24 replies to this topic

[glay78]

I love the Power Mac G5 and Mac Pro's enclosure, the aluminum finish and the design is so damn nice. Too bad Mac Pro is abit way out of my budget and Power Mac G5 are obsoleting soon as Intel processors are used in Macintosh nowadays, so the only way is to put my PC in an Apple desktop enclosure.

After some months of searching I found an empty case for sale because of the logic board failure so I managed to get the enclosure with the spoilt logic board and fans in the case.






The spoilt logic board, which I will explain later why I need it



My intention is to keep the outlook as original as possible even the rear where all the ports will still remain, I do not wish to cut the rear for the mobo I/O like other mods I've seen to fit an ATX or mATX board.

My PC is about 2yrs old. Below are the specs

Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 2.4Ghz @ 3.0Ghz
Gigabyte GA 965P DS3
4 x 1GB Kingston DDR2 667mhz Ram
ZEROtherm BTF90 HSF
MSI nVidia 9600GT 512MB
Seagate 300GB IDE HDD
Seagate 320GB SATA HDD
LG 20x internal super multi DVD writer SATA
Buffalo Wireless G High Speed PCI Adapter WLI2-PCI-G54S
300w Mini PSU

The biggest challenge in this mod is to fit an ATX board inside while not cutting off the rear I/O portion of the case and also my aim is to preserve the inside look as close as original G5. Below is a picture of how the inside of G5 looks like



OK the spoilt logic board as I've mention, I will cut out the rear I/O portion out 1st.



This is the finished product, but not done yet



I will take out both the USB and the speaker out jack



Fit in USB ext cables so that the other end connects to the mobo inside the case.



Bought these from Sim Lim Tower, just connect the points using wire and checked connectivity using multimeter.



Its done



This end will go thru the case speaker hole and screw to tighten.



The small part of the logic board is screwed to the case.



This is how the rear looks like, check out the speaker output jack.



Next will proceed to lay the cables. The power button and LED to the mobo, the SATA and IDE cables as well as the rear I/O cables.



Next I moved on to the gfx output. I will be mounting the mobo inside of the case so the original PCI cards won't align to the case opening. So this is what I did.

Use an old nVidia FX5200 card from my old Power Mac G4



Take out the metal plate, bought a both end female DVI plug and fit in. The other hold looks empty so I cut out the VGA port too.



Mount it onto the plate and its done.



Can guess what I'm up to? I will connect a DVI cable inside the case to one end of the female plug, so from the back of the case it looks like a gfx card fitted in.

Next is the mounting of the mobo in. As the standoff of the case do not fit a pc, I do not want to remove them so I used these cardboard, cut and mount onto the original Apple standoff then insert the mobo mounting to mount my ATX board.







The mobo has a PCI slots backing behind so I can screw the PCI cards and secure them. Its cut off from my previous Power Mac G4 case.



Mobo fitted in.



Next I moved on to the DVI cables for the gfx card to the female DVI socket. Also added a 4 x USB bracket and plugged to my mobo. Notice DVDROM and HDD are in placed. The HDD are secured to the HDD bracket that comes with the case with lock.



Next I will tap the pinout of the rear exhaust fan then plug to the molex connector of PSU. I set it to run at 7v which produce lesser noise as compared to 12v.



Testing fan, it worked!!



Lastly its almost done, the PSU is placed on the bottom of the case then I cut a cardboard to cover the messy cables





One final test to confirm fan working.



Ok ready to cover up, fitting up the G5 processor cover. Hehe



Cover up the plastic cover.



I've yet to take a latest shot of the rear will do it when free.

Ok its up and running fine. Temp is 42deg on idle OC @ 3.0GHz.
Installed with Leopard 10.5.8 with Apple Aluminum keyboard, Apple Mighty Mouse and 20" Apple Cinema Display. My customised Mac Pro



There are few more things that I can do, to add in the front fan and make a better rear PSU socket. Don't really have much time recently will slowly do and update when done. Thanks for looking and if there are any more ideas to improve do let me know.

[nerdalertdk]

Like the way you used the powermac logic board plugs.
looking at the mac with out fans in the front make me wish the led fan in my mac could be turned off

[glay78]

nerdalertdk, on Sep 19 2009, 06:46 PM, said:

Like the way you used the powermac logic board plugs.
looking at the mac with out fans in the front make me wish the led fan in my mac could be turned off

Hi thanks maybe you can change to non led fans?
I have the original G5 front bay fans, still thinking how can I mount them in.

[nerdalertdk]

I think this way mounting the fans are clever.

[frankyfire]

Hey there,  

how did u manage to get the fans running with an ordinary PSU? Did you build the adapter yourself? Is there a manual for that aroumd somewhere? And how will I get it to run at 7v?

thanks

[glay78]

frankyfire, on Sep 25 2009, 12:31 AM, said:

Hey there,  

how did u manage to get the fans running with an ordinary PSU? Did you build the adapter yourself? Is there a manual for that aroumd somewhere? And how will I get it to run at 7v?

thanks

Its found on this post.
http://www.insanelym...l=g5 fan pinout

[lalonchera]

Could you help me out hooking up the front I/O in order for the usb and power button to work?

Would be appreciated.

Thanks,

glay78, on Sep 24 2009, 11:41 AM, said:

Its found on this post.
http://www.insanelym...l=g5 fan pinout

[glay78]

lalonchera, on Oct 16 2009, 11:35 PM, said:

Could you help me out hooking up the front I/O in order for the usb and power button to work?

