Building a MACPRO like PC

S

Streetrat

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Hi, i am new in this forum, been looking for a computer built to par with the latest mac pro dual processor. Hope you guys can give me some good suggestions.

1) What will you be doing with this PC? Gaming? Photoshop? Web browsing? etc
Gaming, graphics, 3d modeling and rendering.
2) What's your budget? Are tax and shipping included?
My budget is around RM7000, i will try to find from shops, so don't need shipping.Tax ++- - is ok for me.
3) Where do you live?
Malaysia
4) What exact parts do you need for that budget? CPU, RAM, case, etc. Please be very specific.
A whole new computer from scratch.
5) If reusing any parts, what parts will you be reusing? Please be especially specific about the power supply. List make and model.
Non
6) Will you be overclocking?
Maybe
7) What size monitor do you have and/or plan to have?
19", but will change to a 24" soon.
8) When do you plan on building/buying the PC?
ASAP
9) What features do you need in a motherboard? RAID? Firewire? Crossfire or SLI support? etc.
I am a newbie in computers, don't really understand what these things mean.
10) Do you already have a legit and reusable/transferable OS key/license?
Win 7 x64



Been looking and googling around, but not much people comparing pc spec with the latest dual processor mac pro, Trying to build an extremely high end pc for work, problem is the only dual processor pc mobo is a server or workstation board, and also the ram and processor that these boards uses is different from processor we normally use, am i right?sorry if i am wrong, i am a newbie.

Please give me some suggestion thanks.
 
Welcome to the forum!

Ok in order to help you out, we need to know what parts are available in your country. To that end, are there any online computer hardware stores available to your country? If so, please link them.

You're right about the RAM and CPUs being different from consumer grade hardware. And that is to be expected. The Mac Pro essentially uses workstation/server class parts, not consumer grade parts. So if you want to match the Mac Pro, you will need to get those workstation/server class parts.

Also, how soon will you be getting that 24" monitor?

Try googling what RAID, Firewire, Crossfire, and SLI are. Or just search through the forums.
 
This is the price list in my area, 1 of the big company selling hardware.
http://images.lowyat.net/pricelist/sri.gif

Can u suggest me a pc server/workstation board to match the latest Macpro?Is the ram and processor that these board uses expensive compare to consumer grade product.I am afraid of over budgeting.

Or another option is, i give up the 2 quad processor, change it to 1 quad processor, upgrade my ram to 10 gig, and all kinds of high end pc product, will i be able to match up with the 2 quad mac pro?or at least the 1 quad macpro?

I will be buying a 24" monitor together with my CPU.

I wont be needing RAID, Firewire, Crossfire, and SLI, cause mostly i will be doing is 3d modeling and rendering. These 2 things is the main concern, and i hear from people saying that graphic card don't really contribute much for the rendering speed, most speed come from the processor and ram, correct me if i am wrong.
 
Yes the RAM and CPU that server grade motherboards use are a bit more expensive than consumer grade products.

Yes a consumer grade Core i7 setup will match up with the single quad Mac Pro but not the two quad core Mac Pro.

On that list, there aren't any server grade hardware like Supermicro.
 
This is the best list i found from the shop around my area, there are selling server board but need to order.

http://www.intel.com/products/serve...=Intel%AE%20Workstation%20Board&s2=all&s3=all
are any mobo stated in the website above can match up with a dual processor mac pro?Will it over my budget by alot?

So what do you guys suggests?build a 1 processor high end pc?or build a 2 processor to match with dual processor mac pro?If it is still around my budget.
 
IMO, if you'll profit enough from the work you'll be doing on this PC, then go for the workstation-grade hardware. If not, save your cash and get consumer-grade parts instead.
 
