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Building A 2008 Mac Pro From Scratch!
- Thread starter GraniteTheWolf
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With photos, yeah I plan to. Of course a short video of turning it on for the first time as well, hopefully that will be a success, haha.
Northbridge heatsink came 2 days early. Hoping the motherboard and processors show up early too! That would be awesome.
I'm doing something quite similar-trying the get the most bang for the buck, so to say. I bought a used 3,1 single proc for $400. Basically, I want to use the 800Mhz of the 3,1 bus to overclock two 5350's over 4Ghz, hopefully to near 4.6, on water. Could return a Geekbench near 16k.
I've been designing and fabricating my own cooling solutions for the Northbridge, Southbridge, voltage regs, and FB-DIMMS. I'll also be water cooling the 5770 (an EK block), and my own PSU solution. The procs themselves will be mounted with Koolance 370's.
I've moved the two front fans to mount on the inside on the front panel (with round cut outs to increase the airflow- like the shaker buckets on a '79 Trans Am) to allow space to cool the V regs. The rear fan has been moved outside the case to the rear, and I've almost finished fabricating a new RAM cage to support the DIMM water blocks. .
I'll use my 1,1's 5770 to start but will upgrade hopefully to one of the new Sapphire 7950's at a later date.
I got a pair of 5460's (to use after trying to max OC the 5350's) for $275 on eBay. I expect they will be stable in the 4-4.1 Ghz range.
So with the sapphire card it will be a little over 1K. Find me a 4,1 or 5,1 for less than $2500 that will Geekbench 16k!
I've got the case plumbed with two 5/8" inflow/outflow ports. Critical systems and motherboard points will have temperatures (including EWT and LWT) monitored with DS18S20's. A relay on a PCIe card will control the pumps. And I'm pretty sure I'm gonna have to expand the geothermal loop used to cool the water.
So keep me apprised of your work, and feel free to ask any questions you may have, cause I may have already worked thru the problem, from those irritating screw sizes to temp sensors.
But I think your on to something. The 3,1 has held strong against the 4 & 5, especially on the price/performance comparison.
Drrbc
I've been designing and fabricating my own cooling solutions for the Northbridge, Southbridge, voltage regs, and FB-DIMMS. I'll also be water cooling the 5770 (an EK block), and my own PSU solution. The procs themselves will be mounted with Koolance 370's.
I've moved the two front fans to mount on the inside on the front panel (with round cut outs to increase the airflow- like the shaker buckets on a '79 Trans Am) to allow space to cool the V regs. The rear fan has been moved outside the case to the rear, and I've almost finished fabricating a new RAM cage to support the DIMM water blocks. .
I'll use my 1,1's 5770 to start but will upgrade hopefully to one of the new Sapphire 7950's at a later date.
I got a pair of 5460's (to use after trying to max OC the 5350's) for $275 on eBay. I expect they will be stable in the 4-4.1 Ghz range.
So with the sapphire card it will be a little over 1K. Find me a 4,1 or 5,1 for less than $2500 that will Geekbench 16k!
I've got the case plumbed with two 5/8" inflow/outflow ports. Critical systems and motherboard points will have temperatures (including EWT and LWT) monitored with DS18S20's. A relay on a PCIe card will control the pumps. And I'm pretty sure I'm gonna have to expand the geothermal loop used to cool the water.
So keep me apprised of your work, and feel free to ask any questions you may have, cause I may have already worked thru the problem, from those irritating screw sizes to temp sensors.
But I think your on to something. The 3,1 has held strong against the 4 & 5, especially on the price/performance comparison.
Drrbc
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I can sadly say that I am not posting from my newly built 2008 mac pro. One small thing stopping me:
The 2008 memory cage wont fit the 2006 riser cards as shown above... and I tried putting the 2006 cage in so I could at least use 1 riser card... that didn't work either because the 2006 cage wouldn't fit due to the northbridge heatsink that the 2006 doesn't have.
So I am left with this:
I made an offer on a pair of used 2008 riser cards for cheap with some included ram. Once I get those I should be good to go.
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Won for a whole $35.99 with free shipping!
http://www.ebay.com/itm/221234682435?ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1497.l2649
Comes with a little ram included! 6GB in fact! That will put me up to 14gb total
The 2008 memory cage wont fit the 2006 riser cards as shown above... and I tried putting the 2006 cage in so I could at least use 1 riser card... that didn't work either because the 2006 cage wouldn't fit due to the northbridge heatsink that the 2006 doesn't have.
