Adrock's adventures in aluminum

[adrock42]

I figured I'd finally post this as it's getting close to finished. I got my old G5 back from my mother. I gave it to her around the time I made my first hackentosh. Man this thing has some history! I can say that it kick started my career in digital media, as it was the computer I had when I finished my undergrad and went freelance. My mother had used it to learn video editing in Final Cut. The computer would not start and when power up it would go into wind vortex mode. The one time I got into a HW test one of the temp sensors was reporting 2000f.

It was also a little dirty

Dirty case Small

• adrock42
• Jul 10, 2018

I stripped it down and created this fan bracket out of some 1/8 x 1 aluminum bar

IMG_4343

• adrock42
• Jul 10, 2018

IMG_4344

• adrock42
• Jul 10, 2018

IMG_4345

• adrock42
• Jul 10, 2018

Right when I got the case from my mother, I ordered the front panel IO and mATX 120 kit from Laser Hive. I did have to buy a PCI-E usb 3.0 header card. See link below if you are looking for something that is plug and play

IMG_4352

• adrock42
• Jul 10, 2018

FPIO small

• adrock42
• Jul 10, 2018

Power supply goes up top attached to a long sleeved wire. I had some think sleeving left over from making grounds for my car

Bad Plug small

• adrock42
• Jul 10, 2018

the 90 degree power connector is needed here

good plug small

• adrock42
• Jul 10, 2018

I grabbed a Lian Li HD rack from Performance-PCs. Turns out they are about 100 miles from me, so shipping is quick, sometimes quicker than Amazon. All of the components were in my TJ08-E, which is also a right sided case. Here is the first iteration

drive caddyu

• adrock42
• Jul 10, 2018

Monstercorsair

• adrock42
• Jul 10, 2018

But that's just the start. More coming soon

parts purchased

• http://www.performance-pcs.com/lian...3x3-3-x-3-5-hdd-extension-cage-all-black.html
• https://www.homedepot.com/p/Everbil...m-Flat-Bar-with-1-8-in-Thick-801937/204273949
  
• Laser Hive stuff https://www.thelaserhive.com/
• https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01G85LFEK/?tag=tonymacx86com-20

Computer Parts

• GA-h97m-D3H
• Intel i5 4660
• 2 Noctua NF-P12s
• Corsair h80i gt with the 2 fans
• Nvidia GTX 1080 FE
• Corsair rx650i
• 3 HDDS and 2 SSDs

 

[adrock42]

I wasn't quite happy with the HDDs there, and I wanted to add a custom water cooling loop. I saw all of those pics of water cooled G5s from Apple. The liquid would drip down into the bottom and make a mess, so my plan was to not have any components below the water. First was dealing with the HDD rack. I saw somewhere else someone used curtain rails, and I had a bunch of these Lian Li thumbscrews with rubber grommets on them. I decided to experiment. Check out my PATA HDD.

Caddy Stand Alone Small

• adrock42
• Jul 10, 2018

Not too shabby. I learned that not all Aluminum is created equal. In the below image, the broken one is an Aluminum bar acquired from Lowes.

Broken Small

• adrock42
• Jul 10, 2018

Here is the thing I used to cut the curtain rail straight

Cutting Small

• adrock42
• Jul 10, 2018

So I decided to combine my ideas and made this thing

Sled Small 2

• adrock42
• Jul 10, 2018

It works out OK. I also grabbed some white Corsair wires, which was a terrible idea cause they get really dirty really quick. I grabbed some 12x15 Noctua Slim fans to fit in front of the bracket and bring in some air. The old optical drive would not work, so I tore it apart and used the bottom to mount two more HDDs

Sled Installed Small

• adrock42
• Jul 10, 2018

The new fan bracket can be used for a 240mm radiator and 2 HDDs or 4 SDDs

Sled Small

• adrock42
• Jul 10, 2018

New Parts

• https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B007N72KSS/?tag=tonymacx86com-20
  
• https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003MAAYLU/?tag=tonymacx86com-20
  
• More aluminum bar!!!
• https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01MYXXPR1/?tag=tonymacx86com-20

 

[adrock42]

Interlude: I want to say a big thanks to this forum. It's inspired all of this. I was more involved on insanely mac back in the day when osx86 became a thing, but I found way more inspiration here for this. cheers

 

[adrock42]

View media item 190616
I won't bore you too much with the water cooling stuff, but know that I drew a bunch of sketches to figure the whole thing out. I added a thin aluminum sheet bent so that it stands as tall as the mother board, used to hide the wires. I want to disassemble and measure it so I can get it laser cut, and get some stainless 3.5m screws to go into the stock standoffs.

