Mac Pro (late 2013) replica inside a real trashcan

http://www.tonymacx86.com/mac-pro-mods/120757-mac-pro-late-2013-replica.html

by timr • 12 years ago

141 86 12 years ago

Jormundir2• 12 years ago

Kind of funny, but what makes the new Mac Pro beautiful is the internal design, and that hackintosh is not beautiful on the inside.

ladzoppelin• 12 years ago

Nobody sees the inside so its kind of like they did it to justify the price. In my opinion the Mac Pro/All Macs would be a lot more interesting if I knew I could install any OS I want on it without a performance loss and it was officially allowed by Apple.

Bud• 12 years ago

As far as I know, various Unix versions, as well as Win7, will run just fine. No artificial performance penalties, and Apple is currently doing precisely NOTHING to disallow installation of alternate OSes. This has been the case for years.

IgorPartola3• 12 years ago

You can and you won't and it is. Performance issues are from the fact that other OS's don't support the hardware properly.

lstamour3• 12 years ago

If/when I get one, I'm going to run it without the shiny exterior as much as possible. That thing is too shiny and I much prefer the aesthetic of PC boards and parts on a Pro machine. (Then again I run my Windows tower with the sides off too, though that's because I was too lazy to hook up the power button and front USB ports.)

avn2109• 12 years ago

The IT guy in my building claims "MBP's are the best Windows laptops on the market." I'm probably not in a position to say whether or not it's true, but it seems to be at least a defensible position.

fastball• 12 years ago

Well, considering the fact that Apple made a program called "Bootcamp" which simplifies the process of installing Windows on your machine, I'd say other OSes are officially allowed by Apple.

In fact, I have Win7, OS 10.9, and Arch Linux on this computer (early 2013 MBP Retina)

CSDude• 12 years ago

Yes, because he does not have an assembly factory. He is just a modder. And it is a trashcan. And parts he used are probably not built to be put inside a trashcan. It is cheaper and he has a compact computer. Maybe it is good enough for him, and he can carry it around easily?

Jormundir2• 12 years ago

When thinking about the merits of the mod, there aren't any. You can get mini computer cases for cheap, and they would work much, much better than his trashcan. So what we're left with is the "look a trashcan looks like the Mac Pro" joke with a more literal application, which is, as I said, kind of funny. Though who's to say a trash can isn't well designed?

Edit Since the link switched to the original forum post with more pictures: I must say the project was quite impressive and the end result is cool, though I still stand by my original point.

girvo• 12 years ago

I disagree. It's not as nice as the real Mac Pro, but what this modder made, even inside, is really impressive and quite cool looking. I'm impressed, anyway.

MBCook• 12 years ago

I don't know. He did a really good job on the outside. His job replicating the look of the grill on the bottom was a great touch.

But inside, it was just a bog-standard Mini-ITX, standard graphics card, etc. Before I clicked on the link I was hoping to see something more unique.

Two of the neatest things about the new Mac Pro are it's size and silence. This mod is bigger (not surprising), but why not go further? If the enclosure was bigger you could have simulated the triangle layout of the Mac Pro and put something interesting down the middle.

Or you could work to make the machine quieter with some elaborate heat-pipe or water-cooling setup. I have a feeling the small graphics and CPU fans in that metal case make a fair amount of noise.

I guess I was expecting something much more exotic, maybe using a small single board computer (Beagle Bone or Raspberry Pi) or something else strange.

It looks nice considering the constraints of using normal PC hardware. Apple went back to the drawing board with the Mac Pro, I guess I'm a bit disappointed by this being 'just' a round case.

kenrikm• 12 years ago

This one is interesting, I'm on the fence about it though. I have a Hackintosh (i5 3470k,16gb,2X GTX660TI SLI) inside of a G5 case. The interesting thing about the older Mac Pro is they did not really change the design for so many years and you can pickup a empty G5 case for $70-100 on ebay. Only slight modifications are needed to make it work with PC components.

WaterSponge• 12 years ago

So modder gets close to fit/finish with his hands and then its not good enough cause the "insides"... which you can't see BTW is the real good stuff is. Design can be just for design sake and not for technical or mechanical superiority.

Your thought train is living somewhere between these: https://yourlogicalfallacyis.com/no-true-scotsman https://yourlogicalfallacyis.com/special-pleading

xmonkee• 12 years ago

Please stop quoting irrelevant fallacies. Jeez.

velis_vel2• 12 years ago

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Argument_from_fallacy

Sanddancer2• 12 years ago

To be quite honest, I think the new mac pro's design is on the ugly side from an internal standpoint. There are existing standards for things like small form factor graphics interface, like MXM, that seem like they would work much better than apple's variant which requires a rather frail looking connector between the graphics cards and the I/O card. Though I imagine one of the problems there is that it would be much harder for Apple to keep people from purchasing a third-party video card two years down the road when the current boards start getting long in the tooth.

