Those are M3 screws, head is about 5mm in diameter and 4mm high.

Do they fit the front of the powermac case? Through the holes?

Did you use the original standoffs? If so, what did you glue them on with?

Yes those fit through holes on the bottom of the case easily. I used custom 60mm high standoffs, 4 of them are screwed through holes in the bottom and other two are glued.
PSU circuit fits those holes at the bottom just perfectly so I used 5mm standoffs to fit the circuit and 55mm standoffs to hold the PCB in place and on top of that is PSU bay cover.

Nice work. I would like to use case of original G5 power supply I ordered, so, it will be the best ) anyway, what about you project - I am wondering how do you plan to solve "problem" with connectors on backside. Custom-made backpanel with connecors, cut back metal off and put there ATX one, or......?!

tribesman, can you post details on how you got the front panel working? Also, has anybody used the actual apple psu?

Smoothy: I wanna to use just case of original G5 power supply. You can not use G5 PSU for ATX motherboard without some wiremodding, and that is difficult. I will rather mod to PSU case normal ATX PSU.

Hmmm, ill probally give it a go, the only problem is with using a atx psu it doesnt have the special connector for all the stuff in the upper part of the case.

Hehe, G5 PSU, G5 fan, PCI holder metal plate and cables arrived. Any ideas where to get original PSU covering plate?

BTW you can make some wiremodding on molexs and under the MB sneak them to upper part of case. Or make a hidden shaft for them.

So you have the actual g5 psu just no cover for it?

Looking at the connector on my atx psu and the apple psu, the atx has 20 pins, and the atx plug only has 20 holes. The apple has 20 pins but 24 holes, meaning 4 are empty, and all it should need is an atx plug and a bit of rewireing and lengthening. I'm looking through the pin outs now to confirm this. I'm using the attached service manual for the g5 pinouts. Thought it could be useful.

**Edit** It wont attach for some bloody reason.

Smoothy Boothy: I have G5 PSU in its case, but no PSU bay cover like TribesMans one. I want to get original one, but if I must, I will fabricate it myself.

what about pins - I think somebody checked G5 PSU pinout and it was not useable for ATX because of different voltage etc. Anyway, check it and let us know

I have checked them out. It is not as simple as i thought but not impossibly hard. The g5 psu has 3 plugs. P1 and P2 go onto the mainboard somewhere, and P3 connects to a cable that leads upto the top section of the case. P1 is the larger of the 2 we are interested in (P1 & P2) where as P2 is smaller, and smaller than an atx 20 pin molex. P1 doesnt have all the pins needed for a atx 20 pin molex, it has 13 grounds where as an atx only needs 7, it doesnt have enough 3.3v's and some other differences. However P2 has the others needed, and still has enough for the other plugs needed by newer more power hungry boards. So both plugs have to be scrapped, and rewired into atx and atx 2.0.

I want to know how quiet the psu is before i put the time into this. I want a silent system, hence all the w/c kit hanging around my room.

**EDIT** I went back over it. There are 2 pins not accounted for. PWR_OK, a grey wire, and -5VDC a white wire.

Anybody got any idea on how to get these two from the apple psu. I dont have much experience with the actual details of the wires, just shrinking and putting on new atx molex plugs.

Hi, I have the original 600W PSU and at the beginning I would like to use the Apple PSU... but it has different pinouts and different voltages and ampere values so I preferred to modify my Enermax PSU and put it into the Apple PSU case...
I kept the original Apple PSU fans and the system remains very silent...

Seems like there is no good way of using the Apple PSU then really but im still interested in Smoothy Boothy's attempts to do it. But otherwise its just easier to get a 450W Supply rip out the internal components and just use the case?
Some more info on this would be intresting and if Smoothy succeeds or if anyone else have done it, a guide maybe?

Andune: I am going to rip out interior of 450W Apple PSU and mod there ATX one, I dont want to risk any problems with power supplying of my brand new components. Anyway, use orig Apple PSU can be really interesting attempt Keep working Smoothy

Well your probably right DarkLight, i wouldnt like to damage anything in a perfectly new computer. I would appreciate some pictures tho when your done.

Hello again guys...

You might be interested in this little program my friend wrote today. It is used to eject CD tray in your G5 case under Windows using F12 key... Remember G5 case does not have eject button on the optical device, so this is quite handy when runing windows on your "G5".

Instalation is simple, just put the exe under startup.