As long as the motherboard supports two socket LGA 1366 CPU sockets and is based on the 5500 chipset, it'll match a dual-quad Mac Pro

Here's a base build for a single CPU setup:
RM 1,025 - Core i7 920
RM 960 - Gigabyte GA-EX58-UD4P X58 Motherboard
RM 660 - Kingston 6GB (3x2GB config) CL8 DDR3 1600 RAM
RM 115 - Asus EN8400GS PCI-E Video Card
-----
Total: RM 2,760

So setting aside about about RM 1500 for the case, PSU, hard drive, and DVD drive, you'll have about RM 3000 leftover. So I think you'll have enough money for a dual proc build ASSUMING that you're getting similar price scaling as here in the U.S.
 
Thank you very much for the single CPU build.

As for the dual processor pc, i have check all intel dual processor mobo compatible processor list, i cannot find any compatible with LGA1366 CPU, and about the ram for those server/workstation mobo, what ram will they be using?is there any stated in the price list i post just now? Can u list out the PC spec to match the dual quad mac pro.

Thank you and sorry for all the hard work guys.
 
Streetrat said:
Thank you very much for the single CPU build.

As for the dual processor pc, i have check all intel dual processor mobo compatible processor list, i cannot find any compatible with LGA1366 CPU, and about the ram for those server/workstation mobo, what ram will they be using?is there any stated in the price list i post just now? Can u list out the PC spec to match the dual quad mac pro.

Thank you and sorry for all the hard work guys.
Click to expand...

They'll need a minimum of DDR3 1066 RAM. ECC DDR3 1066 RAM would be recommended though. There aren't any ECC RAM on that list.

Quick Prelim build:
$540 - 2 x Intel Xeon E5506 CPU
$430 - SUPERMICRO MBD-X8DTi-F-O Intel 5520 EATX Motherboard
$146 - Crucial CT3KIT25672BA1339 DDR3 1333 ECC Unbuffered RAM
----
Total: $1,116 USD or about RM 3,758, mostly likely higher since you're in Malaysia.
 
Which Mac Pro are you trying to base your build on? Because Mac Pro came in many flavors, but the current top model is a dual Gainestown (5500 series; server version of Nehalem Family) config, which would be 16 total threads. At one point, yes, its best config was 8 threads total with dual Harpertowns (5400 series; server version of Yorkfield; Yorkfield is the quadcore chip of the Penryn Family). Clock for clock, Nehalem is around 15% faster than the latest Core2 (Conroe/Penryn Families) derivative -- so if two machines with the same number of threads were clocked the same, the Nehalem based system would not be any worse and could be up to 15% faster. Does that answer your question?
 
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I am new in computer hardware, can u make it simpler so that i can understand?

I assumed nehalem=Hyper treading? Since macpro 2X quad nehalem is = 16 core, i think its quite impossible to build a pc with same spec cause of over budgeting.

So i was thinking if macpro 2X quad = 8 core, and i build a pc using i7 core 2 quad extreme (Is it nehalem?if so) = 8 core. So can we match a pc hypertread quad core vs macpro non hyoertread quad core? Is it near enough to even match up?
 
Streetrat said:
I am new in computer hardware, can u make it simpler so that i can understand?

I assumed nehalem=Hyper treading? Since macpro 2X quad nehalem is = 16 core, i think its quite impossible to build a pc with same spec cause of over budgeting.

So i was thinking if macpro 2X quad = 8 core, and i build a pc using i7 core 2 quad extreme (Is it nehalem?if so) = 8 core. So can we match a pc hypertread quad core vs macpro non hyoertread quad core? Is it near enough to even match up?
Click to expand...

What enginurd is as simple as it can be, dude.

Yes the Core i7 is based on the Nehalem core. However, no Core i7 Extreme CPU is EVER worth the money. So unless you love to waste your money, never get any Intel Extreme CPU. In addition, there is no such thing as "i7 core 2 quad extreme". You have the name of two very different CPU lines in that statement.

Enginurd answered that last paragraph of yours. So read Enginurd's statement again and go onto Wikipedia to learn more about the Mac Pro as well as the Nehalem.
 
