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

[pirloui]

I said earlier I would use a G5 mobo part with the connectors in order not to cut in the case.

It's a mix of different peoples methods.

 

For now, Audio (both) and USB (both) are working.

The part itself fit perfectly, not a mm too much or too little.

 

Planning to do Firewire 400 and Ethernet aswell, but I couldn't find the pinout between the connector and the motherboard. Ethernet is 8 pins, and there are 10 on the motherboard (G5s). Besides my multimeter didn't get any conductivity between any of them.

 

Anyhow. I'm most satisfied with the beginning

 

Thank you amd_sony for the cut and fast shipping

 

USB and Audio are soldered.. Ugly solder, the small iron didn't warm enough, and the large was large.

Ready with USB header on one, and mini jack on the others. (keeping mobo audio header for other use)

Had to break the old ports in order to make the mobo border flush. Good riddance.

The standoffs are the ones from the case (low ones) sanded down a 1/2 mm

 

Yeay, nice ports

[Wiretap]

i think thats one of the neatest cuts and riveted back panel that i have seen, with the exception of cyprios of course!!

 

nice job

 

Why thankyou, its not as great up close, im going to re-do it at some point as its not perfect, and im a perfectionist

I need to use thicker ali next time (1.0mm not thick enough, too flexible)

 

Finding an automatic fan controller is proving somewhat problematic.

[Baudouin]

Yes indeed nice ports pirloui, Congratz , great and clean job . Got a full G5 mobo, will do the same later.

[ѕӎѳѳ₮ңӌ]

yeh pirloui, nice work! how hard was the soldering? got any pinouts?

 

think im gonna start looking round for a dead g5 logic board now.

 

anybody got one? lol

[pirloui]

The soldering was a little bit hard, but then it's not my speciality, so I guess anyone could manage

I'll add the pinouts to amd_sony's scan a bit later

[ѕӎѳѳ₮ңӌ]

The soldering was a little bit hard, but then it's not my speciality, so I guess anyone could manage

I'll add the pinouts to amd_sony's scan a bit later

 

what put me off was what mspr said:

 

Hello, I did it. I used my not working G5 mainboard

You have to remove all the condensators, SMD and resistances near connectors, too.

I suggest you to try with another old mainboard: it's not very easy to solder the little pinouts.

To identify the correct pinouts you can use a tester, an electronic device like this

 

 

did you have to remove these parts?

 

also have you stress tested the USBs? Hows noise on the audio lines?

[pirloui]

I did remove them for safety, but since you really don't need to unsolder them, just pry / scrape them off. In the end, what counts is the conductivity between the connector and the plug. With a multimeter you can also check that there isn't any accidental conductivity between pins.

 

Both USBs are tested, one of them have copied about 100GB, seems stable. Once I had it working I drowned the area with a glue gun, to protect it from diverse..

 

Audio seems normal to me, but my ears aren't exactly HiFi

 

Will post the pinouts I got in a couple of hours..

[ѕӎѳѳ₮ңӌ]

I did remove them for safety, but since you really don't need to unsolder them, just pry / scrape them off. In the end, what counts is the conductivity between the connector and the plug. With a multimeter you can also check that there isn't any accidental conductivity between pins.

 

Both USBs are tested, one of them have copied about 100GB, seems stable. Once I had it working I drowned the area with a glue gun, to protect it from diverse..

 

Audio seems normal to me, but my ears aren't exactly HiFi

 

Will post the pinouts I got in a couple of hours..

 

im worried as im {censored} at soldering!!

 

so anybody got a dead g5 logic board, on the cheapside??

 

lol

[pirloui]

Soldering smal stuff isn't much fun, but until someone produces the part we try to make (cheap and easy for "them") we're out of luck.. Anyhow, it's really not that difficult, just not exactly pleasurable

 

edit: no diagram; it's lost somewhere sorry.

