neoofoox's G5 Mod

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
• MSI GeForce GTX 970 Gaming 4G
• 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/A...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.
• 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
• Color the inner case (with the holes) in a dark gray using Montana Cans
• 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 a SD Slot position?

Just remove the G5 PSU internals and replace with the internals of the ATX PSU. this way you retain the use of the G5 PSU 60mm cooling fans which are more than adequate for cooling.

http://www.tonymacx86.com/powermac-g5/164113-my-power-mac-g5-atx-hackintosh-mod.html

I know that it is possible to do that, but I want to keep my warrenty. So I decided to keep the ATX PSU.
So I have to think about a way to hide maybe by reusing the original PSU top housing, when this fails I will use my old PSU and build it in the housing, but that would offend my target to make the case reusable for the future (swaping the hardware without much effort)

Your build looks great on the inside. I have to clean up the inside a lot, but first, I have to find a spot for the SD-Card reader and add a new front i/o panel, so I can paint it, and continue on the inside.

Hopefully I finish all that before my exchanged mainboard returns.

You'll have to cut out a hole for the PSU fan in either the top of the origional PSU case or in the bottom of the G5 case to hide it down there, I'd recommend a filter of you want it facing down and put the case on the floor.

Is that OCZ PSU still under warranty? I know they sold their PSU division over a year ago and I'm not sure if the new company (firepower) is going to honor them.

Edit: I guess they will be honoring OCZ's warranties:

As of February 12, 2014 FirePower Technology has acquired the power supply assets of OCZ Technology Group and PC Power and Cooling. Firepower Technology has announced that it plans to honor the warranty obligations of its installed base and will operate out of the company's facilities in Carlsbad, California. For additional information and PSU product support inquires please visit their website at www.firepower-technology.com

My OCZ PSU isn't under warrenty any more (about 6 years old). I bought a new one from be quiet! for the new hardware and the ocz is used in the old pc.
I think I will go with cutting a hole in the top of the original PSU case.

Today I cut a hole above the dvd drive for the SD card, there I will put the internal board of a 5 in 1 card reader to read only SD cards.
For the front I/O panel I won't order that Lian Li one, I will buy something like this and clue it behind the usb and firewire port and leave the headphone connection empty.

Today I will wet sand the case and prepare it for painting.

EDIT:
I wanted to paint it today, but the spray cap is clogged. So I have to order a new cap.
But I have finished the SD Card Slot. I haven't been happy with the result of yesterday.

That was the state of yesterday. On the left side you can see the cardreader board I will use


That is the current state, I used "UHU Repair all Powerkit" to close the slot and cuttet the slot again, so there are no open holes, it looks cleaner and the sd card doesn't stuck anymore.

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

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.


There has been little changes in the last month which I haven't post.
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.






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.



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 him later in that post) made his holder for the front IO.

That's an example how it should (or not should) look like in the future:



And that's how I mounted the SSDs while I had to use my PC as a daily driver.
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.



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.
My acryl will be cutted in the next days, then I will try to bend that 5mm thick one. The reason why I don't use my current one anymore is that I didn't thought about the front I/O gap.


I already 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 will shorten to the right size. In the meantime I allready removed the little standoffs with this technic and filled the holes up with the "UHU REPAIR ALL POWERKIT" and sanded it to an even ground. I shortened some of the standoffs while disassembling which I had to file down with the dremel which creates some scratches in the case which I don't know exactly I can fill. I think they will be so small to fill with the UHU but maybe the epoxy will do that? Do you have some experience with that or other suggestions?

neoofoox said:

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.



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.
My acryl will be cutted in the next days, then I will try to bend that 5mm thick one. The reason why I don't use my current one anymore is that I didn't thought about the front I/O gap.


I already 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 will shorten to the right size. In the meantime I allready removed the little standoffs with this technic and filled the holes up with the "UHU REPAIR ALL POWERKIT" and sanded it to an even ground. I shortened some of the standoffs while disassembling which I had to file down with the dremel which creates some scratches in the case which I don't know exactly I can fill. I think they will be so small to fill with the UHU but maybe the epoxy will do that? Do you have some experience with that or other suggestions?

Click to expand...

Your idea for the Card Reader is nice. Are you going to keep a place for a dvd drive like the one in your reference?

It was nice that you like my wire management which is one of the reason why i revised my mod.
for the SSD placement, you can check with Laser Hive as his Motherboard Tray comes with the ssd or 2.5hdd mount like mine. for ATX there will be 3 SSD's you can put. for mATX it will be 2 only like mine.

regarding the standoffs, did you tried using vice grip? to pull the shortened standoffs. (i accidentally did the same also before) then I used vice grip to pull the remaining part like suggested also here in the forums.

Hello voidfahrenheit,

nice to hear from you
Yes, I want keep the DVD drive the same as the original G5. I like the mechanism.

I read that you ordered it form laser hive, but I don't want to spend so much money. (shipping is expensive)

I removed most of the standoffs with the dremel, because I didn't knew that you can remove the standoffs with that technic.
For Wiremanagement I thought about doing it like this:

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)

I bend the acrylic today. Its not perfect, but that result is much, much better then my first tries, because it is useable In my opinion the thicker acrylic was much easier to bend than a small one. I was scaptical if I have to heat the acrylic from both sides, but that was not necessary.
[video=youtube_share;K1rur1Gd77Y]https://youtu.be/K1rur1Gd77Y[/video]

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:

I have to bend it exactly that I can connect it to the dvd mount plate. The radius has to be very big and then I have problems with mounting the fans. So I think I will cut is, and don't bend on the top.

neoofoox said:

Hello voidfahrenheit,

nice to hear from you
Yes, I want keep the DVD drive the same as the original G5. I like the mechanism.

I read that you ordered it form laser hive, but I don't want to spend so much money. (shipping is expensive)

I removed most of the standoffs with the dremel, because I didn't knew that you can remove the standoffs with that technic.
For Wiremanagement I thought about doing it like this:

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)

I bend the acrylic today. Its not perfect, but that result is much, much better then my first tries, because it is useable In my opinion the thicker acrylic was much easier to bend than a small one. I was scaptical if I have to heat the acrylic from both sides, but that was not necessary.
[video=youtube_share;K1rur1Gd77Y]https://youtu.be/K1rur1Gd77Y[/video]

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:

I have to bend it exactly that I can connect it to the dvd mount plate. The radius has to be very big and then I have problems with mounting the fans. So I think I will cut is, and don't bend on the top.

Click to expand...

that was a nice bend. i agree on not bending at the top(dvd plate) only do it at the bottom part and yes, avoid the io part. don't worry about the fan bracket it will stand properly XD

for the ssd underneath the motherboard, just be sure to put something in-between the ssd and the motherboard to avoid short circuit? XD but i think it will work the way you want it.

regarding cabling...i think our disadvantage is that the G5 doesn't have another side panel to manage the cables properly compared to ATX cases nowadays. that's the hardest part of cable management with the G5 that i encountered. whenever i do a maintenance/cleaning, i make sure that all cables are in the right place and does not interfere with the standoffs(like mine 'coz the standoffs was glued/epoxy only) before i screw the cable cover plate on the standoffs and made sure that the plate will not be bulgy.

and i think the disadvantage of inserting the cables in the plates like i did was...if the psu stops working(i hope not) i need to redo the cabling again. that's why i think extension cables is the best option for the G5...if you have enough room to hide the excess cables too. coz if not, you need to use the original cables or custom cables not an extension cables + original cables.