neoofoox's G5 Mod

[neoofoox]

Hello,
I want to show you my current process of my G5 Mod. I started in January by buying a used Mac G5 with defect hardware in it. My first attempt was trying to repair the Mac G5, but there was a problem with CPU/Cooling I couldn’t solve.
My target for the Mod:
 

·         Keep it as stock looking as possible

·         Remove the back I/O panel, because I haven’t seen a nice looking solution for it. I dislike the method with putting the wires to the holes to the mainboard female connector. Adding wires from the mainboard to the case slots seems even worse for me. That is just my opinion on that.

·         I like the 2 fan grills on the back of the case, so I wanted to try to keep them, but the mainboard I/O panel and the “mATX”-Tray made it hard to keep it, but I figured a way out.

·         The Hardware in the Case should be easy to replace, so I can reuse that case in the future.

For this reason disassembling the PSU is no solution. I have to think about a solution, maybe I have to plate with or acryl glass.
 

·         For the mATX-Tray I used a very old ugly case, removed all rivets and just used the back for holding the I/O panel of the Mainboard

This mods inspired me the most:
 

·         Darkmac Pro (March 2013)

·         Rotten Apple G5 Case Mod

 
The Hardware I will put into the case:
 

·         Intel Core i7 4790K 4x4GHz So. 1150

·         EKL Alpenföhn Brocken ECO

·         Kingston HyperX DDR3-1866 2x8GB

·         Gigabyte GA-Z97M-D3H

·         2x be quiet! Shadow Wings SW1 PWM 140x140x25mm (as fans for the front)

·         2x Arctic Cooling Arctic F9 PWM CO 92x92x25mm (as fans for the back)

·         Crucial MX100 SSD 256GB

·         TP-Link PCI Express Wifi Adapter (with 2 antenna, so kext is needed – I ordered the wrong one)

·         GMYLE Bluetooth 4.0 Adapter

·         Be quiet! Pure Power L8 CM Modular 80+ Bronze
 
For disassembling the case I used this guide: http://de.scribd.com/doc/21536787/Apple-Power-Mac-G5-Quad-2-5-Dual-2-0-2-3-Ghz-Service-Repair-Manual#scribd
 
So there is my Work:

 

That is the case I bought, next to it my old pc.

 

First of all I disassembled the case according to the Guide listed above, after that, the very hard part begins: Cutting the beauty. The first cut with a Dremel hurt me the most

 

I wanted to use the PCI slots from the old case. Because I didn’t want to cut the case, I thought a lot about it, and hold the mainboard in the case and thought about a lot of solutions. So I decided to use the PCI slots of g5 case.

 

The I/O panel fitted quite well. But I haven’t seen that in that picture it bends a little bit, that made some problems on a later time.

 

Here you can see that the I/O panel collides with the Holding for the fans on the back side, and it would not be possible to attach the fans with the original holding to it.

 

So I decided to cut out the 2 holes for the grill and move it to the left side, where the wifi antenna in the original g5 is, like you can see in this picture below. 

 

Seeing this made me cry...

 

The result should look like this, I cut it on the red lines and glued it with “UHU PLUS ENDFEST” (Epoxy)

 

Testing with a Mainboard. You can see that I filled the gap with an aluminium bonded panel. 

 

Here you can see it better:

 

Here you can see, that it collides with the fan grill… so I had to shorten the I/O Holding (of cause not the fan grill)

 

As you can see until this point I tried to use a ATX board, but after getting my mATX board, It fits so perfectly and I could use the complete top panel.

 

Here you can see that the fan grill with the fans fit, and on the left you can see my plan on mounting two 140mm fans on the front with the top of the old and ugly case I disassembled 

 

I told you before that I will get to the problem that the I/O Panel bent on a picture. I had to move the I/O panel about 2-3mm to the PCI slots… The result is in the picture below. I am not very happy about it, but It worked out… maybe I can make it look better.

 

I had a lot of respect getting the mainboard in the right position and the right height. I cut of the big standoffs off the case. And the mainboard tray was about 2mm to height on the side. I put some wood under the tray, which had the perfect size (and laid around), and glued it with the epoxy.
I cut out the panel so I can access the holes for the screws to mount the top panel of the case. Even disassembling the case to get the part with the holes out of the footstand part of the case for coloring and make the glue disappear on the back.

 

For the PSU I glued a holding to the original PSU housing. 

 

This was the state I made the first break, because I wanted to use my new hardware:

Here are my thoughts on the upcoming process:

In the left panel, I already cutted two 140mm holes in it. 

What has to be done:
 

·         Find a solution to hide the PSU on the bottom.

·         Color the inner case (with the holes) in a dark gray using Montana Cans.

·         Buy a new front panel (I soldered wires to the USB port, it works, but that is only one out of 3 that works. No audio, no Firewire. And it isn’t soldered very well… But I will keep the original Power Button. I thought about this front panel:

·         Find a Position to put a card reader in the front of the case.
My first thought was putting the card reader on the bottom of the front (disassemble a normal 5 in 1 card reader only cutting a hole for the SD slot (importing camera files)
Second thought add the SD slot vertically below the front I/O panel…
Do you have other ideas about that?