My drain port works really well

Fittings

• adrock42
• Jul 10, 2018

behind the pump there is a ball valve for draining

Backpanel Small

• adrock42
• Jul 10, 2018

Installed Light Small

• adrock42
• Jul 10, 2018

I used a Silverstone SSD and Slim Optical Holder up top to hold 3 SSDs and got rid of one of the HDDs. I added two bars to hold the floor up. The floor is made out of some really thin mod'er's mesh to allow for airflow. Not sure if I want to keep it, or have just the part where the fan is laser cut to allow for ventilation above it. Below is the 240 EK rad and two holes covered by more of the mod'er's mesh. Two Noctua F12s sit on top.

I got larger reservoir, because I figured it could fit below the HDDs and it does by 5mm. I do not plan to go crazy with RGB, but I like the RGB turned to white and then put through the water. Makes a neat effect. Honestly, ordering the RGB GPU waterblock was an accident.

Installed Dark Small

• adrock42
• Jul 10, 2018

This was my first computer mod. This is fun

 

[adrock42]

What's left?

1. I really want to pull the wire cover off and measure it. I have the outside measurements, but I need the hole locations. Then I'd like to have it laser cut in some thicker aluminum or stainless
2. I have another fan to go on the rear Rad for push->pull. I need to drain the loop and add an extension there.
3. The USB 3.0 wires from the laser hive Front Panel IO are stiff. I've seen a 90 degree usb 3.0 that I need to put on there, and I need to clean up the wires a little more.
4. I bought this board and built the mobo/cpu/ran originally for a hackentosh, but haven't really messed with it for a couple of years. I got a job and they keep me in new computers. Right now this is for gaming entertainment, but I'd like to apply high sierra to it.
5. When the 9 series intels comes out, it's probably time to upgrade to z390, i5 k, DDR4 ram. I Hope it'll work for hackentosh!!!
6. MAYBE (a big maybe) go for rigid tubing or just larger tubing

 

[adrock42]

I put in some work on the beast. I removed the wire cover and added some clips so the cables are not just flopping around.

Wires1

• adrock42
• Jul 10, 2018

Wires2

• adrock42
• Jul 10, 2018

them wires are DIRTY! there is no cleaning em, I need to get new ones. Maybe I'll make my own

here is a better shot of the drain valve

Better Drain Shot

• adrock42
• Jul 10, 2018

I also made a DIY shoggy sandwich, which seams to work better than the aluminum catastrophe I created to mount the pump originally

Sandwich1

• adrock42
• Jul 10, 2018

Sandwich2

• adrock42
• Jul 10, 2018

My brother-in-law had this rgb strip that was really easy to work with, so I added one under the floor and re-did the cooling runs. The way the cooling runs work now, with the drain valve, bleed means just tilting the machine back once, and draining means tilting the machine forward once (win). I also pulled the GPU power cable up and added a grommet to fight against sag.

flow

• adrock42
• Jul 10, 2018

A better shot of the RGB set as white, the light is then split thru water refraction

badge

• adrock42
• Jul 10, 2018

Now that the cover is off I like have access to the wires without tearing down. I need to figure out how to get something in there that is removable. the heat sync cover will do fine for now

Cover

• adrock42
• Jul 10, 2018

 

[adrock42]

I also made all these image smaller so that this page loads faster, and installed high sierra on a thumb drive. I need a blank drive to install it onto, going in on that tonight

 

[adrock42]

Yee

• adrock42
• Jul 13, 2018

that has gotten much easier

That has gotten much easier than it was 8-10 years ago.

I just did the vanilla UniBeast install. Ran a DSDT out of RW - Read & Write in Windows. In MultiBeast I installed the bootloader, audio, networking, and the USBInject kext. It kept black screening after installing the Nvidia web drivers. So I used remote desktop to VNC in, turns out the resolution was set to mega. I turned it down and the screen blinked on. It's a TV so out of range is probably easier.

I'm not sure what's working yet and what's not. I got all my sensors working in iStat with FakeSMB. I need to get Nvidia audio going so it can play through the TV over HDMi