Blue White G3 Case mod

[bonestonne]

i'm having a small world of hell on my OSx86 G3. does anyone have suggestions on fitting the motherboard in place? i'm going to take a hacksaw to each of the motherboard mounts, chop off about 1/8 or even 1/4 of an inch off, i'll then use small metal brackets to make motherboard mounts. between the motherboard and the brackets, i'll use either paper or plastic washers in order to prevent short circuits. my only problem is the optical drive. i don't have one short enough, it ends up blocking the ATX power supply, so i'm in a bad spot. i may end up making a custom power connector for it. one thing i do intend on doing however is using as many stock parts as possible, including the large fan in the back.

 

i'll work on it some more tonight, but wont have much progress for a while. the motherboards wider than i thought. last issue is the power supply, i'll need to make a custom 12 link for the fan, because i'll be throwing a 2ghz cerelon into it, as well as 1gb of RAM, a 40gb drive. RAM has yet to be ordered, but its on the to-do list. even if i finish the box before anything else.

 

nano2nd, what optical drive do you have/what did it cost? its much shorter than other ones, thats why i'm wondering.

[kernalzero]

I had to take my dremel and some metal cutting bits and removed anything and everything sticking up at me where the mobo fits. Then I used a drill bit and tap to make mounting holes for some standard hex screws to mount the board to. Like you I've had some issues with the DVD drive. My suggestion and probably the easiest solution is to use a slim DVDRW like from a laptop, and a 50pin to 40pin IDE converter and mount that for your DVD drive, it takes up as a little more space than a DVD disc it's self so you'll have plenty of room. They cost about $70+ from newegg, then the converter is easy to find on ebay for like $5.00...mounts I've found harder to find but SLIdirect had one I liked and will probably buy.

 

I've ordered replacement power switch, LED and speaker because I have no interest in trying to fix what I have (some are damaged already).

 

Planning on: 1) dual slim DVD drives (1 x pioneer DVR-K06 and 1 x Apple Combo Drive)

2) mount front USB ports, hopefully so they look stock

 

Will post pics of my project once it's completed, let me know if I can help you with anything bonestonne

[dcook]

For the mobo, I hacked off the original mounts with a dremel, and then relocated them into place with some cold-weld.

[bonestonne]

i definitely will. last night i saw a bargain for some RAM that i need to finish this with [1gb DDR400] so i'm hoping to get that for less than $30 because its used.

 

i'll definitely look into those drives and adapters too. i have a CD-RW drive right here, not sure if it works with OSx86 though, it gives me about 1/4" more room, hardly anything, but something. my DVD drive is too long for this, its at least an inch longer than the apple drive.

 

what i'm going to do is stick with the board only, no front USB at this point. i may measure my DVD+/-RW drive, because i'll be needing a replacement soon, its beginning to give me issues, so i may stick that into the G3 if its small enough. my problem is just the front bezel. i want to leave it largely intact, thats my reason for normal sized optical drive.

 

I just snapped about 40 pics for my beginning, so as i sort them out, i'll workout some schematics of how it'll work. if possible i'll replace the back plane of the case to fit a regular motherboard with back plate. we'll see.

 

i also have an ATi Rage 128 from the original Mac G3 [surprisingly enough] so if it all works out well, i'll use that for graphics.

[Hagar]

I just got my hands on a dead B&W G3, and have started fiddling about with parts... one thing I don't get.. everyone appears to have gone for an ATX PSU rather than using the original item. it strikes me that using the original wiring could save a lot of time.

 

on http://www.xlr8yourmac.com/systems/MacinPC..._G3_to_ATX.html

 

it states that the only difference between the apple connector & the ATX one is one wire, but this guide is going in the opposite direction, so I'm not quite sure what mod I would need to make to a 20-pin PSU extension to make it fit an ATX board...

 

anyone do this or know how?

 

Also, I want to make it as quiet as possible, preferably without adding any fans at all.. I noticed that some mini(micro?) ATX boards have the CPU located nearer the center of the board, which would work better with the existing sidemounted case fan.. alternatively, maybe an oddball heatsink might work..

[bonestonne]

issue still lies in the position and size of the optical drive, with the relative position of the RAM and ATX power input. not even mentioning the IDE ports on older motherboards [socket 478].

