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MP All Models The 7,1 and 14,8 Mac Pro case is garbage and poor design.

ZombiePhysicist

ZombiePhysicist

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Original poster
May 22, 2014
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I love the inside of the 7,1 Mac Pro. But the case is beneath garbage.

I just dealt with a DOA drive that was basically impossible to easily diagnose because the case is such garbage. I don't understand why none of the Mac press talks about this other than they are all the equivalent of Soviet era Pravda to Apple and useless lackeys.

The drive wouldnt spin up. If this were the 5,1 case I could just leave the door panel open and hear it. Here I replugged in the drive several times wonder it was a bad port. And had to resort to plugging the drive into an external bay so I could hear it's deficient clicking.

I'm struggling to get a large U2/U3 drives to work in the 7,1, and the case is pure agony. I have to unplug EVERY SINGLE cable to take the stupid case on/off every time I want to plug in a different cable arrangement. It's agonizingly dumb. Who ever made the design and approved the design NEVER works with their actual computer and should be slapped upside the head.

Worse, the 'lauded' pretty machined intakes still let plenty of dust in, but now it's basically impossible to get out. You get the most powerful vacuum you can to get the bulk out, but you can never really get the grill behind it clean. The entire purpose of of the design is thwarted by the stupidity of the design. It's really a train wreck.

It's pretty, but incredibly stupid. Not enough people crap on what an atrocity it is.
 
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I have to agree with you -- It irks me a lot that you cannot simply open the 7,1 without completely powering it off. Totally fails compared to the 5,1 where you could open it during operation. I know there may not be a lot of items that are hot-swappable, but having to completely unplug everything just to open it is really a stupid design failure.

As to the dust-sucking, I have to also agree with you there -- why in the HELL didn't they make it so that the black metal pieces can slide out so you can CLEAN THEM?!?!?! Seriously....
 
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prefuse07 said:
I have to agree with you -- It irks me a lot that you cannot simply open the 7,1 without completely powering it off. Totally fails compared to the 5,1 where you could open it during operation. I know there may not be a lot of items that are hot-swappable, but having to completely unplug everything just to open it is really a stupid design failure.

As to the dust-sucking, I have to also agree with you there -- why in the HELL didn't they make it so that the black metal pieces can slide out so you can CLEAN THEM?!?!?! Seriously....
Click to expand...

It's just any debugging becomes a nightmare. Powering off and on is not the end of the world when you need to. But you cant HEAR a problem if it wont operate with an open case. You cannot see any error flashing LEDs. You cannot debug things. Do I have to velcro mount a camera inside the case to debug stuff like that?!?

The case physically prevents you from debugging many common problems. Something as basic as the drive not spinning up (something you might be able to hear, or at least feel with your fingers that there is no spinning hum), you cannot discern that with this garbage case. And the abject tedium of unplugging 15 cables on the back, and back in, is a nightmare.

What I don't get is why are we the only people complaining about this? People keep lauding the design as if it's worth a darn. It's pure crap. Spectacularly deficient in every imaginable way. It's actually difficult to think up a worse design. Total failure.
 
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For future reference: To operate the MP7,1 without its shell, you can bypass the housing sensor with a magnet and manually short the contacts of the power button.
As described in the service manual (page 14 ff).
Apple can't guarantee proper cooling in this case that's why they recommend to remove the magnet so the fans run at full speed.
 

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arw said:
For future reference: To operate the MP7,1 without its shell, you can bypass the housing sensor with a magnet and manually short the contacts of the power button.
As described in the service manual (page 14 ff).
Apple can't guarantee proper cooling in this case that's why they recommend to remove the magnet so the fans run at full speed.
Click to expand...

Thanks, that's a nice hack around for what is still an awful design. The cables still have to come on and off. The dust is still an issue. But at least you can test, with this absolutely insane-for-the-end-user hack.
 
ZombiePhysicist said:
I love the inside of the 7,1 Mac Pro. But the case is beneath garbage.

I just dealt with a DOA drive that was basically impossible to easily diagnose because the case is such garbage. I don't understand why none of the Mac press talks about this other than they are all the equivalent of Soviet era Pravda to Apple and useless lackeys.

The drive wouldnt spin up. If this were the 5,1 case I could just leave the door panel open and hear it. Here I replugged in the drive several times wonder it was a bad port. And had to resort to plugging the drive into an external bay so I could hear it's deficient clicking.

I'm struggling to get a large U2/U3 drives to work in the 7,1, and the case is pure agony. I have to unplug EVERY SINGLE cable to take the stupid case on/off every time I want to plug in a different cable arrangement. It's agonizingly dumb. Who ever made the design and approved the design NEVER works with their actual computer and should be slapped upside the head.

Worse, the 'lauded' pretty machined intakes still let plenty of dust in, but now it's basically impossible to get out. You get the most powerful vacuum you can to get the bulk out, but you can never really get the grill behind it clean. The entire purpose of of the design is thwarted by the stupidity of the design. It's really a train wreck.

It's pretty, but incredibly stupid. Not enough people crap on what an atrocity it is.
Click to expand...

Worse, IMHO it looks cheap. The milled front and back panels, because they’re not a continuous part of the whole skin, but are separate parts with visible seams, they look frankly like old plastic fascia slapped on a box PCs.
 
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TobiasT said:
The case is what most want. The garbage is inside the case.
Click to expand...

Most want it? I guess there is some aesthetic to it. I get your broader point. Disagree with the 7,1. IT was overpriced but don't think it was garbage. The 14,8...

Anyway, fair minded folks can disagree.
 
I agree with your comments here (especially on the dust) but apparently other workstations are like this also. our dell workstation can't be turned on without the side panel being plugged in also. it's probably some "safety" feature but it really becomes annoying when trying to test individual components for whatever reason.
 
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arw said:
For future reference: To operate the MP7,1 without its shell, you can bypass the housing sensor with a magnet and manually short the contacts of the power button.
As described in the service manual (page 14 ff).
Apple can't guarantee proper cooling in this case that's why they recommend to remove the magnet so the fans run at full speed.
Click to expand...

I wonder how difficult it would be to fabricate a little widget that gets fitted to the power button when the case is off, and which allows the system to be run case-off.
 
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I wonder how hard it would be to 3d print a different cover that would allow for side-opening ala 5,1 with removable metal grills so you could actually de-dust the inside :p

Then once you've got a good prototype, go and get that ish machined out!


.....Too bad the internals can't be modernized some more. Imagine throwing in some PCIe 5 slots and a better CPU. Man, such a shame how this machine was wasted because Timmy boy loves his iPads.... ugh
 
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prefuse07 said:
.....Too bad the internals can't be modernized some more. Imagine throwing in some PCIe 5 slots and a better CPU. Man, such a shame how this machine was wasted because Timmy boy loves his iPads.... ugh
Click to expand...

I suspect the lack of side opening was to get the case to be very, very solid. It basically doesn't have any traditional frame in the normal sense.

Imagine if it had a pair of modern Xeons and four Nvidia A6000 GPUs... Like some PC workstations have.

Anyhow, I've got M2 Macbook Air 15" so I've partially moved to the dark side... (shame).... I guess I'll have to start throwing mud at Intel Macs now... ;)
 
I figured I’d buy an empty case (from someones smoked MP) and build a more capable hackintosh inside it for my next mac, but maybe I’ll just buy your egg crate front end cap and call it a day.
 
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When I looked into the price of it, it is hard for me to comprehend that such basic problems exist. Man, what a marketing con is this thing.
 
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