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[Build Log] Shifty G5/mATX Conversion


shiftysamurai
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you could always use molex-to-6 or 8 pin adapters for your GPU - but I understand wanting modular. If I ever do get a chance to do the MacPro case, I'll probably just cut the cables off for the ones I don't want.

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So, these are the general layouts I am thinking of going with for the case.

 

This one would be easiest, as I would only need to create a bracket for the PSU and front fan, and an extension to the rear power jack, but I don't know if the videocard will fit, and I don't like how the hot air from the PSU will be blowing directly onto the video card:

 

60846ba2973ddad78aa39a5944025a5a69ca741067f7e71f4b2f37b1a90c71606g.jpg

 

This one would be a bit more work, but I would be better able to cool the case and components. I would still need to create an extension cable, and also reposition the HDD bays, as well as make the front fan bracket:

 

c0753ad95b15edc73826f086b0e94096941493b92a6e533f0c35ce16c8b1cf896g.jpg

 

Any suggestions?

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Sorry to intrude but how are you going to get your 7870 to work? I thought rampagedev said 10.8.3 kexts didnt include support for 7870.

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Sorry to intrude but how are you going to get your 7870 to work? I thought rampagedev said 10.8.3 kexts didnt include support for 7870.

I'm going to run Windows 7 64-bit on this machine for gaming/work, so hardware incompatibilities with OSX won't dictate parts for this build.

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and you can always run OSX in a VM like I did. Oracle VirtualBox is a pain. VMWare Player was much much easier. You wont get the snappy video (Quarts Extreme) but I don't need it for my needs either.

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Good news & Bad news:

 

Good: I was talking to my wife about watercooling and she said it would look stupid (even though the side panels would be on?), so I showed her the "Gunmetal G5" on G5modders and she REALLY liked it.

 

Bad: I have an extra $100 added to my budget for watercooling, so I'll probably get one of those H80 CPU coolers. Why is this bad? She's going to expect it to look like the Gunmetal G5...

 

Arghhhhh.

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Are you gonna overclock this thing? By how much?

 

I see a lot of people wanting to water-cool their systems... and I don't understand why. If you are going to overclock the hell out of it, then yeah, I get it.

 

Its not silent, because the Rad still has a fan. It more expensive than a decent air cooled setup.

 

By no means am I trying to dis your system or your choice - I would just like to know the motivation for water over air

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I'm going to run Windows 7 64-bit on this machine for gaming/work, so hardware incompatibilities with OSX won't dictate parts for this build.

Yes, but my 7970 on safari just looks ugly with no hw accel. All animations are jerky at best with red artifacts. Plus when you open new tab in safari the whole system lags until it leaves that new tab screen thats like a theatre or sth. Anyway just wanted to warn you. You could ask around, maybe its my build or sth.

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hell... an i5-3570k stock goes from 3.4-3.8GHz. A bump of 400MHz aint no thang... easily air cooled. just my opinion.

 

Personally, I think watercooling is over-hyped. plus, I'm a really {censored} plumber...

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If you do have your heart set on OCing + Watercooling, get the H60 Newegg edition. (and an H60 should be fine for what you want) Much better tubing than the H60 you get from amazon or other places. I looked extensively into water-cooling but decided I'm going to stick with plain ol' air.

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With the other things that I find myself needing to purchase, I think I will stay with aircooling for the initial build. Perhaps I will get into liquid cooling later.

 

Right now I am trying to find a C13 to C14 extension cable with a mounting bracket. Basically a mixture of these:

IM0004558_large.jpgoriginal_335.jpg

 

I do not want to try to solder these, as my soldering skills are... Less than adequate for the overall quality I am going for. Also, I think I will be mounting my PSU upside down in the space previously used by the HDD bays, and relocating those behind the front fans. I will still want to run the power through the existing cutout, without it being just a wire through a hole.

 

More investigation is needed.

 

Edit: Damned you Image size!

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The three prongs that are sticking out the plastic G5 plug could possibly be carefully extracted and the new plug whittled down so just the three prongs remain (removing the black plastic "hood"). You would then stick the new three prongs through the holes where the old were. I was going to do this but decided to solder onto the existing three prongs. It might be much harder to extract the G5's stock prongs than I thought. Didn't try.

