Eerie Blue Glow. My second G5 Mod

MacTester57 · Sep 2, 2012

Clean work as always! :thumbup:

chaosdesigns · Sep 3, 2012

Back in post #20 of this thread I was trying to figure out how I would get access to the two bottom screws that are used to mount the drive cage to the aluminum rails. I thought that I would have to drill two access holes in the front lip and buy a really long screw driver to get at them. I wound up getting a 6" screwdriver bit and using a mini bit ratchet that I had in my tool box. It fit perfectly and works like a charm.

By masking the area around the aluminum bars and removing the masking tape at about the 6 hour mark, I am able to create a really clean JB Weld. Here is the lower drive cage mounting rail with minimal seepage.

and the upper drive cage mounting rail...minimal glue seepage.

Soldering the Drive Pigtail
Well after all the work I put into my homemade drive cage and fancy pigtail wiring, today I cut it all off. What I am left with is two stubby SATA power pigtails from the PSU.

I salvaged the drive power pigtail connector from the original G5 PSU and I'm going to connect it to the stubby power pigtails of the PSU. This way I can re-use the original black power cable harness from the G5 that runs underneath the motherboard and powers the optical and hard drives.

Soldered together

Sleaved

Wiring the Drive Cage
I carefully removed the SATA power connectors from the ends of the clipped off power pigtails and installed them inline so that each wire will now power two drives. Since each of the original pigtails could power three devices, this should be fine.

Completed - underneath. Wires are neatly zap-strapped to the back of the cage to minimize unsightly wires.

Completed - Front. I had to replace the MOLEX connector that used to feed power to the original G5 optical drive. I replaced it with two SATA connectors.

I plan to add some cool lighting to the top and bottom of the case. This blue cold cathode kit comes with two cathode bars, a switch for the back panel, a circuit box and a power connector. Installation uses velcro. I may or may not use it.

I added blue sleeving to all the wires.

ASSEMBLY
The first thing to be installed is the top shelf and power supply. This photo was taken with the G5 case upside-down as it was easier to install the top shelf that way. The door latching mechanism is much simpler to install than it is to remove.

This isn't a really good picture of how I am routing the wire for the top cathode. The cathode itself is mounted behind the top lip, just in front of the power supply.

The cathode is lying just in front of the power supply.

Time to install the motherboard tray. Here is the CPU power cable routed nicely under the tray.

Front Fans and Front Panel cable installed.

This photo shows the routing the front panel cable and the front fans power cable.

Its starting to look like something!

The motherboard tray is now installed....cabling starting to build up.

Thats all for today! Almost time to prepare the motherboard for installation.

cnrtechhead · Sep 4, 2012

If I can offer you one bit of advice, TEST your custom SATA harness! Use a multimeter, or a small junk HD with no data on it. I FUBAR'd almost $350 worth of drives and lost a few weeks of data last March because I had two wires backwards, and was in a hurry.

chaosdesigns · Sep 4, 2012

cnrtechhead said:
TEST your custom SATA harness! Use a multimeter, or a small junk HD with no data on it.

I definitely will do that! Thanks for the reminder.

chaosdesigns · Sep 6, 2012

Here is a photo of the hard drive cage installed.

Motherboard ready to be installed.

Motherboard installed.

All the wiring is connected, Optical drive installed, Fans added to the CPU cooler, Rear fans installed.

Close up of rear fans.

Close up of CPU cooler fans

SATA cables plugged in, Front Panel cable too. I have ordered some cool blue SATA cables, but they have not yet arrived, so I am using some stock ones for now.

Final assembly... Eerie Blue Glow comes alive! Just prior to this, I tested the output of the power cables to the hard disks to ensure that my custom power cable was hooked up correctly.

Another shot showing the monitor.

The glow is really blue! The photo doesn't do it justice. Here is a shot without the camera flash.

Here is a shot of the rear panel, without flash. Im using a temporary power cable. I think that one needs to be retired. I chose black grilles for the fans and used black fan screws to match.

Here is a shot of the rear panel using a flash. Notice the little red switch that is used to turn off an on the blue cathodes.

Here is a shot of the inside with the plastic cover removed using a flash. I also mounted the inverter behind the latch mechanism on the back panel.

inside, complete, computer off, lower section

inside, complete, computer off, top section included

closeup of graphics card and cathode inverter

chaosdesigns · Sep 6, 2012

MacTester57 said:
Clean work as always!

Thanks!

chaosdesigns · Sep 6, 2012

KoalaMan said:
looks sweet!

Thanks, I'm glad you like it.

sonicseamus · Sep 6, 2012

Wow wow wow it's truly beautiful!!! Are you using a USB sound card? Also, is that the Hyper 212? If so, is it a fairly quiet cooler? I'm thinking of getting one.

Actually, I realize the quietness is all about the fans. Did you manage to get quiet fans?

chaosdesigns · Sep 6, 2012

sonicseamus said:
Wow wow wow it's truly beautiful!!! Are you using a USB sound card? Also, is that the Hyper 212? If so, is it a fairly quiet cooler? I'm thinking of getting one.

Actually, I realize the quietness is all about the fans. Did you manage to get quiet fans?

Thank-you Thank-you Thank-you! Yes, I am using a USB Dongle for sound. Yes, I am using the Hyper 212 evo. (Im planning on posting my parts list when I get all the links completed) The cooler itself is super quiet....not a peep! Its the fans attached to it that make the noise. Ok, all kidding aside... if you just use the stock single fan that comes with it, it has a 4 pin connector and is very quiet most of the time. If you put the CPU under load then you can hear the fan spin faster, but all in all, it is much quieter than ANY of the G5 fans in ANY condition.

In the current setup, I can hear the front fans the most and am considering changing them out for quieter ones.

If you get a Hyper 212, get the "evo" version and not the "plus", it is about 4 degrees cooler. And they go on sale very often for about $30 bucks!

chaosdesigns · Sep 7, 2012

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