 2009 chasis with PSU, fans, and all internal casing. If you were to buy those individually like they sell them on those sites, you can expect to pay 300 for case, 300 for PSU, 30-50 per fan, internal cages could add up to over 100.

Now with that said...the CPUs are the deal breaker. If you buy them at retail, you'd be spending 3k and that's just not cost effective. They will be the last parts I buy and I will take as much time as I need in finding them for at least half the retail price. May take me months but just have to be patient. I figure this is my new hobby, so it should last for a little while :)
 
metcalfe said:
If you were to buy the parts straight from websites such as mac-pro.com and applecomponents, macrecycling, welovemacs and macpalace, then no it's definitely not cost effective because they will nickel and dime you to death. I've been looking for 2 months now on eBay and strike when something I need is listed at a cheap price. I struck gold with my case: 190 for 2009 chasis with PSU, fans, and all internal casing. If you were to buy those individually like they sell them on those sites, you can expect to pay 300 for case, 300 for PSU, 30-50 per fan, internal cages could add up to over 100.

Now with that said...the CPUs are the deal breaker. If you buy them at retail, you'd be spending 3k and that's just not cost effective. They will be the last parts I buy and I will take as much time as I need in finding them for at least half the retail price. May take me months but just have to be patient. I figure this is my new hobby, so it should last for a little while :)
Click to expand...

Ok here are the cost to build my unit and hope it gives you a clue how much i've spend.


Mac Pro 2009 Case with 980W PSU: £239.99 GBP ($381.90 USD)
Mac Pro 2009 Logic Board & UK Spec power core: £212.98 GBP ($338.88 USD)
Mac Pro 2009 Restoration DVD kit: €38.00 EUR ($27.97 USD)
24GB 6x4GB DDR3 1066 ECC Ram for Mac Pro: $570.00 USD
Xeon W5590 x2 OEM Processor: $1,850.00 USD
Mac Pro 2009 Technical and Installation document: $7.49 USD
2mm 100mm x 200mm Thermal Pad: $12.00 USD
Mac Pro 2009 Support Tray: $51.60 USD
Mac Pro 2009 8 core Processor Board: $369.53 USD
Mac Pro 2009 CPU-A heat sink: $159.35 USD
Mac Pro 2009 CPU-B heat sink: $285.10 USD
Ati 5870 for Mac: RM1,330.00 MYR

So far the amount i've spend on Parts so far are in total USD 4053.82

Recently i've bought myself an Areca ARC-1880i Raid Controller.
Back Panel upgrade for Mac Pro 2009 from Maxupgrade.
4pcs of WD 500GB RE4 SATA HDD for Raid5 setup.
1pcs WD 1.5TB mounted at the Optical Bay to ack as a Time Machine and Bootcamp for Windows7.
 
feins said:
Xeon W5590 x2 OEM Processor: $1,850.00 USD
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Where did you get them for that price? The only ones I keep seeing on ebay are ES (which I wouldn't touch with a 10ft pole).

And how are your idle fan speeds with these processors?
 
Transporteur said:
Where did you get them for that price? The only ones I keep seeing on ebay are ES (which I wouldn't touch with a 10ft pole).

And how are your idle fan speeds with these processors?
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Previously was buying some parts from eBay and i request him to look for the processor for me. Yes you wont see the Retail/OEM processor at that price indeed.:p

Which fan are you referring to?

metcafe: No problem updating software im running on SL 10.6.6 now.
 
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feins said:
Which fan are you referring to?
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Intake and Exhaust fan as well as BOOSTA and BOOSTB.
Normal IDLE speeds of Pro's with the stock processors (2.26 to 2.93GHz) are 600, respectively 1100-1200RPM.

Any noticeable increases with the 130W TDP CPUs?
 
Transporteur said:
Intake and Exhaust fan as well as BOOSTA and BOOSTB.
Normal IDLE speeds of Pro's with the stock processors (2.26 to 2.93GHz) are 600, respectively 1100-1200RPM.

