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Trying my own G5 case mod [Need your help]


DaveVegas
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Thank you guys for your help!! Here's my final "showcase" thread!

 

http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/index.php...=0#entry1749675

 

Thanks

Rob

 

---------- OLD ----------

 

Hi all!

 

My name is Rob from Switzerland.

 

A year ago I built myself a pretty decent hackintosh system with the following specs:

 

Motherboard: Asus P6T Se

Processor: Core i7 2.81ghz

RAM: 12GB DDR3 Ram

Graphic Card: GeForce GTX 480

 

Now, since I'm working in the film industry I had several clients complaining (or asking) why I have Mac OS X installed on a PC because my case looks like one of those 13 year old nerd kid gamer cases with red led lights and stuff. Not really professional.

 

Unfortenately I can't afford a real Power Mac so after I decided I would upgrade my configuration I played with the thought to try to fit my upgraded hackintosh into a G5 case.

 

Now that's where I need you guys. I'm not very skilled in handicraft work and I have no idea on how to go on this one.

 

I haven't bought a g5 case yet, I first wanted to hear from you guys what you think. Maybe there are people selling modded g5 cases?

 

Please help me to build this one, I've seen that several people have done it and I want to make one too so I look more professional.

 

Thank you guys!

Rob

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Hey Rob,

 

Building out a G5 is a lot of fun but takes a lot of patience and planning. I made one recently based on an AMD motherboard, but any ATX board would work with the way I chose.

 

My G5 Mod

 

I wanted one with the a minimal amount of cutting and hacking, and basically I did not have to do any of that, but still was able to fit all the components.

 

The designs using a motherboard tray come out awesome too, but require cutting the back out of the case.

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If you have a good steel rule (preferably calipers), a drill / bit set, a Dremel (or similar) with cutoff off wheels (the EZ Lock cutoff wheels work much better than the "reinforced" ones), a straightedge and some patients you can do it very easily.

 

A Mountain Mod MB tray fits using the existing standoffs so you don't have to mess with epoxy. Original optical drive standoffs work, as does the hard drive bay (just needs to be relocated).

 

 

Main thing if you are going to cut the case, measure two or three times and take your time. You'll need to cut the back of the case, the back metal plate from the MB tray and the drive partition panel. All are straight line cuts. If you want to curve the MB tray plate on the back, just drill a .5" hole so the edges of the circle line up with straight lines. Use an abrasive cloth for polishing metal to ease all the edges after cutting. Something to clean the end of copper pipes works great.

 

This is just one technique. Browse through the board, there are a lot of people that have modded a G5 case, and no two seem to be the same.

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I got by with just a dremel with the metal cutting set and some basic tools. That doesn't mean it was easy. Some people use a metal handsaw but I can only imagine how difficult that is. Your best bet would be to use a motherboard tray as a lot of people in the forums did. My mod took a couple of days but it wasn't bad. Requires a lot of planning. Lots of people around here make them and I see some from time to time on craigslist but I cannot say for Switzerland! :D

 

Best of luck!

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Thanks for the answers guys! Your mods look incredible and I want to make a good case mod too.

 

I looked if there are any MB Trays in Switzerland and I found this website; http://www.aquatuning.ch/product_info.php/...rror-Black.html

 

Would this work?

 

Otherwise I found this: http://www.mountainmods.com/mountain-mods-...-tray-p-56.html

 

Would this work?

 

As I said I'm not very talented in handicraft work and if there is any way to mod this case without cutting and stuff I would really appreciate it.

 

However if it's the only "good" way this would look good I'm in.

 

Are there any tutorials? I have no clue how to start with this.

 

Thanks!