Would be appreciated.

Thanks,

The front I/O can be found here

[Gatorman]

How'd you mount the USB to the back panel like that without screws?  I'm shopping to do something similar to what you've done.  I like your setup and was curious as to where you found your USB cord.

[glay78]

Gatorman, on Jun 9 2010, 01:44 AM, said:

How'd you mount the USB to the back panel like that without screws?  I'm shopping to do something similar to what you've done.  I like your setup and was curious as to where you found your USB cord.

I bought these USB cord from computer shop. I'm from Singapore and I believe you can easily find them in many places if not try ebay

I used double sided tape and taped them to the portion of logic board and screwed back the board to the case.

[splodgecat]

Love the G5 cpu covers, nice touch!

[dhmc]

hey mate how did you do the other connections like the usb cables? did you do the same for the lan and other connections?

[glay78]

dhmc, on Oct 11 2010, 06:17 AM, said:

hey mate how did you do the other connections like the usb cables? did you do the same for the lan and other connections?

Sorry for late reply, I only did the USB and audio out as I do not need LAN, I'm using WIFI

[Shiznit One]

Nice work and love the way you kept the factory connectors. Starting my second hackintosh project with a G5 donor case. Way more of a challenge than I thought when I took it on. If you don't mind a few questions:

- Since the stock G5 PS pushed out way more juice, you have no problems with 300W?
- Is your PS pushing exhaust out the front or back?
- Any experience in trying to keep Apple's airflow channeling in tact? (I notice there's no metal center divider like I've seen in other projects)
- Have you done any other mods since you started the thread in 2009?

I'll be cutting out the back more along the lines of the aquamac mods with a different mobo tray and am up in the air as to where to relocate the PS. The newer Mac Pros seem much more ideal with dual optical, more drive space and PS up top, but alas, the G5 case was free. Also, how loud is it with the dual Cooler Masters and stock fans? I don't remember how loud the original G5 was since it's been so long, but seem to remember them not being the quietest things.

Thanks for the photos and write up. You've given me some great ideas to build from!

[glay78]

Swankster One, on Nov 22 2010, 05:58 AM, said:

Nice work and love the way you kept the factory connectors. Starting my second hackintosh project with a G5 donor case. Way more of a challenge than I thought when I took it on. If you don't mind a few questions:

Hi sorry thought I had replied to your questions as I seldom come to this forum now. Sorry for the wait. Here are my answers

- Since the stock G5 PS pushed out way more juice, you have no problems with 300W?
Yea I did not have any problem with the 300W PSU as it is able to power up the whole system with the parts listed

- Is your PS pushing exhaust out the front or back?
My PS exhaust is to the top but so far it hasn't got any heat issue. I would say the G5 case has got good airflow.

- Any experience in trying to keep Apple's airflow channeling in tact? (I notice there's no metal center divider like I've seen in other projects)
i did not have any front fan as I only had the rear fans to draw out the hot air. I actually wanted to keep Apple's airflow channeling but it wasn't easy.

- Have you done any other mods since you started the thread in 2009?
Hehe nope after I did this mod I sold the whole setup to a friend and bought a used MacPro 2006 but sold it half a year later. Now I'm waiting for the arrival of my MacPro 2010

Swankster One, on Nov 22 2010, 05:58 AM, said:

I'll be cutting out the back more along the lines of the aquamac mods with a different mobo tray and am up in the air as to where to relocate the PS. The newer Mac Pros seem much more ideal with dual optical, more drive space and PS up top, but alas, the G5 case was free. Also, how loud is it with the dual Cooler Masters and stock fans? I don't remember how loud the original G5 was since it's been so long, but seem to remember them not being the quietest things.

Thanks for the photos and write up. You've given me some great ideas to build from!

The stocks fan could be loud if you run them at 12 Volts...I did a mod to run it on 7 Volts which they run slower and quieter Hope to see you post pictures of your mod...enjoy modding..cheers and thank you for your kind comments

[HackerWayne819]

Hey how about... adding a Mac start up sound to this "mac" pro?

[ledjohnny]

Quick question, does anyone happen to know what size those screws are that attach the motherboard to the standoffs? I too am making a secondary board so that I don't have to move the original standoffs.

[glossymexican]

ledjohnny, on Aug 20 2011, 06:48 PM, said:

Quick question, does anyone happen to know what size those screws are that attach the motherboard to the standoffs? I too am making a secondary board so that I don't have to move the original standoffs.

I believe the measurement is 6/32" I brought my logic board screw into a hardware store and it fit that measurement. Good luck!

[ledjohnny]

glossymexican, on Aug 22 2011, 04:56 PM, said:

I believe the measurement is 6/32" I brought my logic board screw into a hardware store and it fit that measurement. Good luck!

Hey thanks for getting back to me, I heard a conflicting statement saying an M3 screw was used that has a thread pitch of .5. I also heard M3.5x.6. I tried putting a 6-32 in the standoff and it would lock the thread, but the diameter of the screw is too small for the hole. Which is cool because I was looking at this Wikipedia page and I found this: http://en.wikipedia....ter_case_screws it describes how one will fit in the other. I'll try an M3 later and report back!

Thanks again for the info!
-John

[callumo]

How did you mount the standoffs in cardboard?
Little worried they will rip out or something, just dosen't seem like the safest bet with a bit of weight hanging from it.

If you could shed some more light on that it would be great thanks
Nice build btw!