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

[mikea128]

Anyone in or around Boston want to help with a G5 case mod? Or if I shipped a case to you, would you mod it for me? Of course I'd pay for the service :pirate2:

Alternatively, anyone willing to part with their already modded G5 case?

[jricks92]

Hey quick question, does anyone find that the original apple fans are kind of loud? More Specifically, both of the hard drive bay fans. The sound is like a loud buzz. It gets pretty annoying considering that before i hooked them up i could barely hear my computer but now i can hear it very well. If any one can help me out i'd very much appreciate it.

 

~bmxer55

[frostycomputer]

Hey quick question, does anyone find that the original apple fans are kind of loud? More Specifically, both of the hard drive bay fans. The sound is like a loud buzz. It gets pretty annoying considering that before i hooked them up i could barely hear my computer but now i can hear it very well. If any one can help me out i'd very much appreciate it.

 

~bmxer55

 

I have the same problem, moving from 12 volts to 5 helped a little, but the G5 case isn't very quite with all those holes in it.

[dark4181]

Swap in some aftermarket fans. Problem solved

[frostycomputer]

Swap in some aftermarket fans. Problem solved

 

But thats too easy of a solution.

[Baudouin]

But thats too easy of a solution.

 

too easy no fun, that's what you mean ? i totally agree with you.

[shaanky98]

so my front-mounted board, and cabling method would very easily allow for this:

 

 

An iMac Pro.

 

What do you guys think? should I make this happen?

 

I have been thinking of doing something like this as well

[erenba]

Hi guys I'm from Switzerland and I've also done a Hackintosh or however you call it.

Well I actually almost finishe everything but I have a problem with the frontpanel. I ordered it by Apple but It came without cable and I do not have one. It has 18 pins and my input on my motherboard has only 9. I dont know how to do it. Well look at the pictures.

 

Thanks

ERen

 

System:

 

CPU: Q6600

GPU: Nvidia 8600GT with a huge cooler

MB: Asus from my old HP pc

PSU: Enermax Modu82+

Fan: 2x Noctua 120mm

HDD: 2x Samsung 500GB

ROM: LG Blueray/HD-DVD

[teknojunkie]

here you go

 

http://www.applepalace.com/scripts/prodVie...?idproduct=4076

 

and check out another one of my post called G5 diagrams it has all the diagrams you need

[jchpdv6835]

ok, so I think I may have gotten an older case or at least one that's very different from what I see everyone else has. my bluetooth and WiFi run from the front of the case to the back of the case into this gray plastic piece? the part number on the case is 620-3128.

Im just starting out, haven't decided if i should hack the back or make the old ports work. but all the ports are in a different order that what i've seen everyone else has too.

 

from top to bottom:

2 lan ports

1 fire wire 800

1 fire wire 400

1 optical audio in

1 optical audio out

1 analog audio out

1 analog audio in

3 usbs

 

I can't find the camera other wise i'd just post a pic.

theres also no real wiring harness, just bits and pieces of it. (a couple of sata cables and sata power, optical drive power, and a few others.)

 

Im planning on using an older foxconn board with an athlon 64 3000 that i've had sitting around, until i can scrape up enough for the rest of the build.

any tips on where to start, ideas or other suggestions?

and what size is the star bit needed to remove everything?

 

Thanks in advance

[Bryon80]

First I'd like to thank you guys for supplying all the information about the case here. It was a tremendous help.

 

I got an empty G5 case (empty as in without logic board, hard drive etc., all the fans, cables etc were still there) from a friend...for a couple of beers. I rebuilt the case to fit a microATX board. It was actually pretty easy. I'm not much of a craftsman, but I think the result is pretty nice.

 

Front (not much to see here):

 

Back:

 

This photo is without hardware, because I'm still waiting for my new power supply and two 92mm fans for the back to arrive. I was unable to get the original Apple back fans to run, so I need to replace them with standard PC fans. I am going to use the original fan mount though.

 

The LED, USB connector and power button work. I don't have a FW connector on the main board, so I didn't bother to rewire that. I also don't need the front audio connector, so I didn't rewire that one either.

 

This is what I did:

 

I first removed everything in the case, including all the fans and the metal sheet that separated the drive section from the logic board section and the drive holder. Then I removed the original distance pieces (very easy, just tilt them with pliers and they come right off). Then I roughened up the ground of the distance pieces, screwed them to the main board and applied glue (you know, the type of super glue that is supposed to glue a building to a running train) at the bottom of each piece. Then I literally glued the main board right on the correct spot. Saved me a lot of measuring. When the glue dried, I unscrewed the main board again.

 

Obviously, the cut-outs for the backside connectors are incompatible with ATX main boards. So I had to cut a hole here. I wanted to keep the original fan grill though, so I had to move that one too. Eventually I removed a big part of the back and replaced it with a large aluminium plate (2mm strength). For the main board connectors I bent a 0.8mm aluminium plate into the form of a small tray, cut out the spaces for the connectors and attached it below the upper plate. Then I cut out two large circles in the plate and attached the fan grill to it. Finally I bolted it all together on case. Eventually I also painted the whole thing to make it look more like coming from one source. Unfortunately the paint I chose darkened when it dried and it doesn't quite fit the color of the rest of the case. I also had to use a brush (I don't have an airbrush) and looks a bit amateurish if you ask me.