So, if i7 core 2 extreme don't worth the money, what other processors do your recommend?

And will there be any new processor, ram, or graphic cards be coming out soon?or any rumours around.

Sorry about not understanding all those stuff u guys been talking about, i just started learning computer hardware like last week, been googling whole day to reach the knowledge that i have now, at least i understand something here and there. Will try to google for more info. Any suggestions will be helpful thank you.

Add in, why is intel extreme CPU don't worth the money?i try google for it, but most come out to be good commend, except power consumption.
 
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there's no such thing as i7 core 2 extreme, every intel processor family has a few "extreme" processors, they're "special" versions for enthusiast gamers but are definitely a waste of money, they are only for bragging rights i would say.

I'm curious why your so bent on it being like "MAC PRO", why not give a budget ,or whatever you need, for example a server build and 1000$ to spend on it, and what you want from it, and let people here build it for you, or are you interested in studying/understanding just ask questions, don't be shy because everyone started without knowing anything.

also, there's always a product "around the corner" you can wait your whole life, though if you consider hardware cycles and major architectures, now is a great time to buy.
 
The i7 core 2 extreme, i got it from the list here http://images.lowyat.net/pricelist/sri.gif

Actually, i work in an architect firm that uses mac pro dual quad nehalem, i work as a 3d designer. i got bored working for them(always overtime, overnight and stuff without paying me anything), so i was thinking to do some freelance and if it can support my living, i will go full time freelance and slowly build my own company.

Because my work in office take up normally 8 to 24 hours to render a scene(towers, skyscraper, city, island normally), so i tried the scene on my dual core pc, the modelling keeps crashing, and the rendering time for the same scene is around 1 week++, everything seem very slow in my pc, i tried the scene with my friends computer(dual core or core 2 dual, a few of them)not much different in modeling and rendering time(1 week ++ as well). And most important is that i can't take too long to render a scene, mostly my work are rushing. And i can't afford a mac pro too, so i plan to take the pc option, and try to build cheaper and as powerful as the mac pro in my office.

This is my story.LOL. So if u guys can give more suggestion, i can have more options. Thank you.
 
That list is kind of wrong.

Core 2 Duo last generation
i7/i5 is the current generation
Both generations had extereme versions of their CPU

Always best to look up information at www.intel.com or even www.newegg.com

i7 920 is not an extreme CPU - its a regular CPU
i7 965 and 975 are extreme CPU's - but not worth the extra $$$
 
Streetrat said:
The i7 core 2 extreme, i got it from the list here http://images.lowyat.net/pricelist/sri.gif
Click to expand...
That's a lie. There is no i7 core 2 extreme processor. That is a mash-up of two lines of models of Intel processors, the core i7 line and the core 2 line. Now, the extreme part is a very-expensive version of the CPU for each model line that isn't worth the money in any way or form. Why? Because you pay $500+ for only a marginal boost in performance.

Now, that "i7 Core 2 Extreme" heading is wrong. The i7 975 is a Core i7 Extreme processor and the i7 920 is just a Core i7. Also, look at the price differences between those two models in the same line. ~RM 1000 for the i7 920 and RM 3,600 for the Core i7 975 Extreme, that's 3.5 times more expensive than the i7 920. There's no way you actually see the i7 975 perform 3.5 times better than the i7 920.

Edit: trugbilddrachen beat me to it.
 
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matessim said:
there's no such thing as i7 core 2 extreme, every intel processor family has a few "extreme" processors, they're "special" versions for enthusiast gamers but are definitely a waste of money, they are only for bragging rights i would say.

