Another Power Mac G5 Casemod (No cutting!)

[smi]

hey guys,

so here is my G5 Casemod. About a year i had the idea to install osx on my PC. 4 weeks ago i finally bought my new PC and assembled it together. OSX 10.8.2 is running smooth on my system.

My System:

Apple OS X Mountain Lion 1.8.2
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/os-x-...512?ls=1&mt=12

MB:
Gigabyte Ga H77M D3H (mATX cause of casemodding a G5)

CPU:
Intel Core i5 3450

GPU:
Gainward GTX 560 (nonti) (natively supported !! no extra kexts !)

RAM:
Kingston Value Ram 16GB 1333MHz (4x4 GB)

CD/DVD:
cheap Samsung CD/DVD burner

PSU:
Cougar 450W

Already Owned:

HDD:
Seagate Barracuda 250 GB

Monitor:
Acer 22" TFT LCD

Mouse + Keyboard:
Logitech Mouse + Apple Keyboard

at the same time i bought an old power mac G5 case on ebay. it was broken (cpu). i read a lot here about casemodding a G5 and where the difficulties are. I decided to go the hard way and let this beautiful case his clean look that meant i had do solder a lot with ab bit of cutting and gluing. For the additional cables for USB, Audio and Ethernet i used my old case. it had plenty of it

this is what i am modding


and this is the case after cleaning it out some parts were hard to remove !



"unboxed" the PSU



this is where you have to solder the audio out cables



and this is the soldering position for the 2 USB ports



the soldering station i used


prepaired cables


audio and Usb soldering points


thats where the problems startet. audio is bit too quiet... i guess its the soldering. i didnt do it right. the USB ports dont work at all. but a big goal was that ethernet worked 100%. i have 32.000er DSL and the tested speed through the soldered Ethernet was 29.000er and upload 1000.


i also costumized the PSU i was fitting into the Mac's PSU case. I cut the PSU jack and reused it for my PC PSU. works just fine !

aaand then testing the soldered PSU with my old Core 2 Duo and my 9600 GT. i also rewired the apple original PSU fans (carefull: they are loud) just solder the black cable to the red wire of the connecter and black to red connector cable. they are cooling the PSU quiet good


at least i soldered the front I/O cables after a scetch i found here on tonymac. just cant find it right now. problem was that the cablenumbers on the sketch were different to mine. but i just had to change 2 pins and the power button and the LED worked.

this is the "final" prototype of my running system. i tested all components and they work. now i have to build in HDD cage, dvd drive and my (hopefully) better soldered rear panel I/O.

 

[Jerime]

Nice! It's looking good. I may just have to look into doing what you did!

 

[smi]

thx man ! today i bought glue to glue the original mobo mountings to the back of the case. this costs 8,50€ and is epoxy-2-components glue which is mixing automaticly.


This is a close look on how i glued the pins onto the case


after waiting for about 90min (30min blow drying cause the glue is stronger when its drying at about 40-70°C) i glued the rear I/O plate in its right position


this is how the rear I/O looks. nice and clean without any cutting



the next steps are cutting the rear I/O plate again to fit into the gap between the mobo and the rear case. then i'm gonna mount the original HDD cage and a DVD drive. last but not least i'm gonna solder the front the I/O right (USB isnt soldered yet)

 

[Jerime]

I'm jealous, I never thought of using the old G5 board and just soldering it. Did you find the references online to do this, or do you know from prior knowledge?

 

[smi]

i searched a lot for g5 mods. unfortunately there are like 99% cutting g5 mods and only 1% non-cutting g5 mods....its sad that you just cut the rear I/O cause the case is soooo clean designed. thats why i wanted to keep the apple look as close as possible (at least for the outside)

this is the main thread i took almost all my inspiration from
http://www.tonymacx86.com/case-mods...5-mod-update-05-10-gtx-285-flash-mac-rom.html

additional i searched google and found those sites:

one of the best G5 mods ever:
http://forums.kustompcs.co.uk/showthread.php?t=52076

front I/O cables:
http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/222735-g5-front-panel-to-atx-io-cables/

PSU mod (original jack with PC PSU):
http://www.tonymacx86.com/case-mods/41536-reuse-g5-power-mac-psu-2.html

for the soldering connections for the rear I/O plate just check my fotos above.
edit: i just found a helpful thread on insanelymac about the rear logic board reusing thing:
http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/to...nclosure/page__st__660__p__977693#entry977693

i am also thinking of making my own rear I/O plate. like i saw on another thread... wouldnt be too difficult and not that expensive