- Joined
- Sep 28, 2018
- Messages
- 3
Hello All, here is a series of pictures and a brief story on a G5 build I did last summer.
I scored one of these cases for 37USD +- plus an extra 1KW Apple PSU for free about 2 years ago. I originally thought of using the apple hardware that it came with but it was not booting. Also one of the power supplies was busted so I first sort out on fixing that. It was not much of a mission to fix, some of the Mosfet on the high side of the power supply went closed circuit (probably because some dust shorted them out). I just replaced them and just like that I had two 1KW Apples PSU's.
I firstly emptied the case of the old hardware and then installed a front I/O panel from theLaserhive.com (I am sure some of you know about this store), I also bought their mini ATX conversion kit from them.
The Mechanical Part
So my goal of this build was to keep the case as original as possible E.G original fans, Power supply and mechanical parts. Now I did wish to keep the original I/O panel but the one sold by the laser hive matches the case pretty well and I would not have to deal with soldering wires to the original panel.
Here is the case with the installed Kit and I/O panel and some of the cutting that was done to the case.
The Power Supply
The Power supply has no standard connectors therefore if one wants to use the original power supply they would have to modify all the connections, so that is what I did.
Here is the original PSU with the cables I would need to solder to it.
These massive connectors had to be removed, I bought a cheap 500 watt soldering Iron from Hornbach and it got the job done but it was not easy.
After the original connectors were removed I began soldering in the new cables I had made. These two are power for the CPU and GPU (12V rails)
Here I am testing the completed modification of the Power supply with a PSU tester (Note that these are really cheap devices and cannot be trusted so double check every connection with a Multimeter). Also note that this power supply does not have a negative 12V rail, So if you need it for any reason you will have to make an extra circuit to create that rail.
And below is the completed modification. I know the cables look weird but they fit perfectly in the case with no extra cable lying around to make a mess
Here is a quick shot of me measuring the lengths of the power cables.
The Fan Controller and Temp Readers
Since I wanted to use the original fans that came with the G5 I had to make myself a custom circuit since you cannot simply plug them to an ATX motherboard. After doing some reading on the net I found the pinout of the fans and created a circuit that used 3x LM713 voltage regulators. These regulators have the ability to change the output voltage based off a feed back pin therefor changing the fan speed.
I also created a little "Amplifier " circuit to utilize the original speak that came with the case that would beep when the motherboard posts.
Another Part of the circuit was reading temperature from sensors around the case. I removed the original temp sensors and placed some Dallas 18b20 temperature sensor in their place.
All of these parts were then controlled by an Arduino Nano and would be connect to one of the internal USB header of the motherboard to receive the temp data and control fan speeds manually if need be.
The 18B20 sensors
Here I was testing the fans with a bench Power supply (Note that these fans use a ton a current)
Unfortunately two of the original fans were not running smoothly from all the dust they had collected over the years.
I replaced them with some standard 80 mm fans.
Here I was testing the small amplifier I made for the speaker. The Red/Black wire is the speaker and the Red/White wire was the motherboard connection.
Here I was test fitting the control box inside the case
The inside of the control box. Those beefy heat sinks are for the power hungry CPU fans.
Some not so nice wire management under the board ( I will eventually get a PCB manufactured to replace this)
Here the controller is installed (That switch is for programming, in the case I am programming another Arduino for a project I do not want to accidentally program the Arduino inside the computer, the switch connects a capacitor to the reset pin of the Arduino disabling it from being programmed)
Here you can see it fits perfectly underneath the front CPU fans.
And for some final shots...
System Specs
Any questions are welcome.
Byron
I scored one of these cases for 37USD +- plus an extra 1KW Apple PSU for free about 2 years ago. I originally thought of using the apple hardware that it came with but it was not booting. Also one of the power supplies was busted so I first sort out on fixing that. It was not much of a mission to fix, some of the Mosfet on the high side of the power supply went closed circuit (probably because some dust shorted them out). I just replaced them and just like that I had two 1KW Apples PSU's.
I firstly emptied the case of the old hardware and then installed a front I/O panel from theLaserhive.com (I am sure some of you know about this store), I also bought their mini ATX conversion kit from them.
The Mechanical Part
So my goal of this build was to keep the case as original as possible E.G original fans, Power supply and mechanical parts. Now I did wish to keep the original I/O panel but the one sold by the laser hive matches the case pretty well and I would not have to deal with soldering wires to the original panel.
Here is the case with the installed Kit and I/O panel and some of the cutting that was done to the case.
The Power Supply
The Power supply has no standard connectors therefore if one wants to use the original power supply they would have to modify all the connections, so that is what I did.
Here is the original PSU with the cables I would need to solder to it.
These massive connectors had to be removed, I bought a cheap 500 watt soldering Iron from Hornbach and it got the job done but it was not easy.
After the original connectors were removed I began soldering in the new cables I had made. These two are power for the CPU and GPU (12V rails)
Here I am testing the completed modification of the Power supply with a PSU tester (Note that these are really cheap devices and cannot be trusted so double check every connection with a Multimeter). Also note that this power supply does not have a negative 12V rail, So if you need it for any reason you will have to make an extra circuit to create that rail.
And below is the completed modification. I know the cables look weird but they fit perfectly in the case with no extra cable lying around to make a mess
Here is a quick shot of me measuring the lengths of the power cables.
The Fan Controller and Temp Readers
Since I wanted to use the original fans that came with the G5 I had to make myself a custom circuit since you cannot simply plug them to an ATX motherboard. After doing some reading on the net I found the pinout of the fans and created a circuit that used 3x LM713 voltage regulators. These regulators have the ability to change the output voltage based off a feed back pin therefor changing the fan speed.
I also created a little "Amplifier " circuit to utilize the original speak that came with the case that would beep when the motherboard posts.
Another Part of the circuit was reading temperature from sensors around the case. I removed the original temp sensors and placed some Dallas 18b20 temperature sensor in their place.
All of these parts were then controlled by an Arduino Nano and would be connect to one of the internal USB header of the motherboard to receive the temp data and control fan speeds manually if need be.
The 18B20 sensors
Here I was testing the fans with a bench Power supply (Note that these fans use a ton a current)
Unfortunately two of the original fans were not running smoothly from all the dust they had collected over the years.
I replaced them with some standard 80 mm fans.
Here I was testing the small amplifier I made for the speaker. The Red/Black wire is the speaker and the Red/White wire was the motherboard connection.
Here I was test fitting the control box inside the case
The inside of the control box. Those beefy heat sinks are for the power hungry CPU fans.
Some not so nice wire management under the board ( I will eventually get a PCB manufactured to replace this)
Here the controller is installed (That switch is for programming, in the case I am programming another Arduino for a project I do not want to accidentally program the Arduino inside the computer, the switch connects a capacitor to the reset pin of the Arduino disabling it from being programmed)
Here you can see it fits perfectly underneath the front CPU fans.
And for some final shots...
System Specs
- GTX1060 Founders Edition
- Core i5-7500 3.4 GHz
- Asus H170m-plus
- 16GB RAM
- 256 SSD M2
- 2* 1TB in RAID 0
- 1KW PSU
- DVD/CD RW ROM
Any questions are welcome.
Byron
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