I'm curious why your so bent on it being like "MAC PRO", why not give a budget ,or whatever you need, for example a server build and 1000$ to spend on it, and what you want from it, and let people here build it for you, or are you interested in studying/understanding just ask questions, don't be shy because everyone started without knowing anything.

also, there's always a product "around the corner" you can wait your whole life, though if you consider hardware cycles and major architectures, now is a great time to buy.
Click to expand...

he did give a budget, first post, RM7000, which is about $2100 US

honestly to the OP:
its a lot to take in, so I'd suggest taking a bit to get everything sorted in your head, before spending a ton of cash on something (just a thought)

as far as matching the Mac Pro, it isn't the be-all end-all of systems, but it is pretty impressive when fully loaded out (which I'm fairly sure will exceed $20,000 US to do), although a lot of that extra power is "fluff", in that you can get by just fine with a less expensive system

the graphics hardware should be influencing your needs fairly heavily, you sound like you're either doing CAD or some sort of modeling application, either way, it should have GPU acceleration available, so I would surely look into that (if you don't know, post what you're using and someone will be able to tell you or help you find out)

as far as the benefit the graphics hardware can play, consider that a modern GPU will easily outperform a CPU many times over in terms of rendering performance, so thats an investment I'd really consider making

for about 2 grand, getting a dual Xeon or Opteron system is somewhat impractical, although getting a decent Phenom II X4, Core 2 Quad, or Core i7 will be no issue (figure $150-$350 for the CPU alone, which should be about 700-1000 RM), you'll also want to grab a decent amount of memory (I'd grab 8GB or 16GB, either way, fairly inexpensive, like $100-$200 (should be like 200-400 RM)), and very likely a solid graphics card (I wouldn't suggest putting the money into a Quadro FX or FirePro, based on the massive mark-up, and a GeForce or Radeon card will still likely provide hardware acceleration for what you need)

you could easily put this all together for around half your budget (assuming prices transfer fairly linearly between the US and Malaysia, I have no idea if this is true)
 
Intel Extreme Edition is Intel's attempt at the extreme profit margins. They use a process known as binning. Instead of manufacturing many different CPU models, Intel only manufactures very few, and from that few, they test each chip. Based on its optimal performance (and some other factors, like supply/demand), they disable some features if necessary and assign it a model #. So basically, that Core i7 920 you buy is basically a Core i7 Extreme 975 with some things disabled; and as mentioned above, the performance difference isn't enough to warrant its price premium.

Please list out all the programs/applications you'll be using.

What are the specs of your current home system that keeps crashing?

Depending on your programs/apps, you could avoid a pro card (Quadro/FireGL) and simply softmod a GeForce or Radeon. More details here:
http://www.techarp.com/showarticle.aspx?artno=539

EDIT:
If you go with a Core i7 build instead...

Intel Core i7 920 2.6Ghz Quad core w/ HT
X58 motherboard (Asus P6T SE, P6T, etc; Gigabyte GA-EX58-UD4P, GA-EX58-UD5, etc)
12GB (6x2GB) DDR3-1333 CL9 1.5v (Corsair, Kingston, G.Skill, OCZ, Mushkin, A-Data, Crucial, etc)
Samsung F3 1TB or Seagate 7200.12 1TB (x2 for RAID1, to minimize downtime)
1TB External for regular backups
SATA DVDRW drive
Any ATX Case with at least 2x 120mm fans (eg. LL PC-K58, CM RC-690, CM RC-590, Antec 300, etc)
Corsair 520W or 550W; Antec EA500, EA650, or TP-550
Decide on the GPU, if a softmod w/ GeForce would work well for your list of apps or not, based on that review linked above.
 
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I will be mainly using Photoshop, Vectorworks, Strata 3D CX.

The spec of my current computer are :
core 2 dual
3 gig ram
Nvidia 9400
window XP x32
My friends pc's spec are nearby mine.

