Another powermac g5 mod, my first g5

[sharkman]

So, I've been lurking these forums for a while and I finally got around to doing my first powermac g5 case mod. I forgot to take a lot of pictures during the build but I do have some so I thought I would share.

The AX1200 power supply is about 1 1/2 inches longer than your typical power supply, so I ended up cutting out where the groove is on the top plate to get it to fit nicely, it also made it easier to route the wires down from the PSU. I also cut a hole for the 140mm fan in the top plate.

For the hard drive cage I just JB-Welded some of the powermac standoffs (6 to be exact) onto the case to match up with the wholes cut from the 120mm fan that is mounted on the hard drive cage, ended up working quite nicely. I also attached two silent 120mm fans to the side of the cage to pull air in from the front, and they seem to work pretty well as my GPU sits in the 30s (C) idle and my CPU hovers around 30-35 (C however that's probably more the Corsair H80)

I only wired the power switch and power led for right now, as I don't really want the USB1.1 and my motherboard doesn't have a firewire header. However, I might do the audio this weekend.

I have not decided if I will try installing OSX, as I do not really have a need for it on my desktop.

But here are the specs for this build.

• 1.6ghz powermac g5 - Got it from my Uni for $60
• ASRock Z77 Extreme4
• Intel i5 3570k @ 4.5ghz
• Corsair Hydro H80
• Random assortment of DDR3-1600 that I had laying around
• 1x HyperX 3k 120gb SSD + 1x Corsair Force GT 120GB SSD in RAID-0
• 1TB Hitachi Deskstar Sata 3gb/s (a spare I had laying around)
• EVGA GTX680 SC Signature 2 (1097/6208)
• 2 x SilenX EFX-12-15 120mm Case Fan (front of the case, I attached them to the side of the hard drive cage.)
• 1x Sans Media hard drive cage
• Mountain Mods mobo tray
• 2 x ENERMAX TB SILENCE UCTB8 80mm Case Fan (for the MM back plate)
• Corsair AX1200 PSU (way over kill but I sniped one off of the bay for a really good price)
• LG DVD-RW

Pictures

It was quite a bit of fun doing this, and I will probably do it again in the near future (once I save up enough money again )

 

[chaosdesigns]

Very nice build! I was wondering if the larger PSU's fit up on the top shelf, and so it is nice to find out that it is possible. Also, I have seen a lot of mods and that is the first one with pictures using the HDDRACK5. I am still considering using one of those in my next build. Can you post more pictures of how it was installed, along with some of the power supply? Much appreciated!

 

[sharkman]

Very nice build! I was wondering if the larger PSU's fit up on the top shelf, and so it is nice to find out that it is possible. Also, I have seen a lot of mods and that is the first one with pictures using the HDDRACK5. I am still considering using one of those in my next build. Can you post more pictures of how it was installed, along with some of the power supply? Much appreciated!

I'll snap some pictures of the shelf when I get home from work tonight, so you can see what I did. Basically I just cut out the groove so the extra inch or so of the power supply could sit flush against the bottom of the groove where I had also cut out the 140mm fan hole. It will be really obvious when I can get you a picture though!

Also, it was a PIA to get the DVD drive to fit, retrospect I should have installed that first and then put the PSU up there. Of course my brain picks the harder way!

 

[doctorevil30564]

very nice build, did you reuse the original IDE dvd burner with a ide to sata adapter or did you go with a sata burner? I couldn't tell from looking at the picture, I figure it's a sata though as it looks like it's a pretty tight fit with that PSU installed. Good job on getting it to fit well, it looks like it was made with it.

 

[sharkman]

very nice build, did you reuse the original IDE dvd burner with a ide to sata adapter or did you go with a sata burner? I couldn't tell from looking at the picture, I figure it's a sata though as it looks like it's a pretty tight fit with that PSU installed. Good job on getting it to fit well, it looks like it was made with it.

I believe it was a SATA LG DVD/RW that was like $18 from Newegg that I bought a while ago. I have a 90 degree SATA (as well as a 90 degree power sata power plug) cable plugged into it to help with the clearance with the PSU.

 

[Jeffinslaw]

I really like your mod! I think your power supply is overkill but that's my only gripe! A lot of mods have been doing the power supply up top... I like it though.

Jeffinslaw

 

[rehpotsirhc]

Wondering why you chose to use the second PCI-E slot for the graphics card rather than the one closer to the CPU? Seems to me like the fans on the graphics card would kind of fight the fan on the PSU being so close and blowing opposite directions.

 

[sharkman]

Wondering why you chose to use the second PCI-E slot for the graphics card rather than the one closer to the CPU? Seems to me like the fans on the graphics card would kind of fight the fan on the PSU being so close and blowing opposite directions.

When I took the picture, my graphics card was artifacting like crazy so i swapped it into the 2nd slot to see if it was the card or motherboard... It was the card :

Anywho, here is a picture of the top shelf. Pardon the very sloppy dremel work, and the PSU shifted down a bit since I sat it in there

 

[MacTester57]

Good work. Do you already have a 2nd case?

 

[Flybye]

...Pardon the very sloppy dremel work...

Hehe....that's ok. Ya did a great job with the build! But if you are going to attempt to ever cut another circle that large, here is a nifty little attachment which may make that job easier.

http://www.dremel.com/en-us/attachments/Pages/ProductDetail.aspx?pid=678-01