Any noticeable increases with the 130W TDP CPUs?
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Oooh those ok here are a screenshot for the idling fans.:p
Screen shot 2011-01-10 at 1.40.31 AM.png
 
I'm looking to build myself a second mac pro but don't want to have to buy a new one. I already have all the parts except the 2009 mac pro logic board. I've checked all the above mentioned sites and haven't been able to find it ... Any ideas?
 
Ok I have to ask a very dumb question here...what is raid0 and what advantage would there be to putting it in my MP 2009?
 
metcalfe said:
Ok I have to ask a very dumb question here...what is raid0 and what advantage would there be to putting it in my MP 2009?
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Ok here is what's from Wikipedia :p

RAID 0 (block-level striping without parity or mirroring) provides improved performance and additional storage but no redundancy or fault tolerance (making it not true RAID, according to the acronym's definition). However, because of the similarities to RAID (especially the need for a controller to distribute data across multiple disks), simple stripe sets are normally referred to as RAID 0. Any disk failure destroys the array, and the likelihood of failure increases with more disks in the array (at a minimum, catastrophic data loss is twice as likely compared to single drives without RAID). A single disk failure destroys the entire array because when data is written to a RAID 0 volume, the data is broken into fragments called blocks. The number of blocks is dictated by the stripe size, which is a configuration parameter of the array. The blocks are written to their respective disks simultaneously on the same sector. This allows smaller sections of the entire chunk of data to be read off the drive in parallel, increasing bandwidth. RAID 0 does not implement error checking, so any error is uncorrectable. More disks in the array means higher bandwidth, but greater risk of data loss.
 
"(at a minimum, catastrophic data loss is twice as likely compared to single drives without RAID)"

yikes!

looks technical...I guess if I don't understand it, it's probably something I don't need :)
 
metcalfe said:
"(at a minimum, catastrophic data loss is twice as likely compared to single drives without RAID)"

yikes!

looks technical...I guess if I don't understand it, it's probably something I don't need :)
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Lol actually the technical description are just to scary to understand. But to be short Raid0 doesn't have redundancy and if one HDD fails all data lost. but it gives you the best in performance since data are stripped across both hdd basically use for non critical environment.

R.OG said:
Very nice, here are some pics of my homemade Mac pro with a core i7 950. I am definitely going to upgrade to dual CPUs using your washer idea.

http://s993.photobucket.com/albums/af53/kcog/Mac Pro/
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Not bad there ;)
 
I've been looking into building a 2009 MP for the past couple days. I've got most everything priced out, there are a few things I'm uncertain about though. There are 2 different Versions of the backplane board, V1 is p# 661-4996 and V2 is 661-5444. I've looked and can't seem to find what the difference is between them, and whether they are both compatible with an 8 core processor board? I figure I'll have to buy screws for to mount the backplane board, as well as for the processor support tray, are there any others, and where did you get your screws from? I've looked at some of the parts sites and to me, paying $18 for 5 screws is absurd. Any help is appreciated.
 
Max58 said:
I've been looking into building a 2009 MP for the past couple days. I've got most everything priced out, there are a few things I'm uncertain about though. There are 2 different Versions of the backplane board, V1 is p# 661-4996 and V2 is 661-5444. I've looked and can't seem to find what the difference is between them, and whether they are both compatible with an 8 core processor board? I figure I'll have to buy screws for to mount the backplane board, as well as for the processor support tray, are there any others, and where did you get your screws from? I've looked at some of the parts sites and to me, paying $18 for 5 screws is absurd. Any help is appreciated.
Click to expand...

The part number I used for the backboard is: 661-4996. Running dual quad with that.

This should help out with the screws. I ended up paying the $20 for the backboard screws. I looked everywhere else and couldn't find the proper size.
 

