spackley Posted May 16, 2010 Share Posted May 16, 2010 I know these have been done to death but after I finished my "Budget G5" conversion.. http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=213676 I decided to do another on a G4. So I scoured eBay for a few weeks and picked up a few G4's for bargain prices. One was a fully working almost mint condition G4 running OS 9 that cost me a whopping £4.99! so you can build one of these on a budget too... One I purchased as a non runner was used for this and I fitted an Asus P5QPL-AM with a Intel E6550 2.33 MHz core 2 duo, 4 GB 800 MHz Crucial RAM, 500 GB Western Digital drive and a Nvidia 8600GT graphics card.. I decided to junk the OEM sliding plastic bracket door lock and just rely on the sliding locking mechanism as it simplifies mounting the mobo and gives you a little more space to play with as the mobo can be mounted closer to the case side. A little simple metalwork to make a mild steel plate to mount the I/O plate to and remove the plastic grill on the PSU outlet cleans it up nicely. A combination lock or padlock slipped through the sliding locking bar stops you unlocking it by accident when picking it up and stops anybody finding out that it's not OEM inside as well ;-) Stock Intel cooler is reasonably quiet and provides more than enough cooling for the 2.33 GHz C2Duo I had to extend some of the PSU wiring to enable the case door to open fully open without problems, but it does give you plenty of accesss The Nvidia 8600GT came from eBay for £19.00 with a passive heatsink cooler which is just what I wanted but even with the stock case fan running on 5v for quietness blowing over it it got far too hot to touch so I replaced it with a Zalman VF770 which although isn't as quiet it does keep it lovely and cool. A firewire card and a couple of extra USB have been added too. These are quite old now so most have a few scuffs on the case but a bit of elbow grease, 1000 grit wet & dry and plenty of "T-Cut" will bring the clear plastics up like new. A retail install of Snow Leopard finishes it off nicely. I still love the look of these cases and if you have the parts they make a nice simple project. Hope you like... Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/218564-done-to-death-but-another-g4-anyway/ Share on other sites More sharing options...
pirloui Posted May 18, 2010 Share Posted May 18, 2010 Cute Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/218564-done-to-death-but-another-g4-anyway/#findComment-1470790 Share on other sites More sharing options...
morrison Posted May 19, 2010 Share Posted May 19, 2010 nice one !! very well integrated do you think it get hot much? try a cpu monitor and let us know! i tryed air cooled with a similar setup but decided not to risk it anylonger. Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/218564-done-to-death-but-another-g4-anyway/#findComment-1471321 Share on other sites More sharing options...
spackley Posted May 19, 2010 Author Share Posted May 19, 2010 Good question... I installed this temp monitor http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/mac/19994 and these were the readings it gave:- At idle.. Playing an HD trailer from Apple.com.. Maybe not a thorough test but as the thermal spec of the E6550 CPU is 72 Degrees C I think that is not too bad. Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/218564-done-to-death-but-another-g4-anyway/#findComment-1471369 Share on other sites More sharing options...
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