[JahStories]

It's always nice to see these G5 resurrecting into new hackintoshes!

 

Good work!

[mendietinha]

gotta love those G5 mods! great job you are doing!

[neoofoox]

Some Updates:

Yesterday I found a place for the SD-Card Slot on the Case. Above the DVD Drive is little space. So I cut a slot in the center of the case above the DVD Slot. The result wasn't as good as I hoped.

On the left side of the case there is the SD Reader board which I will use. It is a 5 in 1 Cardreader but I only need the SD slot.

Today I enhanced the SD Slot. Filling up the slot with "UHU Repair all powerkit" and some holes around it and gutting the slot again. That ended up much better.

I drilled out the rivets of the case, sanded some parts to prepair for painting. 

Unfortunately the spray cap is clogged, so I have to order a new one. The order also contains a green spray for coloring some parts, and a matt clear varnish from montana can

[Mr.D.]

looks pretty good thus far. I always lament when the backside of the G5 is cut... but that is my personal preference

 

It should look really sharp when its painted!

 

Question 1) gonna tuck all the components of the new PSU into the case for the old PSU? that would look sharp and enhance the "stock look"!

Question 2) gonna run any flavor of OSX on it? Dual boot? VM? only OSX?

 

Keep the updates and especially sharp pictures coming!

[neoofoox]

1) I don't want to disassemble my new be quite PSU, Either I can hide it very well in the case, what I hope I can achieve or I will disassemble the OCZ PSU and put in in the original PSU housing..

2) My neighbour received my returned mainboard, when I receive it, I still have my ssd formatted with running 10.9 and win 10 in dual boot. Win10 for gaming and Mac for all the other stuff.

 

Today I returned from vacation. Next week I will continue working on the build.

[Razzle_Dazzle]

awesome job  

[duduclx]

someone just gave me an old G5,

i intend to do a case mod too.

 

but i don't want to cut the case.

 

hope i will be able to begin this weekend.

 

your topic is a great start for me.

thanks !

[neoofoox]

When I received the case, I searched for a way not to cut the case. So I thought a lot (maybe too much) about how I will continue. For me it was a no go to keep the original back i/o ports.

 

 

Here a little update:

 

In the last weeks I found a solution for the PSU. That was a difficult decision, but I am happy with it.
My requirements:

• avoid to disassemble the PSU
• Reuse the Mac Power cable.

I thought about moving the Power Cable connector to the top, like it is in the Mac Pro, but to keep the original looking I tried to lay a wire to the original connector and the wire fit perfectly between the case and the screws. So I don't have to think about hiding it or gluing the wire to the case, or moving the connector to the top.


In red you can see where the wire to the PSU is. This is the current state.

The case looks so dirty because I wet sanded it before, and haven't cleaned it 

[neoofoox]

Hello everyone, 

 

I know there wasn't any update the last month, I had to work using my pc hardware in the g5 case and haven't had a spare case for my hardware. But now I have one so I can continue the modifications. 

 

Inspiration

In that time I did a lot of research on how I will improve that case. I found a lot of new g5/mac pro mods that inspired me a lot. To mention some of the mods:

- the G5-yufi (by thegyufi): he did such a clean work on that build. I wish I could do that as clean as he can. I also want to reproduce his fan holder in the front of the case. 

- the Void's G5 Mk. II - Project: G5-SHIELD (by voidfahrenheit): His placement of the SSDs and the wire management caused that I want to redo some of my recent work. 

 

 

Front I/O

I ordered a PCI slot with 2 USB 3.0 Ports which are connected to the mainboard and cutted the PCI slot which I will glue into the front. 

a little bit off center, but I recognized it too late.

 

 

Cardreader:

For the SD card slot, I simple cutted the Cardreader circuit board into half, to that only the sdcard and the necessary functions is left.

 

Here is the first Cardreader holding, which I recently replaced by a new one. I messed the showing one up by drilling the holes from the front through that holder. I wanted to do it like "thegyufi" (I mention above) made his holder for the front IO. 

 

 

Acrylic Fan Mount:

On my fan holder I didn't planed a gap for the Front IO. I did some test bending with 3mm acryl, that is not worth showning... The first one was free bending which wasn't a even bending, the second one broke. 

The reason why I redo the fan mount is that I didn't thought about the front I/O gap. The bending went quite well, it bent really slow because of its 5mm thickness, but that was good. Here is the video of the bending. I was scaptical if I have to heat the acrylic from both sides, but that was not necessary.

[video=youtube_share;K1rur1Gd77Y]

I wanted to bend the acrylic on the top and the bottom, but the top is very difficult because of the DVD mount.(thegyufi removed the original DVD mount). I drawed it to show what I mean: 

So I decided to cut it off so it ends right under the dvd holding.