 

I looked for USB atx pins correspondence, but never figured out if the view was from the front or the back. The order is +5V; Data; Data; Ground. Check it out to be safe. (I had to turn the plug)

Audio is as shown.

 

Ethernet should be doable although a little difficult, however I didn't get any conductivity between the pins in the connector a d the pins on the motherboard.

 

FW800 is close to impossible, the pins go somewhere inside the PCB, and are extremely tiny.

 

FW400 is like USB: what's lowest in the connector is closest to the border.

 

USB, as mentionned

 

Audio , as mentionned

 

Optical: Easy to solder, pins probably standard (personnaly no use)

 

There is a layer of some protecting coating in the solder, it's better to scrape it off before soldering.

If your solder connects to another pin, you can always cut / separate the two with a tiny saw or a box cutter.

Floppy or IDE ribbons, (old thick ones) makes nice flat and flexible cables with any number of strands.

 

I'm an expert at nothing in this domain, so if someone is more knowledgeable, please correct me.

 

Good luck, it's very satisfying when it's done

[ѕӎѳѳ₮ңӌ]

id probably only wire up usb, firewire and ethernet, which i hope somebody manages to figure out. it would just be nice to have the port holes in my case filled perfectly.

 

Soldering smal stuff isn't much fun, but until someone produces the part we try to make (cheap and easy for "them") we're out of luck.. Anyhow, it's really not that difficult, just not exactly pleasurable

 

Here is my lousy pinout schema:

I looked for USB atx pins correspondence, but never figured out if the view was from the front or the back. The order is +5V; Data; Data; Ground. Check it out to be safe. (I had to turn the plug)

Audio is as shown.

 

Ethernet should be doable although a little difficult, however I didn't get any conductivity between the pins in the connector a d the pins on the motherboard.

 

FW800 is close to impossible, the pins go somewhere inside the PCB, and are extremely tiny.

 

FW400 is like USB: what's lowest in the connector is closest to the border.

 

USB, as mentionned

 

Audio , as mentionned

 

Optical: Easy to solder, pins probably standard (personnaly no use)

 

There is a layer of some protecting coating in the solder, it's better to scrape it off before soldering.

If your solder connects to another pin, you can always cut / separate the two with a tiny saw or a box cutter.

Floppy or IDE ribbons, (old thick ones) makes nice flat and flexible cables with any number of strands.

 

I'm an expert at nothing in this domain, so if someone is more knowledgeable, please correct me.

 

Good luck, it's very satisfying when it's done

 

PS: amd-sony's scan:

[quinielascom]

Ethernet should be doable although a little difficult, however I didn't get any conductivity between the pins in the connector a d the pins on the motherboard.

 

It is normal, the ethernet connector inside have inductors you probably need remove them since that original ethernet connector in your motherboard already have a similar circuit, in others words you need takeout the conector, make internal jumps and then put it back.

[pirloui]

It sounds terrible, but thanks a lot for the information

[ѕӎѳѳ₮ңӌ]

doh! not looking forward to that!

 

It is normal, the ethernet connector inside have inductors you probably need remove them since that original ethernet connector in your motherboard already have a similar circuit, in others words you need takeout the conector, make internal jumps and then put it back.

[ѕӎѳѳ₮ңӌ]

update!!

 

********WARNING********

 

if you are a g5 case "purist" such as nervous chimp, do not read/look/think about this post

 

 

so today i made the cutout for my aquatube.... if you dont know what that is, its a reservoir for my w/c setup.

 

its gone in the roof, where the fans were. i have reused the flatter fan, so the HDDs still get a bit of air movement, and i will probably try and get a bit more air movement up there later on.

[nervouschimp]

Looks good to me.... remember, the true purists laughed at me for the G5 Skate, and raping the underside.... I've often thought of adding a multy-port panel to the top of my G5.

 

 

 

 

update!!

