Case Mod Project: G5 Unlocked - Updated 10/12 2012

[avolla]

Love what you did with the PSU. That's a great way to save some space and keep the original feel of the mac. Keep up the good work.

[Nikkop]

Originally Posted by Angel OD

One more thing that came to mind while killing my psu's were the fact that the heatsinks on the psu, like yours, are designed to take air from a fan blowing straight down on them! I'm pretty sure that's important as well. I tend to believe that this has been tested, and found to be the ideal way of cooling it. It simply must draw the heat out way better, than an airflow going past from the side. :-)

Hi again!

Stupid me I got it all wrong apparently. You were right about the fan blowing down on the PSU and not being an exhaust. I don't know how I could get it wrong, I mean even looking at a picture would tell how the fan operates. I blame it on me being tired!

Anyways, I got a very quick reply from Fractal Design stating that the PSU can handle an input temperature of 40c.
But then again he mentions, just like you, that some components in the PSU might "hide" themselves behind others, and thus not getting cooled.

However, I think I'll experiment on this one!

Originally Posted by avolla

Love what you did with the PSU. That's a great way to save some space and keep the original feel of the mac. Keep up the good work.

Thanks mate!

Yea I want it to be pretty much invisible like in the original G5. However, I'll have to experiment with the cooling solution in the PSU and see what turns out to be the best in terms of performance, temperatures and noise.

Stay tuned!

[Lorquis]

Could you not use a few little bits of plastic or something to duct airflow to the components that are currently in dead zones?

I'm quite surprised you're not going to hackintosh it, especially as you're going to basically skin linux to have a MacOS-ish GUI..

Are you going to try and keep the front and rear I/Os as stock? If so I'd love to see that! So many people just dremel them out and it's such a shame..

Liking the build so far, I'm definitely going to keep watching this one!

[Angel OD]

Originally Posted by Nikkop

However, I think I'll experiment on this one!

As a fellow modder I quite understand the urge the ignore all and try, and I also respect it!

But don't say you weren't warned!

[Korvus]

Interesting G5 build, I look forwards to seeing where this goes

[Nikkop]

Originally Posted by Lorquis

Could you not use a few little bits of plastic or something to duct airflow to the components that are currently in dead zones?

I'm quite surprised you're not going to hackintosh it, especially as you're going to basically skin linux to have a MacOS-ish GUI..

Are you going to try and keep the front and rear I/Os as stock? If so I'd love to see that! So many people just dremel them out and it's such a shame..

Liking the build so far, I'm definitely going to keep watching this one!

I'll see what I can do about the air flow in the PSU, thanks for the tip tho.

The reason I'm not going to hackintosh it is because I simply don't like OSX. To be honest I haven't tried it for too long either, but it feels like it's "too simple" for me.
The visual design does look good indeed, but the functions not so much.
Also, breaking EULA (by hacking OSX) isn't anything I'd like to do when I've got sponsors and such

About the front I/O I will keep it stock yes! If you see my "to-do list" I've put it up there aswell. I'll rewire the cable to fit regular motherboards.
About the rear I/O I was first going to keep it partly stock. I would like to keep the fans but replace the I/O, however after measuring and trying it turned out to be impossible. I couldn't fit the I/O plate without covering a bit of the fans.
And cutting out a hole for I/O and then not have anything but a hole is not an option.
I'm probably going to replace the I/O and fans with the motherboard Mountain Mods are supplying me with.

When I get the tray I will check and see! The tray, if made properly, actually looks really good.
I even thought about using the tray on the rear and then drilling out all those small holes that the G5 consists off, to make it look more real!

What do you think about that? Replacing the rear with a tray but drilling the holes

Let's hope for the best!

Originally Posted by Angel OD

As a fellow modder I quite understand the urge the ignore all and try, and I also respect it!

But don't say you weren't warned!

Haha! Well, would you suggest using the fan as if it was original? I mean having it on top of the PSU. It will probably be the best solution for the cooling capacity, but it won't look good! :/


The alternatives I'll research about are:

• 2x 60mm in the front and 2x 60mm in the back to keep the original look of the G5 PSU.
• 1x 135mm on top of the PSU as if it was the original Fractal Design PSU.
• 1x (strong) fan in the front, angled down blowing into the PSU.
• 1x 135mm in the bottom of the PSU, I would also have to cut the case then. And with this I'd have to "hang" the PSU in the top of the PSU-case, which isn't too good I assume. Glue/tape won't hold it up forever.

