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FrankenMacPro4,1- Need heatsink sensor/fan wiring

D

drrbc

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Oct 29, 2009
24
0
Friends,

Building a Franken-MacPro 5,1 from spare parts (NOT a Hackintosh), planning to water cool this one also. Goal is GeekBench of 25K for less than $2K.

I need info on the heatsinks A & B thermal sensors, wiring, fans, and connectors. Close up, high res pics would be nice- but I'd be indebted to anyone that has already "manufactured" replacement sensors and would share the secret.

Also, I think the guys at OWC are going to publish part 1 of my GeoThermally Water-Cooled, Over-Clocked, 3.3Ghz "OctoCore" MacPro1,1 this week. Keep an eye out for it. I think it'll be worth a chuckle or two.

Warmest Regards,
Robert
 
EmbraceNext said:
What is the difference between a franken-macpro and hackentosh?
Click to expand...

Hackintosh (to the best of my understanding) uses a "hacked" version of OS X to run on top of a PC BIOS, allowing OS X to run on non-Apple motherboards and components.

My FrankenMac is being cobbled together from new or used replacement parts that I either have or could pick up cheap from ebay & such. But they're real Apple parts (except the procs, hard drives, GPU, RAM, and some wiring), and will use the Apple EFI and boot OS X without a hack.

The machine will be born thinking it was fathered by Steve Jobs and not Dr. Moreau. (sinister laugh follows)
 
Last edited by a moderator:
drrbc said:
Hackintosh (to the best of my understanding) uses a "hacked" version of OS X to run on top of a PC BIOS, allowing OS X to run on non-Apple motherboards and components.

My FrankenMac is being cobbled together from new or used replacement parts that I either have or could pick up cheap from ebay & such. But they're real Apple parts (except the procs, hard drives, GPU, RAM, and some wiring), and will use the Apple EFI and boot OS X without a hack.

The machine will be born thinking it was fathered by Steve Jobs and not Dr. Moreau. (sinister laugh follows)
Click to expand...

A Hackintosh uses compatible hardware and a normal (not hacked) version of OS X. The point is to use a boot loader that lets the OS think it was running on a genuine Mac.
 
flatfoot said:
A Hackintosh uses compatible hardware and a normal (not hacked) version of OS X. The point is to use a boot loader that lets the OS think it was running on a genuine Mac.
Click to expand...

That's actually a very good explanation/description, Thank You.

Now, we are looking for everything we can possibly find out about the heatsinks, fans, and their sensors. Anyone?
 
drrbc said:
Also, I think the guys at OWC are going to publish part 1 of my GeoThermally Water-Cooled, Over-Clocked, 3.3Ghz "OctoCore" MacPro1,1 this week. Keep an eye out for it. I think it'll be worth a chuckle or two.
Click to expand...

Where will this be at? I'm slowly Franking out my 1,1 Mac Pro and I'd like to see what you've done :)
 
TheAnalogue said:
search the forums, I remember seeing a thread that was about replacing the fans. That thread had pictures, and specs of the fans. I'll see if i can find it.

found it:

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1115475/

this thread has everything you need to know about the fans.
Click to expand...

Dude,

Cheap fans. You made my day!

So now it's the temp sensors and tying them in. On my MP1,1, the heatsink sensors were actually a 78 cent resistors from Radio Shack that you could buy by the handful. I need someone to get a really good look at the sensors from procs A & B heatsinks and see if its more of the same. God, I hope so- waterblocks I got, now money....

BTW, love your sig. I guess mine should read "Since I'm the ER Doctor, I had no idea what was wrong. But I fixed it anyway."
 
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I've done some research, and as far as I can tell the 2010 Mac pro uses a thermistor as a temperature sensor. I assume that the "resistor" you were talking about on the 1,1 was actually thermistor. (which as you probably already know is a resistor who's resistance varies with temperature)

Now take this with a grain of salt, because I could not find anything that that flat out said that it was, but I found some alleged replacement parts.

Which reminds me that I wanted to ask that you understand that the information I am passing your way is not my own, just what I have seen other people say. Thus I cannot assure it's accuracy, although I try to find credible sources. Make sure you read through that entire thread about the fans to assure that you don't buy something that ends up not working
 
TheAnalogue,

So for the MP1,1 I found a thread on Insanely Mac forum where CPU A & B heatsink sensors were replaced with 2N3904 transistors in T0-92 package.

Not only do these work great, I strongly suspect these are what Apple actually used on the original heatsinks.

I've seen 1 photo of an MP4,1 heatsink (good, but not great resolution) that shows the sensor. Physically they look the same, leading me to suspect a 2N3904 will work just fine. Tying in the fans may be a problem though- it looks like the fans/sensor feeds into a 6 pin molex with rounded edges (2 pins sensor, 4 pins fan). I'll use water rather than fans so I'll need a "dummy load" (?) I guess to make the Mac think it's got fans so it won't shut itself down.
 
I enjoyed reading through your blog by the way - nicely written. You must tell us more about your wife's reaction when you said "Honey, you know that flower bed you used to have..."
 
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DanielCoffey said:
I enjoyed reading through your blog by the way - nicely written. You must tell us more about your wife's reaction when you said "Honey, you know that flower bed you used to have..."
Click to expand...

I definatly agree, and I am interested in how you interfaced the new heat pipe to the Mac Pro
 
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drrbc said:
TheAnalogue,

So for the MP1,1 I found a thread on Insanely Mac forum where CPU A & B heatsink sensors were replaced with 2N3904 transistors in T0-92 package.

Not only do these work great, I strongly suspect these are what Apple actually used on the original heatsinks.

I've seen 1 photo of an MP4,1 heatsink (good, but not great resolution) that shows the sensor. Physically they look the same, leading me to suspect a 2N3904 will work just fine. Tying in the fans may be a problem though- it looks like the fans/sensor feeds into a 6 pin molex with rounded edges (2 pins sensor, 4 pins fan). I'll use water rather than fans so I'll need a "dummy load" (?) I guess to make the Mac think it's got fans so it won't shut itself down.
Click to expand...

The 2N3904 transistor is used to amplify signals. This at least from an electrical engineers perspective means that there is something more going on. I would expect that there's a thermistor connected to the 2N3904. In this case the 2N3904 is amplifying the thermistors output. Or it could also be used in reverse: the 2N3904 is amplifying the initial voltage and then using that voltage as the input for the thermistor
 
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Apon further research (I use MOSFETS but that's about it as far as transistors go on a day to day basis) I have discovered that the 2N3904 transistor can act as a remote temperature sensor by applying two consecutive currents at a know ratio. This process is reliable, but is not terribly accurate; + or - 5 degree seems to be the average but some are down to + or - 1 degree ( good enough for a processor temperature sensor I guess)
 
drrbc said:
Dude,

Cheap fans. You made my day!

So now it's the temp sensors and tying them in. On my MP1,1, the heatsink sensors were actually a 78 cent resistors from Radio Shack that you could buy by the handful. I need someone to get a really good look at the sensors from procs A & B heatsinks and see if its more of the same. God, I hope so- waterblocks I got, now money....

BTW, love your sig. I guess mine should read "Since I'm the ER Doctor, I had no idea what was wrong. But I fixed it anyway."
Click to expand...

Those are not the fans you want... These are the Original parts...
http://www.excesssolutions.com/cgi-bin/item/ES5358

Only $4.00 each.. Minimum order is $30... I got a couple extras and some other spare parts.... Great deal!
 
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handheldgames said:
drrbc said:
Dude,

Cheap fans. You made my day!

So now it's the temp sensors and tying them in. On my MP1,1, the heatsink sensors were actually a 78 cent resistors from Radio Shack that you could buy by the handful. I need someone to get a really good look at the sensors from procs A & B heatsinks and see if its more of the same. God, I hope so- waterblocks I got, now money....

BTW, love your sig. I guess mine should read "Since I'm the ER Doctor, I had no idea what was wrong. But I fixed it anyway."
Click to expand...

Those are not the fans you want... These are the Original parts...
http://www.excesssolutions.com/cgi-bin/item/ES5358

Only $4.00 each.. Minimum order is $30... I got a couple extras and some other spare parts.... Great deal!
Click to expand...

Wow, nice find, I know where I'm going to go if I ever need new fans
 
Again, a 2N3904 for MacPro4,1 heatsink sensor

Not resurrecting the dead here, it's an ongoing project.

I did remove the Northbridge Heatsink today to confirm the sensor.

Pretty good pic for an iPhone 4 through my soldering magnifying glass (if I do say so myself!).

Now please, everyone with a MP4,1, verify your heatsink screw size as an M3,
THEN​
THINK... Does anyone know where to find an M3 stud extension??

Thanks in Ad.
Robert​
 

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