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► PowerMac G5 case mod ◄


X-fact0r
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Hi,

 

I've been watching and tracking closely some some of the threads on this forum and finally decided to make my own G5 case mod. I ended up purchasing a defective 2004 1.6GHz G5 from eBay.de and got some time to start working on this summer vacations.

This sums up the hard work put into this baby during two long weeks.

 

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LAYOUT

 

I had initial thoughts on keeping the G5 case as original as possible (without any cuts). But after disassembling everything and even though it has a lot of space inside, I had a hard time figuring out on how to proceed. I decided to go ahead with the classic mod and cut the rear section of the Mac and use an ATX tray from another case.

 

I tried to keep the layout as simple as possible:

  1. DVD: keep the original location;
  2. HDD: move the HDD tray beneath the DVD drive;
  3. PSU: place it on the original HDD tray location;
  4. COOLING: two 120mm intake fans on the front side of the case and one 90mm outlet fan on the rear.

 

 

MOTHERBOARD TRAY

 

Before starting the whole process I had to found a way of fixing the motherboard inside the G5 case.

I ended up using a damaged NOX Moonlight case that I had in my garage from a local store give-away. After disassembling everything, removing all the screws, rivets, cabling, etc., I kept all the necessary parts for my construction.

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G5 DISASSEMBLY

 

The first step was to disassemble all G5 components to start all the planning and measurements.

This was the time also to get rid of the expansion bay structure.

 

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REAR AREA + TRAY

 

After stripping all G5 parts I started planning the best placement for the ATX motherboard. I didn't want to remove the original studs to be able to use them on the new mobo tray.

I took my first measurements from the NOX rear plate and marked all the areas to trim off. After that I just grabbed the dremmel and started chopping away.

At a later stage I made the first placement run and ended up removing some studs that were interfering with the mobo tray.

 

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After this first test I noticed that I had to remove some more material from the rear plate due to some interference.

I planned a slightly different approach to hold the mobo tray and used the original G5 studs to hold it in place. To mark their locations I used a cardboard stencil on the back of the tray and pressed it hard against the remaining studs. With all the locations transferred into the cardboard I selected only 4 which were able to guarantee a good stability.

 

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The next step was to cutoff the rear of the G5... :)

With the tray and rear plate in position I just marked all the areas to trim.

I also painted the cut edges on the rear panel in order to prevent rust / oxidation.

 

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25_powermac_traytest.jpg

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Thanks for all the kind comments :)

 

 

REAR PLATE

 

After completing the tray I started working on the rear plate.

I purchased a 1.5mm aluminium plate which was trimmed to the correct size. After that was just a question of marking and cutting the openings for the I/Os, lid lock, outlet fan and power connector. The last stage was to rivet the plate to the mac rear side.

 

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Nah... I wasn't leaving it like that :)

 

HARDWARE

 

List of components used on this build:


  • 1x Asus P8Z68-V Intel Z68 SK1155
  • 1x Intel Core i5 2500K (Unlocked) 3.3GHz, 6MB
  • 1x Noctua NH-U12P SE2
  • 1x PowerColor Ati HD6950 2048MB DDR5 PCI-E
  • 1x Corsair Vengeance 2x4096MB (8GB) DDR3 1600Mhz CAS9
  • 1x Corsair Gaming Series GS700 – 700W 80 Plus
  • 1x OCZ Agility 3 – SSD 2.5 SATAIII 120GB
  • 1x Western Digital Caviar Green 2TB 64MB SATAIII
  • 1x SONY Optiarc DVR 24x DLayer SATA
  • 1x Akasa AK-MX010 Adapter 2×2.5 SSD
  • 2x NoiseBlocker BlacksilentFan XL1 (120mm)
  • 1x NoiseBlocker BlacksilentFan XE1 (92mm)

36_powermac_hardware.jpg

 

 

COOLING

 

To cool the G5 I chose two 120mm intake fans and a 90mm for the outlet.

In order to fix the intake fans I made a structure from an "L" shapped aluminium strip that was screwed to the case.

If you noticed there was a black grill in the NOX case, I used it to make the 90mm fan grill.

 

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For the PSU I had to cut the G5 tray. I printed a 140mm fan stencil from MNPCtech but soon realised that the hole was a little small for the PSU fan... whatever.

 

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This looks really nice and clean, which actually what I was planning to do as well :)

Well done.

Thanks JBraddock, it took me a lot of planning to achieve such a clean result but I guess that it payed off in the end.

 

 

DVD BUTTON

Since the G5 case only has DVD tray door access I had to figure out a way of placing an external button.

After reading some project threads here in the forums, I ended up using eelhead's idea and soldered the swich cables in the DVD board. Later I placed the button under the case in one of the PSU screw locations.

 

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HDD

I used the original HDD cage, but placed it under the DVD drive.

After taking some measurements I realized that some extra spacing between the tray was needed, in order to operate the "A" and "B" levers. Since I just couldn't screw both parts together I used the NOX case feet for the job :)

 

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CABLES

The cables needed for my mod were only for the power outlet (PSU) and front panel (ON/OFF button, Led’s, Audio and USB).

For the outlet cable I trimmed an old power supply cable and soldered the wires to a socket that was also removed from this old PSU.

For the front panel cable I used the original G5 cable that connects to the mobo along with the cables removed from the NOX case. I printed out the schematics published here in the forums and soldered everything in place (except for the firewire which I'm not using). I also added an ultrabright 3mm white led for the HDD.

 

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55_powermac_frontpanel.jpg

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  • 4 months later...
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  • 4 weeks later...
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Regarding the schematics, since you did not use firewire? did you need to ground the power button?

I have a G5 case, I need only the schema of the power button and USB

If both of you do a search on the main forum page for 'front panel cable' you'll find the answers to all you need. :help:

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