Thanks!

Originally Posted by Tech_Jakl

Interesting G5 build, I look forwards to seeing where this goes

Thanks mate! Just keep your eyes open for any updates!

[Nikkop]

I seem to have encountered a fairly big problem in my project, unfortunately. But on the other hand, what is a project without any kind of upcoming problems?

I've seen a number of PowerMac G5 modifications where they used the Mountain Mods motherboard plate.
Everyone I've seen have used their 2x 80mm plate, that looks like this when it is added to PowerMac G5 back:


As we see it can be placed there without any problems.
The big problem is that I will be sponsored (it's already being shipped) by a motherboard plate from Mountain Mods with a 120mm fan, and I thought that both of these plates (2 x 80mm and 120mm) were roughly equal in the terms of size, but that turns out not to be the case.

Here is a guy who compares 120mm plate with the PowerMac G5 is back:


As we can see directly, it is too large to fit and I will need to cut in order to use it.
The problem then is that I can not use the original fan holes as they will be covered with the tray, nor can I use the 120mm fan as it will not fit.

It may be possible to cut off a bit of the metal on the right side of the tray to make the 120mm fit, but then maybe the motherboard wont line up with the I/O

When I receive the motherboard tray I'll probably have to think about this a lot and finally come to some kind of solution.


I will not let that stop me though!

Do you have any thoughts / suggestions on how you had done with this problem I'd be happy to hear your suggestions!

So long!

MVH
Nikkop

[Angel OD]

I really have no great idea to be honest.

I did this:





Not saying it's the most beautiful idea, but it beats the heck out of killing PSU's all the time!

[Vetalar]

cut out fan-place (hole+mounts) and weld it directly to i/o area?

like that sorry for photochop

[Mechh69]

Ok I have an idea for your power supply. If you mount the PS PCB upside down and then cut the bottom of the PS case out and then mount the 135 MM fan on the bottom to draw air in from the bottom and blow up on the heat sinks on the PS PCB then it will operate as it is supposed to and you will not kill it, and i don't think it will hurt the aesthetic value either as it will be underneath. Just a thought. Im going to sub because im interested in this

[dark4181]

Originally Posted by Mechh69

Ok I have an idea for your power supply. If you mount the PS PCB upside down and then cut the bottom of the PS case out and then mount the 135 MM fan on the bottom to draw air in from the bottom and blow up on the heat sinks on the PS PCB then it will operate as it is supposed to and you will not kill it, and i don't think it will hurt the aesthetic value either as it will be underneath. Just a thought. Im going to sub because im interested in this

That's an interesting suggestion. I might even go a step further and expand the PSU chamber to make it a few mm taller.

[n1c3tr1]

Have you thought about using a mATX board. It would free up a lot of space. I don't know if there are any motherboard I/O plates that are pre-made that you can use but, it's just an idea.

I am interested in seeing the I/O plate installed. I have 2 g5 cases just sitting here waiting for me to start modding them. I always wanted to make it look like it came from Apple that way.

[Nikkop]

Hi all!

You might wonder why I don't update to frequently.
This project is a school project which is supposed to last until/be finished at the end of May. Due to that I've decided to not too often, but rather do it once a week more or less.

However, I was supposed to do an update yesterday/today but I encountered a problem.
I was going to pick up the package from Mountain Mods when the courier/customs wanted to charge me for 270 SEK. That is, approximately 50% of the value of motherboard tray + the shipping.
This makes no sense and I refused to pay it, instead I'm now having contact with the courier and the customs.

Customs tend to be 25%, which would be fine I guess (even tho I'd like to avoid it) but now it's around 50%.

Also, I'm no longer going to do a collaboration with Antec. The reason?
They haven't replied to my e-mail for over about a month now. We had contact and they promised me a collaboration and a product (this was in December).
Now, after new years eve they haven't replied to me at all.

And therefore I'm no longer interested in having a collaboration with them, instead I have a new potential partner that is interested.
Very unprofessional from Antec if I may say it myself.


Also! I've got 4x 60mm fans from Fractal Design to be used for the PSU. This update will come shortly, I'm in need to fix some things first >: )

Originally Posted by Angel OD

I really have no great idea to be honest.

I did this:


Not saying it's the most beautiful idea, but it beats the heck out of killing PSU's all the time!