 

for the power supply though, you could always sit down with an ATX pinout and re-pin the ATX supply to match. not sure if it would really save time. I have an ATX supply lying around that i'll use, very close in spec with the apple, but i will have to add the 12v lead for the side fan, i'm prepared to do it though, thats a minimal job two cuts, two solder joints, and two shrink wrap pieces...cake.

 

i did find a full sized optical drive that i think will work, i'm going to get one soon, maybe even two.

 

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16827106050

 

according to the dimensions i found on another website, the drive is only 17cm long = ~6.6 inches. the regulard drive legnth is near 8 i believe, so this opens up many possibilites. i listed the PATA version because thats what i'll be using.

 

does anyone know of some really nice glossy/metallic red and black paints? i'm giving my hackintosh a new paint job as well as new inards.

[kernalzero]

i did find a full sized optical drive that i think will work, i'm going to get one soon, maybe even two.

 

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16827106050

 

according to the dimensions i found on another website, the drive is only 17cm long = ~6.6 inches. the regulard drive legnth is near 8 i believe, so this opens up many possibilites. i listed the PATA version because thats what i'll be using.

 

Let me know how this drive works out for you, I'd prefer to spend $30 on this drive than $100 on fitting a laptop drive into my rig...if this allows my ram to clear the DVD drive i'm all over it!

[bonestonne]

i'm going to hold off until black friday to get it, in the hopes i can afford two. if not, one is fine too, i don't make enough DVDs to warrant a new one on my main rig just yet, but i'll put money into a Hackintosh alright.

 

right now [i can't upload any pics] but i'm re-wiring a 250W Lite-On power supply to neaten up the cables for some new wire ties, as well as the 12v connector for the fan in the G3 case. once i get this done, i'll look at re-wiring what remains of the front panel. i still have the entire G3 and can put it back together for reference, but i'm hoping i dont have to.

 

if you use the G3 hard drive cage/caddy, avoid the 1st drive area if you are using PATA drives, its too close to a corner, and routing the PATA cable is hard, unless you perform lots of "cablegami."

 

my power supply seems to fit in initially, however the hex screws seem to be just a hair too large, so tightening them was hard, although i will leave them. i have no shrink-wrap at the moment so i wont be soldering anything, however since i have cable extensions [and i want to spend the least possible amount on this] i'll be cutting and soldiering each ATX, ATX-12v, and PSU-FAN headers. i will try to use the 3 foot PATA cable, however i'll post a picture of my problem with it. i have tried in the past to place a PATA connector on a cable, so I may remedy the situation with that, but we'll see. pictures later, and more work now. will update tomorrow or the next day.

[kernalzero]

Well here's a preliminary picture of my G4 case mod. So far I've cut all the excess metal out, smoothed the surfaces, drilled my mobo mounting holes, painted the case and now the mobo is mounted. I spray painted the entire case a flat black, once I get my clear rounded cables, SATA cables, new thermaltake PSU, power button cable, etc I think it will contrast the black really well. We'll see though I guess. I'm hoping my old ibook DVD drive will work, atleast saving me some $$ for the time being. The locking mechanism still works though!

 

pics taken with my iphone and the room wasn't very well lit...will post better pics later once I get all my parts.

[bonestonne]

looks pretty good

 

my build is slightly held back due to power supply and budget. rather than waste money on three extensions, i'm adding 15" to the ATX power cable, ATX 12v cable [P4 power] and the fan plug for the PSU. that's about 56 total places to solder and shrink wrap. i'm done with the P4 cable and some of the ATX power cable, and i even added the two pin connector for the stock Apple 120mm fan inside the case. I also had this issue with the 3' PATA cable, there was section of it missing, i very slowly [took about 20 minutes to do it] removed the PATA connector from the ribbon cable and put it on the cable a little lower than the hole so it was still long enough to use its original positioning around the case.

 

for the motherboard did you drill straight down into the case and mount standard motherboard mounts? thats what i'm thinking of doing...if its too high or too low i'll just add spacers. so far my case is mostly original...i just have the small issue of one of the top plastic hooks being broken, so there's a slight gap. aside from that, its largely original to how it was before i touched it, but i did manage to remove the original motherboard mounts [6 out of the 9]. they're very weak actually, i used a large pair of pliers to bend them back and forth until it gave, the metal is weak enough to release them, but at the same time, once the panels and all are in place, its not noticeable that they're gone.