Attachments

  • Mac Pro Screw Matrix.pdf
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Max58 said:
I figure I'll have to buy screws for to mount the backplane board, as well as for the processor support tray, are there any others, and where did you get your screws from? I've looked at some of the parts sites and to me, paying $18 for 5 screws is absurd. Any help is appreciated.
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You may ask the seller to include the screws, since you're willing to buy the backplane board and support tray. Try to make a deal. The last time I asked, the support was unsure, but asked for the exact amount of screws. I didn't respond, since I bought a original Mac Pro for cheap. Try it!
 
What du you guys think? Is it possible to exchange the 2009 processor board with a 2010 (dual cpu)? I don't ask for hexacore support, but for the cpu-latches on the 2010 board, since it is more difficult to setup a 2009 8-core MP because of IHS on retail cpus. Afaik is the SMC on both boards (processor/backplane), but I wonder if it matters in this case?
 
fairbanx said:
What du you guys think? Is it possible to exchange the 2009 processor board with a 2010 (dual cpu)? I don't ask for hexacore support, but for the cpu-latches on the 2010 board, since it is more difficult to setup a 2009 8-core MP because of IHS on retail cpus. Afaik is the SMC on both boards (processor/backplane), but I wonder if it matters in this case?
Click to expand...

The MP I built last year was the first computer I ever put together. I did my research, but in the end I installed 2 quad xeons with IHS on the 2009 8-core processor tray. The latches would make it easier, but if you learn from other's mistakes, you should be fine.

Take your time, and be sure to double check, and triple check yourself.
 
fairbanx said:
What du you guys think? Is it possible to exchange the 2009 processor board with a 2010 (dual cpu)? I don't ask for hexacore support, but for the cpu-latches on the 2010 board, since it is more difficult to setup a 2009 8-core MP because of IHS on retail cpus. Afaik is the SMC on both boards (processor/backplane), but I wonder if it matters in this case?
Click to expand...

By replacing the Processor Board you will need to replace the Back Panel Logic Board together unless you are going for Hexacore otherwise its just a waste.
 
I am looking to build a Mac Pro as well. I am not sure what version of Backplane board to use. V1(661-4996) or V2(661-5444) can anyone help me? I am going to use a single Quad core 2.93ghz xeon.. thanks
 
utguy said:
I am looking to build a Mac Pro as well. I am not sure what version of Backplane board to use. V1(661-4996) or V2(661-5444) can anyone help me? I am going to use a single Quad core 2.93ghz xeon.. thanks
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The one i got is Ver1 i guess it doesn't really matter if its Ver1 or Ver2 maybe some one else can provide a better answer on this. As i notice that Ver2 is much cheaper than Ver1.
 
feins said:
I'm doing the similar projest I've bought the item below.
Mac Pro 2009 Case with 980W PSU: £239.99 GBP ($381.90 USD)
Mac Pro 2009 Logic Board & UK Spec power core: £212.98 GBP ($338.88 USD)
Mac Pro 2009 Restoration DVD kit: €38.00 EUR ($27.97 USD)
24GB 6x4GB DDR3 1066 ECC Ram for Mac Pro: $570.00 USD
Xeon W5590 x2 OEM Processor: $1,850.00 USD
Mac Pro 2009 Technical and Installation document: $7.49 USD
2mm 100mm x 200mm Thermal Pad: $12.00 USD
Mac Pro 2009 Support Tray: $51.60 USD
Mac Pro 2009 8 core Processor Board: $369.53 USD
Mac Pro 2009 CPU-A heat sink: $159.35 USD
Mac Pro 2009 CPU-B heat sink: $285.10 USD
Ati 5870 for Mac: RM1,330.00 MYR

So far the amount i've spend on Parts so far are in total USD 4053.82

Completed and running flawlessly.
Just got myself and Areca 1880i and 4 pcs of WD RE4 HDD going for Raid 5.
Click to expand...


@Feins

Do you have the service manual, which you could share. I'm doing a similar project. How did you get on?
 
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