Rob

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Check out zammykoo's mod:

 

http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=253527

 

 

 

However, I would not say that this is easier. The cutting thing does not have to be "precise" per se. That is the beauty of using the motherboard tray. The back covers up the cuts so no worries as long as you don't make the holes too large. My cuts were not perfectly straight and I survived just fine. I don't think anybody is going to look at your G5 and say "yeah looks cool, now let me check the back and make sure it looks perfect." Nobody will notice! If you look at a lot of the mods here a lot of people do not post pictures of the back because well, it probably doesn't look that great but I personally do not care about the back.

 

If you wanted to make no cuts you could [probably] rip the plastic off the rear I/O ports and slide a lot of the cables you need through the holes. i.e. ethernet, audio, USB. It won't look pretty but it would be easy. The problem is I think your motherboard is full ATX so it likely would not line up properly on the inside. That is why I used a micro ATX motherboard it is more versatile.

 

Good luck though, I'm sure people on the forums will give you tips!

 

- Z

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Hey guys, sorry I haven't been very active on the forums due to work/obligations. I still get PM notifications via email so I saw your questions.

 

First of all, very clean case Rob. I wish I had that model with the x3 rear usb ports. :D

 

Anyway, as mentioned above, mounting a full ATX would be tougher than a microATX (like mine). I haven't tried test fitting one in my G5 so I don't know how tight of a fit for you, assuming you want no-cuts.

 

The cool thing about using a mobo tray is that you don't necessarily have to mount the rear of the mobo to the back of the case. Like mine, it is inset, and I used my modified logicboard rear ports as the extension. Are you wishing to repurpose your logicboard as well? With some tools you can either hacksaw it off or grind the rear portion off and solder cables to it.

 

I know you said you're not too skilled in handicraft work, but that's the best part about doing projects like these! To me, it's more about the learning process. If you get a good end product then great, if not then that's okay too. That's what DIY is all about. Although it would help to have a friend whose handy to help out. You're gonna have to do SOME handiwork regardless of cutting the case or not.

 

If you have any specific questions on how to do things I'll try to follow up on them as soon as I can.

 

-Tam

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Hey Zammykoo,

 

Thanks for the reply!

 

That's the main reason I don't want to cut anything in the back, because this case wasn't that cheap.

 

I would love to use the method you used. I found out that BlackCH is selling front I/O cables for ATX. (Thread: http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=209854) Do you think I could use them?

 

I know I will do some handicraft work. The problem is I've never done something like that before (I saw in your thread that you made pretty high end cable wiring stuff). I'm not stupid but I don't know how to go on this one. I would need like a master to guide me.

 

Rob

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Find out what your G5 is. Looks like a later model so the BlackCH front I/O cable might not work. I think you should do what I suggested which is get the motherboard "tray" mount that to the existing G5 standoffs and then sort of feed the audio/usb cables through the holes.

 

If you wanted to avoid that altogether and don't mind spending some money. You could buy a PCI USB card and a PCI sound card and that would handle your rear I/O most likely. You could always just feed an ethernet cable through the existing hole.

 

Having said that this will probably require some planning because you are using a full ATX motherboard so the I/O might not line up correctly. The G5 has 4 PCI I/O slots and full ATX generally has more than that.

 

- Z

 

You also might wanna track down a 5" or longer torx T10 screwdriver to remove the heatsinks. That was the hardest part.

 

- Z

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Thanks for your input!

 

Because the high shipping cost I had to buy another G5 case. This is it:

 

946697202ff64d61920831d.jpg

e5e04826189a4726ad2f81b.jpg

f438a0a749084bee8bf599e.jpg

 

Since this one hasn't a motherboard I probably have to use the "cut" method and try to fit a mb tray in there.

 

Does anyone know where to buy motherboard trays in europe? (Switzerland?)

 

Cool for any input... websites guides etc.

 

Thanks!

 

EDIT: I just bought a g5 logic board. Now I'll just need to wait for everything to arrive and start modding... still no idea on how to achieve this. Any ideas?

 

Rob

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As far as cutting the mobo ports off, I used an angle grinder because it was quick and clean. It is probably overkill for cutting a pcb, but it worked for me.

