Disassembly of Mac Pro - Jewelers Screws?

BS? Maybe they just don't want you to open it that easily.

Why would you want to open it anyway? For what purpose?

I don't think apple ever intended for people to disassemble their macs like that.

Look at how easy it is to remove the memory, no disassembly required just pull out the daughter card.

I'm curious as to why you want to take that puppy apart

Mike

I agree with you the two small screws in the memory cage are aweful. I tried to get them out and failed. I also saw that anandtech published an article on this same problem here:
http://www.anandtech.com/mac/showdoc.aspx?i=2816&p=7

If anyone wants to get easy access to the SATA ports on the board or run an SATA cable to the DVR bay it would be much easier to remove the front fan. However, to do so you have to take out the memory cage, to get the CPU cover off, so that you can remove the front fan. And Apple has locked the memory cage access.

This design is really poor. I sure wish the front fan would slide out like it does on the Quad. Where did those engineers go 😉

An alternate view...

The last thing you want are screws vibrating loose and rattling around to short anything.

An alternate view...

The last thing you want are screws vibrating loose
and rattling around to short anything.

I guess if the tiny screws were actually holding the memory cage in place that might be an interesting concept. However, the memory cage is mainly held in place by two normal screws in the back of the assembly. The front screws apear to only be a secondary fastener and there is no mechanical reason to make them difficult to remove. If regular screws had been installed the cage would not vibrate.

The real issue appears to be a poor SATA board layout, no easy cable access to the DVD cage, the failure to be able to remove the front fan assembly like the Powermac G5 Quad and these silly memory cage screws that are locked in place.

Thanks for the link mbean, if I can't saw the screws
off, it's nice to know that I can just push the cage
back to remove the heatsink cover and front fan
assembly...

Not sure why the other posters are playing devil's
advocate because these screws are completely
ridiculous and maybe I just want to disassemble the
case for the heck of it.

I have found that while the Apple boards can be very helpful, many of the posters support Apple decisions even when they make no sense. There seems to be a lack of independent thinking or there are a lots of Apple drones out there. If you really want to get them going start talking about how "Dell doesn't have this problem". 😉

Personally, I don't care who makes a product, if there is a way to make it better, I am interested. Its funny that some users would question why you want to take the Mac Pro apart. Like you need to explain your reasons before they can help you?

I have tried to remove the center CPU heat sink by moving the memory tray back but the play on my unit is not enough to loosen the tabs. In the AndanTech article the writer seems surprised that he did not break the tabs 😉

Based on that, I think pushing the memory cage back may not be the best solution.

Some peoples problem seems to be they only see the glass as half empty.

Exactly, I feel stupid enough taking a drill to a
$2000+ piece of electronics, the last thing I need is
20 questions...

Other than this glaring problem in design/protection,
I am very impressed with this machine

I wrote to PowerMax as they were one of the first sites to post take apart images of the Mac Pro. I thought maybe they had a better idea of how to take the front screws out.

Here is the response:

"Those are a big pain and I ended up striping them during their removal. The two standoff bolts that they screw into are not secured to the case well. You may need to get some ultra thin needle nose pliers to hold the standoff when turning the screw. As a last ditch attempt you can drill out the screw head."

It looks like this is a known issue. It will be interesting to see how Apple Techs deal with it. You may not be the only one drilling your new $2,500 toy 😉

Have fun!

Some peoples problem seems to be they only see the
glass as half empty.

Based on your avatar, shouldn't that have been 'flask' as half empty? ;-))

john

It looks like this is a known issue. It will be
interesting to see how Apple Techs deal with it. You
may not be the only one drilling your new $2,500 toy

Knowing Apple, the Techs probably have a special tool which keeps the standoff in place while being able to remove the special screw without incident. It's probably designed that way to prevent tampering with what Apple considers non-user replaceable parts. Sort of like those stickers on joined parts that indicate "warranty void if sticker is removed". That way if user damage occurs, Apple would inspect these screws and if they were "tampered" with could tell you that your warranty was void.

Some peoples problem seems to be they only see the
glass as half empty.

Based on your avatar, shouldn't that have been 'flask' as half empty? ;-))

Well Said

That is a lot of guessing as PowerMax is an Apple service provider. I will call my Apple Tech and see if they know how to remove the screws easily.