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Yet anothor PowerMac G4 mod


Schmov17
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Hey all, or any of you interested to look this way. I'm 95% done with modding out a PowerMac G4 Graphite and thought I'd share my progress so far.

 

This is my first mod build, so it's definitely been a learning experience. Ultimately, I'm planning to turn it into an uber-storage media server. I don't have the cash for the HDD's and a RAID card now but I was anxious to start work on the case, so I'm just doing the computer part now.

 

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I'm using a Zotac Micro-ITX IONITX-F-E board. Could have gone with a more basic Atom board, but this is the only one I found that has a full PCI-e slot for a good RAID card to put in. It fits really nicely in the case, plenty of room. It's also short enough so that it doesn't get in the way of the disk drive case, which I've seen has been a problem for other people who have put PC boards in this case.

 

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Like I said before, this will ultimately be a giant storage machine. I'm planning on fitting 8 drives connected to a RAID card in a 10 array. I hunted down 3 extra dual HDD trays to eventually fit them all. The 2 at the bottom are dead drives in place just to get a feel for fitting everything in. 6 drives will go along the bottom and the last 2 will be above the optical drive. Also, I put a 2.5" drive in the Zip tray to use as the boot drive.

 

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As I said, the final 2 HDDs above the optical drive. I cut out 2 square holes at the top of the case so it will fit in like they do at the bottom.

 

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The back I/O panel was definitely the hardest part. Took a lot of careful measuring and a little eyeballing, but I got everything in straight and lined up so the expansion card will fit in. The wifi antenna is supposed to go at the very bottom under the audio ports, but as you can see the outer case is blocking it. Luckily, there was a screw hole from where the original modem screwed in. I was able to widen it a bit and it fits the antenna perfectly. Also, I'm using an Antec Earthwatts 500 PSU. Overkill on the wattage, I know, but it's the exact same dimensions as the original PSU and the cord plug lines up perfectly as well.

 

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Front of the case. The LED fan shines through the speaker grill, looks pretty nice I think. I'm thinking of putting a LED in the little apple at the top; I've seen it in a few other builds and it looks good.

 

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And the special touch, hidden fan controller. As this is going to be a server machine, it wont be hooked up to a display most of the time, so I figure having some sort of system control is a good idea. That's the system running at idle, and the temperature is from a sensor that I placed under the heat sink. As you can see, it runs nice and cool at idle.

 

 

Whelp. That's what I've got so far. I'm planning on doing some minor tweaks (swap out some cables for longer ones for better cable routing, add another fan for airflow), but it's pretty much set for now. I just got this up and going last night. Threw Windows 7 on it just to see how it ran, nice and smooth. I'll probably try throwing OSX on it when I get some more free time, just to make it an authentic Hackintosh.

 

 

I'd appreciate any thoughts or suggestions from any of you; things I could improve, things to think of for next time. Thanks!

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