 

will post pics as soon as i'm feeling better, just got too much schoolwork.

 

oh, does anyone know how to rewire the power light and power button? i want to leave the circuit board how it is, but just add the leads that i need for it. if thats not possible, then at least how can i use it, i want at least the LED and reset buttons working, the other button i have no use for [not even sure what its for either]. the power button has 4 leads, which two can i use...also, the LED is two colors, which leads do i use for the green? i'd rather not have to experiment, i don't have RAM for this just yet.

 

i changed my plans from single drive/single OS to three drives, triple booting my hackintosh. this will get interesting, by far.

------edit--------

long awaited, and needed! some pictures!

 

the empty case^^

 

the broken clip area, not sure how i'll attack fixing it^^

 

planned out new mount points and removed old ones^^

 

PATA cable fix. very ingenius, i must say^^

 

my being mostly out of supplies needed to continue^^

 

40 points of solder/shrink done, 14 left.^^

 

for now that's it.

[kernalzero]

I've got some of the power button/LED/reset front panel pin layout of the stock front panel board figured out...I've been playing with it. Once I get it all figured out and soldered I'll post pictures and instructions of the pin layout so you can rewire your stock board to work. I'll also post pics of my stripped case without a board in it so you can see how I mounted the board. (have one more thing to cut for my new TT PSU to fit)

 

 

Pin Layout:

 

1 2

 

3 4

 

5 6

 

7 8

 

9 10

 

 

Power: Pin 3 & 6 (tested & confirmed)

LED: Pin 1 & 2 (untested but the layout looks obvious)

Reset: not sure yet, the reset button is the S2 button labeled on the board but the circuit is hard to trace where both the + and - are because the interupt (S3) button is connected too... we'll see and i'll play with it

[bonestonne]

I'm drilling tomorrow afterschool. i'll be taking my case with other parts in a box into school, leaving it at my schools radio station [AKA: home away from home] and then afterschool i'll be taking a power drill to the metal. i was reading around a few places, and i found a picture of a rewired front panel, as soon as i restart my computer and go into OS X i can post them.

 

i also read that 3/8" drill bit was optimal, and using long screws with nuts on them to hold the board in place rather than standard motherboard standoffs. i have two screws that fit the bill, but i'll have to hunt around my basement or run up to the local home depot to get enough to finish. i'll just be drilling tomorrow, not fitting, so its not too important.

 

another thing i ran into was that my motherboard doesn't have an AGP slot, so i'm mounting the board slightly higher, the lowest PCI slot will never be touched. it also makes it much easier to mount the motherboard, so the entire back panel will be available. i'll be cutting the original backplate so i can attach the motherboards backplate when its all done and fit.

 

i finished the power supply, the ATX cable, P4 cable, and PSU fan cable all reach the motherboard now. i wanted to run them under the hard drive tray, but that didn't work out so well, but thats not important. on friday i'll have my mom order at least one of those DVD burners assuming they're cheaper than they are now, maybe even two. when it comes, i'll let you all know how well it fits. i'm also hoping that with this build, the case will be re-useable with future computers well into leopard.

 

overall fit^^

 

neatness factor is intense with this...no need to make a mess of a such a nicely planned case.^^

 

shot closer to the motherboard, showing how its laid out and things plug in.^^

i'm not sure how well the ATX cable will fit even with the shorter optical drive, if/when i get a new board in here, it will be a definite consideration to make sure it will all fit.

 

thats one image i found, thought i'd save in case i couldn't remember how to get to it, and lo and behold, i can't remember, but this is it.

 

the other side.

 

as a note, i have a G3, not a G4, so my front panel may be a little different, i've tried to trace the leads on the board, i may have to take a look again, but it seems to be very different.

[AlpineRaven]

What models DVD or CD Drivers are you using? Its because you cannot close the case due the RAM DIMM slots unless you cut out the area where the drive is...

Cheers

AP

[dcook]

The DIMM slots won't be a problem if you have a relativley short drive, but I think the power connector might still cause trouble.

