[Jamster325]

--[Introduction]--

Hi, I've been around on the forum for a while however I have been pretty quiet for the last few years, since I signed up I've wanted to do a case mod of some sort. Originally this was going to be with my old Thermaltake Shark case however things have moved on hardware wise and I felt a complete new build was needed.

--[The Project]--

The case I decided to start with is a mac pro 2008 case, I know Apple isn't the most popular company around here but I have always loved the style of their products and especially their cases which are simple, understated and elegant

I bought a Early 2008 Mac Pro case from eBay, It's in nearly perfect condition apart from a slight scratch on the access panel. I bought an empty case so I could start from scratch with only the necessary apple internal components, as I plan on maintaining as much of the original functionality as possible.

Separately I have purchased:
Lian Li V351 MicroATX Motherboard Tray
Apple optical drive carrier
Mac Pro Hard Drive Power + Data Cable Harness (This will need cutting and modifying to allow me to use a standard motherboard)

--[The Case]--

 

[vitality]

links aren't working

 

[Jamster325]

Links all sorted

no idea what happened there lol

 

[Jamster325]

--[Post Guide]--

1.

 

[Shift.]

Subbed.

Love these sort of mods.

 

[Jamster325]

>.< Thanks!
I'll try not to disappoint!

 

[Jamster325]

Just a small update

I have ordered the following from MDPC

I would like to thank Lutro0 for this from his post on sleeving Here

3mm White Sleeving

Sata White Sleeving

Pre-Cut Heatshrink

 

[Jamster325]

First update of the night

A couple of days ago I got the hard drive harness cable through in the post, this is going to be a bit of a challenge as I will need to splice together two sata cables

then repeat this four times for each connector. I have found a site that sells a mini sas barrel link however this is $59 excluding postage to the uk, which is money that could be better spent else where

The sata power connector also needed modifying, being the easier job this came first

This is the entire harness as it arrived

The power and the data parts separated

The ends cut off

All the ends neatly twisted together

The Molex connectors crimped on

The final cable

Pretty straight forward conversion there, next update will be the sata cable

 

[Jamster325]

Here's last nights second update

the cables took a little longer than I anticipated as I had to redo two of them

The original mini sas connector

The connector cut off

The stripped down cables

One wire down

One cable finished, this first one took me about 1 hour

Three cables done, I need to buy another sata cable to do the final connector

All I need to do to these cables now is heat shrink over the entire section and then sleeve them one it arrives

 

[pelplouffe]

that gonna look so awesome!

 

[Jamster325]

Hi all

It's been a rather busy week though on Friday my order from MDPC arrived so I got under way with sleeving my newly created sata cables

Here's the sleeving

the quality of this stuff is incredible, and yes I did order more than I said above

By this point I realised it was too late to get heat shrink over the connectors to seal up the joint so I wrapped it in a little tape, I figured it should be fine as the main cables are already heat shrunk it's just the ground wires that are exposed

One cable down

not to bad for a first attempt

Another shot

That's all for now guys, I'm hoping to finish the sata cables tomorrow as I need to get hold of some white insulation tape for the two white ones

 

[Jamster325]

Just a small update to give you an idea for what i'm planning on the back of the case

I want to keep it as original as possible so I have removed the apple pci plate on the back and held in place the lian li back plate to check dimensions, the red it to be cut out (Just waiting to get my hands on a dremel

) and the blue area will be bridged with some metal cut from the unneeded remains from the lian li back plate

 

[Ockap1812]

Bump. Please don't let thread die, the mac pro is by far the most beautiful case ever made. I really want to see the progress that's been made for it.

 

[Jamster325]

Hi folks, no need to worry this thread is staying

I have had a really busy run up to Christmas at uni so this project had to take a back seat for a little while, more updates will be coming over the next few weeks

 

[Jamster325]

Progress has been made at last

As I was heading back to visit my parents during christmas I thought I would get my dad to help with this project, as you can see below I didn't end up sourcing a dremel to do the cutting as I figured it was only going to be occasionally used and the money could be more wisely spent

so I masked out the area that needed cutting and left the job to the pro

I only have this one photo at the moment though I'll post more photos of the progress made tomorrow as its getting late here now

 

[rockcoeur]

Subbed! This is gonna be epic!

 

[skaterat]

I always have liked the look of that case. Subbed

 

[shineon2011]

I really do love the case too, excited to see this build. Keep us updated with pics!

 

[Jamster325]

Thanks guys

as promised here's more pics

Hers's a photo of the cut out for the io plate, I'm pretty impressed at how well this came out as the cutting disc on the angle grinder was rather large for this job

I have positioned the backplate so the original apple pci slots line up with the cut out for the io connectors

I took the apple standoff's that I had previously snapped off the case and cut four off them to make them the correct length for the motherboard tray

A close-up of the standoff, these are going to be glued to the case using some jb weld when I get beck to Southampton during the week

I mounted the motherboard tray this way to make it removable so I can route cables behind it at a later date

 

[macarule]

cant wait to see this!