133 replies to this topic

[WhatTheTech]

On that last picture to the right are four spare HDD screws for the tool-less system. Hang on to them, you're probably going to want them eventually (and you don't want to spend $10 for four of them on eBay do you??)

Enjoyed your update, looking forward to more!

[shiftysamurai]

Thank you! Having not seen the inside of a G5 with hardware I wasn't sure what those screws were for. As soon as I read your post I screwed them into a random HDD and slid it inside of the HDD bay. I was wondering how the drives would fit in there, and now I know. I am still unsure where/how I am going to mount my drive bays and the front case fan(s), but I think that that part of my planning may have to wait until I get all of my parts in.

I ordered a harness from BlackCH, so when it gets in I might have to do a test to make sure my FPB is actually working.

Anyone know of a good spot to mount a PSU without transplanting the guts? It looks nice in the G5 PSU enclosure, but I don't trust my skills for that, and I don't have an original PSU anyhow.

Also, thanks for following my slow build.

[Ira Aduro]

Besides the transplant method the other popular method is to mount the PSU on the top shelf. Depending on your PSU it may not fit. My PSU has basically no headroom left once on the top shelf. The problem with this solution is you have to cut up the upper shelf and there is really no pretty way to do that, at least that I've seen so far. What's your ETA on getting the build done? I'm designing custom parts based off the original G5 middle and upper shelf but made to fit with ATX standard components. However it is going to be weeks before I get to the upper shelf.

[Mr.D.]

Another methoud that I haven't seen and would love to see (toyed with the idea myself, but ultimately rejected it for the more stock look) is to use a 1U server PSU in that original TeslaConverter location. You can get them all the way up to ~600w. I know it'll fit in that same space - I compared measurements. The issue with this would be (potentially) noise. Server PSU manufactures don't care about noise - they care about efficient cooling in tight, overheated spaces. In theory, you could change the fans, undervolt the fans, or even see if there is a company that has low dB fans on their PSUs. If I ever did a MacPro case mod - this is the route that I will take. A big advantage would be no cutting the PSU or the G5 case.

I looked and looked for examples of this when I did my mod and found none. So you might be breaking new ground if you went that route...

[shiftysamurai]

You can get them up to 700watt, but I don't think I will be ready to break new ground in the G5 mod department. That PSU doesn't have the GPU plugs that I need, and I like the idea of modular even though the server PSU would be mostly hidden.

[Mr.D.]

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.

[shiftysamurai]

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:



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:



Any suggestions?

[DAXGr]

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.

[shiftysamurai]

DAXGr, on 23 February 2013 - 06:19 PM, said:

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.

[Mr.D.]

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.

[shiftysamurai]

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.

[Mr.D.]

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

[DAXGr]

shiftysamurai, on 23 February 2013 - 09:57 PM, said:

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.

[shiftysamurai]

Mr.D., on 24 February 2013 - 04:57 PM, said:

Are you gonna overclock this thing? By how much?

I would like to see something around 4.0 - 4.2Ghz. I'm not going for that 4.7Ghz+ insanity. It really depends on cooling and stability.

[Mr.D.]

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 shitty plumber...

[Ira Aduro]

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.

[shiftysamurai]

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:


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!

[Ira Aduro]

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.

[MiniHack]

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

[shiftysamurai]

Ira Aduro, on 25 February 2013 - 08:28 PM, said:

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.

MiniHack, on 25 February 2013 - 09:13 PM, said:

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.