Scratch Build – In Progress Project: MPi-L (Mac Pro/G5 Acrylic), quite back..and a realization

hi meen, realy nice work so far,
great ideas: iron, cuting tool
(let me remembered my first case from plexi, where i made a circle cutting tool - http://gigi.hostuju.cz/1/case1/plex12.html )


thanks again i am planing another plexi mod, and now i am not so afraid about bending (tried before with hot-air gun but.. bubbles )

looking forward for the rest
cya

 

This is an incredibly ambitious first mod and I love that you are on such a strapped budget. I've run into the same issues myself with mods.

Congrats on how this is turning out. This ought to be awesome when finished. you just earned yourself a subscriber

 

pretty sweet stuff, i want to see how this turns out. updates coming?

 

yer i am liking this, keep it up

 

just had a thought, you could put some mirror tint on this when it's finished, so that it looks like a regular silver case... then turn on some CCFLs and BAM!!!: clearness

 

yeah i have some stuff under my sleves

 

sorry i haven't updated much... and thanks for understanding

anyway... this is not an update.. just a realization..


i've been playing with sketchup lately (really good and easy quick modeling tool ) to see how would my computations match up the real Mac Pro.. and i realized that my computations were too big .. i first noticed this when i tried to prepare print guides for drilling the top+front inner panel and i noticed the too much space on the right..i forgot ..i was thinking "noooo~! i already cut my precious plexi!"



with this, i was triggered to lay it out on sketchup and found out about more reality... i tried to correct the measurements with of course a balance of what's left of the plexi (including the outer C shell) on how to continue without more delays.. and i'm happy i got a much more accurate measurements now..

here's a side by side comparison...



and here is a more comparable view...



i'm planning to try re-correcting this week/end with my new homemade "heat strip" on the next update.. thank you all

 

PM me if you need any measurements of a real G5 case. I seem to have a couple
John

 

yeah.. i was thinking about it when i almost got annoyed at fixing the measurements and how other sites have different measurements... and then later i got satisfied but more accurate measurements surely will be great specially from a veteran modder like you .. thanks a lot.. be PMing you


-Wil

 

Very impressive work so far!

 

Also remember the holes horizontally are not spaced the same as the up and down spacing. Don't know why but it just is.
John

 

Also don't forget that G5's and Mac Pro's have very different interiors, so interior measurements won't be the same

 

I have side by side pictures of G5 and Mac pro if you want to see the interior differences.
Not mine - sent to me when I started collecting G5s
Fully dressed G5:


G5 and Mac Pro together


If anyone knows who the original pics came from I would like to credit them.
Basic differences:

Rear fans G5 -2 Mac Pro -1
G5 power supply fills whole bottom and motherboard moves up - Mac Pro has PSU and 2 Opticals up top while the G5 has 1 Optical and 2 HDD drives. The Mac Pro has 4 hot swap HDD lined up under the PSU/Optical tray and pull out from the door side.

According to the official Apple site the external case size measures the same. I'm measuring one of my G5 cases now, and will get the dimensions.
I have answered your PM - projectW. I hope this helps.
John

 

the interiors doesn't really matter that much as it will be "inspired" and not totally the same as Mac Pro, but i'll still base most of the interior from it

thanks john your measurements really helped inspire me more I have that side by side pic when I was collecting pictures for eye engineering december last year. pretty cool i don't have that upper g5 pic tho.. *collecting*

 

ok... comming into some very minimal problems ima kinda meticulous with this stuff..

following the measurements from john, i come across when tried to measure the left side, 2mm longer than what was written..

3mm (thickness of material..handle)
+ 30mm (ceiling to floor space)
+ 442mm (written actual measurements)
+ 30mm (lower ceiling to floor space)
+ 3mm (thickness of material..foot)
----------
508mm (should be the overall height of the case)​

but..

510mm is the actual measurement...​

now...

1.) i'm starting to think that the feet and handle doesn't have the same height..
2.) just continued by following the model's report (444mm) on the height of the left side(without the handles/feet) and use it for the inner panel as well. tentative..
3.) continue with the 444mm and use 442mm for the inner panel, then flush it on top and put the 2mm space on the bottom.
3.b) vertically center it, putting 1mm on top and bottom.
4.) thinking of shrinking the overall height of outer "C" shell from 510mm to 508mm.​

what do you think guys?

(credits to john for the actual measurements! )

-WiL

 

The actual skin handles and feet are the same - the extra 2mm is for factory installed skid stopping material applied to the bottom feet. It appears to be something like thin teflon or plastic. I'll find a picture or take one.
John

 

This is the skin from Sacrilege turned upside down:


The dark colored strips are the 2mm thick pieces put on by the factory to stop scratches or whatever. They seem to wear down and not the aluminum case feet . I never found a bottom picture surfing, but G5s wear shoes.

John

 

Thanks for the tip, john. I wasn't aware G5 wore those


-----

Ok...just a quick preview on the final measurements for MPi-L v0.32..

measurements are from real G5, except...

1. inner panel width is forced to 193mm cause 200mm just gives too much "margin" from the sides
2. overall height = 508mm (+2mm for the planned shoes = 510mm)

the look is pretty much the same as the measurements and here is a quick idea of how it's going to look in final (didn't have time to perf and stuff as i was watching Mix'08 and i'm about to sleep, heh )


thanks guys..

 

that's sweet. i'm curious to know how you're going to bolt the case together. it seems too thin to do much with it. i'm also curious about your internal layout.