11 replies to this topic

[morrison]

I've been looking at this Case as a project for some time, keenly reading other posts on G3+G4's, but i keep finding them going wrong, cutting fan holes or entirely removing the dvd drive. So i went out with the intention of keeping the case as intact as possible. I know watercooling is expensive but i 'had to see this through' so i figured i would (becides, i tryed the case air cooled and things just got too hot)
With the GA-G41M-ES2L fitting so snug, and the board being a good hackintosh candidate I figured it was worth the expense.

(As a word of warning, As i built this board i frequently handled it, got it wet, and covered it in case filings. And i believe it does not function as well as it used to. So when building a project like this take care of your hardware!)

i had fun with this build and it is a good machine so feel free to follow.

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[morrison]

For anyone looking at restoring their G3. i have a few components i like to take you through.

Firstly the mobo: the GA-G41M ES2L is the older bro of the GA-G31M ES2L and there are a few newer ones with HD intergrated vids with hdmi that you could look at. but this board is a good one.
it works with the tried and true LMA-775 socket and puts you in an all-rounder micro ATX.
but the thing is, it fits and is very compatable with osx86.

Secondly is an alternative to standard fans. It is an impeller(or centrifugal) type fan that i think could keep your case cool. they work by sucking air through the side and pushing it out through the back. I believe they hold the answer to the narrow grills found on the back of the G3+G4's. Its not going to place a great deal of air on the processor, but they will definately do the graphics a deal of good with extraction. you should have noticed that the fan that comes standard is slightly ineffective, blowing against a wall with no flow.

Thirdly is the powersupply. the powersupplies in a G3+G4 thankfully are a standard ATX type but you will find are placed aufully close to the rear wall, and so you will be better off with a straight through 80mm design. also if you want a better look try and get a powersupply that has the switch close to and in-line with the power socket.
custom sleaving is, i believe, the clearest need in a small case like this.

I've been looking for some short SATA cables to connect the hard drives.

[Baudouin]

morrison, on May 10 2010, 06:47 AM, said:

does any one know where to get some short sata cables? say 10cm? because the HDD's are so close to the ports i have to fold and loop my cables around the water pipes and they get in the way.

Try the original G5 and Macpro sata cables, there are very short.

[morrison]

as it happens my dad did just replace the aging G5 he has had for about 6 years. i'll have a look.

[morrison]

a recent power-supply scare sent me the opportunity to redesign the layout of my res and pump.
common hydraulic knowledge says that a noisy pump is caused by aeration.
aeration is often caused by too little pressure and that is remedied by raising the reserviour to a suitable height.
this case has the perfect loft for the resivour to go in, so i have gone to work on it.

with such an improvement i found myself looking for newer additions and find a few ideas for dressing it up a bit.

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[morrison]

i have started a new rebuild of the case. with a new coat of paint and a scrub down of the plastic.
i just seemed to be the way to go. at the same time i have adapted the case to accept a new slot and back-panel mounting. off of an old micro-ATX case I had spare. it makes for a smaller air gap and didn't take too much time or effort. a few pixs should show you the way i have gone with this.

i also have ordered a set of soundproofing adhesive foam sheets to block out the sound of the water pump.
also an assorted bag of replacement countersunk bolts to replace the bolts it came with. you will see them later.

gone is the plastic latching panel. it didn't work very well anymore and only held up the left-hand side, the steel latch is perfectly fine once you remove the return spring.

All of this is going to revamp the interior and hopefully extend its life.

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[morrison]

now the rebuild begins you can see the black hardware used to hold the plastic sheilding on.
take a look at the noise proofing and the brand new micro-ATX back-panel bracket holding on the mobo I/O panel.

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[morrison]

A few seasons have passed, and the system has gone through a few changes.
One biggie was the damage i did to the mobo in previous adaptations.
With it finally becoming a hassle, i ordered a new board of similar character.
A gigabyte GA-G41MT-S2, this one is great because i get to use the old Q6600 cpu
and i can upgrade to DDR3 ram (which is so cheap right now).

but, While i waited for the board and ram to arrive i got to work on the case.

what i hadn't told anyone was that the last coat of paint was a waste of time as it soon cracked and pealed off.
so i sand blasted it and got to work with a better coat of laquer.

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the new paint is a single flat grey i mixed myself and it really looks much better than the two-tone i was going for last time.
It is one bulletproof coat, let me tell you!

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[morrison]

There is also one major shift in this project. I am going Air-cooled.

the concept of this case is quite fine. It is just that it doesn't have fan holes, and that is why i went about watercooling it.
but i gave it another evaluation and came to the conculsion that it could be aircooled also.
the watercooling bits will find other homes in a future computer, but i am going about adapting the case for air cooling.

I have cut fan holes in the bottom of the case.
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and installed a low-profile cpu cooler.
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the twin 80mm fans will suck air in and i will install a 120mm blower (centrifugal) fan to push air out of the rear air vents
HDD's will be repositioned to stack vertically behind the power switch and speaker (above the new intake fans for cooling)

and finally i have found a supplier of powersupplies that custom wire their supplies to a 500watt PSU with 80mm fan.
it took a little bit of searching but i have them suppling me with a quote that will be done in a week.

[morrison]

just completed a fresh dual boot of win7 and snow leopard
and i have to say this board is just fine.

on another topic, the blower fan arrived and puts out some heavy exhaust.
i do recomend air cooling with a fan configuration similar to this.

[morrison]

exterior fans are in and we are just waiting for a custom sleaved powersupply.
cpu temp is 6 or 7 degrees higher with case closed than with the mobo out on display.

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[morrison]

here are some pix of my fully-functional dual-booting hackintosh. It is nearly complete, however i will call it done after a few things get installed.

What I want next is :
a custom sleaved powersupply with 80mm fan and minimal cabling,
2 x dual 2.5inch hot-swap HDD Bays (for two SSD boot drives and two storage laptop drives) to replace the velociraptor
A new Graphics card to replace the 5770
Cable anchors for a cleaner inside( they will allow me to cable tie all the cables into tight bundles so the air cooling is working to its maximum)

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