banini_jeque Posted February 27, 2010 Share Posted February 27, 2010 Here's some G4 front grill replacements that I mocked up in Photoshop. They would work on a B&W G3 too obviously. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pacman3 Posted March 1, 2010 Share Posted March 1, 2010 3rd one definatly! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pirloui Posted March 1, 2010 Share Posted March 1, 2010 Nice idea, the graphite g4 doesn't have the nicest front. Maybe perforations could be nice as well, like the back of the MDD or even the G5.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
banini_jeque Posted March 1, 2010 Author Share Posted March 1, 2010 Yeah, I did a mockup with perforations and I hated it. It might look better in person, but there's two reasons I like the slot style more. One, the original front on the graphite G4s has vertical grooves on the back that show through the front, and two, if you look at old beige Macs from the 80s and 90s, they almost all have slot style grills on them. Most of them are actually horizontal like in my 4th mockup. It sort of looks like a Quadra 700 a little bit, but I do agree the third one with the vertical grills looks the best. Everyone else I've shown them to thinks so too. Nice idea, the graphite g4 doesn't have the nicest front. Maybe perforations could be nice as well, like the back of the MDD or even the G5.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
apple apple Posted March 3, 2010 Share Posted March 3, 2010 #3 all the way. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cringemaster Posted March 3, 2010 Share Posted March 3, 2010 I saw someone do a mirrored front panel out of what I assume was aluminum, and to be honest, it didn't fit too well with the rest of the case. I tend to like the powermac G4 case as it is, but it I had to choose one, number 4 is my favorite. Do you have access to a CNC mill? I'm sure you could make a few bucks making these. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
banini_jeque Posted March 5, 2010 Author Share Posted March 5, 2010 No CNC Mill. I need to get my hands on one. I was thinking of doing stainless steel and having it laser cut, but we'll see. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MarioMac Posted March 7, 2010 Share Posted March 7, 2010 Nice ! You give me some ideas for my new quicksilver full atx conversion… Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
banini_jeque Posted March 14, 2010 Author Share Posted March 14, 2010 Here's another mockup I just made. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
banini_jeque Posted April 3, 2010 Author Share Posted April 3, 2010 I tried to get one plasma cut in steel, but I'm not sure how much I like it. It's pretty rough. I can probably get it decent if I file it a lot, and then either paint or chrome it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
apple apple Posted April 4, 2010 Share Posted April 4, 2010 Yeah some small files should do the trick. Avoid using a dremel it will get away from you. Don't bother with chrome. Sand blast it for a dull finish. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
banini_jeque Posted April 6, 2010 Author Share Posted April 6, 2010 Metal files rock! I'm pretty happy with what I was able to do over the weekend. I'll work on it some more next weekend and hopefully finish it the one after that. I had some port trim from an iBook G4 sitting around so I cut it up and put it in my port openings. I also have some from a MDD G4 that are gray I think so I could use those instead. I think I'll use the power button from the MDD as well. I cut out the front of the G4 with a jeweler's saw. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
banini_jeque Posted May 8, 2010 Author Share Posted May 8, 2010 So I finally got to a point with filing it where I felt like if I did anymore I would just make it worse, and I took it to a chrome shop yesterday. They said lead time was 2-3 weeks, so when I get it back I'll post some pics. I think I'll paint all the graphite panels some sort of nice green color on the outside, and then strip the silver from the sides and paint them white on the inside. I'll leave the handles clear. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
banini_jeque Posted June 6, 2010 Author Share Posted June 6, 2010 Well, I got the front piece back from the chrome shop last week and it looks amazing. I haven't taken any new pics yet. I'm modding out the rest of the case first. I've drilled out the rivets for the PCI slot bracket and removed it, and then carefully sawed it off of the rear IO port shield. I also detached the entire mobo tray from the hinge, making it easier to work on. I'm going to move the motherboard forward about 3/4 of an inch so I can use a full ATX without having the trim the corner. The whole front area is cutout now so I'll have two 120 mm fans up there to get some good airflow. Then I'm going to take the whole door latch mechanism from a MDD G4 case and fit it into this digital audio one so I can get rid of the plastic thing and make even more room for the motherboard. I also thought about chroming the entire metal part of the case, but I think it's too much trouble. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spackley Posted June 9, 2010 Share Posted June 9, 2010 That's looking pretty darn good. I can't wait to see final photo's Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