This is the build that i had in mind after reading all suggestions. All product is from this list http://images.lowyat.net/pricelist/sri_notebook.gif

Intel i7-920 2.66ghz/8m 4.8GT FBS / SECQPI - RM1.025
Asus P6T DLX X58 DDR3 -CF -SLI - RESGL (SAS) i7 - RM1.299
Kingston HY X 1600MHz CL8 (8-8-8-24) 6GB KIT OF 3 - RM660 x 2
1TB SEAGATE BARRACUDA 'SATA' 32MB - RM300
GIGABYTE GF GTX 275 896MB DDR3 - RM899
OR
GIGABYTE RADEON HD 4890 1GB DDR5 HDMI - RM950

These things are the main concern of my pc, others just as long as it is working fine. Is my build the best for money = quality?Is there anything i should change to get better results?

Is this processor the best i can get for the best money? is the mobo enough to do what i need to do? Will 12 gig ram be usefull for rendering, is 12 gig necessary?will any go to waste?most probably i will be using window 7 x64bit. The graphic card is abit tricky, dono which to choose, but if compare the numbers should be radeon 4890 winning?

If u guys got a better build please tell me, any changes or upgrading is good to me if its worth the money.
 
You're missing the one important thing about a PC: the power supply. What power supply will you be using? Pro tip: NEVER SKIMP ON THE POWER SUPPLY AS IT IS THE MOST IMPORTANT PART OF THE PC!. A crappy power supply can lead to system instability or premature hardware death.

The Core i7 920 is definitely one of the best CPUs available for the money for your usage model. The mobo will be enough. However if the regular Asus P6T SE is available, get that instead as the ASus P6T Deluxe you chose is mainly for hardcore computer enthusiasts, not newbies like you. 12GB of RAM will be useful as well as necessary for 3D rendering and photoshop. The HD 4890 is the better choice when it comes to gaming.
 
If you don't need the extra features of the Deluxe, get the regular P6T.

If CL9 DDR3-1600 RAM is much cheaper, go for that instead, since the performance difference between CL8 and CL9 is not enough to warrant a price premium, unless that premium is negligible.

One part that should concern you more is the PSU, as a bad quality unit can kill all of your parts.

In order to put that 12GB of RAM to use in Photoshop, get RAMDisk and setup some portion of your RAM. Use that RAMDisk as your scratch disk.
 
how much W to be safe?Which is best recommended, don't know anything about PSU. WOW, din't know that PSU can cost so much,
 
It's not about all about Wattage (W), Amperage (A) is important as well.

This is a good guide on how to choose the right power supply and understanding PSUs, though the numbers are a bit out of date.
 
enginurd said:
If you don't need the extra features of the Deluxe, get the regular P6T.
Click to expand...

did u saw any regular P6T in the list?not sure which 1 is it. what kind of extra features u talking about Deluxe?Will it profit my 3d rendering or modeling?

In order to put that 12GB of RAM to use in Photoshop, get RAMDisk and setup some portion of your RAM. Use that RAMDisk as your scratch disk.
Click to expand...

Do u have any tutorial or info about RAMDisk, i am googling it at this moment as well. Will the RAMDisk Spoilt my RAM if i do it wrongly? Is it necessary for RAMDisk as my photoshop scratch disk?Or is the Ramdisk just because i got some extra Ram to waste?
 
Streetrat said:
did u saw any regular P6T in the list?not sure which 1 is it. what kind of extra features u talking about Deluxe?Will it profit my 3d rendering or modeling?
Click to expand...
Looks like the ASUS P6T is on this list> http://images.lowyat.net/pricelist/viewnet.gif < for 799. As far as I can tell, all the extra features on the Deluxe model is mostly "fluff," it won't effect performance. Now, that fluff is an extra LAN port, 2 extra USB ports, SAS support, and a 16+2 phase power design on the Deluxe model. None of these are really necessary for your build, but it is your call.

Edit:
The manufacture's page:
Asus P6T
Asus P6T Deluxe

There's also the Asus P6T Deluxe V2, so I'd check to see if they are offering the original or the V2, which I imagine the V2 is better.
Though, I imagine it's the P6T Deluxe and not the V2.
 
