Hackintosh Mac Pro Replica Using A Trash Can

An anonymous German case modder decided to poke fun at the new Mac Pro… by making his own Hackintosh Pro out of a trash can!

For whatever reason the German forum it spawned in is a little bit secretive, but [Dschijn] of tonymacx86.com got permission to share the build on the creator’s behalf — and it is absolutely glorious.

The beautiful exterior is a Authentics Lunar 6L trash can, painted a vibrant pink — complete with a fake Apple logo. Inside is a Gigabyte Mini ITX motherboard, a Haswell i3 processor, a Radeon 7750, an SSD, a HDD, an ATX power supply, and an undisclosed amount of RAM. True to the Mac Pro, it features a central airflow design, with a fancy hand-crafted intake grate on the bottom.

While its technical specs fail to impress, it is remarkably similar in size to the real deal, varying by just under an inch.

[via Ars Technica]

68 thoughts on “Hackintosh Mac Pro Replica Using A Trash Can

    1. Apple’s are for… Zombies

      The McIntosh or McIntosh Red (colloquially the Mac) is an apple cultivar. …. of praise”, that it was “one of the finest appearing and best dessert apples grown”.

      So why is shown in the BLACK?

  1. “The original thread of the build has been in a german forum, which name I am not allowed to post, and has already been deleted. The admins of the source forum are a little restictive….”

    Aaaaand now I’m more interested in what forum that was. Sounds a little odd.

    1. Ditto, the fact that it is ‘not allowed to be linked’ from the forum guy, means i want to know more (personally I don’t think I would ‘roll over’ and let a forum admin on another site be that horrible about it and would keep the link out of principle)

    1. It’s not so much about ‘the board’ but probably HaD covering their backs given something that [Dschijn] has mentioned in his re-telling of the build:
      “Because I have been threatened to get sued by the german forum admins, I had to remove the link to the original post.”

      1. Odd. Both IP and domain information is by it’s very nature as public domain as the birds in the trees.

        Well at least they are in Germany and not in some other countries with a culture that would make such a tactic fail catastrophically.

      1. @Sandman, To be fair, that happens in both the Mac and PC markets- though– most PC users know they can get more for less than the price of say- an Alienware(as an example of overpriced but shiny)- Platform wars aside- Outdated hardware is outdated, regardless of the platform. Overpriced hardware is overpriced, regardless of the platform. That all said- while i’m personally not a fan of the overpriced highly serialized and over-regulated and under-performing hardware offered by Apple- this is still a really nifty build. Shame the original forum it was on is so absurdly restrictive. This build has also inspired me to take a different route in a current project of mine (A ground-up modular and expandable NAS build, for which the external appearance of the chassis i’m designing and building will now more than likely be borrowed from a reused trash-can, or two.)

          1. I do not know what OSX looks like really (never used, never cared to check) but i did use to like Gnome (the feature you mention i actually dislike :) But the whole “ripped off” argument is pretty silly to me. good features are worth duplicating – every GUI have *something* taken from other GUIs, big or small. It is even worse when the person complaining that GUI-the-person-dont-use have copied Feature-person-is-proud-his-GUI-has as if nobody else deserves the feature. We should all be happy that our GUIs (as a whole) improves (that we dont always agree with the direction is a different issue altogether). Otherwise we would be stuck with only one GUI because the first one would have taken the “keyboard and mouse input” feature making everything following pretty useless :-)

  2. Should I (like so many other) complain that building a circular chassis with “chimney” type cooling isn’t original? I build some over a decade ago and I wasn’t the first. ;)

    Very nice chassis build with good looking results (ignoring the rear – though it is hard to make that look good). The cooling could use a little work though, the CPU heatsink/fan will cause worse cooling for the rest of the hardware due to disturbing the chimney effect.