Then press F12 to open or close the tray. (there is a little eject OSD animation every time you eject the tray, just like in OS X )

And please report the bugs

G5Eject.rar

Im still looking into it. Im getting some more hardware later this week. If i cant get the apple one to work and i source a cheapish, decent psu on ebay, ill be tempted to transplant it into the apple psu case. I thought someone would have already done this mod, but it seems not. Im not that experienced with psu modding, but ill give it a shot. Can someone tell me what the PWR_OK lead is used for?

I figured out how to manually run Apple PSU, but it is still nothing when I can't use it for ATX mobo. But, maybe I will try to switch and mod wires to make it ATX useable, and test it on old mobo anc components where is some damage OK. But I am not sure with good result.

How did you get the LED front panel working? Which connector pins did you use because i noticed the pins for the front panel are significantly smaller than the pins on the mobo. Thanks!!

Nice job btw!

CZ*DarkLight, can you post instructions on how you got those top fans out? I need to get them out, the hdd rack and that topself. I cant figure it out and i dont want to damage anything doing it wrong.

Smoothy: You think that default chassis fans near hdd rack, right? Well, you have to disassemble lot of things. It is longer story. I will make a photo-tutorial, ok? Or contact me on:

ICQ: 107345145
msn: jirka.komon@atlas.cz

and wel'll talk about it.

Yeh i mean the top fans, the hdd rack and the top shelf. I need to remove them all to fit my mobo, then mod the shelf and the rack so they both fit back in. Ill add you when i get home. thanks

that very usefull thread !,

i own myself one of these G5 encosure totaly new - is till in his box

and waithing for mobo/cpu to arrive,

just my idea was to addapt full atx mobo without to cutt G5 case

i will let you about my progress when i have all to start

thanks !

ps: inside on top of case near HDD's there is smoll board come with case

some one know for what the hell is ?, temp sensor or what ?

Good guess, i believe there is two in the case, there is also a little board below the hole for the air baffle prongs. This is a sensor that tells the g5 when the baffle is in place and puts the fans back onto auto.

Yay... very cool tribesman. Could you breifly explain how you got the LED front panel PWR button/USB to work? I am having trouble finding the right sized pin connectors/wires for it. Thanks alot.

Nice job.

You can find the connection digram of the front panel conectors, light and button in the Apples PowerMac G5 service manual... There was a link posted few pages back.

Guys, got photos from disassembling case to get out top floor. Do you want to make a "post" tutorial, pdf, ZIP containing html site with comments and photos, or.....?

I'd say posting the guide would be best, easier for people to see and follow . Thanks for doing this!

Fine. Here is that tutorial I talked about, describing and showing how to remove top floor.

All what you will need is:

Crossed screwdriver, normal size, nothing special
Torx screwdriver, size no. 8 (for those Apple screws)
Small imbus (imbus = socket head) wrench
G5 case

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


What do we have here? Torx and crossed screwdrivers in that case



Remove screw catching those chassis fans




We have to remove locking mechanism including that ledge to remove top floor. First, remove these small black flexible metal laminas, use just nail on finger. Remove all three along the ledge














Fine. Take imbus (socket head) wrench and unscrew these screws holding sliding ledge




Unscrewed one




Put out all three doorlocks




One is out, two left




Now we have to remove small metal circle holding axis of ledge on lever.




Use knife with sharp spike. But be careful, dont lose that circle, you will need it back then.




Removed!




Remove axis, dont lose transparent underlays.




Fine, all gone. Now we will move out that ledge.




Put it to this position to put it out. Normally you cant do that beucase it is hold by lever.




Out!




Now unscrew the rest of torx screws holding top floor.




Ah, forgot for cables. Remove them from plastic "shaper"




Time to unscrew rest of screws...




Floor locks in opened position, close them.




Closed!




Now put floor by hand down. It will not go smoothly, but it will go.




Just a little bit. Now catch it and pull it up, just like on next pic.




Pull it up to get holes out of bases for screws. Pull it up above that bases and then pull to right, in direction of hole for optical drive tray.




Bases in zoom.




As you can see, you can't put it out smoothly beucase of no space on other side... You have to
a.) pull it to left as much as you can
b.) bend a little bit backside with PCI cards holes to make space for top floor to remove




Finally, it is out. Just pull it up out of case



And thats it!



Result, without top floor. Now is easy to remove hdd tray and those fans, if needed.

Great guide Dark Light, thanks very much. Ill post a project log here when i get mine done.

i think itll be much easier to use the mac pro case now. I hope they are up on ebay soon.

i doubt it will be that much easier because Mac Pro logicboards are still custom designed and custom fitted instead of using generic PC specifications.