It doesn't look too bad to be honest! I will try to use 60mm fans that are sensor-controlled and see how that goes. Running 4x 60mm at 3000 RPM at the moment is a little too loud ^_^

Originally Posted by Vetalar

cut out fan-place (hole+mounts) and weld it directly to i/o area?

like that sorry for photochop

Thanks for the suggestion. I will try and come to a conclusion once I have the motherboard tray.

Originally Posted by Mechh69

Ok I have an idea for your power supply. If you mount the PS PCB upside down and then cut the bottom of the PS case out and then mount the 135 MM fan on the bottom to draw air in from the bottom and blow up on the heat sinks on the PS PCB then it will operate as it is supposed to and you will not kill it, and i don't think it will hurt the aesthetic value either as it will be underneath. Just a thought. Im going to sub because im interested in this

Thanks, I've also thought of that but I'm probably going to stick to the original style, using the 60mm fans. Hopefully it will be enough to cool and it will look great!

Originally Posted by n1c3tr1

Have you thought about using a mATX board. It would free up a lot of space. I don't know if there are any motherboard I/O plates that are pre-made that you can use but, it's just an idea.

I am interested in seeing the I/O plate installed. I have 2 g5 cases just sitting here waiting for me to start modding them. I always wanted to make it look like it came from Apple that way.

Yea I've thought about that but I want the support of a ATX-system of course, I'm running ATX factor right now as well.

I will find out what and how to do with the I/O and the rest of the rear when I receive the motherboard tray I will probably do some cutting but try to keep the 2x 92mm fans by moving them.

Best Regards
Nikkop

[Nikkop]

I have now done a small update! Please see my third post on the first page of this thread!

I had some trouble with the customs and therefore this update comes a bit late!

But please read my update and enjoy!

Best Regards
Nikkop

[dark4181]

On your most recent update:

Definitely install the PSU compartment as it is suppose to be positioned. For your rear psu fans I would be thinking L-brackets or something akin to a mounting platform such as a watercooling radiator would use. Something solid to mount the fans to inside the PSU compartment. Now, since the back of that compartment is curved, you'll obviously need to move the rear fans slightly toward the front. Also helpful would be to get the fans as close to the guts of your psu as possible.

May I ask, how thick are the fans? They look like 25mm?

[Nikkop]

UPDATE 28/3


This update will be about how I solved the "problem" with getting the motherboard in place as the PowerMac G5 has a different standard on how the distances are set. Also, I'm updating with new partners!
Please check at the top of the page for partners / sponsors.
I welcome Antec (now that I have received the product), Quiet PC and Djungelapa as my new partners.

Originally I was going to use my motherboard plate I got from Mountain Mods. With this motherboard plate, I would cut the back of the case to replace the PCI slots and the I/O. Unfortunately, I discovered while the package was already on it's way to Swedent that the 120mm plate is too wide to fit on the back of the PowerMac G5. I immediately realized that this would be a decent obstacle but I knew I could tackle it in some way.
With that said, if you are going to order a motherboard plate from Mountain Mods order the plate with 2 x 80mm fan instead! This plate fits easily in the back, it's only the 120mm version that is too wide.
Other than that, Mountain Mods do have outstanding customer support. Replies quick and they do offer friendly service, exactly what you expect and want from a online-store! In addition to radiate their motherboard plate quality at a high level and to have the opportunity to screw together and apart for yourself how you want is a huge plus in the edge. The beautiful finish on the plate fits in with everything and looks to belong in the case originally, just because it fits so good, both geometrically and with the looks.



I had been able to solve the problem (that the PCI plate was too wide) by not using the plate at all, but instead use only the plate motherboard would sit on that basis in the chassis, and then let the whole back to stay original and unmodified. It looks better because it will remain as the original, but the downside is that only 4x PCI slots will be available.

However, if I would have done so had nothing would fit in the PCI-slots, because as you probably can see the plate is approx 1cm wider than it should be, if I want to use any PCI-slots.


This can be tackled in two ways. I could cut the plate to the part of the plate that stands out and thus get the plate PCI-holes and the case PCI hole to lie in the same place, or I could move the motherboard approx 1cm so that it just ends up outside so that the motherboard tray and the case PCI-slots line up.
I chose to move the motherboard sideways to make it fit.

Here we can see when I've moved the motherboard and I measuring where the new spaces will sit.


Approximately 1cm to the side and a few millimeters down.


Out with the drill and lets drill! Drilling holes where I put markers and spacers to fit.


Here we see a non-screwed down spacer in its new hole, looking good!


Did the same for the remaining eight holes. Here we see all the spacers in their new holes. They were a little tough to get down but now they are sitting there!


The modified motherboard plate positioned in the case for a test of how it will look like. Now you should understand what I meant when I said that you had to move the motherboard about 1 cm to enable the usage of PCI ports


How would I attach the motherboard plate in the case? It must surely be attached good if it is to keep holding all components 24/7 when there is a motherboard, video card, coolers, etc.

Motherboard plate has the screw holes where the plate with the PCI ports must be bolted, but since I would not use the PCI plate these holes where empty and available for me. I thought I could get myself a pair of 6-32 screws (standard computer screws that even the hole is)with a lenght of 3cm stuck in. This had meant that I had to drill holes in back of the case and then put them threw, the current holes in the mesh are too small.
I found out pretty quickly that there was no further idea as it had destroyed the back a little if you had 4pcs screw heads that appeared.
I came up with another solution.

Motherboard plate that the motherboard is on I've drilled new spacers to, which means that the original holes are empty.


The brilliant idea struck me to take a pair of spacers, but to attach the in original holes but to the back of the plate! In this way, this had become like little "legs" which you then could glue it to the case. 9pcs small "legs" should hold up the plate, especially if you pull on with an extra strong glue.
I was lucky that the distances were just as long as the edge of the motherboard plate, ie the motherboard plate had not been raised further by the new "legs", but only got a better grip! Wonderful!



I thought I had finally come to my final solution, and thus was ready to attach the spacers / legs. I measured several times and I never got it directly straight, at certain points on the plate, it was unbalanced, some "legs" where touching the case while others were floating.. It turned out that it was the chassis bottom that was not plain sailing. This disturbed me tremendously and since I am careful to do the very best of this project I didn't attach the motherboard tray this way. I would rather take more time on me and get it exactly as I want!


As a result, I decided to dump the idea that I have been doing for 4 weeks planning, measuring and testing. Now I just had to start from scratch with the planning of how I should attach the motherboard.

Here I stopped using Mountain Mods motherboard tray because of the above reasons. But they are obviously still my partners and I thank them very much for that!
Remember! Buy their motherboard plate with 2x 80mm fans so it will fit perfectly!



Since I still wanted to keep the original look of my chassis so I went all that way. I decided to take the original spacers were the PowerMac G5 motherboard had been and move them to new places, so it would be a normal ATX standard.


So I started to take these spacers off from the bottom of the chassis with a pair of pliers, came off fairly easily.



I measured out where the motherboard would sit with the video card installed. When I found the place where it should be so I took out a pen and marked where the spacers were to be attached.


Filled in with a green pen to clarify.


How should I mount these spacers? Well, I glue them with some strong glue! However, we all know that the glue does not stick very well on smooth surfaces but adheres better on rough and uneven.
It was just pulling out a screwdriver and start to scratch the metal!


The first time I scratched metal without feeling bad about it: P Now the spacers should be able to attach properly.


I purchased myself a brand UHU glue. I was in love with this glue at first smell. The hardener was a smell of something wonderful, but I could not figure out what. After an hour, then I came to mind the smell of gingerbread, and I was convinced of this. However, a number of days after that I smelled on the curing agent again, and came up with the smell of "degestivekex"! So wonderfully good crackers, especially with butter and cheese (The crackers are from Sweden).
In addition, the glue should be able to hold up to 300kg/cm2, okay, I thought! If it dries at room temperature it will "only" be able to hold 120kg/cm2, still pretty overkill for just attaching a motherboard. Each spacer is a little less than 1cm in diameter, so it'll hold it with no problems.


I mixed up the two different parts of the glue and since I had bought the version of the glue that is long-hardening (12 hours) so I did not feel any stress to smear on it.
I smeared the glue on all 9pcs distances while the motherboard was upside down and distances pointing upward.




How would I get motherboard spacers to stay in place and allow the adhesive to cure? I could not just place the motherboard into the chassis and leave it because all 9pcs spacers did not touch the chassis at the same time, some hovered 2mm above the bottom of the case while others came in contact.
One option was to take the motherboard with the spacers attached, then put it in the case with glue and finally put a lot of weights (in the form of tools, flour bag, candle holders, etc.) to drive down the spacers against the case so that they would sit.
Since the motherboard is borrowed from my friend I did not want to do this, and that if I had done in that way I could accidentally move the motherboard out of position when I put on all weights.

How did I do this without using me of weights as described above?

I took the motherboard with spacers screwed and glue to the bottom of them and placed the motherboard in the chassis where I wanted it. But then we are back to the problem, some distances are floating in the air and others are making contact.