[Azurael]

The DIMM slots on my ASRock 945G-DVI wouldn't even clear the end of a LiteON drive, and AFAIK, they're the shortest... Got to think of something else

 

I was thinking of 'adapting' the case to mount the optical drive either further forward (cut a hole in the metal and have it butted up against the plastic outer front) or further towards the left of the case (there is room in the slot at the front for the drive to open cleanly with the driver further to the left...) since I don't want to end up using a notebook drive, mostly because they suck. I do have a couple spare though.

[bonestonne]

that blue line that's on the optical drive cage, that's where i intend to cut it for a LiteOn DVD+/-RW drive, i posted a link to it in an earlier post in this topic.

 

the RAM will easily clear once i reach that point, however the ATX power cable and PSU fan header are in the way. there are ways i could get around that, such as unsoldering them, and making extensions off the board, if you've seen the Rotten Apple iHack project you'll know what i mean, they moved 3 capacitors so the case would close. I've done enough soldering just on the power supply, i don't exactly want to do more, but i do want this to work.

 

i'm downright not blowing $70+ just to fit a slot loading drive in there. consider that, not an option here.

 

the idea of mounting the drive flush with the case is a possibility though. since it is part of my plans to repaint the case, i can also paint the optical drive while i'm at it, so thank you Azurael for that.

 

i'm at school now waiting for the bell to ring, so in 3.5 hours i'll check back here, and then in like, 7 hours from now i'll check again before i start chopping away.

[bonestonne]

isn't it funny how things appear to work out but don't quite afterall?

 

i drilled 5 new mount holes, 3 of them can be used. not too bad, but could be better. holes were very well marked though, just a positioning issue with the PCI cards. no biggie.

 

the motherboard is held firmly in place with two screws, each screw has two nuts on it, one on each side of the motherboard to prevent it from moving. other parts of the motherboard i kept in place and from shifting by temporary plastic mounts, but for this they're permanent. i will be cutting a couple rubber mounts as well to fit.

 

tools used:

Black & Decker power drill

1/8" drill bit

5/16" drill bit

rat tail file

1/8" screws with two fitted nuts on each screw

 

the metal is thick, but weak enough to drill straight through without problem, however be careful. if you push hard enough on the drill, you can bend a weak bit. i was able to bend it back however. the plastic will drill cleanly, you just have to move slowly. my cuts were a little off by negligable amounts, so filing the plastic was an easy fix, smoothed the rough edges and fixed it up. i have the board mounted, and i can still use the stock opening method of the case. be sure to drill slowly when on the metal, the bit easily heats up, and is much more prone to cracking or breaking. the metal will drill cleanly as well, sanding wont be necessary. i will however grab some chrome polish if i can to get a close to mirror reflection inside.

 

cables are very tidy even before being bound when you're careful about it. i'll post my pictures tomorrow. i wasn't able to take [pictures while i was working, but it was a pretty standard engineers room at a radio station (odd i know)]. it doesn't matter how careful you are, safety goggles are a must [practice what you preach as well!].

 

i'm just an optical drive and RAM away from finishing this beast up, and its looking very good so far. I also modified the molex connector for the hard drive, cutting bits of the plastic so that the wires would fit cleanly and fold under, to avoid pinching when closed. next major project is the front panel wiring job, i'll tackle that tomorrow when i get home from school [its a half day] and then once that job is done, i'll mod a back panel for it. the project is going fairly well so far, i must say.

 

while the motherboard has a backplate for the CPU cooler, it does not interfere with opening the case at all, luckily. i'm not intent on unsoldering anything from the motherboard, but it is becoming a problem, the optical drive must be less than 6.5" to fit the bill...i'm hoping with the Lite-On i'll be able to come up with something [such as a flush fit with the front of the case]. i wont be modding the actual case past a new paint job though, no front USB, audio or firewire.

 

and still after all this time, the main part that i wanted to have is still there! backwards compatibility. i can still manage to put the mac back inside without much hassle! parts of the plastics are cracked in places, and i'm hoping the new paint will cover that up, but its coming out very well so far.

 

the last mod that i'm doing to this is i'll be looking at ways to illuminate the apple at the top of the front of the case similar to the power light. i could wire two lights in series to pull it off, but at the same time, i want this to be able to blend in enough as a mac, but stand out enough that its clearly not, like my mighty mouse [a whole different story].