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Streetrat said:
Do u have any tutorial or info about RAMDisk, i am googling it at this moment as well. Will the RAMDisk Spoilt my RAM if i do it wrongly? Is it necessary for RAMDisk as my photoshop scratch disk?Or is the Ramdisk just because i got some extra Ram to waste?
Click to expand...

No tutorial AFAIK but here's some info about it:
Joe Average said:
In other words, as I said, the cost of the devices + the cost of populating them becomes absolutely ridiculous. Grab two Velociraptors and have fun... or even a handful of SSD drives and RAID 'em together. The overall price-to-performance ratio will blow these iRAM devices clear off the planet surface...

Sad, really, because I've been a proponent of actual RAMdisks for decades now. Hell, I used to boot my Amiga 500 off a RAMdisk, so I've seen pretty much every attempt at making such devices as the iRAM that have appeared, and they all suck, period. They just can't do the job adequately and keep the price-to-performance ratio anywhere near a reasonable level.

I built a RAID 0 box for a small image studio 2 weeks ago, a new startup here in Vegas that is making waves. They wanted a "demo" workstation to see what's possible for processing as they don't want to create a massive server-type situation in the office, but 3-4 workstations that are equal in performance and then just using simple file sharing as required. Very simple setup in terms of the network, but the workstation I built used 2 300GB Velociraptors (tried to sell 'em on SSD but the amount of data they're dealing with wouldn't be practical - again, a price-to-performance and ROI issue).

The hard part was getting them to spring for 16GB of RAM because of the cost, but a few weeks ago I saw that sale for 4 4GB sticks of RAM for about $450 and made a few phone calls and snagged a similar deal.

I set up Photoshop CS3 for 'em (their legit retail copy) on Vista Business x64. They started messing around with it, loading some rather large TIFF files in excess of 150MB a pop, several at a time, performing some basic scripted actions on 'em, blurs, filters, etc. Using the Velociraptors in RAID 0 meant very snappy and consistent performance, as well as having 16GB of RAM too. Also, it's a Q6600 based machine running rock solid at 3 GHz.

They were very pleased with the performance at that point, but I had a surprise for 'em. ;)

I asked if I could have 20 mins 'alone' with the workstation to "rewire it" as Tim Allen might say. That consisted of grabbing a trial version of SuperSpeed Software's RamDisk Plus 9 and installing it, doing the simple configuration, and then creating a 10GB RAMdisk and told Photoshop "Ok, you want a scratch disk? Here, try this on for size."

After I did some tests of my own using the same scripts they'd done earlier, boy... I tell ya. You haven't lived till you see 225MB TIFF files literally snap onscreen in the blink of an eye, multiple huge TIFFs with resolutions like 5000x5000 and even higher. That's what's possible with RAMdisks, because even Velociraptors in RAID 0 pumping out something like 280MB/s sustained pales to the close to 5GB a second in bandwidth of that RAMdisk.

I told 'em to come back in and rerun their test scripts.

Jaws hit the floor, folks. Well, not quite but figuratively speaking, at least.

They asked what I'd done, I told them I put the scratch disk in RAM where it should be if you have the RAM to make it happen, and they bought 4 licenses of RamDisk Plus 10 mins later, and I got a signed contract to construct 3 more workstations identical to that one top to bottom and also be their "geek" if any issues come up.

It was a very good week... ;)
Click to expand...

And no, a RAMDisk will not screw up your RAM
 
This is a very interesting thread. I'm glad you posted it. Ever since its release, I have had a strange regard for the dual-processor Mac Pro. Even though I have no need for a dual processor system, it intrigues me, because I'm not sure I could build something better for less. I was actually hoping that enginurd or Danny Bui would post a Mac Pro killer, just for fun.

Unless you guys are telling me that $3300 is a fair price for that hardware? :eek:
 
TheQuestian said:
I was actually hoping that enginurd or Danny Bui would post a Mac Pro killer, just for fun.
Click to expand...

