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New case for 2006 Mac Pro

A

adr1974

macrumors 6502
Original poster
So I'm taking my dad's 2006 Mac Pro off his hands. He had it installed in his desk, and in order to fit, someone sawed off the top handles. I'm going to upgrade the processor, and I'm also thinking about picking up a case off eBay. Does anyone know if the Apple Store will swap everything into the new case, and, if so, what the going rate might look like?
 
I can't believe he sawed the beautiful case.😱

I highly doubt Apple with give you a new case because it was user damage that was done. Best bet is to find a mac pro thats been fried and buy that. I don't think its with it.
 
yeah -- i'll pick up the case myself off of eBay or something...just trying to figure out if they'd be able to transfer over the logic board, power supply, optical drives, etc...
 
just a word of advice, from personal experience: make sure you buy a 2006 case. The 2008 case looks similar, but will not work with 2006 internals.
 
Did your dad post to Macrumors when he sawed off the handles. I vaguely recall a thread about someone sawing off the handles on their Mac Pro because they really loved their desk...
 
adr1974 said:
Does anyone know if the Apple Store will swap everything into the new case, and, if so, what the going rate might look like?
Click to expand...
I pretty much doubt that. If they did, you probably would not want to pay them, because not only the process takes a while itself, but they would also have to test everything afterwards to make sure it works properly, thus we could easily talk about a few hours here... (don't know the hour rate for an Apple technician).

Maybe the handles are still available and could be re-applied (even if it was an optical kludge) - probably less hassle than relocating every bit of hardware.

Oh and btw: You may want to run a hardware diagnostic - if the handles had to go in order to fit a desk, chances are that the little clearance left above the tower impaired heat dissipation, which could have been negative to component lifetime (even though it might not have shown up during your father's usual use).
 
I know of tools that assess whether or not everything is working...but are there specific diagnostics that could assess whether the lifespan of certain hardware has been impaired?
 
I know this isn't answering your question, but consider whether the cost and effort are really worth it. You are talking about a cosmetic repair that will cost $250 or more, plus time and effort dropping it off and picking it up. And for what? The handles are useless unless you plan on moving the thing around a lot.

I'd take the free MP without handles, start using it immediately, and call it a great day.

adr1974 said:
I know of tools that assess whether or not everything is working...but are there specific diagnostics that could assess whether the lifespan of certain hardware has been impaired?
Click to expand...

The HDD SMART status might tell you if the HDD is cooked, but I can't think of anything else.
 
ActionableMango said:
I know this isn't answering your question, but consider whether the cost and effort are really worth it. You are talking about a cosmetic repair that will cost $250 or more, plus time and effort dropping it off and picking it up. And for what? The handles are useless unless you plan on moving the thing around a lot.

I'd take the free MP without handles, start using it immediately, and call it a great day.



The HDD SMART status might tell you if the HDD is cooked, but I can't think of anything else.
Click to expand...

I think that's a good call. I actually had a 2008 Mac Pro, but got rid of it for a 2011 MBP...miss being able to tinker. So I ordered 2 X5355 from eBay, will update the hard drives and GPU and call it a day.
 
adr1974 said:
I know of tools that assess whether or not everything is working...but are there specific diagnostics that could assess whether the lifespan of certain hardware has been impaired?
Click to expand...
HDD -> S.M.A.R.T. status (as mentioned already - but as you're replacing them anyway...)

But also other components may be damaged, though your father did not notice it as he did not use them (like e.g. optical drive, Bluetooth/WLan if installed - don't know whether Apple's hardware diagnostics even has an option to check the PSU for undervoltage or something similar).

However - I would not really expect problems, to be honest - as the MacPro has a very good thermal management...
 
It is possibly too late, but I would go the X5365 route to have 3GHz...
I got the pair for ca $80...
 
Neodym said:
I pretty much doubt that. If they did, you probably would not want to pay them, because not only the process takes a while itself, but they would also have to test everything afterwards to make sure it works properly, thus we could easily talk about a few hours here... (don't know the hour rate for an Apple technician).

Maybe the handles are still available and could be re-applied (even if it was an optical kludge) - probably less hassle than relocating every bit of hardware.

Oh and btw: You may want to run a hardware diagnostic - if the handles had to go in order to fit a desk, chances are that the little clearance left above the tower impaired heat dissipation, which could have been negative to component lifetime (even though it might not have shown up during your father's usual use).
Click to expand...

Er, not to nitpick much, but you do know that Mac Pro handles are part of a unibody chassis right? It's all or nothing - there is no separate handle you can affix to the case in any manner without welding (and I wouldn't trust that to pick up a 65 lb. machine).

Also, the handles being taken off to go under a desk would not impede any airflow at all. There is NO airflow at the top of the case. None. You could cover it with a rug and it wouldn't be more than a degree or two increase (as long as you didn't cover the fan ports on the back of the machine).

The handles were purely aesthetic, though building them into the case directly made it that much stronger and easily capable of deaing with the behemoth weight of the machine. 🙂
 
Squishy Tia said:
Er, not to nitpick much, but you do know that Mac Pro handles are part of a unibody chassis right? It's all or nothing - there is no separate handle you can affix to the case in any manner without welding (and I wouldn't trust that to pick up a 65 lb. machine).

Also, the handles being taken off to go under a desk would not impede any airflow at all. There is NO airflow at the top of the case. None. You could cover it with a rug and it wouldn't be more than a degree or two increase (as long as you didn't cover the fan ports on the back of the machine).

The handles were purely aesthetic, though building them into the case directly made it that much stronger and easily capable of deaing with the behemoth weight of the machine. 🙂
Click to expand...

The handles or "feet" were used to keep it elevated so it doesn't suck up all the dust if you have your Mac Pro located on the floor.
 
Squishy Tia said:
Er, not to nitpick much, but you do know that Mac Pro handles are part of a unibody chassis right? It's all or nothing - there is no separate handle you can affix to the case in any manner without welding (and I wouldn't trust that to pick up a 65 lb. machine).
Click to expand...
I'm fully aware of this 🙂 I understood it's more an aesthetic issue, thus my proposal to (glue/weld/rivet/clamp - whatever) the sawed-off handles back to the housing if still available. May not be sufficient to actually move that monster, but may be looking a little nicer than being completely off (and probably way cheaper than buying a new housing and relocating everything).

Regarding heat dissipation: I assumed (maybe wrongly) that if someone cuts away that handles to get the MP under some desk, the space/exhaust openings may have been very limited there in more directions than just above the computer. And in a cramped compartment heat accumulation can become a problem. Should have clarified that better...
 
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