v3nom

I will start my 2nd G5 Mod in the near future.
For this project I will use the knowledge I got from my first mod and all the great inspiration from you!


My plans are:
- almost inaudible cooling
- keep the components dust free
- two 3,5" HDDs + two 2,5" SSDs in the upper part
- 120mm fan in the back
- mATX MB
- two 140mm fans in the front with simple detachable dust filters. Easy access after opening the G5 side panel
- no blocking of the airstream -> better GPU cooling -> quieter cooling (biggest issue of my first mod, maybe I should reactivate the water cooling)
- mod a PSU to fit inside the G5 PSU case


What I already have:
- 2x 140mm Enermax Cluster fans (front)
- 2x 140mm fan dust filters
- 1x 80mm Enermax Cluster fan (HDD Tray)
- 1x 120mm eLoop-P (back)
- Lian Li HDD tray for two SATA drives, I hope this can fit @ the G5 HDD tray location
- late 2004 G5 case with front panel and a G5 PSU case
- mATX 120mm LaserHive kit
- mATX mainboard (Asus P8Z77-M Pro)
- Seasonix X-560 PSU. This baby is working fanless up to 200Watts of load
- 4x 400x200x3mm black acrylic glass



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For the two 140mm fans in the front I will use the acrylic glass and create a 4 layer front panel.
The acrylic glass will be laser cutted at my local university for free (FabLab + bring your own material + bring the vector graphic files = you can make an appointment for 1h and use every machine).

The first two layers will keep the dust filters in place, which is also hold my four magnets/filter.
The third and fourth layer will contain the magnets for the filters, more magnets to apply some stability to front by holding on the PSU case and the screws to attach the 140mm fans.

The second layer will be opend to the accessible G5 side and by that the filters can be removed.



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The fan panel is done. The laser cutting itself was extremly fast!

Many thanks to my local university RWTH Aachen for offering a free laser cutting to anybody!

I made a video of the cutting, but unfortunately the quality is not good, because of reflections and the black material.


The result of all plates is exactly as I imagined them.
The only downside is that I made too many "safety dimensions" (like +0,5mm extra cutting) to make sure it fits for sure.

Pictures:

cutting







All four layer:


Test mounting with fan, screws and magnets inside:





The filter gap:







Inside the G5:

Inspiration

I got inspired by all the beautiful G5 Mods at Tonymacx86!
Especially by:
MacTester57
eelhead
chaosdesigns 1st
chaosdesigns 2nd
nikkokick
kiwisincebirth

Thanks to you guys!


Getting a G5 Case

Finding a G5 Case took me quite some time. I tried to get one on eBay, but all the PowerMacs have been kind of pricey.
After checking out some forums and private offers I found a nice deal on ebayclassifieds (kleinanzeigen.ebay.de). The offer has been a "G5 Powermac Case" for 50€. When I arrived at the seller, I got a nice surprise! The Powermac G5 was not just the case, it has been a 100% working G5 in good shape. The 2nd surprise was that he was selling four 100% fine G5s (1x late 2004, 3x early 2005) each for 50€.
Of course I took all four G5's and chose the late 2004 G5 to be my case. I gave two of the other G5's to friends of mine.




G5 front panel wiring

To be able to use the front panel, I followed eelhead's Guide and did some soldering. With some nice sleeves the cable does look quite good.



ATX motherboard tray

I ordered the Mountain Mods ATX tray from the US, unfortunately the shipping to Germany did cost me the same as the tray itself + I had to pay import taxes...
My plan was to use some of the original G5 stand offs without replacing them. So I pulled out most of the stand offs until four have been left and in a good position to attach the MB tray.



My plan is to use the upper part of the case for the power supply and the DVD drive. Therefore the tray had to be in the lower section of the back side. With a friend I cut out a big piece of the backpanel...



... and was able to put in the MB tray in the correct position, covering all the edges and keeping enough G5's perforated sheet to drill some holes for the screws.



As you can see four screws are keeping the tray in the correct position with the original G5's stand offs




HDD Tray

For beeing able to add HDD's to the system easily, I selected the Lian Li's EX-H34S. Based on the little space left in the G5 case, I disassemble the HDD cage to it's most important core tray and drilled some holes under the DVD drive plate. With screws and hexagon stand offs with internal threads on both sides I attached the tray to the plate. After connecting the SATA cables to the motherboard, I will be able to just slide the HDD's into the tray without attaching any wires.






Front fans

For attaching two 120mm fans to front I used the fan frames from the Lian Li HDD tray and assembled it 90° around the tray. To avoid noise from the air pulled/pushed air, I kept some space between the front G5 mesh - Fan - HDD tray.






Assembly  pt 1

I managed to build some parts into the case. Unfortunately my selfmade front panel cable can't start the PC…, but a simple two wired cable + button can.
I tried to hide most the SATA cables behind the tray, because the distance to the SATA ports on the MB is small.




Assembly  pt 2

Finally I was able to keep most of the wiring in the upper section. It is really hard to bend the cables of the power supply and by that its difficult to lay the wires as you want to…
My two SSD are just next to the power supply and not hold by any frame (I hope that works).






Source

Mountain Mods motheboard tray

LIAN LI EX-H34S @ Newegg

Enermax Cluster fans 120mm @ Amazon
Enermax Cluster fans 120mm @ Newegg