macmaniac Posted December 31, 2007 Share Posted December 31, 2007 Ok boys and girls. This is my second G5 case mod. I posted my first attempt here. I just love the P5K-E WIFI board, it works so well (other than a nasty little BIOS bug - if you need a fix, PM me) with Leopard, that I just had to build another one. This time I found a shiny new G5 case, still had the plastic cling-wrap on. This time I had the DVD tray (and door) and the front panel wire harness. Lets get to work! Remove the old stand-offs: Cut down the DVD tray: I'm going build a special tunnel for the power supply, and hard drives JBWeld is your friend. You must help him by scuffing the aluminum, and cleaning it with solvent before "welding". First piece of the tunnel going on. It may not make sense until later.... I am making my own stand-offs using standard screws and standard brass stand-offs, but I need to make them taller: EDIT: now using LianLi tray, I still needed the spacers, but now the mobo tray sits on the spacers. When the stand-offs are made, you bolt them to the MOBO (EDIT: Mobo TRAY) , and glue with JBWeld: Now we must turn our attention to the back end. Air tools are your friend: EDIT: THis is the OLD back end. Further along in this thread, you will see the Lian Li Mobo graft. I have fitted the fan, and also the power-plug pigtail. Whats going to happen here is this. The lower tunnel holds the power supply, 2 hard drives in the G5 "rack", and two fans which will slide into place on "rails" that I made. The Power supply, harddrive rack, and fans will be held in place by the tunnel lid. Only two screws will hold the tunnel lid. I think you get the idea now.... MOBO in place: The tunnel cover slides off, revealing the wiring. There will be another tunnel up the middle. The middle tunnel holds two fans. It friction fits with the help of foam weatherstripping. The G5 side door will mate up with the two fans (via aluminum rail and weather stripping), creating a vibration damped and airtight connection so the middle fans will blow air to cool RAM, MOBO, CPU, and GPU. There is still plenty of room in front of the fans for either a water cooling radiator, or a stack of hard drives. One day I might open up the back for all the PCI slots, but I don't need to right now. I tried my best to cover wires, and make for easy disassembly (2 screws!). While not perfect yet, I am quite pleased with the results. Looks completely stock on the front, and pretty decent on the back. One day I will own a TIG welder, then watch out! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Harloe Posted January 1, 2008 Share Posted January 1, 2008 Wow the pictures really helped me there =D! Thanks! A question though, about the rear-end. I am planning on cutting out the back so I can have a full sized mobo in there, would I have to install a new motherboard tray once that is done? If so could you post a small tutorial (if pictures are possible that'd be great!) on how to install a new mobo tray? That'd be fantastic and a great help for me (a first time modder)! Did you install a new motherboard tray on yours? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
macmaniac Posted January 1, 2008 Author Share Posted January 1, 2008 Wow the pictures really helped me there =D! Thanks! A question though, about the rear-end. I am planning on cutting out the back so I can have a full sized mobo in there, would I have to install a new motherboard tray once that is done? If so could you post a small tutorial (if pictures are possible that'd be great!) on how to install a new mobo tray? That'd be fantastic and a great help for me (a first time modder)! Did you install a new motherboard tray on yours? I didn't do a "motherboard tray", so no tutorial. I'm not sure if there is a huge benefit from the "tray" idea. Certainly it adds expense and complexity to the case mod. Yes, I have a full sized mobo, but I don't need all the PCI slots (the p5k-e mobo puts the money slots where I need them) . If you do need to access all 7 slots, you go with the tray, or you Dr. Frankenstein a PC case onto the back. Good luck. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Harloe Posted January 1, 2008 Share Posted January 1, 2008 Ah right! Theres so many different modding techniques! =O I dunno which option is going to be best for me yet but I am just in the research stages at the moment =] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