  3. i doubt that the german admins could actually sue you because unless there is some international law i think most lawyers would dismiss the case.

    also i think it is just sword rattling scare tactic just like done to empty buildings and get their work in the news

    1. I wanna hear ALLLL About what nano cpu fan you use for the vacuum!

      Imitation may BE the sincerest firm of flattery, But, NO gal wants you to look smashing in a cheap knockoff of her Verseille (sp), Esp if it’s the same color!

      And by gosh & golly, not ALL Hackers’ want “common” notariety. For some,.a bit of mystery adds to THEIR PERsonal Persona..(“Yeah, I COULD tell ya, but then I’d have to kill ya.”)

      Walter Mitty is alive and well. (But – while we had a beer last week, I can’t tell you where, even if I wanted. I have wiped it from my mind. Training… ya know.)

      So, a lil privacy and respect for our more reclusive fellow hackers eh? Just sayin’… Yin, Yang, all that.

  4. Replica asin it looks like it. Specs wise its an economy $200 walmart pc. now if someone is able to cram dual Xeon 4 core processors in there and dual Video cards to even get close to the performance of the MAc Pro… Then they are Uber hackers.

      1. Not that I agree that “apple belong in the trash” but its very likely your were a lot more cheap when buying those PCs than when buying the MACs. (I agree that there are plenty of badly designed cheap component PCs out there, you dont have that in the MAC market)

    1. There is also something to be said for paying more to support a smaller quality manufacturer than a big litigatious(sp?) company. But i agree that if you want a Mac Pro then buy a Mac Pro. My view on what _I_ like should not have any bearing on your choice. Nor does this build (or any other) take anything away from you or your choice of hardware.

    1. Well, it’s hip to hate Apple as they are not an underdog any more. They get a cheap giggle out of the trashcan resemblance bit. I don’t think they realize that this particular itself is quite expensive for a small plastic trashcan. Now that is irony I can appreciate.

        1. I’m quite sure my understanding of irony is perfectly fine, Allanis.
          Now generally explaining the joke kills it, but I feel I owe it to you..
          I find it endlessly amusing that people who think this build makes fun of the Mac Pro for all sorts of reason like the fact they can’t afford one or that it looks like any number of cylindrical objects, don’t realize that of this pile of budget parts the most expensive, relatively, is the trash-can itself. There lies a multilayered palimpsest of irony in that observation, to bad you had to kill it, like all good things in life.

  5. Haha, yes most amusing…now here are your cease and desist orders for violating trademark (apple logo) and patent (cylindrical shape with rounded edges) rights.
    Have a nice day. :) :)

      1. @supershwa, no don’t do that- It’ll just be poorly knocked off by a Taiwanese based company, distributed en mass for cheap, and wreak havoc worldwide resulting in the sales of replacement kits and marketing stickers labelled ‘ultra-durable’ being placed on higher quality competing products.

        (sorry in advance for any bad memories this poor attempt at a joking reference to the incident involving a stolen electrolytic fluid formula may drudge up)

  6. Square peg in a round hole in a square world. Even the fan is square, they make round ones. I have a vacuum cleaner that looks like Buck Rogers’ spaceship. Mod case?
    I would paint the case above to look like a giant 6L6 tube.

  7. I can’t be the only one that is getting tired of seeing all the haters come out whenever an Apple product gets mentioned. You might be surprised how good value the new Mac Pro actually is compared to building your own.

    http://www.zdnet.com/new-mac-pro-good-value-at-twice-the-price-7000024540/
    http://appleinsider.com/articles/13/12/24/apples-new-mac-pro-a-better-value-than-the-sum-of-its-parts
    http://www.extremetech.com/computing/173695-apples-new-overpriced-10000-mac-pro-is-2000-cheaper-than-the-equivalent-windows-pc
    http://www.gizmodo.com.au/2013/12/the-new-mac-pro-finally-goes-on-sale-tomorrow/
    http://bgr.com/2013/12/26/mac-pro-windows-diy-cost/

    I’m not criticising the case mod above. It’s fun, and I’m sure the builder enjoyed the problem solving that goes into fitting a square peg in a round hole.

