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Caveman.

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jun 23, 2011
4
0
Hello,

I own a 2009 Mac Pro (8 Cores) and I'm required by my studies to be moving from one country to the next so it is incredibly hard to take it with me. I find myself not using 3 of the 4 Hard Drive bays and I am going to have to change my default GPU to something more powerful.

Is it possible to take out the components and put them in another case? It is extremely big and heavy.
 
Hello,

I own a 2009 Mac Pro (8 Cores) and I'm required by my studies to be moving from one country to the next so it is incredibly hard to take it with me. I find myself not using 3 of the 4 Hard Drive bays and I am going to have to change my default GPU to something more powerful.

Is it possible to take out the components and put them in another case? It is extremely big and heavy.

Any Data drive that works in a Mac Pro (2006-2012) can be installed in any other Mac Pro (2006-2012) without any problem .

Same is true of a Mac Pro OS X boot drive , provided minimum system requirements are met . Although it is a bad idea (or even impossible) to use a drive with an OS X in any Mac that predates it's initial factory OS X version .

If you intend simply to tear down a Mac Pro and ship the parts separately , probably a bad idea . Too great of a chance something will get damaged .
 
However, it must be mentioned that the HDD sleds are different on the 3,1 Mac Pros (shorter) than the later Mac Pros. The 4,1 and 5,1 share the same sled.

Lou
 
Hello,

I own a 2009 Mac Pro (8 Cores) and I'm required by my studies to be moving from one country to the next so it is incredibly hard to take it with me. I find myself not using 3 of the 4 Hard Drive bays and I am going to have to change my default GPU to something more powerful.

Is it possible to take out the components and put them in another case? It is extremely big and heavy.

Are you thinking to put the Mac in a smaller, lighter PC case? I don't think that's feasible without creating a lot of stuff on your own.

Maybe sell it and get a nMP? I know, it's really easy to say that when it's not my money lol.
 
Are you thinking to put the Mac in a smaller, lighter PC case? I don't think that's feasible without creating a lot of stuff on your own.

Maybe sell it and get a nMP? I know, it's really easy to say that when it's not my money lol.

Yeah I want to have it in a lighter case, probably smaller too if possible.
 
Yeah I want to have it in a lighter case, probably smaller too if possible.

It is smaller and lighter for sure , but the Mac Pro 6,1 (2013) will NOT age gracefully . It's an appliance and difficult - if not impossible - to upgrade .

It already has the fastest processor installable in it's socket (12 Core Ivy) with no compatibility with the succeeding gen CPUs and can only go up to 64GB memory at full speed . It's flash drive is proprietary and so are it's GPUs .

A very expensive toaster indeed - much like the G4 PowerMac Cube (which was in service by pros for under a year before they returned to using DP Mac Towers .

It is , however, a very cool looking device . If you have the $$$
 
Yeah I want to have it in a lighter case, probably smaller too if possible.

I have no idea how the Mac pro board compares to an ATX style PC board as far as holes and standoffs go, I know PC boards have their CPU(s) right on them, so the issue of the CPU tray would be a big one to overcome.

Secondly, the drives, their SATA connectors and power are hard wired into the board.

Also, i'm not sure how the PCI slots line up when compared to the openings and slots on an ATX board.
 
Yeah I want to have it in a lighter case, probably smaller too if possible.
Repurposing a Mac case for PC components requires fairly extensive modification; I can't image going the other way would be any better. I suppose anything is possible but you would have to do a ton of custom work.

For that matter, theoretically you could strip the parts, plug things together and throw them in a cardboard box. Or find a "test bench" case to bolt things to. (would still probably have to drill your own holes to screw into.)

Do you have any kind of budget to work with? Assuming a new Mac Pro is out of the question? A 2009 8-core should be worth a decent amount; I hate to say it but I think the best use might be to sell it and build a hackintosh if you have the stomach for that, or transition to PC.
 
Yeah I want to have it in a lighter case, probably smaller too if possible.
This isn't a practical solution even if you just wanted to move it to another full-size tower case, and it's just about physically impossible to move it to a small enough case that it would make it any easier to frequently move it around.

We'll assume a nMP is out of the question because of cost.

So the next question is, do you really need a Mac Pro? What exactly are your requirements for a Mac? Maybe you'd be fine with a Mac Mini or a MBP?
 
I think someone just needs to come out and say it. There is no way to put a 4,1 in a small form factor. You need a different computer, or to accept that you will have to ship your computer between locations.
 
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