macmaniac Posted January 2, 2008 Author Share Posted January 2, 2008 I might just go back to the drawing board.... I found Lian Li replacement trays for about $30. Not too expensive at all. Should be simple to install, too. Cut a big hole, and glue in. I just wish it had a 120mm fan.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Harloe Posted January 2, 2008 Share Posted January 2, 2008 The Lian Li mobo tray is the one I had my eye on also! So it's just a simple installation then? I was thinking whether it would be screwed in or glued in... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ahmad Farah Posted January 21, 2008 Share Posted January 21, 2008 Wow good job greeeeeeeeeeat are you Running mac Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aspirina750 Posted January 21, 2008 Share Posted January 21, 2008 Nice, are those 2 Noctua fans? How are they noisewise? Nice work! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
macmaniac Posted January 23, 2008 Author Share Posted January 23, 2008 Ok, I did the Lian Li mobo tray graft. Turned out well. I overcut slightly on the top right-hand side, but other than that, it looks pretty good: Aspirina750: Yes, Noctua fans. Definitely quiet. Ugly but quiet. Kemmi: Oh yeah, glue and rivets. The big rivets are mine. Glue where rivets wouldn't work, and/or to prevent rattles/buzzes/noise..... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aqua-mac Posted January 23, 2008 Share Posted January 23, 2008 Nice job Macmaniac, Now you are in PCI heaven and can make use of all your PCI & PCIe slots! Nice touch - the bottle of Stella B&W/colour picture. Will be good to see it finished with it's bits installed!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ѕӎѳѳ₮ңӌ Posted January 23, 2008 Share Posted January 23, 2008 Very nice, thinking of getting a macbook air, selling the mac pro and building myself a "macro"..... Time to dig out the dusty G5 case...... Oh and why didnt you post in the G5 thread? Could you post a link to that Lian Li mobo tray? I can only seem to find one with half the pci slots Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jerrylander Posted January 23, 2008 Share Posted January 23, 2008 Neato! But that little bottle of Stella looks pretty lonely so far from home Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
macmaniac Posted January 24, 2008 Author Share Posted January 24, 2008 Lian Li link Did I mention I love beer? I kept Stella company. It was a short but pleasant visit. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DiaboliK Posted January 24, 2008 Share Posted January 24, 2008 i have yet to see a nice g5 mod that is atleast at par with my mod skillz. i may have to hunker down finish my g4 cube mod and put you kids to shame. -D- Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ѕӎѳѳ₮ңӌ Posted January 24, 2008 Share Posted January 24, 2008 Thanks for the link! I found it at kustompcs (im in the UK) but its out of stock Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
macmaniac Posted January 28, 2008 Author Share Posted January 28, 2008 Final assembly: Running front panel wire the shortest way. Did I mention that soldering the front panel FireWire and USB was a major PITA? Got it right the first time. Switch and LED works. Front panel audio isn't, but I never use it anyway.... Hot glued the HDD activity LED Antec Phantom 500 power supply HDD rack: 2x Seagate 500GB MacHD + Time machineHD, Samsung SH-S203B DVD "wind-tunnel" fans for HDD and power supply hidden and tucked away, but not the wires yet..... 120mm fan, Thermaltake HR-01 high rise. Good air cooling.... The tan colored Noctua fans.. Yup, she's gonna be quiet. X1950XT & Arctic Cooling Accelero S1 This silent solution is actually cooler than stock noisy fan. Door detail. The middle wind tunnel fans are sealed in to prevent reversion of air flow. Picture of the back. The front is unmodified, and you know what that looks like. Hope you enjoyed the slides. Thanks for your time. This is my last case mod. Its just too time consuming. My mod skillz may not be as good as yours, but I could have made this look a lot nicer and neater, etc. if I wanted to put the time in. But I just don't have the months and months to dedicate to it. If you have the time, go for it. And post in this forum. My next case is a Antec P182. An nice big black monolith. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
biird Posted January 29, 2008 Share Posted January 29, 2008 Wow, I love it! Nice Work! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Opes Posted December 7, 2008 Share Posted December 7, 2008 This is the best G5 mod I have seen! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pirloui Posted December 10, 2008 Share Posted December 10, 2008 Looks good, wanted to put my PSU same place as yours, but the mobo is to low. It's a nice way to keep the PSU "standard". diabolik's mod better kick ass after such an assertion Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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