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Watercooled Ryzen Hackintosh in a modded G5 case


jgperson
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Here is my build in its current form. I absolutely love this project as it has grown! All hackintosh install instructions were found at Ryzen Clover Installation Guide macOS Sierra - AMD - InsanelyMac Forum

 

First thing to know is that two of these systems were built at the same time. One for my buddy to use for his YouTube channel (See the video here for the twin system https://youtu.be/rRW4c1FnRrE), and mine. He called me up with an idea, to build a water-cooled Ryzen hackintosh inside of an old PowerMac G5 case, and as soon as he said the idea I was hooked. I have always loved the PowerMac G5 because when it came out, I liked to edit photos and it was what I thought at the time was "The Ultimate Machine". So here are some pictures of how it came about. 

 

I picked up two PowerMac G5s (both working mind you) in case I messed anything up on the first one. I did not so now I still have a working PowerMac G5. Lol.

 

Starting off we have disassembly. Note that I don't have a lot of pictures of this progress as I have impulse control issues and wanted it apart ASAP. lol. This is a challenging computer to take apart but well worth doing as this case is amazing! The case I had was pretty beat up with scratches and stuff so I had to do a lot of sanding to get them out.

 

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After disassembly, I took to a small test fit by placing an old mother board in the case to figure out where to cut out for IO in the rear of the case. A quick sharpie line and some dremel time were in order after that.

 

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Following the IO I cut out the side panel for my piece of acrylic. Using the existing frame that holds on the door of the case, I marked 1/2" in from the inside edge of it and drilled holes in all the corners so they would be rounded. (remember that at this point you want to drill your holes with a 1/2" drill bit and make it so the outside of the bit matches up with your lines.) Then cut the acrylic sheet to fit the inside of the frame (not your cutout).

 

From there you need to use a jigsaw to cut along your lines and connect your 4 holes that you drilled.

 

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Then on to paint. I sanded all the pieces with an orbital sander then used a can of primer and did 3 coats of primer on them all. Followed up with a few coats of black. I added a coat of clear to just try to keep it a little more durable but I should have just done more coats of black. To finish off the case, run some edge moulding around the side panel cut out and attach your acrylic sheet to the side panel with double sided tape. Re install your side panel frame and you are good to go!

 

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To mount the motherboard, I used the existing standoffs from the PowerMac G5 case (be careful here as there are two different heights of standoffs). Add in some JB weld on the base of them and a small coat around the outside of them it was ready to go. I used a GPU to line up where it goes in the case.

 

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Now for the final assembly. I test fit a bunch of different hardware placements but what I ended up settling on was the PSU at the bottom mounted with double sided foam tape.  All of the cables were then run up the front side of the case along the motherboard mounting tray and grouped together using zip ties. It is also important to know at this point I bought a cable from Black CH mods to use the existing IO on the front of the case with an ATX motherboard. Radiator at the front with pump/res combo unit mounted to it using the EK uni bracket. I secured the radiator to the front with car grade double sided emblem tape. If you have ever used this stuff you know it is not going anywhere. I reused the existing hard drive cage from the case and secured it to the top also using emblem tape.

 

 

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One of the most important steps in this process is the running of tubes (since it is watercooled and all). There are only 4 tubes in this build thanks to the plethora of fittings I have in the case. I don't know if I listed them all but any time you do a hardline watercooled build it is important to have a handful of rotary 90s and dual rotary 90s on hand. I tried to do it without them in my last version of this build using the NZXT H440 and couldn't get my tubing runs to look like I wanted.

 

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Fill up the system, leak check, then hook up the power and you are good to go. I added in a RGB light strip and hooked it up to the ASUS aura sync header for a little bit more color. This process was a long time coming and took almost a month from idea phase to final assembly.

 

 

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I spent a long time without a working home PC but man was it worth it! Thanks for reading!

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awesome build man! impressive work. did you get osx running on it? if so, what version? perhaps a write up in the software section would be good too! great job on the rig!

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awesome build man! impressive work. did you get osx running on it? if so, what version? perhaps a write up in the software section would be good too! great job on the rig!

Thanks! It was a fun project and I am glad I did it. Got macOS 10.12.6 running on it by following the guide posted in this forum. See link here Ryzen Clover Installation Guide macOS Sierra - AMD - InsanelyMac Forum

 

Posted my progress as I went on there and how I got it running. Not going to take credit by re doing their post with their files from something I accomplished by following their instructions. 

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good work! glad to see its also running MacOS. What will you be using this for mostly? I have an older G5 mod that I have win10 and OS 10.8 for audio mixing and mastering.

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good work! glad to see its also running MacOS. What will you be using this for mostly? I have an older G5 mod that I have win10 and OS 10.8 for audio mixing and mastering.

 

Thanks. I am really glad someone can appreciate it! Honestly I use this computer for everything. I like to do some video editing, gaming, overclocking, browsing the web, drafting projects, you name it. I am more of a tinkerer than anything. I used to be very into gaming which is where i started overclocking and watercooling, but now I am more of a "just need a new thing to try and figure out" type person. Lol. As far as everyday computer use I just like macOS better. But I really only installed it for the challenge of getting it to work. But now that its installed I have probably used it in macOS 90% of the time. Lol. Do you have a link to your build log so I can take a look at yours?

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