meltman Posted September 12, 2011 Share Posted September 12, 2011 Hello everyone! Thought I'd post up a couple of G5 mods I've done to give inspiration to others. Awhile back I helped a friend of mine mod a G5 using a Lian Li tray. We finished the whole mod minus front panel cable in one night. I was so impressed with how it turned out I set off to find myself a G5. Sadly, I didn't take many pics of the building of his. We used the PSU on top and HDD cage in front strategy. Here's my friends completed, sorry the pics aren't clearer: I found a G5 -complete with dead PSU on Craigslist for $40! For mine, I purchased a Mountain Mods motherboard tray with the dual 80's option. For those who dont know, they come in pieces and screw together which is actually pretty nice for G5 modding. Doing a little test fitting: And cranked out a front panel harness today. I need to get some sleeving for it. Here's the Mountain Mods rear panel trimmed for the latch how I want it. I opted to block as few holes as possible with my mod vs the one I did previous. Here's where I left off today. The short stock standoffs are perfect height to hold up the motherboard tray! I popped the long ones out with pliers. I'm planning on dremeling up the stock 92mm fan grills since I cant find anything that looks anywhere near the same to buy. I have not seen anyone do this before - not to say no one has. Should be cool and retain some stock look I wanted to mount the hard drive cage "right side up" unlike the previous mod I did. This required spacers to space it away from the DVD tray. I decided to recycle the standoffs I pulled from the motherboard by drilling them all the way through and tapping them. Here's one drilled through waiting for the tap. Here's the cage attached. I did it this way so that if I want to add a second (or third) cage in the future it will be as simple as trimming the metal part, drilling 3 holes, and bolting it to the cage above. The last major cutting item was the powersupply which went up top: Only thing left is to figure out how I want to secure the motherboard tray rear. I'm thinking some nice machine screws and nuts on the inside. It needs to remain removable so I can get the power supply out in the future. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
meltman Posted September 13, 2011 Author Share Posted September 13, 2011 Update: Here's the motherboard tray attached from the back. You can see the small black screws holding the tray down in the stock standoffs. You can also see I added two screws to hold the tray to the case above the 80mm fans. I had to do this to keep the mesh flush with the rear tray panel. Here it is with the PC installed. I do not yet have 80mm fans for it so I just ran the 120 on the CPU cooler. I'm going to install dual 80s and build a shroud to pull through the heatsink so there will be no fan on the heatsink directly. Shot from the rear - until I make the fan grills and get some fans. Powered up and running. To do: *Micro switches for the rom eject and possibly a reset switch *80mm fans and cut fan grills *Possibly a hard drive light. I'm wanting to actually put a second LED behind (next to?) the power LED so the power LED blinks with disk activity. comments? I appreciate all feedback. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JBraddock Posted September 13, 2011 Share Posted September 13, 2011 Here's where I left off today. The short stock standoffs are perfect height to hold up the motherboard tray! I popped the long ones out with pliers. Hello meltman, You've made quite a progress. Congrats. I also bought a G5 case to mod when I have time but sadly it got damaged in the post. So I haven't tried it myself but I have a couple of suggestions/questions if I may. Have you ever considered widening the back plate all the way up to the corners to cover perforated aluminium. See below for what I mean. (via). Alternatively, you can use perforated aluminium sheet to keep the original look as much as possible. To me, this way it seems more 'complete'. The way you use the power supply is brilliant so i would keep it that way and wouldn't open a big hole on the back. Since you already have the back plate, it is just a matter of cutting a piece of aluminium that can cover the back and then open the necessary holes for the plate. I'm planning on dremeling up the stock 92mm fan grills since I cant find anything that looks anywhere near the same to buy. I have not seen anyone do this before - not to say no one has. Should be cool and retain some stock look Again, I think with such a change, you may even have more fan choices such as a 140mm fan, assuming you shift it to the very left as much as possible. Not sure if you could put a two 92mm fan but If you could that would be frosting on the cake as you then would be able to use the original rear fan assembly. Are you going to put any fan to the front? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
meltman Posted September 13, 2011 Author Share Posted September 13, 2011 I actually specifically wanted to leave as many holes exposed as possible. Covering them would be a shame on such a nice case. I would have liked to have a single 120mm fan but there were no backplates available that would fit width wise so I chose the dual 80s. There wont be any fans in the front. I want as few fans as possible. My old case had a single 120 for all the cpu work so I'm hoping that dual 80s will pull the same load without too much more noise. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
meltman Posted September 20, 2011 Author Share Posted September 20, 2011 I did get my 80mm fans (finally!). Last night I cut up the stock fan grill to make ones that will fit on the 80s. Man, those are gonna look AWESOME back there! Need 8 screws and nuts and that will be done! I'll get the proper hardware today and get them bolted up tonight. Very cool. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
striggell Posted September 20, 2011 Share Posted September 20, 2011 looks nice - I love the mountain mods tray!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
meltman Posted September 22, 2011 Author Share Posted September 22, 2011 Finally sourced the right size screws for the twins in the rear. I'm flat impressed with the Enermax enlobal bearing fans I purchased. They move more air and are quieter than the 120mm Antec fan that was on the heatsink prior. Final pics unless I get ambitious and build an air guide shroud for the heatsink. Enjoy! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JBraddock Posted October 2, 2011 Share Posted October 2, 2011 I actually specifically wanted to leave as many holes exposed as possible. Covering them would be a shame on such a nice case. I would have liked to have a single 120mm fan but there were no backplates available that would fit width wise so I chose the dual 80s. There wont be any fans in the front. I want as few fans as possible. My old case had a single 120 for all the cpu work so I'm hoping that dual 80s will pull the same load without too much more noise. Not the top area but I would cover the left area to have complete back panel. Overall, it looks nice and clean. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
glossymexican Posted October 27, 2011 Share Posted October 27, 2011 I completely disagree. He wanted to maintain the integrity of the case. There is a reason why so many people mod this case, it is gorgeous. Why cover it up with cheap metal? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nickjf20 Posted October 29, 2011 Share Posted October 29, 2011 Hi, I'm hoping to do one of these G5 mods myself -- just searching around for a case on ebay UK atm I'm getting an i7-920, 6GB RAM, 1TB HDD, 500W OEM PSU, and a VFX 5770 for £350 off a friend I was just wondering if you could tell me (links) to the sites you used for the 18 pin front panel connector and the sleeving ? This will be my first 'build' so I want to make it look as nice as possible. Thanks, Nick Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
meltman Posted October 31, 2011 Author Share Posted October 31, 2011 I bought my G5 as a complete computer so I cut the stock front panel harness in half. The sleeving came on the powersupply already so I have not actually had to buy any. I'd look on eBay though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nickjf20 Posted October 31, 2011 Share Posted October 31, 2011 Ahh right, the one I'm buying will be complete as well, so I'll mock something up. How did you do the audio connectors as I've heard the 'on connect' is inverted by ATX standards ? Could I be really needy and ask for the pin outs you used as well ? Thanks, Nick I'll have a look on ebay for some nice sleeving and heat wrap Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
meltman Posted November 1, 2011 Author Share Posted November 1, 2011 Ahh right, the one I'm buying will be complete as well, so I'll mock something up. How did you do the audio connectors as I've heard the 'on connect' is inverted by ATX standards ? Could I be really needy and ask for the pin outs you used as well ? Thanks, Nick I'll have a look on ebay for some nice sleeving and heat wrap FPAudio does not work because of the sense issue. I dont really care though because I never use that port. Here's the diagram pack I used: Link Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nickjf20 Posted November 1, 2011 Share Posted November 1, 2011 Thanks for the diagram I'll see how it all goes -- just bought a full broken powermac off ebay for £80 which is about $120 I think. Should be able to get £50 for the PSU, but I don't know what's broken from the rest of it ... Your mod looks great, and I'll do one of those when I upgrade my mATX mobo to a proper full sized ATX, so I'll keep this bookmarked I'm going to try a minimal mod, no alterations at all from the outside, and will hopefully get my college to help with a pcb for the rear IO. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nickjf20 Posted November 2, 2011 Share Posted November 2, 2011 One more thing, where did you get the motherboard header connectors from ? I've searched for them but can't find anything yet ... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
meltman Posted November 4, 2011 Author Share Posted November 4, 2011 One more thing, where did you get the motherboard header connectors from ? I've searched for them but can't find anything yet ... I had an old case that I cut them off of. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nickjf20 Posted November 4, 2011 Share Posted November 4, 2011 Looks like that's what I'm going to have to do Not even eBay has them ... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mars2006 Posted November 11, 2011 Share Posted November 11, 2011 I'm planning to mod one myself, how did you get the PSU up there? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nickjf20 Posted November 13, 2011 Share Posted November 13, 2011 I think I'll try to emulate your design as much as possible -- If I can mount the tray in such a position that I can cut it more and use the stock rear fan assembly, that should be great I'll probably mount the PSU at the bottom rather than at the top, simply so I can chop half of the top divider so the motherboard tray can go higher. It'll also mean that when I upgrade, it'll be easier. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
atrain85 Posted February 22, 2012 Share Posted February 22, 2012 Any chance you would make and sell a pre-modded G5 case? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
meltman Posted February 22, 2012 Author Share Posted February 22, 2012 How much would you pay for one? I'd consider selling the mountain mods one in this thread for the right price. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blah101 Posted February 28, 2012 Share Posted February 28, 2012 Although I too am interested in purchasing your case (I cant' offer a price at the moment because I may be able to get my hands on a case in the near future), I have a different question. How did you setup your PSU so that you could plug it in through the rear port? I looks really clean! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
topsub Posted March 1, 2012 Share Posted March 1, 2012 This looks very clean. good job. I also would like to know how you ended up moutning your PSU to the top? Also how did you end up mounting the Mountain Mod Mobo tray to the case? Did you use J/b weld or something? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
meltman Posted March 1, 2012 Author Share Posted March 1, 2012 Although I too am interested in purchasing your case (I cant' offer a price at the moment because I may be able to get my hands on a case in the near future), I have a different question. How did you setup your PSU so that you could plug it in through the rear port? I looks really clean! I cut a power cord so there is a short "jumper" that plugs into the power supply. This looks very clean. good job. I also would like to know how you ended up moutning your PSU to the top? Also how did you end up mounting the Mountain Mod Mobo tray to the case? Did you use J/b weld or something? The short stock standoffs are perfect height to hold up the motherboard tray! I popped the long ones out with pliers. I used the stock motherboard screws to bolt the mountain mods tray to the stock short standoffs in the case. My case uses NO glue or epoxy or any other "ductape mods". Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
topsub Posted March 1, 2012 Share Posted March 1, 2012 I cut a power cord so there is a short "jumper" that plugs into the power supply. The short stock standoffs are perfect height to hold up the motherboard tray! I popped the long ones out with pliers. I used the stock motherboard screws to bolt the mountain mods tray to the stock short standoffs in the case. My case uses NO glue or epoxy or any other "ductape mods". Nice to know, I stripped my case yesterday but didn't pop off anything yet until i get the mobo tray in from mountain mods. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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