2muchcoffeeman2• 12 years ago

The interesting thing about the Pro is the heat management & power in such a small form factor. I have yet to see a Pro IRL, but reports indicate that it is very quiet for such a powerful machine.

The last tower machine I had years ago was loud and doubled as a room heater in winter. I still see video cards being made that require their own heat sink and fan. Then add all the other standard fans: power supply, CPU (+ heat sink), one or two on the case. You have these huge empty, inefficient boxes.

I really hope Apple brings their heat management knowledge to their other lines.

Edit: grammar.

coldtea4• 12 years ago

Well, OTOH the Mac Pro does have use replacable CPU, HD and memory for what is worth. It got a 8/10 user-servisability score at iFixit, which is very good for a device of this size and design.

And it can also use thunderbolt based GPUs. But if your work justifies a $3K dual-GPU machine, would you really go about replacing graphics cards 2-3 years down the road, instead of just buying the latest model? It would have new-everything, and it would be a tax deductible busines expense after all.

astrodust• 12 years ago

A connector like MXM isn't enough to handle the sort of bandwidth those cards need to move. They need PCI-e and multiple DisplayPort channels as the ports are not on the video cards, but instead on the back panel.

iterationx• 12 years ago

Strangely managed to omit the word Macintrash. http://www.catb.org/jargon/html/M/Macintrash.html

aspensmonster• 12 years ago

L'esprit de l'escalier. Macintrash would have been a perfect name for the build :D

taway20124• 12 years ago

Sort of off-topic question. :)

Is it still the case that updates from Apple will randomly break a Hackintosh? It used to be the case a few years ago. Has it gotten easier to update a Hackintosh these days?

bitwalker2• 12 years ago

You can't use Software Update to install OS updates (you can update everything else through there though). It's fairly easy to install the updates via USB as long as you have your configuration and drivers backed up though.

free652• 12 years ago

I have updated all of my hakintoshes via software update with no issues. Just keep a recovery USB stick handy if one of the updates goes bad.

johnpowell• 12 years ago

Mine that I am typing on right now can be updated through the app store. Sound breaks but that is a two minute fix.

Z68MA-D2H-B3 2500K OD'ed to 4.5GHZ 650TI Boost 2Gig

It is actually easier to install OS X on this then it is Windows.

Major updates 10.8 -> 10.9 do require booting from a USB stick made with Unibeast. But 10.9 -> 10.9.1 works just fine.

e40• 12 years ago

This. I've been lurking on the hackintosh forums[1] and it really isn't very hard. I'm about to jump into the hack world. The decision process was pretty difficult, but I think I've crossed all the t's and dotted all the i's. I recorded the hardest decisions in my blog[2]. Since I needed RAID 5, it took a while to feel comfortable, but now I do and I'm about to purchase the hardware.

[1] http://www.tonymacx86.com/forum.php

[2] http://envoy510.wordpress.com/2014/01/25/new-mac-pro-or-hack...

tinco• 12 years ago

No, you still have to refuse all OS updates. The OS update process costs you a few hours, spent carefully reading whatever the OSX hackers have to say about it.

Depending on your hardware there could be a standard process, but it almost always requires a bit of command line work, clicking cancel at the right time, and withstanding the temptation of clicking reboot when the installer asks you to.

That said, I've used OSX on non-Apple hardware for two years as my main development/entertainment machine. Upgrading wasn't desireable anyway because newer versions of OSX stopped supporting multi-monitors after 10.6.7 I believe. It really was great to be able to use OSX on my desktop.

Finally when staying on 10.6.7 really started to give problems, I decided to try Ubuntu again. I was pleasantly surprised that Ubuntu now actually is very usable as a workstation for development. It's got all window manager features 10.6.7 had, good terminal emulators, editors, and the important browsers, what more do you need? (don't say photoshop :@)

ChronosKey• 12 years ago

10.9 has pretty good multi-monitor support.

taway20124• 12 years ago

what more do you need? (don't say photoshop :@)

In my case it's Lightroom. :)

Longtime Ubuntu user here. Bought a Mac mini as my desktop replacement on the off-chance that I might write an iOS app.

I'm actually running Ubuntu inside Mac as my development environment. Ubuntu also nicely solves the "blurry text" problem [flame away! :)]

coldtea4• 12 years ago

Finally when staying on 10.6.7 really started to give problems, I decided to try Ubuntu again. I was pleasantly surprised that Ubuntu now actually is very usable as a workstation for development. It's got all window manager features 10.6.7 had, good terminal emulators, editors, and the important browsers, what more do you need? (don't say photoshop :@)

Photoshop, Office, proper multimedia capabilities (DAWs, NLEs), full support for all my laptops features, and never ever having to tinker to get some basic device working.

al2o3cr• 12 years ago

"newer versions of OSX stopped supporting multi-monitors after 10.6.7 I believe."

