Change MacPro Case - Possible?

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Change MacPro Case - Possible?

Hi, first of all sorry for my english but i'm italian 🙂

After almost 1year of MacPro, i want to change the case

I actually own a Cooler Master Stacker (first old version), with another PC in that but i can easily find another case to fit that other one

What i want to ask is: can i remove all the parts in my MacPro and place them into another case of my choice? (that obviously support the macpromb, and what type is it? atx, e-atx, btx or other?

Thanks in advance

Mac Pro, Mac OS X (10.4.10)

Posted on Jun 22, 2007 4:46 AM

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Answer 1

Illidanz Author

Level 1

8 points

Jun 22, 2007 9:55 AM in response to ScottishCaptain

Thanks ScottishCaptain, exactly what i wanted to hear 😉

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Answer 2

Jun 22, 2007 5:53 AM in response to Illidanz

This would be exceedingly difficult. A standard case will not have the mounting areas that the Mac Pro requires -- for example the Mac Pro power supply is completely different to a "normal" PC power supply.

The short answer is "no."

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Answer 3

Illidanz Author

Level 1

8 points

Jun 22, 2007 5:57 AM in response to William Lloyd

i asked that because the CM-stacker is not a standard case, but sopports nearly all mb types and such

and don't matter if it's hard, my father own a pc shop and i'm not new to that kind of things 😉

what i want to know is if it's -possible- and what are the differences from a normal pc (as you said, the PSU, for example, i can't use the one from the MacPro?), for example the extra support that the raiser needs to not damage the mb (not hard to do)

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Answer 4

Jun 22, 2007 6:24 AM in response to Illidanz

Hi Illidanz;

Anything is possible. The question is how difficult is the process in relation to the gain. What you are proposing would be extremely difficult. The gains would be extremely small. While the support of the motherboard is important, a much larger problem would be getting the correct airflow for the components on the Mac Pro motherboard. I would have to agree with William that the simple answer is no.

Allan

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Answer 5

Jun 22, 2007 9:35 AM in response to Illidanz

As for what's different...

First, look inside the Mac Pro and see how many wires you see.

Then look inside a standard PC and see how many wires you see.

It will likely be quite a challenge if you can't migrate the pieces in exactly the same configuration.

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Answer 6

Jun 22, 2007 9:52 AM in response to Illidanz

No.

The Mac Pro is not ATX, E-ATX, or BTX. It is a custom motherboard designed for the Mac Pro case and that alone. Since the board itself spans nearly the entire side of the MP casing internally, it probably won't even fit in any standard case as I believe it is larger then E-ATX.

If you did manage to get it into something like a CM stacker- several problems are going to spring up right away:
- None of the components have standard screwholes, you'll need to drill your own
- You will need to have a support structure to hold up the FB-DIMM Riser cards, so they don't snap off the board
- You will need to mount the fans in nearly the identical place that they were on the Mac Pro, using the same fans (otherwise the Mac Pro will get thermally confused and the fans will rev up)
- Your PCI Card slots probably won't line up, you'll need to rebuild those too

If you were building a custom case from scratch with CNC machines and aluminum- maybe this would be possible. Chucking it in a CM case is a no-no, the Mac Pro case is far superior (in most ways) to the CM unit anyways- since the Mac Pro logic board and the case itself were /designed/ for each other. There is no standard that the Mac Pro falls under.

-SC

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