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If you are looking to make an extension, then a no solder option might be this:

 

http://www.ebay.co.u...984.m1438.l2649

 

You can then just use a screw driver to fix the extension in place. I'd suggest though if you do that you use heat shrink to insulate the joint

 

And for the front fan support that is pretty easy to do too - see http://www.insanelym...s/#entry1845300

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The three prongs that are sticking out the plastic G5 plug could possibly be carefully extracted and the new plug whittled down so just the three prongs remain (removing the black plastic "hood")

 

Sadly, my case came without a power supply, so I just have the hole where the plug in the rear should be. Otherwise I would probably try this technique. Shaving some of the inside face of the PSU plug would probably be needed, but it would most likely give the most "stock" appearance.

 

If you are looking to make an extension, then a no solder option might be this:

 

http://www.ebay.co.u...984.m1438.l2649

 

You can then just use a screw driver to fix the extension in place. I'd suggest though if you do that you use heat shrink to insulate the joint

 

And for the front fan support that is pretty easy to do too - see http://www.insanelym...s/#entry1845300

 

Funny you should post today. I've been trying (without success) to figure out an alternate layout/extension for the 120mm Laserhive backplate to try and accommodate mounting of a standard ATX PSU at the bottom of the case. Depending on RAM configuration and CPU cooling (watercooling/stock intel fan be required) it may be possible, but the only way I could get it to fit (on paper) would have the PSU sitting at a 90 degree and drawing air from the general area of the CPU and RAM (again, this is based on eye-balled measurements and paper).

 

This is something I would like to figure out, but I don't have the real numbers. If mounting a PSU is possible using a slightly altered backplate, it would remove the need for me to fabricate mounting hardware and would give an overall cleaner look to the build.

 

Man, Laserhive is likely to make a bit of money off of me with this project. :D

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Good news & Bad news:

 

Good: I was talking to my wife about watercooling and she said it would look stupid (even though the side panels would be on?), so I showed her the "Gunmetal G5" on G5modders and she REALLY liked it.

 

Bad: I have an extra $100 added to my budget for watercooling, so I'll probably get one of those H80 CPU coolers. Why is this bad? She's going to expect it to look like the Gunmetal G5...

 

Arghhhhh.

 

Are our wives related? This EXACT thing happened when I was explaining to my wife why I wanted to get my case anodized. LOL!

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So... Good news/Bad news/Good news.

 

Good #1 - Got 1st State tax return money, waiting for the 2nd State (Yay moving) & Federal return, and ordering some parts (You'll be hearing from me VERY SOON, Laserhive).

 

Bad - Opened my PC to list what I am keeping and realized just how OLD some of my parts are. I was only figuring on saving HDDs and DVD drive, but they are IDE. How old are these parts?! I don't even remember. My mass storage HDDs are IDE SATA, but I don't want to install an OS to a 1TB+ drive. These are just file dumps... I don't want to spend days sorting and moving to make room for an OS install.

 

Good #2 - Going to pick up a LiteOn Sata DVD RW drive for $20 and a SanDisk 64 GB SSD (p# SDSSDP-064G-G25) for $70. Why am I going a bit cheap? Because these parts weren't in my budget and I am not going to use lower spec'd parts to try to gain the $90 back in other areas.

 

Even going with a less expensive SSD I should see vast improvements over that old 7200rpm IDE HDD, but going the $90 over my original budget kinda sucks.

 

Anyhow, that's my update. :D

Edited by shiftysamurai
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Don't you just hate money? Seriously if I win the lottery, I'm buying a stockpile of modding supplies and computer components and then opening a store that a select few can just browse through with a shopping cart. Your total today sir? $0.

 

MOD ON!

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Don't you just hate money? Seriously if I win the lottery, I'm buying a stockpile of modding supplies and computer components and then opening a store that a select few can just browse through with a shopping cart. Your total today sir? $0.

 

MOD ON!

 

Count me in! :D

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You guys hijacked my thread!

 

Anyhow, UPDATE:

 

I just dropped $798.40 at NewEgg (with shipping) for all of my internals. Going with a red color scheme, which I didn't think I would ever care about, but for some reason I do. All cables, fans, RAM... It's all got to be black, silver, or red. MIGHT have to try out some sleeving, but I don't want to rip the connectors off of a new PSU (yeah, I void warranties, but not typically the first day).

 

So, I've got everything ordered (fingers crossed) and on the way. I'm betting that the MOBO tray and rear I/O panel from Laserhive will take the longest to get here, but that's just because I ordered it last Friday.

 

I am officially excited again! Can't wait to start actually building instead of just planning and shopping (and shopping, and shopping, and planning, and shopping....). I am giving myself 2 weeks after I receive all of my parts to have it all put together and working (I didn't say "finished"). I plan on having quite a few pictures taken during my build process, hopefully I don't screw up, but if I do I want to be able to let others know what NOT to do. :D

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