Ahh I see, which type of connector pins did you use though? Can you find them at a local radioshack for instance? Thanks again.

First, I think it will be HARDER than old-G5 because there are much of improvements and added parts, so disassembling of every part will be long and difficult thing. And that is brand new PC, so I think there will NOT be any case for sell for months. Because, why? For spare parts it is too new and apple started with shipping of mac pro yesterday, so, possibility that mac pro die in home of some customer is 0%.... thats my opinion. And, I love old-style G5, dont want that new one with two optical drive bays etc.

The new hard drive bays look like they could make getting around in there a little more difficult.

Great thread, btw.

I think the Mac Pro case looks better for this too. It looks like it will take a normal PSU and has a decent number of harddrive bays.

While I am likely to mod. a PowerMac G5 case, I think might want to rip the internal drive bay chasis out of an another case and use it here.

Dark Light great guide there... thank you!

As for Mac Pro. I tkink it is quite easier to mod it. But there could be a problem with drive bays. I don't know how exactly is it made but it look like that there is an raiser card that those drives connect to. There is no cables... so this could be a problem.

You can look here... http://www.powermax.com/articles_reviews/article.php?id=32

But there is something else what could be much more of a problem. Is there enough space to fit full size ATX mobo in there? because the dual optical units and new PSU eats up mach more space than in the old Powermac. It could happen that the ATX mobos will be to high to fit in...

But we will have to wait and see when first cases will be available on the ebay... I'm first in line

Wow. I didn't realize people were so talented at computer fabrication.

what pins/wires do you need? The female pins of the front panel are rather small.

thanks!

robin chou: I modified original cable that connects G5 motherboard and front panel connectors (it came with case) and then cut it in half. After that I just soldered longer cables on and connected them on my motherboard.

The front panel connector is smaller than standard connectors that are found on PC motherboards. And because I could not find the matching female connector I just used the original one.

Cheers Mash!





This is nothing, go and check out some sites like bit-tech or kustompc forums, and they are just a few!

Hi guys!

Spectacular thread! Keep on it!

I wonder if you can help me. I'm following on your footsteps and installed a new pc into a G5 enclosure. Everything is working smoothly... But I'm not being able to GET USB and FW in the front panel to work. Can you help me on this? Already have the layout for the Apple's Front Panel Connector...




Thanks



Mac OS X Leopard. Introducing Vista 2.0!

Conroe 6400
Asus P5W DH
1GB Corsair 6400
160GB SATAII + 160GB IDE
Asus DL DVD RW
Noiseblocker aircooled + Enermax powered

With your Asus P5W DH motherboard?

Could you post some pictures, in particular the back of the case?

Nice,

As for the front usb and firewire, im not sure. I havent got that far yet. However i do remember reading a few things on the internet about it. Have a google search, and trust me it wasnt on the first page, it took some finding. Shame i lost my bookmarks....

I've done that but haven't been able to find it... do you know any detail of what you saw that might help?

As to pics I don't have any since I'm somewhat embaraced... I didn't have the guts to cut my G5 case so I'm only using the mobo's LAN port through one of the available holes and I bluetoothed/ wirelessed the most of my peripherals as the keyboard/mouse... also added an additional two usb ports on the back connected to the mobo and my audigy2 - which unfortunately still doesn't work with OSX - provides for sound ports and firewire. I still have one usb and one firewire connection available on the mobo and I'm trying to connect them to the front panel... my first try with the usb and fat cable was a flop... though! Probably will add an additional SPDIF port at the back and also try to mod the MP3in feature also using the front pannel...

That was essentially my question. But I don't blame you, I wouldn't want to cut up a G5 case either. They are too nice and the way I have my computers set up, I see their back sides a lot more than their fronts. I just trying to figure out how best to deal with what seems to be the major issue here.

XSMac, you got any pics of your setup so far? Im having troubles with my motherboard fitment.

What do you mean by troubles? I took some pics while I mounted the PC but haven't got the camera with me. When I manage to get it (weekend probably) I'll post some miserable pics to you guys. Meanwhile maybe this worklog might help... most of the work I did on fitting the mobo I adapted from this:

http://www.hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=...age=1&pp=20

Still have some work to do: mod a cable to fit the power exit - my case didn't bring power supply with it; mod the wireless card of the mobo to be able to fit in the antenna and theGod dammed USB & FW front connections...



But it works like a charm already... silent and fast...

Wow, that "work log" is great:



That looks easy for a four PCI slot board (microATX?). But I don't understand how you dealt with using a full size, seven PCI slot, ATX board: