X-fact0r

Hi,

I've been watching and tracking closely some some of the threads on this forum and finally decided to make my own G5 case mod. I ended up purchasing a defective 2004 1.6GHz G5 from eBay.de and got some time to start working on this summer vacations.
This sums up the hard work put into this baby during two long weeks.

LAYOUT

I had initial thoughts on keeping the G5 case as original as possible (without any cuts). But after disassembling everything and even though it has a lot of space inside, I had a hard time figuring out on how to proceed. I decided to go ahead with the classic mod and cut the rear section of the Mac and use an ATX tray from another case.

I tried to keep the layout as simple as possible:

• DVD: keep the original location;
• HDD: move the HDD tray beneath the DVD drive;
• PSU: place it on the original HDD tray location;
• COOLING: two 120mm intake fans on the front side of the case and one 90mm outlet fan on the rear.

MOTHERBOARD TRAY

Before starting the whole process I had to found a way of fixing the motherboard inside the G5 case.
I ended up using a damaged NOX Moonlight case that I had in my garage from a local store give-away. After disassembling everything, removing all the screws, rivets, cabling, etc., I kept all the necessary parts for my construction.

G5 DISASSEMBLY

The first step was to disassemble all G5 components to start all the planning and measurements.
This was the time also to get rid of the expansion bay structure.

REAR AREA + TRAY

After stripping all G5 parts I started planning the best placement for the ATX motherboard. I didn't want to remove the original studs to be able to use them on the new mobo tray.
I took my first measurements from the NOX rear plate and marked all the areas to trim off. After that I just grabbed the dremmel and started chopping away.
At a later stage I made the first placement run and ended up removing some studs that were interfering with the mobo tray.

After this first test I noticed that I had to remove some more material from the rear plate due to some interference.
I planned a slightly different approach to hold the mobo tray and used the original G5 studs to hold it in place. To mark their locations I used a cardboard stencil on the back of the tray and pressed it hard against the remaining studs. With all the locations transferred into the cardboard I selected only 4 which were able to guarantee a good stability.

The next step was to cutoff the rear of the G5...
With the tray and rear plate in position I just marked all the areas to trim.
I also painted the cut edges on the rear panel in order to prevent rust / oxidation.