- Joined
- Apr 4, 2011
- Messages
- 188
- Motherboard
- Gigabyte GA-Z68MA-D2H-B3
- CPU
- G620
- Graphics
- GTS 250
- Mac
- Mobile Phone
DoctorEvil 30564's Powermac G4 Graphite Customac
I won't go into a lot of specifics, as most of the methods for what I've done to my case were shamelessly stolen from the shared info from others on this forum. (Thanks guys you rock!)
I started with a semi-working Powermac G4 Graphite desktop system that I purchased on ebay.
Parts used in system
Gigabyte GA-Z68MA-D2H-B3 Motherboard
Intel Pentium G620 CPU
16GB of Patriot DDR3 ram
120GB Seagate SATA drive
PNY XLR8 1GB GTS 250 video card
homemade apple airport cart built using apple airport laptop card in mini pci-e adapter.
preparation:
I first removed all of the old and useless to me parts from the case.
Next I used a Kit I purchased from here http://www.thelaserhive.com/products/g4-powermac-conversion-products/early-g4g3-kits/kit-1/ with a Laser cut Persplex I/O backplate, a template to help me ensure I drilled the motherboard mount holes correctly, and custom made motherboard mounts with Nylon threaded locking nuts for the back.
Here is how the back of the case looks now
This is the AWESOME Crappy Soldering I did to get the front panel working.
Power and reset buttons and Power LED all work, I had originally thought I had a bad power LED because I couldn't get it to light up, but it turned out to be due to me wiring the wiring harness wrong and not due to a bad LED. It's fixed now.
Here is the wiring block that I used to wire up my power and reset buttons and the power led
And here is a picture of the wiring harness I used
if you're interested in using this same harness for a similar project search for CBL084L on ebay or amazon.
This is a wiring harness adapter for a SuperMicro brand 2U server case to allow the case to be used with a non-supermicro motherboard. I have access to these from work as we build out supermicro servers for our customers and don't use the adapter so it gets tossed.
As you can see the adapter has a lot of wires, definitely more than what I needed. What I did was use a flat headed precision screwdriver that was small enough to fit under the plastic tab that holds the pins in the wiring block and I then removed the pins for any of the wires that I didn't need. since I used two of the same wiring block I had to switch around the positions on the second harness cable so I had matching wiring on both sides of the pin header adapter block.
I used the sleeving off of another cable that we discard that comes in the supermicro server chassis to help tidy up my wires.
I forgot to mention i but I also re-wired the original case speaker with new wiring and used the same sleeve on it also for a uniform look.
more pictures of the mostly finished system.
the cuts I made to the optical drive bracket
pictures of the wiring
open case shots (note the 4 pin 12V cable isn't quite long enough to comfortable allow the case to lay open with it connected without straining the connector so it is disconnected in most of these shots)
I won't go into a lot of specifics, as most of the methods for what I've done to my case were shamelessly stolen from the shared info from others on this forum. (Thanks guys you rock!)
I started with a semi-working Powermac G4 Graphite desktop system that I purchased on ebay.
Parts used in system
Gigabyte GA-Z68MA-D2H-B3 Motherboard
Intel Pentium G620 CPU
16GB of Patriot DDR3 ram
120GB Seagate SATA drive
PNY XLR8 1GB GTS 250 video card
homemade apple airport cart built using apple airport laptop card in mini pci-e adapter.
preparation:
I first removed all of the old and useless to me parts from the case.
Next I used a Kit I purchased from here http://www.thelaserhive.com/products/g4-powermac-conversion-products/early-g4g3-kits/kit-1/ with a Laser cut Persplex I/O backplate, a template to help me ensure I drilled the motherboard mount holes correctly, and custom made motherboard mounts with Nylon threaded locking nuts for the back.
Here is how the back of the case looks now
This is the AWESOME Crappy Soldering I did to get the front panel working.
Power and reset buttons and Power LED all work, I had originally thought I had a bad power LED because I couldn't get it to light up, but it turned out to be due to me wiring the wiring harness wrong and not due to a bad LED. It's fixed now.
Here is the wiring block that I used to wire up my power and reset buttons and the power led
And here is a picture of the wiring harness I used
if you're interested in using this same harness for a similar project search for CBL084L on ebay or amazon.
This is a wiring harness adapter for a SuperMicro brand 2U server case to allow the case to be used with a non-supermicro motherboard. I have access to these from work as we build out supermicro servers for our customers and don't use the adapter so it gets tossed.
As you can see the adapter has a lot of wires, definitely more than what I needed. What I did was use a flat headed precision screwdriver that was small enough to fit under the plastic tab that holds the pins in the wiring block and I then removed the pins for any of the wires that I didn't need. since I used two of the same wiring block I had to switch around the positions on the second harness cable so I had matching wiring on both sides of the pin header adapter block.
I used the sleeving off of another cable that we discard that comes in the supermicro server chassis to help tidy up my wires.
I forgot to mention i but I also re-wired the original case speaker with new wiring and used the same sleeve on it also for a uniform look.
more pictures of the mostly finished system.
the cuts I made to the optical drive bracket
pictures of the wiring
open case shots (note the 4 pin 12V cable isn't quite long enough to comfortable allow the case to lay open with it connected without straining the connector so it is disconnected in most of these shots)