    1. The haters are annoying, but so are the people that pops up in every Apple post to tell how great Apple really is. Considering what this post is about, you should not be the least surprised.

      1. Generally pro Apple comments are a reaction to hater comments. Useless ignorant comments about macs and their users tend to get people on the defensive, that should not be a surprise in itself.
        It’s just unreasonable to expect normal users/hackers and professionals not to respond to trolls who think that just because they are able to cobble together a fast gaming-rig this somehow means their random assumptions have anything to do with reality or that their flaccid opinions matter.

        1. The problem is that you may aswell be talking to a wall (and thats both haters and lovers) And those of us who dont live in a black/white world where you have to pick a side and fight everyone else have to put up with the bickering. There are plenty of mac users perfectly fitting the stereotypes – just as there are plenty who do not. and trolls are by definition useless to discuss with because they have already decided to throw logic out the window for a cheap thrill of upsetting someone with a bit too touchy feelings. Posting links to prices of the mac, and comparisons and whatnot is just as pointless and offtopic on this “casemod” as the insults to mac users are. Trolls do not generally believe in what they post, they do it entirely to provoke – and the best way to deal with them are to not respond at all (and let the admins delete the worst of it)

          This is a hackintosh, for whatever reason the guy decided to build that. what a real mac costs or what it can do is pretty irrlevant. as far as i can see there was no claim for it to be on par with a real mac pro.

          And just stop feeding the trolls!

          1. My post was originally a lot longer, and more balanced. Unfortunately the tone of the post changed when I shortened it. I’m just tired of seeing the inevitable ‘overpriced hardware’ post. I never expected the links I gave to change the opinion of the troll. But the links were relevant to others like me considering building a high end Hackintosh to save money.

    2. Sorry to reply to this post, but there does not seem to be a reply link on your latest followup.

      I only commented on your comment because you seemed to be well-meaning, otherwise I would have considered it pointles and just adding to the noise.

      I agree it is very hard to be write something balanced because “the other side” will pick up on every little word/phrase (and us nonnative english speakers make plenty of little mistakes – often enough to make a positive comment come out sounding negative)

      Perhaps I too was caught in a “too touchy moment” by your post. I am also tired of seeing negative mac posts, but since im not a mac fan either (i never used mac, not really for any reason other than i happened to get a pc way-back-when and stuck with what i knew) the opposite (positive mac advocating, however right and well-meaning) also gets to me. You could say I get the worst of both worlds by attempting to be neutral :-)

      Like I said elsewhere, my choice of tools and priorities (time vs. money – which companies i want to support for whatever personal reasons, ideals or misconceptions) should not really mean a damn thing to anyone elses choice – and I hope you get as much joy out of using your Mac as I do from using my PC.

  8. I rather like the concept of this case mod! Now about the apple vs. Pc thing … who cares they both have their place that’s why they both still exist ;) I have built a few hackintoshs and honestly the idea that I can build a computer (which I find to be a blast) and have a mac is a pretty happy compromise. Blood, sweat, and tears in a computer is far more fun than just handing apple $1,000 or $1,000,000 depending on the model ;)

  9. Have an Apple lle, somewhere..Liki g or dusliming Macs ought not be the udea. Not sure this is even muchnof a hack, but who cares. It was probably FUN! Someday I might popukate my Imsai MB and stick it in my 2001 Space F150.

    But why didn’t he adapt a Rhomba? “Mobile Mac…” “Mac-Attack…?” Hook it to a kismet, or whatever that eavesdropping thingee I avoid, is, and it could fetch coffee. Spill resistant cup, of course. And a cup warmer, in case its algorythm didn’t deliver it promptly. “Neat, Shaken, not Stirred.”
    Thanks Mac.
    See ya, ’round…

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