Modding Powermac G5 cooling parts

I have been able to lay my hands on a broken Apple Powermac G5 from 2004. The watercooling leaked at the waterblocks and destroyed 1 CPU and the PSU.

The radiator and pump seems to be fine, although I have not tested the pump. It needs rewiring.

The pump is a DDC-1VC. Apparently identical to the MCP350.
The radiator looks quite old and has two fixed barbs.

I manged to break off the fillport on the radiator, but I closed and sealed the hole.

Will it be safe to try and refurbish the pump and radiator and use it in a case mod?

I have never used liquid cooling before and I'm afraid I won't know what to do if something went wrong.

 

It's interesting, but for your first water cooling project I'd stick with something known... then again, you're not exactly a modding noob.

 

Heh, I've got one of those under my desk that needs fixed. Luckily my leak was slow enough that it didn't kill anything, just ran itself out of water and shut itself down when it got too hot. Apple's been smoking some good stuff though, they want $1800 for a replacement unit.

 

I've bought a broken Powermac G5 a while ago, I'm going to ATX-mod the case but enought about that.
This Powermac G5 was a watercooled one and I did open the pump yesterday to find a burnt pcb :|
However It may be possible to fix with this: http://cgi.ebay.com/Laing-DDC-water-pump-10W-repair-kit-MCP350-/230585420948 but this pcb have 2 wires from each copper(?) wire-thingy while my DDC-1VC have 4, I haven't removed the pcb yet so I don't know how it looks on the other side.

Anyway, maybe this will help: http://forums.bit-tech.net/showpost.php?p=1637131&postcount=115
My pcb is A-00-075-055(If I remember correctly) while his is A-00-075-062. What pcb do you have?

 

Well I am definitely a watercooling noob. I will probably be able to keep it safe. I just need a decent waterblock.

Yeah that is the reason why the guy sold the computer. It is senseless to get it fixed. So I got the whole thing for like $100

 

You could mess around and make your own aluminum block to go with that rad, but really, unless you really want to make the cooling into a project of its own, it hardly going to be worth the work. The pump might be OK, but if its 7 years old, I probably wouldn't trust it too much either.

 

I am dissapoint. You'd think that Apple would have enough design savvy to make it an easily exchangeable unit for easy maintenance.

 

Yes it is a bit risky. I'll test it on some dead hardware though.

 

Those pumps are beasts. However, some have problems with the volume compensator diaphragm bursting under low pressure. diyinhk sells a piece that replaces it, I think.

 

Ah yes, but that would mean it was more likely to be serviced or replaced by the user / 3rd party, meaning Apple wouldn't be able to export $$$$ from the user for a repair or replacement.

Apple are barstewards / crafty like that...

 

Apple works under the planned obsolescence plan. Anything older than 5 years old and they stop making parts. They weren't quite that expensive when still supported, but you have to put in the fact that it's a complete unit. Pump, radiator and processor/processors. Mine is a dual 2.5Ghz. The only one I could find at the time with Apple was the 2.7Ghz, which when new cost almost $500 more than the 2.5.

 

I have good news. I rewired the pump and tested it with water. Works 100%. Just a bit loud.

 

Not bad for only shelling out a small amount of cash.

 

Yes I am very happy now. You don't really get watercooling stuff in South Africa, so it would cost me even more if I need to import it.

 

More news. Connected the radiator and it seems OK. Will run it through the night though.

 

are these G5's still worth anything?

 

All pc are worth something ... Can be recycled as a lan rendering comp (usefull to keep your main pc free).
File server, printer server, mail server ... Install a linux distro on it and admin it via remote connection.

Only games and heavy app need 56 cores monster with 12K watt hungry gpu and 8To of ram.

I started 3D moddeling on an Amiga 2000 in 1989 ... 1MB of ram, no hdd and a 16MHz proco

these beauty is still very capable, people does not really need to change their pc every 6 month (and it is the same with cell phones). But we are living in a buy buy buy civilization, so you are nothing if you do not have the latest model ...

 

I've had the same phone for 7 years, and my old PC was about 8 years old before I replaced it = not a consumer whore

 

Mine ran as a file/iTunes server for the last 5 years or so. Would still be doing that if the cooler kept running.

 

I have also recently come by a dead water cooled G5 which I am modding to hold ATX hardware. My pump seems to be fried, but I am going to utilize the radiator and it's fan shroud. Check out my work log here if you are interested.

However my WC block is quite different! I hope you don't mind me posting a photo here:


I was surprised to realize how many screws (25+) were holding this thing together. disassemble it was quite the challenge.

The CPUs were 2.5 quads, though I am not sure what year it's from. I was given this non-working machine for free from IT at work, and you can see a tear-down of the thing here.

As mentioned, I am working on a modded ATX water cooling system using the G5 radiator. I'm braving the mixed metals conundrum and using a copper block. My research assures me I will be safe if I use the proper fluid and change it every 4 months or so.

Anyway, I was excited to see this thread and just wanted to share my information. The G5 water cooling block is quite remarkable, and I was surprised to see it in the G5 I had acquired.