 

thanks for all the help so far, and i'm hoping i can finish this baby by december. if anyone has any DDR RAM lying around, i'm looking for a 1gb stick of DDR 2100-3200 i think it is. i don't want to pay more than $30 including shipping. preferred payment method is paypal because its easiest for me [it goes through my sisters account]. also, if anyone knows of a full optical drive less than 6.5" long, let us all know by thursday night, i will order a lite-on friday if nothing else. as stated before, i'm not blowing 100+ just to have a slot loading drive.

 

as stated earlier, will post pictures tomorrow.

[kernalzero]

Bonestonne - one thing you can do to make it still look stock if you can't get a slot loading laptop drive is to 'stealth' the drive flush with the front. It's simple to do you just get some velcro with adhesive backing and velcro the front panel to the DVD slot, that could save you around 1cm. hope it works for you and keeps costs down.

[bonestonne]

full case with motherboard mounted on its own weight. it doesn't move around at all, so far all cables reach, and graphics card comes out with little flex or trouble.

 

close case, showing tight limitations on the optical drive. i took off the optical drive door, a new paint job may be the solution, but i need to mount the optical drive to the case somehow...will have to figure something out.

 

customized molex connector for the drive. this drive may be alone in the case because the power cable is shorter than i thought. i have the cable snaking under the drive tray so it doesn't get in the way anywhere.

 

fully accessable back panel, i will be putting a plate here, it is only like that so i know what to cut.

 

 

unrestricted power supply fan, however i'll still cut the stock fan guard off, it isn't needed.

 

cables all make it neatly next to and past the fan without risking getting clipped by the fan. that small cable with a wire tie and shrink wrap over it is two spare wires from when i made the P8 connector for the fan, i had to cut off another connector, those wires were spare, i covered them, and made it so they couldn't cause a short.

 

distance between CPU cooler and power supply. hopefully thats plenty for it and it doesnt get loud.

 

motherboard mounting technique. there are two screws like that, i'm hoping to get a third, but its firm right now, so i'm not entirely worried about it.

 

 

so far thats all, i'll be wiring the front panel now, and will get back with results [pass or fail].

 

with a combination of pictures, a 15W soldering iron, and a dab of silver solder, we have life!

 

after ever so carefully soldering, that, and the reset button were wired, as well as the green portion of the LED. for the LED, i couldn't find another way other than guess and check, top and middle will be green, middle and bottom will be yellow. i cannot test the reset button yet, but i'm hoping that it works at this point. even without RAM, the system powers on, as well as the fans. the 120mm case fan inside the case turned on effortlessly and silently, the power supply fan did not start when the header was plugged into the motherboard, most likely due to the fact that the motherboard could not control the fan [as it has no RAM and cannot get past POST.

 

there's the system powered on, no RAM, however the board did start, telling me that my soldering job works well.

the hard drive does not make much noise or vibrations, so it was hard to tell it was on, but its powering on as well without trouble.

 

well lit power on light, looking very good so far, with the bulk of the work done on it.

 

the rear of the case while powered on, looking neat. power cable has no trouble getting to the power supply, the light is only on when the power supply is on.

 

 

project is coming along very nicely.just the back plate for the motherboard and optical drive are left for the finishing touches. approx. time spent so far on this project = 12 hours

[bonestonne]

was not able to order optical drive as i hoped...will get there soon i hope.

[kernalzero]

My case is essentially done apart from a few minor details. Need to spray a second coat on the metal casing, need to get a U1 slim DVDR 5.25 mounting bracket (~$30) to mount my stock apple DVD drive which is temp until i can afford a slim super drive or something similar. I'll post pictures when I get home from the office maybe today. I will say my back panel where the PSU sits needed some work to fit my thermal take PSU so the plastic is a bit cut up.

 

Temperatures: CPU 49*C, Case 35*C ... I might upgrade my cpu and find a slimmer more efficient processor fan at that point but not yet...maybe with xmas deals

[suntrace1]

I saw this thread in Google while searching for a new motherboard for my modded G3 and thought I'd share some pics and ask a question about the mobo I found. English is not my native tongue, so don't be too harsh, and I apologize to thread-starter for jumping in. I just thought I'd share my experience.

