Removing the Mac Pro Front fan assembly

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Level 4

1,250 points

Removing the Mac Pro Front fan assembly

I am trying to get access to the SATA connectors on the Mac Pro motherboard. My fat hands cannot reach them. Does anyone know how to remove the front fan assembly?

I removed the top screw on the motherboard but the fan assembly will not come out. Can anyone post instructions as to how to remove the front fan assembly in the Mac Pro?

Thank you.

G5, Mac OS X (10.4.7)

Posted on Sep 1, 2006 6:56 PM

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Answer 1

Sep 1, 2006 10:18 PM in response to mbean

Check out this very good article on Anandtech.com

http://www.anandtech.com/showdoc.aspx?i=2816&p=7
This is a link to the page in the article called "Taking it apart"

If you want to read the entire article;
http://www.anandtech.com/showdoc.aspx?i=2816&p=1

Mac Pro Mac OS X (10.4.7)

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Answer 2

mbean Author

Level 4

1,250 points

Sep 1, 2006 11:49 PM in response to nathannookie

I found the article but I cannot get the screws out of the bottom of the memory bay either. I tried moving the memory bay back, but there is not enough play to unsnap the shield around the processors so that I can finally get the front fan out. What a stupid design. What happened to the easily removable fan unit from the G5.

Strike one against the Mac Pro.

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Answer 3

Sep 2, 2006 7:25 AM in response to mbean

Have you read the .pdf Macpro manual?

You should find what you want to know in the Manual.

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Answer 4

mbean Author

Level 4

1,250 points

Sep 2, 2006 3:24 PM in response to Technoapple

Yes, I read the pdf and the written manual. There is absolutely nothing in the Apple manual about how to remove the memory bay so that the heat sink cover can come off so that the front fan can be removed to access the SATA ports on the Mac Pro board.

The G5 fan removal is soooo much easier.

What is really funny is that if you read the manual it says on page 47, "To adjust the bandwidth of the PCI Express slots in your Mac Pro, use the Expansion Slot utility, located in the Utilities folder within the applications folder."

There is no "Expansion Slot utility" on the hard drive or on the install disks. Someone goofed 😉

Have fun!

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Answer 5

Sep 2, 2006 10:26 PM in response to mbean

If you read further down the article, you can see how they finally removed the fan assy. without removing the screws. Then you can see the extra SATA connections in their picture;

http://images.anandtech.com/reviews/mac/macpro/case-fanremoved.jpg

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Answer 6

Sep 21, 2006 1:25 PM in response to mbean

My experience (from doing this today) was that I had to drill out the two screws holding the memory cage in place.

It is definitly a error on the design/assembly, you see there is too much loctite on the two screws. Once I got the cage off, I could remove the two mounting screws? under the cage and then using some pliers, got the screws (what was left of them) out. Nothing but blue loctite up and down the entire thread length, WAY OVERKILL!

I am glad that I went ahead and dealt with that headache, now I've got it all reassembled and screwed them down using two nice screws with NO loctite.

I also, used blue painters tape to seal off all around the memory cage to prevent metal chips from getting anyway. Plus I recommend running the drill at a low speed so stuff doesnt go flying. Then vacuum out everything just to be sure.

When all was said and done, you can't even tell an operation took place. The patient is alive and well.

Other then that issue, everything pretty much pulls out just fine.

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Answer 7

Neurorad

Level 1

90 points

Sep 21, 2006 3:15 PM in response to James Parks

If any of you are trying to run a SATA cable from the extra motherboard slots to a fifth drive under the DVD drive, it may be easier to buy some really good angled needle nose tools rather than dissamble you Mac Pro.

Without removing the fam or anything needing a screw, I just installed a 500GB SATA drive in the slot under the DVD Burner. All I needed was a right angle SATA cable, a SATA power adapter for the standard power connector sitting emtpy under the burner, and hard drive install brackets to adapt the drive to the larger bay. Parts were bought locally at a PC Club store (right angle SATA cable) in LA and CompUSA (drive brackets and power/Molex adapter). Did not have to unscrew anything. Did slide out the adjacent drive bays 1 and 2 for more room. With patience, I was able to snake the cable under the back of the fan housing to a gap in the front of the first drive bay entering the upper chamber, right near the drive. Tight fit for everything, but it works great. As noted in other posts, Windows does not see or use any drive connected to this port.

BTW the Expansion Slot Utility is in:

/System/Library/CoreServices

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