 

********WARNING********

 

if you are a g5 case "purist" such as nervous chimp, do not read/look/think about this post

so today i made the cutout for my aquatube.... if you dont know what that is, its a reservoir for my w/c setup.

 

its gone in the roof, where the fans were. i have reused the flatter fan, so the HDDs still get a bit of air movement, and i will probably try and get a bit more air movement up there later on.

[Baudouin]

Go smoothy, go !! As long as it works and suit to you. Why bother the negative pure-ists, if your build seems pure to you ?

[ѕӎѳѳ₮ңӌ]

^^thanks for the kind words guys!!^^

 

today i soldiered on with my G5. it was bitterly cold here in the UK, never really got above 1 degrees. i finished the 2nd rad mounting, so i have also 'raped' the bottom of my g5 nervouschimp. all thats left now is my psu, and jb welding the standoffs to the case.

 

it was your psu mounting, nervouschimp, that gave me the idea for mine, but as my 2nd rad draws air from the bottom i didnt want the psu dumping its heat there. so i was going to mount it about 75mm off the bottom of the case, and create like a deflector to send the hot air through the rear perforations of the case. however, due to the colossal length of my graphics card it wouldnt fit so i thought i might just have to let it dump the air through the bttom. after looking at it though, i think i may be able to manage it, and re-use the power cut out also. ill show you in pictures sometime in the next week!

 

also dont use your dremel to drill holes in your index fingers!

[nervouschimp]

Good luck!, and try and hang on to all ten fingers. I just checked, and a fair amount of heat does get dumped out the bottom, but some of that might be CPU heat, I've installed 2 exhaust fans on the PSU mounting plate, and they are right under the CPU.

[Baudouin]

Looks good to me.... remember, the true purists laughed at me for the G5 Skate, and raping the underside.... I've often thought of adding a multy-port panel to the top of my G5.

 

I thought to insert the digital controle screen from my WCooling system up there, but that's not high enough.

[ѕӎѳѳ₮ңӌ]

i too had that thought, but there was not enough space. i am going to add it to the shelf, in front of the hdds, then eventually mill out a slot in the door so i can see/control it. its not desperate that i get it done though, just mount it first, i want to try and get a running system for the christmas break

[ѕӎѳѳ₮ңӌ]

below hopefully is a photo showing the complication of re using the cut out for the power plug. unfortunately my psu is about 4mm too big to fit in the space between the bottom of the pci outlet slots, and the poweroutlet slot. so for now, i am just going to raise it as far as i can using perspex sheets, cut out to shape and stacked up and bolted together. i will eventually cut the cage of the psu, but i want to keep the warranty for a while. i believe i may have secured the use of a laser cutter to make my perspex profiles, fingers crossed. if not im open to suggestions, perhaps threaded rod bolted to the case floor, with some locking nuts for my psu to rest on? ill cross that bridge when i come to it

[ѕӎѳѳ₮ңӌ]

oh and if anybody does have a g5 logic board... please let me know!

[justaviet]

Looking great pirloui!

I'm taking the same route as you, but doing it a little bit different :]

I need to order my motherboard so i can start to wire everything up.

 

Oh, Smeethy, I recently ordered 2 dead logic boards and im only going to use one.

I can sell you the other if you want it.

Send me a pm and we can talk it over.

[ѕӎѳѳ₮ңӌ]

Looking great pirloui!

I'm taking the same route as you, but doing it a little bit different :]

I need to order my motherboard so i can start to wire everything up.

 

Oh, Smeethy, I recently ordered 2 dead logic boards and im only going to use one.

I can sell you the other if you want it.

Send me a pm and we can talk it over.

 

you are the man/woman!!! pm'ing now!!!

[ultimeus]

I'm having problems wiring front, I follow this diagram, usb works but power led and switch doesn't work.

 

I try with ground and without.

 

Edit: I play with cables, I find how to boot using : Pow led - , power sw + , pow switch - , Pow led +

 

But led only works when pushing button