 

 

Anyway, let me know what you think and I hope this description helps someone when rebuilding their case like your posts helped me. Thanks again.

[teknojunkie]

really clean and nice good job.

[Bryon80]

Thanks. I got my new power supply today and moved all the parts into the new case. Runs very nicely. My two 92mm will arrive tomorrow. Until then I cross my fingers that it doesn't get too hot in there. Will supply new photos of the final setup tomorrow, stay tuned

[jchpdv6835]

anyone know the proper pinout for the power switch itself? I don't have the firewire/usb/audio card for the case, just the power button and led.I was able to get it connected to my motherboard and it turned it on and off a few times. but one of the solders broke off and now my computer goes into a reset loop. This happens even when I use another power button. but if i unplug the power from the c it'll boot up, but since that's the power for the video, i can't see what's on the screen. any ideas?

bought a new motherboard, power supply is working fine. must have been the other board. still need to know which is which on on the actual power button.

thanks in advance.

[teknojunkie]

if you look around in Mods and Overclocking you can find many things

 

here you go. http://forum.insanelymac.com/index.php?showtopic=109381

 

its best if you by the part for the usb, fw and the audio

[jchpdv6835]

I checked those diagrams and every other diagram related to this. but none of em were what i needed. The power button itself has 3 power leads coming off of it. I connected the middle lead and the right side lead to my mother board and that worked for turning it on. And the Left lead will turn the LED on but only while I press the button and have it connected to the middle lead as well. So I guess what I'm asking is, is there a way to wire the LED to stay on with the power, or should i just take another white led and glue that in it's place?

[Tyrael_]

Hello,

 

I have also a defective (motherboard is dead) G5 and I'd like to build an Intel mainboard and CPU in.

 

Three questions:

- How can I connect the front (power button, USB, Firewire, Audio) and back (2x USB, Firewire, Ethernet, Audio) panels to my mainboard without cutting in the case?

- Can I re-use the original fans?

- What's a nice workaround for the power supply? I thought you could yank out all parts of the original Apple PSU and build in from an Windows-based PC PSU, as seen here:

-- http://www.zonoskar.nl/PowermacG5mod/590px/IMG_8893.jpg

-- http://www.zonoskar.nl/PowermacG5mod/590px/IMG_8962.jpg

-- http://www.zonoskar.nl/PowermacG5mod/590px/IMG_8964.jpg

-- http://www.zonoskar.nl/PowermacG5mod/590px/IMG_8966.jpg

-- http://www.zonoskar.nl/PowermacG5mod/590px/IMG_8969.jpg

-- http://www.zonoskar.nl/PowermacG5mod/590px/IMG_8978.jpg

 

At this moment I'm more worrying about my first question .

 

Many thanks in advance!

[onemanstrash]

well this is my first case mod ever. I am a long time mac user and i have never owned a pc. I bought the parts in this computer just for osx86. However i didn't buy them for the g5 case so this set up is what i had around. The reason i did this mod was to have a quiet and cool pc running osx for audio editing. I looked at many pc cases and i was not impressed. I just love apple's design. It was hard for me, but i;m glad i did it. I just need to get the front usb/firewire working, everything else works fine.

 

http://www.flickr.com/photos/30252309@N02/...57607345084056/

 

Thanks to neo for the powerbutton fix

[justaviet]

Hey nervouschimp, i was wondering about your digital audio ports, are both of them active? or did you just glue connectors there to fill it in?

 

is there a digital audio out and in on your motherboard?

 

thanks

[jricks92]

Didn't need to finish all the ports cuz i don't have them on my mobo

but here's my final build:

[Stellair]

nervouschimp-> do you have working eSata ports? What card is it? And what graph card do you have, elitegroup?

[justaviet]

Well I finally found some time to start my G5 Hackintosh, I'm a bit short on money but I started with mounting my motherboard.

 

I just cut some screw post I found at Ace Hardware and JB cold-welded them down.

 

 

Used my dremel with a cutting disc

 

Finished results

 

Hopefully ill get more money in the near future to continue my project

 

[pirloui]

Nice with some new pictures, I'll post some from my halfbaked G5 case during the evening.

[pirloui]

So here is my Hackintosh, still a mess, fan placement is temporary etc. When I get all the female sockets for the back and front pannel, I'll tidy it up.

 

As you can see, the bottom borders are bent, and the front panel is missing. (I got it for free).

 

I still don't get why the heck someone bent it like that, if they wanted to disassemble, they just had to unscrew.. If anyone have an idea on how to bend it back, I'm interested (full disassembly is so much work )

 

Anyhow, I got the power button and LED working, the center is the ground. If it had to be done again, I'd use a connector, for the flexibility, and having less soldering to do inside the box.

[ѕӎѳѳ₮ңӌ]

i dont suppose anybody has the white port surrounds spare do they? Perhaps somebody who has already cut the back or is planning to cut the back of their G5s?