Well Enginurd did post a very decent Mac Pro (single quad) killer. And I did post a prelim build earlier for a dual-quad Mac Pro. Well since I'm bored, here's a what I'd build for a "Mac Killer"

Quick Prelim build:
$540 - 2 x Intel Xeon E5506 CPU
$450 - SUPERMICRO MBD-X8DAH+-O Intel 5520 EATX Motherboard
$374 - 2 x Kingston 3 x 2GB DDR3 1333 ECC Registered RAM
$200 - XFX HD-489X-ZSFC Radeon HD 4890 1GB PCI-E Video Card
$260 - Intel X25-M Mainstream SSDSA2M080G2XXX 2.5" 80GB SATA II MLC Internal SSD
$120 - Seagate 7200.11 1.5TB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive
$27 - LG Black GH22LS50 DVD Burner
$240 - Corsair 1000HX Modular PSU
$140 - Cooler Master HAF 932 RC-932-KKN1-GP ATX Case
$140 - Windows 7 Professional 64bit OEM
----
Total: $2,491 USD

So some key things of note:
- Windows 7 Pro is needed here since Windows 7 Home does not support more than one physical CPU slot. But Windows 7 does
- Since the mobo I chose has 18 DIMM slots (!), I went with ECC Registered RAM so that one can use more than 24GB of RAM with that motherboard. In fact, if you were to use nothing but 2GB RAM sticks in each of those 18 slots, that's a total of 32GB of RAM!!!
- The Corsair 1000HX was the cheapest PSU I could find on short notice that came with two EPS12V connectors needed for the motherboard. Besides, with this kind of system, a 1000W PSU is a good thing :)
- The HD4890 is there simply for gaming performance. If gaming is not needed, one could always use the onboard video or a cheap add-on card.
- Went for an Intel SSD since I personally don't want to deal with RAID but do want an excellent OS disk.
- Wasn't too sure whether each CPU needed its own set of RAM. So erred on the safe side and got 6 sticks.

So the above build is $800 cheaper than the base dual-quad Mac Pro. Yet it has twice as much RAM with room to grow, significantly faster OS/boot drive, an added storage drive, faster video card, case with more expansion slots, etc. Though some potential problems that I still need to work out:
- Trying to find the right case for it as I'm not 100% sure that the Mobo will fit the Coolermaster case
- Trying to figure which Supermicro eATX dual LGA 1366 mobo will be a good choice.
 
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Danny Bui said:
Well Enginurd did post a very decent Mac Pro (single quad) killer. And I did post a prelim build earlier for a dual-quad Mac Pro. Well since I'm bored, here's a what I'd build for a "Mac Killer".
Click to expand...
Heh, thanks for actually doing that! At least now I can sleep at night. :D
 
Danny Bui said:
Trying to find the right case for it as I'm not 100% sure that the Mobo will fit the Coolermaster case.
Click to expand...
Well, E-ATX is listed in its specs. My only critique would be that potential Macolytes might cry "aesthetics" against the HAF case. It does look a bit like it should be stationed in Afghanistan. :p

Maybe a Lian Li like the PCX-2000 would be better suited to this particular task? Heh, who knows how many arms and legs it will cost you, but it certainly assuages any fear of lost style points.

Edit: Alas, the PCX-500 does not appear to support E-ATX . . . anyone know how much the PCX-2000 goes for? *Braces for impact*
 
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TheQuestian said:
Well, E-ATX is listed in its specs.
Click to expand...

Yeah that doesn't help as much as you think it would. Apparently many of the eATX cases can barely fit the eATX motherboards. Well at least the Supermicro motherboards anyway. Apparently the Coolermaster Cosmos 1000 barely fits the mobo I chose. Since the HAF I chose has about the same amount of inner working space (AFAIK), thats the reason for my less than 100% confidence in the case. With that said, this is a hypothetical build anyway so no worries.
 
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