My two displays on 10.9 say you "believe" wrong.

roeme• 12 years ago

Randomly, but seldomly. I use a hackintosh for my day-to-day work, and so far I only had one update where I needed to roll back until new patches were available. 10.9.0 to 10.9.1 went completely smooth for example.

tvon• 12 years ago

FWIW, I haven't had any update issues for years. If you have hardware setup that was easy to install on, then you'll have a hardware setup that is easy to update. If you had to do anything special after the basic install, you'll probably have to do the same thing after each update.

dopamean• 12 years ago

I always found it a little sad how much Apple has discouraged people from building Hackintoshes particularly when you consider the early days of Apple.

staticfish2• 12 years ago

I don't think that's quite true. There's a lot that's not generally compatible with a lot of ATX boards (special power management stuff, drivers), but in general they haven't done a whole lot to block it off.

I think they see it as a hobyist activity that does more to encourage sales than lose them.

IgorPartola3• 12 years ago

Well, the point is you cannot sell these. Sure, if you build one and never tell Apple you put OS X on it they won't come after you but you cannot get support for OS X running on a Hackingtosh. If you do try to sell them, thing a get even worse for you. Not that I see how they could make it work but the current status is definitely not peachy.

DerekL• 12 years ago

What do you mean exactly? Was there ever a time when Apple encouraged people to make unlicensed clones of their machines?

rangibaby• 12 years ago

Low specs (only i3) but it is funny! Good work :-)

brudgers• 12 years ago

If it ran Windows, would it be a recycle bin?

userbinator• 12 years ago

I like how it has more I/O options than the real thing.

I'd probably not use an Apple logo though... maybe a pear? :)

dhoss• 12 years ago

I was really hoping for an Oscar the Grouch style trashcan.

quackerhacker• 12 years ago

Seeing as I was using the exact same boards for my 6 rack cluster...It's a little concerning to see pic 12, in what looks like to be a disassembled PSU on the underside of the board. Other than that...I think this build is actually pretty cool.

Speaking from experience, these boards are awesome, and smallest ones I've ever used (other than a mac mini/or rPI)!

yeukhon• 12 years ago

He should start selling this case and release the recipe. I am sure plenty of people wouldn't mind to buy the case from him if he makes more. Like raspberry pi cases. Anyway, beautiful idea. But will Apple patent this design?

lstamour3• 12 years ago

FYI: Without additional tweaking, don't expect top-of-the-line Mac performance. Sure, my overclocked 6-core i7 made it over 12,000 when the highest I'd recorded before then was 9,000ish for a Mac mini i7 server, but when I ran the same parts under Windows, I hit a geekbench score of 25,000. Had I a legit Mac for the same price, I'd probably hit 20,000 easily, and in the older, cheaper designs, could have matched 25,000 for about the same price. If only Windows had a decent terminal, I'd be happy. Instead, when the Mac Pro gets DDR4 later this year, I might just switch.

Kiro• 12 years ago

OT but why doesn't the German forum want any links to them, even going so far as threating with sueing the poster if he doesn't remove the link?

captainmuon• 12 years ago

Either because he is stupid, or because he got pressure from Apple (or fears to get trouble if the link is circulated outside of Germany). I guess Apple does pressure a lot of website owners behind the scenes... but of course the other option is more likely :-)

Seriously, under German law the forum owner has no way to forbid people to link to his site - unless they are insulting him, misattributing content, etc.

Here is the original link (now removed): http://hackintosh-forum.de/index.php?page=Thread&postID=9493...

Here is the google cache: https://www.google.com/search?q=http://hackintosh-forum.de/i...

Normaly, I wouldn't post that link, but there is (as far as I could see) nothing problematic in that thread, and the content is already posted (with permission of the original author apparently) somewhere else, so the whole thing is incredibly silly.

ds9• 12 years ago

I wondered this too, until I saw the Apple logo. That would be a trademark violation. Maybe the forum mods wanted to avoid having the forum involved if Apple went after the poster.

Without the logo, Apple's complaint would have to be based on imitation of the design - maybe weaker than trademark but I dunno about design rights in EU.

Roboprog• 12 years ago

That is a lovely looking case. Regardless of how impractical it might be as an OSX vehicle, it looks good.

Good work!

Kequc• 12 years ago

So that's what apple stickers are for.

marincounty• 12 years ago

I didn't like the design of the new Mac Pro initially, but the circular design makes sense in terms of air flow. The only problems I have personally experienced with computer hardware is the failure of video chips. I had a HP laptop that christened my dive into cooling fans, Artic paste, thermal bars, heat transfer, and frustration.

I hope we go back to putting our own computers together using only the components we desire; bought from companies we admire--not just because they work the best, but for altruistic reasons (employee treatment, environmental friendliness, etc).

paines• 12 years ago

His chipset will melt in 3...2...1... bzzzzzzzz

Mac Pro (late 2013) replica inside a real trashcan

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