Through my research on G5 case modding, I found that 95% of the cases get their back I/O panel and expansion slots all shredded up to conform to ATX. I want to keep the exterior of the beautiful G5’s case exactly how it is, but still allow for perfect integration with any ATX board. My solution? Move the motherboard away from the I/O ports and instead route extension cables where they need to go. Not only that, but I’ll be rotating the motherboard 90 degrees clockwise. If I'm not hooking the I/O ports right up to the back of the case, then I am taking the liberty of moving things around even more. I believe it uses the space more efficiently than it would if I were to leave it up-right. Using another little trick, it also allows me to easily utilize the G5s expansion slots with no case slicing necessary. Taking a step back, I came by two dead G5s earlier this month. When I received these as a gift from IT at work, I was told one had a fried motherboard...err, logic board..and the other just had something wrong with the SATA connectors. I set the SATA one aside thinking I could try to get it running in the future, but knew the one with the fried motherboard had a different fate. I knew nothing about the specs or hardware of either of these machines, and I’ve never worked inside an Apple computer before. The experience of getting to comb through the G5 and really get my hands dirty is the reason I took the machines. For years I sort of considered these towers to be the holy grail of computer case architecture. Although I have no interest in PowerPC technology and despise the Mac OS, the layout of these G5s and of course the newest Mac Pros is obviously desirable. I photo documented the entire dismantling process of the machine. If you want to see that, check out my post over at hardforum Old Mac motherboard compared to the new ATX: Here it is tested in the case: Here is another test fitting of the stock coolers. I plan to use them all as long as I can rewire them to work with ATX. To attach the GPU to the motherboard, I’m going to use a flexible PCIe extender. For audio, Firewire, and USB I'll be routing ports directly to the motherboard's headers. Ethernet will be a simple extension to the board's port. I started to mock up what I have in mind for all those I/O extensions. I created this in 3D Studio Max: NOTE: I have since decided not to include FW800 I'll be fabricating a bracket that will secure all the plugs. Although I added a slight gap in the profile view above, the faces of the I/O plugs will hopefully sit completely flush against the case. I'll need to bore out the mounting holes about an 1/8'' in so the screw heads will set down inside the plastic casing, allowing the ports to flush right up against the case. The bracket will be secured to the case using 6 tiny screws that will hopefully take advantage of the natural holes in the case and will not be too visible on the outside. The stock G5 rear fan assembly was held in place using a similar method, so perhaps I can take some cues from that. A couple days later and I went ahead and created the rear panel bracket. In these photos, I'm missing one of the audio cables still. First step was to bore out the mount holes to allow each screw to sit flush inside: And here is the stack completed: Here is the panel in progress. I intend to shave down the edges and get it squared up: Testing it in the case. Fits in there pretty snug! Alignment of the ports is pretty decent. The audio is the only one that is not quite aligned and is also set too far back. As for the ports that will not be utilized (second ethernet and optical I/O), I'll shield them off from the inside. I'm also considering pulling out the plastic rim that lines each of the ports. I had to sand it down a bit already, but even still it is keeping the Firewire and ethernet ports from sitting flush with the case. The original apple ports were made to poke THROUGH those openings, so I am worried that mine will be too far in-set. Removing the plastic rim may help that. As for mounting this bracket to the case, I am hoping to utilize the hidden screws that were once used to attach the rear 80mm fan fixture to the case. However the supplied screws are not long enough, and I am unsure what size or threading they are. Also, only specific holes in the case will accept the screws, and my bracket is coming up just short of them. I will either fabricate an extension bracket or just redo the thing. Those gold bits are the nuts that were originally embedded into the fan casing to catch the tiny screws. Speaking of the fan casing, I'll need to create something new. This new bracket obstructs the placement of the original fan housing. Does anybody have a guess as to what size those tiny screws might be? Is there any standard size that is smaller than M3? Lastly, here is the design for new heat zone separators. Using the stock ones would require a great deal of modification anyway, and they are made of steel thicker than what I believe I would be able to cut through. So i've decided to just fabricate my own: They'll use all the original mounting hardware, and will even allow the stock intake fan fixture to slide securely into the slot just as the original did. The PSU draws air up from the same space as the GFX card, but I do not believe there will be any issue with them competing for air. There will be an intake fan in the middle heat zone that should supply enough fresh air to cool both. In the diagram above, you can also see my non-standard motherboard standoff height. I intend to raise the motherboard 1.5'' from the back of the case to allow cables to be routed and stored back there for a cleaner look. The only possibly issue I see with this is that the height of my CPU cooler will be slightly limited, but I usually do not go for the bigger coolers anyway. Accessing the cables once the motherboard is place on might also be a chore, but hopefully I can avoid that with some clever cable planning. Anyway, that's my progress so far. My flexible PCIe extender should arrive within the next day or two. I also just received a bunch of supplies for custom Molex crimping. All the fan cabling will be strategically routed and trimmed to proper length. Next steps: -Finish heat zone separators, get PSU properly mounted -Mount motherboard backplate -Create mounts for the fans -Confirm PCIe extender works as expected Eventually, I'll be doing something with the color of the case. I'm going to ask a couple of local companies how much they would charge me to anodize it. I'm thinking something between matte black and gun-metal grey.