 

Specs of my G3 are (were):

- Intel E6400 Core 2 Duo

- Asus P5L-MX, based on old G945 chipset

- 2 x 1GB 667 DDR2 Patriot ram

- Sapphire X1900XT 256MB

- 250GB ATA and 320GB SATA2 disks

- NEC AD-7170S DVD-RW with SATA connectors

- Terratec Sixpack 5.1 sound card

- LC Power 550W power supply

 

Problems when doing the mod:

 

My old Lite-On DVD-RW drive was too long for the case, so I had to buy a new one. NEC's drive with SATA was the shortest one I could find. It also had the open/close button just on the right place for the Apple's hatch button.

 

Power supply and processor fans were counter rotating - one pushing air in (proc.), other pushing air out (power supply). The result was massive heat buildup, up to 90C under the load. I turned the fan in power supply around, so that it sucked air into the case, onto the processor. That was a massive improvement.

 

Mobo gave me the most troubles. I had to resolder two of the capacitors that hit optical drive when closing the case. When I sorted that problem out, I found out that it wasn't up to the task of being a gaming/CAD-CAM machine. The heat on Northbridge was really excessive when playing/ modeling, going up to 70C. It also wasn't stable enough and eventually died on me. It just wasn't made for being a powerhouse really.

 

Because of all the setbacks with mobo, I decided to switch the G3 case for an ordinary ATX one and bought a Gigabyte GA-965-DS3 (ATX size) with newer P965 chipset until I could find something more suitable. Since then, I had no problems with stability of the machine and because of that, I decided to get a microATX mobo with G965 chipset.

 

I've found this Tyan Toledo board, that could fit the case perfectly. If anyone has experience with Tyan boards, please share. I know they are supposed to be a server boards and I don't know if they are suitable for my needs (games and CAD/CAM)? If anyone has any comments, thoughts or experience with them, please, don't hesitate.

 

G3/4 cases are the most eye pleasing things I've seen and I just love the simplicity of opening the case, the quality of the build, the versatility of having a handlebars,... love it!

 

 

Some pics:

 

 

 

 

 

 

[shila]

Hi,

 

i´m also intrested in building somthing like this. The board you mentioned might fit perfect, but the onboard lan controllers are not supportrd in osx.

 

shila

 

I've found this Tyan Toledo board, that could fit the case perfectly. If anyone has experience with Tyan boards, please share. I know they are supposed to be a server boards and I don't know if they are suitable for my needs (games and CAD/CAM)? If anyone has any comments, thoughts or experience with them, please, don't hesitate.

[Jerrylander]

Very cool and interesting. I have just gotten my hands on a G4 Digital Audio Case and was looking for something exactly like this thread... so, I guess I am standing on the shoulder of giants - thanks! All the mods here look really awesome.

 

I was planning on fitting the case with:

Mobo: ASUS P5E-VM HDMI

CPU: C2D E6750

PSU: Antec NeoPower 500 (EDIT: OK, might be too long, will try to get my hand on a Corsair VX-Series; in the meantime, I dug up an old one)

HS: Zalman CPNS 8000 (EDIT: Gotten megalomaniacal - just ordered parts for a watercooling system, hope the components fit. Will post pictures of my miserable failure to put it in once it has arrived)

DVD: LG H58N

 

Possibly adding a GeForce 8600 if the onboard GFX turns out to be sucky/the temps will allow for it. I would be more than grateful for any advice and will document the progress once I have gotten around to getting all the components together.

 

Regards,

 

Jerrylander

[bonestonne]

good luck with that one jerry. watercooling is something i never trusted, but i have thought about it for my server, but the waterblocks would have to be custom made for the pair of P3 Xeons i run.

 

anyway, i actually fixed my motherboard today, had to perform some pretty intense surgery to it, replacing a "C" resistor, and fixing some other resistor..works fine, but i need to get my heatsink back from my sister. i set it up with XP for now to do a BIOS update, works like a charm, even dug up a Seagate drive to replace the Samsung i thought about using.

 

i'm just down to the optical drive now...and i keep putting this part off...i've gotten so far as to make my case almost universal...i can stick in any mATX board with 20pin ATX power cable, and i support P4 boards...just down to getting the optical to fit...i'm gonna have to keep looking at measurements too.