banini_jeque Posted June 17, 2010 Author Share Posted June 17, 2010 Here's some pics. The ones that look complete are just everything thrown together temporarily for a photo shoot. You can see the side panels after I stripped the silver off the inside, and redid them in white, and some of the work involved with installing the MDD latch. I ended up not being able to use the outer door sheet metal from the MDD, because it made the plastic stick out too much. That means I can't use the hooks for the latch that attach to the door sheet metal, so I fabricated some out of some really stiff wire, and I'll post pics of those next time. I really want to paint the graphite panels a color. I was thinking green, but now I'm thinking orange. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WooHu Posted August 3, 2010 Share Posted August 3, 2010 Updates, Because this look incredible Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
banini_jeque Posted August 11, 2010 Author Share Posted August 11, 2010 Here's an update for you. I hated the green I tried, and couldn't find one I liked, but I found this red that I loved, so I've got a few panels stripped and repainted. Here's a partial assembly: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
byovic Posted September 19, 2010 Share Posted September 19, 2010 Here's an update for you. I hated the green I tried, and couldn't find one I liked, but I found this red that I loved, so I've got a few panels stripped and repainted. Here's a partial assembly: that red is hot, nice mod Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
banini_jeque Posted September 22, 2010 Author Share Posted September 22, 2010 Thanks. I may have the whole thing done in a week. I got some magma fans for it and you'll be able to see two of them through the grill. They don't match the red exactly, but when they're in the shade inside the case you can't tell. I'm kinda pissed because the red paint isn't that durable on it's own; if I set anything rubber on top of it, the rubber eats through it, so now I have some blemishes on the top of the case. I may repaint that part and have some sort of coating put on to protect it. We'll see. I'm gonna get the new EVGA SLI 3 board with an i7 950, thermaltake tr2 650w psu, whatever ram, prolly 6gigs, and then I kept my hard drives and my GTX 260 from my previous machine. Eventually I'll need a 2u sized heatsink that I can duct air to with maybe one more magma fan, but I'll hold off on all the ducting for now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bonestonne Posted September 22, 2010 Share Posted September 22, 2010 Maybe a Krylon, high gloss clear coat would look good on that, and prevent scratches and blemishes. A matte finish would look just as good I think, that's a really nice red, I just think the side panels should be either a matching, or contrasting color. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
banini_jeque Posted September 23, 2010 Author Share Posted September 23, 2010 Instead of white? I went for the white because I thought it would give it sort of a classic car from the 50s look, especially with the chrome grill. All red probably would have looked pretty cool too. Guess I'll have to make another one... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MarioMac Posted October 10, 2010 Share Posted October 10, 2010 Your mod is awesome, can't wait to see the final result ! Personnaly I want to put a full ATX configuration (DFI LanParty P45-T2RS Plus with Q9550 and 9800GTX+) with 1 HDD and Slim-line DVD Rom. in my graphite case, and your idea to do a new front plate/grill give me some facilities for my project. Thanks ! Very good job banini_jeque ! Any update ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
banini_jeque Posted December 27, 2010 Author Share Posted December 27, 2010 Well, I've got the system running, but I've been stalling on actually finishing the mod because I can't get native speedstep and boot without NullCPUPM on my EVGA X58 SLI3, and SleepEnabler won't work with 10.6.5, 64bit and NullCPUPM. I can't find any cases of anyone else making it work, and none of the pros on here know what the problem is either. So now I'm kind of looking for another board that I like the styling on that will work. I want to get everything functional before I finish. I like the ASUS P6T6, but all the guides I've seen are using NullCPUPM, which isn't what I want. I've gotta have few/no legacy ports, a uniform looking rear io plate, and good color choices. The Gigabyte X58's mostly have too many legacy ports like IDE and a floppy connector still? Come on. Plus the IO ports on the back don't make sense to me. A four pin firewire port? WTF. Plus two of the USB 2.0 ports are yellow while the rest are black. The GA-X58-USB3 is better, but it uses ALC892 (another problem with my SLI3), and doesn't even have firewire or sata 3. Another option is the ASUS P6X58D series, but I don't really like the weird release tab "wings" on the pci-e slots. Trying to look like a dragon or some ish. Not for me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
banini_jeque Posted January 12, 2011 Author Share Posted January 12, 2011 Here's some iPhone pics I took last night after forming my new clear acrylic air ducts for the cpu heatsink. Temps are around 42°C during light use at stock speeds. I could probably improve that a little bit by sealing the ducting off better. The lighting was bad, but I don't care because the whole thing isn't done yet. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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