So I am left with this:
I made an offer on a pair of used 2008 riser cards for cheap with some included ram. Once I get those I should be good to go.
----------
Won for a whole $35.99 with free shipping!
http://www.ebay.com/itm/221234682435?ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1497.l2649
Comes with a little ram included! 6GB in fact! That will put me up to 14gb total
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My ram risers were supposed to arrive yesterday but something went wrong with shipping and they got returned to the sender. Still waiting on an update from the seller on whats going on... ugh sucks. Hate being so close and yet be so far to have my 2008 up and running.
Apparently after I made the post above, the seller just let me know about the new tracking number. Looks like I should have them in tomorrow, finally!
When it's all finished, you need to make a detailed HOWTO and attach it to your first post.
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I can happily say I am posting from my 2008 Mac Pro!
Fans are going wild, but it runs. Got to figure out whats up with the fans.
Fans are going wild, but it runs. Got to figure out whats up with the fans.
Excellent, keep us posted! I feel like I just did the upgrade with you and I'm on the newest model already
Excellent, keep us posted! I feel like I just did the upgrade with you and I'm on the newest model already
Currently updating to Mountain Lion! Got a temperature monitor and my temps look great.... Just gotta find out why the fans are stuck at max speeds and how to reset it.
Turns out only 1 of 3 fans are going wild. My fan blowing on my GPU is running 100% all the time for no reason.
I believe I have, I left the machine unplugged for 15 seconds, and I also removed the CMOS battery for a little while too. Still no luck.
I am certain there is a reason, you might not know what it is but there is a reason.
SMC fan control tells me the IO (fan the blows on PCIe slots) sits at around 2800-3000 rpms. Not quite full blast but pretty loud. the 2nd loudest fan to that is my exhaust fan at 1549 rpms, which doesn't bother me.
I also have temperature monitor installed and its telling me all my temperatures are good. Cpu idles at around 29-32C, northbridge is at about 63C (was the same in my 1,1) it used to show cores but now it shows cpu diodes, and only 4 of them? My system shows its a proper 8-core 3,1.
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All 8 cores appear to be working in the activity monitor when I load things.
It possible because i have a 2006 fan assembly its not wired exactly the same as the 2008 fan assembly for the front fans?
This has been a thoroughly enjoyable thread. Thanks for sharing your project, GraniteTheWolf.
The 3,1 is a great machine. I bought mine (didn't build it - I didn't have that kind of time or patience) as a close-out in April 2009 after the newer models came out. It's been a solid, stable computer for my work (graphic design and illustration). I'll probably run with it until it chokes out it's last breath and dies (which it shows no signs of doing at present).
It's a reliable heavy-duty workhorse. You're gonna love it (probably even more considering what you paid for it).
The 3,1 is a great machine. I bought mine (didn't build it - I didn't have that kind of time or patience) as a close-out in April 2009 after the newer models came out. It's been a solid, stable computer for my work (graphic design and illustration). I'll probably run with it until it chokes out it's last breath and dies (which it shows no signs of doing at present).
It's a reliable heavy-duty workhorse. You're gonna love it (probably even more considering what you paid for it).
Thanks, I'm glad people have been enjoying the build. Time for a few more pictures!
The crime scene, you can see my 2006 on the top left being cannibalized for parts and the "new" 2008 mac pro coming together below.
I had made the mistake of installing the memory cage and heatsink for the north bridge before the last of the parts came in. Ended up having to take it all back apart.
In this photo I had begun prepping the 2006 heatsinks and putting paste on the processors. I did a bit of an overkill job with the thermal paste, but it must be transferring the heat great because my cpu temps are excellent.
In the photo above after I took the pic I realized I had messed up. Lower cpu heatsink goes on first, then the nortbridge heatsink, then finally the upper cpu heatsink last, following the memory cage.
The final product:
I need to get a 2008 fan and 2008 cpu cover to make everything fit perfectly. I will run it like this for a while until a good deal on both of those come by.
As for that video I promised of the first turn-on... That will be up in a little while, just have to get it off my iPhone and upload it
For now I cheated and unplugged the upper fan that blows on the PCIe ports. That one was the worst offender. I have a feeling its because of having the 2006 fan assembly, it may be possible the fans arnt exactly the same between the 2006 and 2008.
Nice job. Those fans are really loud. They sound like the PC that my Mac replaced. I couldn't believe how silent the Mac was the first time I booted. Congrats.