While cutting the holes for the fan using a jigsaw with a saw for wood (I know its not the perfect tooling for that but I don't had any other options). While cutting the first fan hole, the acrylic started to melt after the first half... I couldn't figgure out why it melted because the second hole didn't melt. Maybe I forced the jigsaw at the first hole. Then the I/O gap melted again after the first half... It was strange, but now I have to clean it up. Before I drilled the holes to mount the fan I used a soldering iron as a center-punch to align the drill bit. 

[video=youtube_share;DgpEH4W7LWg]

 

Mainboard Mount:

I removed my motherboard tray. If I had seen this video before I disassembled the case, I would now use the original standoffs, because they are nearly the exact size. So I ordered some motherboard spacers with 25mm hight which I shortened to the right size. I filled up the holes from the standoffs with epoxy and sanded it to an even ground with a 120 sand paper. I glued the motherboard standoffs to the case which I cut to a length of 15mm so it fits the original PCI-slots. To align the mainboard as best as possible I filled up all PCI-slots. I used a old PCI VGA graphics card, a 9800 GTX+ and my current GTX 970

With the standoffs the result is so much better than with that motherboard tray I used from an old PC case. I dont regret that I removed that tray so fall a step backwards in the project. 

before/after

 

Wiremanagement:

The standoffs for the mainboard will be glued directly to the case. Under the Mainboard I want to put a 1,5-2mm alu plate. The plate will hide the wires. I hope that there will be enough space for the ssds.

This image shows the mainboard (right square with the meassure lines) below the mainboard there is the alu plate (big square)

Here you can see how much space is left between the mainboard and the SSD. I think it is enough for wiring the SSD but it could be tight for the other wires and the space between the alu plate and the motherboard

 

I try to find a small cardboard to figgure out if the wires have enough room to route behind it. And to fix some planed cutting depending on the wirelength. 

[neoofoox]

Something has changed in the meantime:

 

Wire Management:

I reused the old sidepanel from the old case I disassembled in the first place to use the mainboard tray. I will use it to hide the wires behind it. It will surround the Mainboard and will be some mm higher than the mainboard to increase the space for the wire management. The disadvantage of that solution is that I am not able to mount the SSDs unter the mainboard. Mounting the SSDs under the mainboard would have decreased the space for the wires by at least 5mm which would leave just 10mm for the wires.

 

SD-Card Mount:

I build a new mount for the SD board because the previous solution wouldn't hold the board in place in the long run because of the double-sided tape. Bending a housing for the DVD-drive and glueing some leftover mainboard standoffs on it to hold the SD board should be a better solution. It was hard to find another solution because there is no much space between the DVD drive and the top of the case.

I had to rethink that, because with installed PSU there I have problems sliding in the cover for the dvd drive (mounting the cover before installing the dvd drive is not posibly because of the hight of the sd-card construction). So I decided to glue the standoffs to the top of the case.

 

SSD Positions:

I had to find another place for mounting the SSDs. My first thought was to tape the SSDs to the Wire Management cover, but while creating the SD-Card Mount I decided to place both ssds on the DVD drive housing. Two SSDs fit perfectly on it. In addition I only have to route the 24 and 8 pin wires and the graphic card wires from the psu to the main area. Powerwires for SSDs, DVD drive will be in the top area of the case and I only need one wire with 3 SATA power ports and not two because of the different locations.

 

Mounting the Original Power socket:

I made the same socketholder as g5-yufi and I will glue screws directly to the case, to mount that plate with two nuts countered as a spacer. Currently I made it out of 3mm acrylic because it was nearby. It will be replaced by alu in the future. I don't need a cover to hide the socket, because the wire will be routed directly to the edge of the case and will be routed like I allready showed you. So I have a lot of space at the bottom of the case, but I don't have the heavy housing of the original psu.

 

Next steps are:

• Clean up the cutting edges of the top plate. (espacially the circle for the PSU fan)
  
• Preperation of the inner case for painting.
  
• Buying the standoffs for the wire management cover. The cover will be mounted with some neodym magnets, so you won't see screws in the cover.
  
• Solder the power socket wire.
  

 

Possible steps (optical):

• Creating a plate to hide everything in the top area of the case to hide the wires behind it. But leaving areas visible to see the PSU and optical drive. Currently thinking about taping the visible areas and sanding the acrylic to make it look milky.
  
• Cutting out the apple logo of the case and/or the side panel and place acrylic (hard to achieve that the apple logo will look good and very hard to fit the acrylic inside the hole). I though about Using a acrylic plate, and cutting around the arcylic apple to reduce the hight around it, to glue it to the side panel. Using a dark acrylic for that would look great, but If I would add a backlight, I don't know how it will look like.  Hope you understood what I mean.
  
• Alternatively I will order some stickers with a cutted out apple logo in the same color as the inner case will be painted. That would be the easiest solution.
  
• Tape some metallic hardware components with black tape. (Mainboard I/O)