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[Discussion] Fit a PC in a G5 PowerMac Enclosure!


TribesMan
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OK, so why restore the rear ports, and then cut the bottom? I didn't rewire the the back because I am afraid to use a dremmel. The back, like the front is perfect the way it is. The only legacy port on this case that was stamped out way back in 2004 is the modem port, and that port can be converted to a 2nd LAN. I want this to look like a G5, not a G5 with a ATX tray stuck on the back. If you are going to be dumbfounded by anything, it should be that anyone would take the time to convert a powermac to ATX in the first place.

 

The bottom of this case is an empty canvas as far as I'm concerned, it's the under carriage, and it's not like I butchered it. It's a clean mod. Besides, I have been trying to aquire a G5 skateboard, which would mean the bottom would never ever be seen, but they are impossible to find in stock anywhere, even ebay.

 

I'm actually dumbfounded when I see people chop out the whould backsided of their G5, just to use their one expansion card, and expose the PS2/parallel/serial legacy {censored} connectors on their motherboard. Maybe I'm just weird.

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nervouschimp when are your parts coming in?

 

Hopefully the first of them will arrive tomorrow. I got to work on my tray mounting tonight. I originally wanted to bolt the tray to the G5 standoffs, but ran into a couple issues. The heads of the standoff screws are so big that they will touch the motherboard, and mounting it this way will make it harder to work on the motherboard. So I am attaching 3 tabs to the tray that will secure it to the G5 chassis. This will allow me to mount everything down outside the case. I'll post pictures of that when I'm done.

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The s-ground (shielding) has nothing to do with the power button. The s-grounds are for shielding the usb and firewire cables. The one I labelled as firewire true ground is the actual firewire ground, and by the way, if people are not going to bother wiring the firewire, they should prolly run the fw ground to a usb or firewire ground on their mobo instead of their power button ground.

 

.... but I am inclined to say that I can only condone using my pinout as long as people are going wire up everything just like I have it.... it works flawlessly for me, but I have it all connected just like you see in the diagram... I never tried running the FW ground to the power button ground, so I don't know for sure if that makes a difference.

 

Nervouschimp, I've soldered and extended all the wires from the front panel except for the two that are marked as s-grounds. My question is about where you have wired these two pins (5 & 6)? I know the original diagram says CHASSIS, so can i just extend these and have them ground to a standoff screw or something like that? Also, have you (or anyone else that has this completed for that matter) seen any degradation in signal quality or transfer speed because many of these wires have been un-twisted from a twisted pair or the shielding has been removed?

 

Thank you for doing the hard work in making and posting the edits to the wiring grid in the first place!

post-8418-1207718396_thumb.jpg

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Nervouschimp, I've soldered and extended all the wires from the front panel except for the two that are marked as s-grounds. My question is about where you have wired these two pins (5 & 6)? I know the original diagram says CHASSIS, so can i just extend these and have them ground to a standoff screw or something like that? Also, have you (or anyone else that has this completed for that matter) seen any degradation in signal quality or transfer speed because many of these wires have been un-twisted from a twisted pair or the shielding has been removed?

 

Thank you for doing the hard work in making and posting the edits to the wiring grid in the first place!

 

The shield ground may not be needed, but I used shielded firewire, and usb cables, and both include a shield wire. There is usually one shield pin per usbx2 header on the average motherboard, and every firewire header should have a shield pin. A shield wire is generalally used when the data pairs are run together with voltage and ground, and I think it is actually the voltage and ground that create all the noise that can effect the data lines, and somehow the shield wire helps to cancel that out. If your wires are not isolated into individual cables, and are loose speghetti, then I'm guessing that a shield wire will do nothing for you. Again, I am using quality cables, so I can't comment on whether you will seen any noticible transfer issues. It might depend on the length of your wires and the amount of EMI bouncing around in your case.

 

But I am no expert on this stuff, so don't take my word for it.

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I think I've decided I want to go with an internally mounted Edirol FA-66 for my audio. It has everything I need for the front back and panels, and is firewire bus-powered, and small... perfect..... except, expensive, and I'm kind of at the edge of my budget.

 

I'm also supposed to be working on some higher-poly models for my portfolio this weekend, instead of this hackintosh, so I'm not sure If I'll get anything done.... but every time I walk past the pile of new parts, still in their packaging, I get all excited.

 

I realized I don't have any sata cables long enough, and still need a few more Arctic fans, so maybe I'll put this off til next weekend....

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It's up and and running. Don't mind the mess.

 

insideparts1.jpg

 

My Q6600 went to 3.2 straight away on stock voltages, but the temps concern me a little. It idles at 45C. I thought I did a good job of seating the heat sink. This seems a bit high. Kaly 10.2 install was very smooth, and I think only the audio is not working out of the box.

 

My initial xbench score was 217.

 

I have already decided I like being able to reach under the bottom to switch off the PSU before playing with the internals.

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my Q6600 is lapped, and i have an arctic cooling freezer pro 7 and arctic silver 5 and my idle temperatures are around 45C. im OC to 3.2 as well lol.

 

damn.... so that's a normal temp?

 

I think I've read that this cooler has a kind of high idle, but doesn't raise much under load so I guess I should worry about it..... but I wanna try 3.6.... eh, that may be overkill.

 

The thing is, the heat sink is cool to the touch, with makes me think it's not seated correctly....

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does that cover up the entire back of the G5 enclosure?

 

No, i will make a cut out on the back of the case to the exact size of the I/O plate. I will fasten it to the case from behind with some aluminium strips. Doing it this way it will appear flush with the existing G5 rear. I'm gonna 'perforate' this test back plate to see how it looks and how strong it is. Could look quite good.

 

I'll post some pics when i'm done, but im not gonna cut the case until i have made the final backpanel otherwise there will end up being gaps which i dont want!

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olinboy1: thanks for that diagram, good work.... I never bothered with the audio, so thanks for the contribution!

 

smoothy boothy, looks cool.... but.... if you wanna perforate, and you have access to a machine shop, why not go for the gold, and cut out the entire back mesh section from where it meets the solid top and bottom planes, make a whole replacement perforated back piece, bend it to match the rounded corners, and have tabs that match up with the internal fasteners that run around the sides? That would be awesome.

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