 

In my experience I first used a hacksaw but I ended up getting shorting in the traces because the cut lines were so jagged. But cleaning it off with a grinder helped a lot.

 

Just make sure you draw the guide lines on the board before cutting.

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Thanks! After I cut the mobo ports off, how do I exactly braze the ports to the motherboard... which cables etc? Do you have maybe like a plan or something like that?

 

Would be cool.

 

Case should arrive in two days!

 

Rob

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In order to solder the wires to the cut-mobo you'll need to figure out which pins go with which. I have done a quick sketch of the pins seen here:

http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/index.php...t&p=1714891

(note that the usb + and - pins are swapped)

 

And if you decide that the cut-mobo is the route you will take, you will find out that the ethernet jack and FW800 jack are the hardest to figure out (I was not able to determine the pins with my multimeter)

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I don't use FW800 so I didn't bother with it (I don't use FW400 either). The ethernet thing is also not resolved, I am currently just running a ethernet cord through the back hole and directly into my asus mobo. I was really busy at the time that I had to stop working on on the case. I figured I'll revisit it eventually, just not now.

 

I'm not sure why my multimeter was not able to check for continuity on the ethernet jack. There must be some clear coating (or oxidation layer) that needs to be cleaned off, not sure. Most people solve the ethernet issue by desoldering it off and adding their own ethernet extension into its place.

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And if I buy Apple USB cables? You've worked with those, haven't you? :)

 

Rob

 

Oh yeah by the way I found a : ATI Mobility Radeon HD 3650 and I wanted to ask if I can add this to my hackintosh which already has a 480 GTX so that way I can add a 3rd monitor?

 

Rob

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Pictures Time!!

 

So I found an old PC in my basement, and I started to take parts out and now it looks like this:

 

zrich2011090800422.jpg

 

As you can see it looks pretty decent. However I already bought a MB tray so no need for me to cut that out, however I would like to use the HD Trays.

 

They're tighten together with screws I've never seen before.

 

zrich2011090800425.jpg

 

How can I remove them?

 

Upgrade:

 

Today new parts came in:

 

zrich2011090800426.jpg

 

It's not everything, yet.

 

On this picture you can see a i7 3.2ghz, 4x 2TB drives (2x cheap wd green, 2x expensive samsung), the ATI Mobility Radeon HD 3650 I found in the pc, my gorgeous 240gb SSD, and a dvd/bluray drive.

 

In this next picture, you can see my current modification:

 

zrich2011090800427.jpg

 

In my gorgeous "13 year old gamer kiddy case" haha

 

That's gotta change!

 

Thanks for your help guys, I really appreciate it.

 

Rob

 

PS: I'm upgrading my hardware to: 24gb ram, core i7 3.2ghz, 10TB 7200rpm, 240gb ssd for current projects, 80gb ssd for boot and programs, 480 gtx 1.5gb

 

With that I can finally edit red raw file natively in premiere pro :|

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Update:

 

I managed to pull the HD Trays from it.

 

zrich2011090800428.jpg

 

Now I just have to wait for the case to arrive, can't wait!

 

ROb

 

Update:

 

From the old PC i pulled out the old DVD Drive. Here's a pic of it:

 

zrich2011090800429.jpg

 

I opened it up to see how to make the "eject" button.

 

I also found form my old pc this "button":

 

zrich2011090800432.jpg

 

I can brace it together, right?

 

The problem is I don't want to pull the green board from the dvd drive because the motor is attached to it, can I brace the "button" to the down side? Where ?

 

Thanks!

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Everything turned out well. My hackintosh is now UPGRADED to:

 

i7 960 @ 3.2ghz

24gb hyperx ddr3 ram

 

I have one question though.. I didn't had to reinstall OSX. It just worked. Even my old dsdt works perfect. I hadn't had any problems, it runs stable. Is that a normal thing?

 

Rob

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