Sorry for the delay in updates! I have a series of updates I'll post. Slight change of plans: I'm now using the stock upper mounting plate to hold the PSU and DVD drive. I had attempted to fabricate my own, but the aluminium I used was too thin (you can compare the thickness of the two plates visible in this photo). I bit the bullet and just hacked up the stock one, which is very thick but ended up turning out nicely. You can see a big difference between that lower separate and the upper one. I'm going to re-do the lower one with some thicker aluminium. In other news, I got a new PCIe extender in the mail! This one has a right angel adapter and is much longer. It does seem long, yet I'm still having a hard time making it reach the motherboard PCIe. It's going to be tight, but it should work though. I was going to order a 12'' but stupidly ended up opting for a 10''. Those extra 2 inches would of made a big difference. Sorry I forgot to take a picture of it on the motherboard, but will upload one this week. I'm very happy with how nicely the PSU fits up top with the stock panel. It almost seems to be made for it - these holes even line up perfectly with the PSUs mounting holes - I'll just need to make a couple of L brackets to hold it in place. If you are familiar with the G5 case, you'll know that the power plug is at the bottom of the case, yet it is very obvious here that my PSU is at the top. I am going to run an extension down to the stock power inlet. I found this perfect extension cord with 2 right angles: I also need to order some extra long M3 standoffs. They will use 6 of the stock Apple standoff mounts, and will set the motherboard out about 2 inches. This will allow ample room for wiring beneath. I found these 50mm ones on amazon but am waiting to hear if they are M3 or not. I got everything in the mail for my fan cable crimping, so that will be my next big step I think after I finished the heat shields. Hopefully another update will come soon this week! Thanks for watching guys, this is my first work-log.
Right about now is when I start kicking myself for deciding to do liquid cooling haha. Even with lower end items, I easily break the $200 barrier. Oh well...it's only money, right? Here are the components I'm currently considering. Here is the G5 radiator which I will be utilizing. I unfortunately crushed some of the top (actually it's the bottom but I'll be using it inverted) while dismantling the original fixture. Apple used well over 50 screws to hold the rest of the CPU/cooling fixture together, but for some reason they GLUED the radiator to it's bracket. I was too hasty in trying to pry it off, so I was left with some crushed fins. I might try to repair it, I might not. Regardless, the top of the whole thing will get sanded down to remove all those markings and the remaining glue residue. As you can see my block is copper but the G5 radiator is aluminum. I'm using non-conductive & anti-corrosive fluid so hopefully the galvanization will be minimized. The beauty of using the G5 radiator is that the G5 fan shroud fits perfectly. The bracket here was not originally used exactly for the purpose of marrying the two like this, but it fortunately fits nearly perfectly. Just a couple of screws and voila. It also happens to have a bracket on the other side too which fits perfectly inside the shroud. Again, it was not originally intended to work this way but luck would have it that it will work for me here. I don't want to drill through it (to keep the clean look), so perhaps I can use some JB Weld to attach a mounting screw to the inside lip of the shroud. Lines up pretty nicely, and the best part is that I'll still be able to use the old G5 aluminum hood. I also got the new motherboard in the mail. I trimmed down my back-plate to fit MicroATX. And the motherboard standoffs. Here are a couple of shots of the new arrangement. I'll be mounting a pump on the bottom of the case and the reservoir to the left of the GFX card. The card and the prospective intake fan for that channel are both set down pretty deep. So there should be enough clearance for proper airflow beneath the reservoir. I'll upload a diagram soon if I have time. EDIT: It is unfortunate to see that this motherboard is photographing as brown, just as I was worried about. The brown effect is minimized in person, but exaggerated in the photos. We'll just see how it goes as more components are added. EDIT 02: The black RAM I ordered from Newegg arrived as green RAM! So I have submitted for an exchange order for properly black memory. In-case this falls through, does anybody know of any other verifiable black circuited memory?
Welp, finally got the water cooling gear in the mail. I killed so much time this week researching, planning, sketching, double-checking, and considering alternatives for each of the WC parts. I finally settled on most of the same stuff that I had listed in my previous post. Only exception is that I ended up going with this Koolance reservoir nozzle base instead of the Bitspower one, as this one offers more flexibility for nozzle placement. I've also been talking more with a local company about doing the anodizing. I'm going to try to get it done next week, if all goes according to plan. Getting the case anodized is the next major hurdle, so once I get that finished, I can finally make some true progress on getting this thing assembled for final. The anodize will be a hardcoat which naturally produces a dark gun-metal grey color. They don't sell spray paint within Chicago city limits, so this weekend I am going to drive out of town to buy some matte black and some red for some of the internal accents. I also need to experiential with sanding/brushing some of the aluminum accents as well.
Liking this mod, nice job so far, I always thought the old G5 towers where perfect for modding, love the clean elegant simple lines they have very nice looking, think i might do one myself if i can't afford a TJ 11 oh yeah and *subbbbed*
AHH! BE weary on the G5 radiator, that sucker is aluminium and if you're using a copper CPU block your in for a butt-load of corrosion.
Yeah, I'm aware of the corrosion issue but it is just a risk I have to take. I'm using non-conductive & anti-corrosive fluid so hopefully the galvanization will be minimized. Regardless, I've read it takes years for the effect to truly become apparent, and that is only without regular maintenance and most likely without protected fluid.
Speaking from experience, it doesn't take years, if you're using a block with a micro-channel base they'll clog quickly because of the large surface area and you'll see your temps jump.
There are anticorrosives that will work for this, Mankz. I'm using one in a soon to be revealed project. G48 Glysantin will do it...
