A silver 2019 Mac Pro sits under the desk, spotless, heavy, and stuck with the Intel parts it shipped with. If that sounds like your office, the new Mac Pro ATX conversion kit is built for exactly that machine: it lets you rebuild the tower around standard PC hardware and run Windows on it.
Canadian maker Stefan Bond is funding the project on Kickstarter. A full kit costs CA$699, roughly US$500, and it fits one model only: the cheese-grater Mac Pro 7,1 (A1991) that Apple introduced in 2019.
What the Mac Pro ATX conversion kit includes
Apple designed this tower around its own logic board, power supply and fan layout. Off-the-shelf PC parts don’t line up with any of those mounting points, so stripping the case and dropping in a regular motherboard and a long graphics card simply won’t work.
The kit solves that with adapter hardware. Based on the campaign details, a full kit contains:
- A mounting plate that holds both the main motherboard and the power supply
- Drive sleds for hard drives, along with matching cables
- Fan adapter boards, small circuit boards that let the Mac Pro’s own fans run on PC hardware
- A handful of smaller extra parts
What you won’t find in the box is the computer itself. The motherboard, processor, memory, graphics card, storage and power supply are all on you. Think of the Mac Pro ATX conversion kit as the bridge between Apple’s aluminum case and whatever PC parts you pick.
Why the 2019 tower needs help to stay useful
The 2019 Mac Pro ran on Intel processors, and Apple never offered an official way to fit newer Apple hardware into it. The final Mac Pro refresh arrived in 2023 with the M2 Ultra chip, and Apple dropped the Mac Pro line entirely earlier this year after roughly two decades. Its top workstation today is the Mac Studio, a far smaller box with a very different personality.
That leaves Intel tower owners stuck. The machine is too nicely built to toss, yet selling it may not bring in enough money to feel worthwhile. The Mac Pro ATX conversion kit gives that metal case a second career instead of a spot in the garage.
Convert Mac Pro to PC: what you end up with
After the swap, you own a Windows PC wearing a Mac Pro shell. The Apple board and Intel internals come out, and current PC components go in. Gaming, 3D rendering or a home server are all reasonable goals, depending on what hardware you buy.
Keeping macOS is another story. Putting Apple’s operating system on the finished build would turn it into a Hackintosh, an unofficial do-it-yourself setup. If macOS is the reason you bought a Mac Pro in the first place, this project is the wrong tool.
If you have followed Apple’s towers for a while, our look back at the controversial trashcan Mac Pro shows how often Apple has rethought this machine, and our 2012 Mac Pro review covers the original cheese-grater era.
Mac Pro ATX conversion kit price and pledge options
| Pledge | Price | What you get |
|---|---|---|
| Full conversion kit | CA$699 (about US$500) | The complete adapter kit for a Mac Pro 7,1 |
| Supporter | CA$10 | Your name in the final project video |
Bond has set a CA$15,000 funding goal, about US$10,700. Keep in mind that backing a crowdfunding campaign is not the same as buying from a store. Ship dates can slip and projects can stall, so pledge only an amount you are comfortable risking.
What is still unclear
Several details a careful buyer would want are missing so far. The campaign lists an estimated shipping start of March 2027 and room for graphics cards up to 308mm long and air coolers up to 140mm tall, but pledges do not guarantee delivery, and backer counts change daily. Check the campaign page on Kickstarter for updates before you commit.
Budget for the PC side too. The CA$699 for the Mac Pro ATX conversion kit buys adapters only, so the real cost of the finished machine depends on the motherboard, processor and graphics card you add.
Frequently asked questions
Does the Mac Pro ATX conversion kit include a motherboard?
No. The kit supplies the mounting plate, drive sleds, cables and fan adapter boards, and you buy the motherboard and every other PC part yourself.
Which Mac Pro does the conversion kit fit?
Only the 2019 Mac Pro, model 7,1 (A1991). The campaign does not list any other Mac Pro model.
How much is the Mac Pro conversion kit in US dollars?
The full kit is CA$699, which works out to about US$500. A CA$10 pledge only adds your name to the project video.
Should you turn your 2019 Mac Pro into a PC?
If your Intel Mac Pro is collecting dust and you already enjoy building PCs, this kit is an affordable way to keep a beautiful case working. If you still depend on macOS, or you want something that just works out of the box, skip it and look at a Mac Studio instead. Either way, it beats leaving a perfectly good cheese grater with nothing left to grate.