This was where you had to grab the surgeon hands and be careful!

I did so I gently gently unscrewed the screws that were in the spacers and did not touch the motherboard at all. This meant that the motherboard was resting on the spacers, but without that they were screwed. Since the spacers had glue underneath so they are less sensitive to being disturbed out of position than if they had not had glue which resulted in that I could do in this way.
As we see in the pictures the spacers are in position even after I removed the screws!


I lifted the motherboard very very gently and assured me that I wasn't touching anything that could get spacers to move. I did this, and leaving only the distances of glue underneath. Since the distances are now not set screwed to the motherboard so there was no "floating" in the air, but all had contact with the case!
Wonderful! Problems solved:



The next day I looked to the case that had been left to dry over the night.
I put back the motherboard with some of the spacers screwed just to see if they were still good, and yes! All distances set as they were, no had moved, they had all been kind and not moved from the spot


Now I could finally see how the motherboard sits when the chassis is up! Looks good, I think, nice and easy.


Here we see the power supply in place with the motherboard. Handsome worse I think! 8pin cable is perfect, is barely visible.
24pin cable is slightly longer, resulting in that it can be seen more. However, this will be remedied by I hide it in some handsome manner, or that I just shorten it by shortening all 24 cords. We shall see later on!


And here we have the video card in place. PCI cables are a little in the way and not very discreet, but this will obviously be fixed so they are seen as little as possible and will be neatly placed there!


The back of the chassis in the PCI slots. The graphics card sits perfect!.


Here we see the I / O in the back. Here, using Apple own standard, resulting in a modding required. How do I go about this is still planned, but it is inclined to cut a large hole and make the edges neat. Although it is not completely original then, but it becomes practical. Can not always have it both stylish and practical, sometimes you have to choose one of the things.
But there might be a chance I'll connect the ports to the motherboard in some way, gotta do some planning!


Hope you find this interesting!

More to come,
Best Regards
Nikkop

[Nikkop]

Hi everyone!

Sorry for the long wait! Different reasons for me not being able to update until now, some of them you can read about in the just posted update!

I also welcome my new sponsors! Antec (I have now received their package), Quiet PC and Djungelapa.se!
You can read about these new sponsors in the first post of this thread! I have updated that post.


http://www.antec.com/Believe_it/


http://www.quietpc.com/


http://www.djungelapa.se/

Enjoy the latest update!

Thanks in advance
Best Regards
Nikkop

Originally Posted by dark4181

On your most recent update:

Definitely install the PSU compartment as it is suppose to be positioned. For your rear psu fans I would be thinking L-brackets or something akin to a mounting platform such as a watercooling radiator would use. Something solid to mount the fans to inside the PSU compartment. Now, since the back of that compartment is curved, you'll obviously need to move the rear fans slightly toward the front. Also helpful would be to get the fans as close to the guts of your psu as possible.

May I ask, how thick are the fans? They look like 25mm?

Hi!

Yes the fans are 25mm. I am yet to decide how to place the fans, however that will be later on after I've sleeved the PSU and done the major modding parts.
Im considering trying to run the PSU with only two fans to start with, and then see how hot it gets.

If it can handle it, the better! If not, I will find a solution, probably gonna mount them inside the PSU and sand them down to fit, after all there are two sides to sand and hopefully they would fit then

/Nikkop

[amagriva]

Quote: "I was in love with this glue at first smell. The hardener was a smell of something wonderful, but I could not figure out what. After an hour, then I came to mind the smell of gingerbread, and I was convinced of this. However, a number of days after that I smelled on the curing agent again, and came up with the smell of "degestivekex"! So wonderfully good crackers, especially with butter and cheese (The crackers are from Sweden)."

For a moment I thought you were going to eat the glue...

[Nikkop]

Originally Posted by amagriva

Quote: "I was in love with this glue at first smell. The hardener was a smell of something wonderful, but I could not figure out what. After an hour, then I came to mind the smell of gingerbread, and I was convinced of this. However, a number of days after that I smelled on the curing agent again, and came up with the smell of "degestivekex"! So wonderfully good crackers, especially with butter and cheese (The crackers are from Sweden)."

For a moment I thought you were going to eat the glue...

Haha I knew someone would comment on that.
Anyways it was hard to resist but I managed to do so. I guess I could have bought a package of those crackers instead and spare myself a night at the ER.

[grejh0t]

very interesting project , can't wait for more updates