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- Jan 2, 2012
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It all started with a Hackintosh build I was going to build for my brother in law. After being annoyed by the noise of the hard disk drive of my 2011 iMac 27" for quite some time I chose to build the same system for myself to save some time and work. However I could not life with the idea of having a regular ATX case underneath my desk (though soon I'd see how much easier this would have been), so I went for a little challenge to modify a G5 case like many others have done before. I had modified a G3 B&W and a G4 QS case to ATX before, so it wasn't completely unknown territory for me. The G5/Mac Pro case is the prettiest case I know to date, so with prices on old G5s dropping there was nothing left to stop me (or so I thought).
The wife is not happy about it at all - replacing the pretty, fully functional iMac with a Dell display and a big thing under the desk...
So the search for a case in good condition could begin. Soon I should find one in very good condition, already been stripped of all the electronics... I bought it, keen on the build to start.
My goal was to build a really silent computer as I tend to be VERY sensitive on unwanted noise. The system had to be fast enough for some work in Adobe Lightroom (a little faster than the i3 in my iMac), besides that there were no real requirements to speak of.
So I started to pick up some new hardware following Tony's excellent guide:
GigaByte GA-Z87MX-D3H
Intel i5 4670
16 GB DDR3 1600
2 TB WD Green
120 GB Samsung 840 Evo
400W BeQuiet! Straight Power E9
TP-Link TL-WDN4800
EKL Alpenföhn Brocken 2
1x Noctua NF-A14-ULN
2x Noctua NF-B9-PWM
You can see some of the hardware I ordered for my brother in law's build too, so it was a nice pile.
For the modifications on the case (eg. the metal work) I knew I didn't have the skills and the tools to reach the level of some of the work I've seen here so I tried to make as little change as possible - especially since I wanted to retain the looks of the original case front and back.
Some of you might have noticed the case was completely empty, so there was no top shelf to mount anything to, no power supply to reuse, no cable for the front panel... Well, that didn't go so well. So I bought another case, this time not caring too much about the wear level.
With a lot of enthusiasm I started to dismantle the whole thing in the hallway of our flat. The wife is not happy.
At least now I should have all the parts I need, don't I? Well... Wait, there were some changes with the Late 2005 models? Other power plug? Directly connected front panel? *!?"*§"! I ended up using only the top shelf and the hard drive bay, although even the bay had to be modified because they changed some standoffs with the 2005 model.
Now to the fun part: JB welding the standoffs to the right place.
One first test fit - it's a tight fit, but it's a fit!
I wasn't going to change the rear panel because of the asthetics and my poor skills with metal - I've seen that on the G4 already, no need to repeat that again.
Because I really don't need a graphics card for my usage I decided to only cut a little piece out to be able to use the DisplayPort connector of the mainboard.
I don't need the other ports - there are plenty USB headers on board and I wouldn't have used onboard audio anyhow because of it's inferior quality.
The back fans were mounted into the original place, for the front fan I had to drill holes to mount it to the top shelf. I was thinking of adding another fan right underneath this one, but I've got enough airflow as it is now. The CPU is cooled passively, only using the airflow from the front fan and the two rear fans and it is idleing at around 30° celsius, with Prime95 heat of about 65° celsius - that's really nice considering the low noise emission of my setup.
In the meantime I bought another G5, this time looking for the right model. I only needed the power supply (for the power connector) and the original power cord, but I got this one so cheap I even made some money out of it. But still: driving several G5 cases around, dismantling another one, like the others filled with a lot of dust... doesn't make the wife happy.
For the hard disk I built a case out of the old PowerMac DVD drive where I put several layers of bitumen to cool the drive while damping the noise (I wasn't happy with the WD Green's noise level even though it should be one of the quieter drives with two platters).
With some twisting I was able to fit this box into the old power supply housing next to the new power supply.
About two and a half months after starting this project it's finally finished. I'm impressed by the noise level as I hardly can hear the fans (all using the ultra low noise adapters to 7 volts, resulting in very little rpms). The hard disk is pretty quiet now, though with a SSD only it would be even better - if only 1-2 TB SDDs would be affordable some time soon.
The wife will be happy again, sometime.
The wife is not happy about it at all - replacing the pretty, fully functional iMac with a Dell display and a big thing under the desk...
So the search for a case in good condition could begin. Soon I should find one in very good condition, already been stripped of all the electronics... I bought it, keen on the build to start.
My goal was to build a really silent computer as I tend to be VERY sensitive on unwanted noise. The system had to be fast enough for some work in Adobe Lightroom (a little faster than the i3 in my iMac), besides that there were no real requirements to speak of.
So I started to pick up some new hardware following Tony's excellent guide:
GigaByte GA-Z87MX-D3H
Intel i5 4670
16 GB DDR3 1600
2 TB WD Green
120 GB Samsung 840 Evo
400W BeQuiet! Straight Power E9
TP-Link TL-WDN4800
EKL Alpenföhn Brocken 2
1x Noctua NF-A14-ULN
2x Noctua NF-B9-PWM
You can see some of the hardware I ordered for my brother in law's build too, so it was a nice pile.
For the modifications on the case (eg. the metal work) I knew I didn't have the skills and the tools to reach the level of some of the work I've seen here so I tried to make as little change as possible - especially since I wanted to retain the looks of the original case front and back.
Some of you might have noticed the case was completely empty, so there was no top shelf to mount anything to, no power supply to reuse, no cable for the front panel... Well, that didn't go so well. So I bought another case, this time not caring too much about the wear level.
With a lot of enthusiasm I started to dismantle the whole thing in the hallway of our flat. The wife is not happy.
At least now I should have all the parts I need, don't I? Well... Wait, there were some changes with the Late 2005 models? Other power plug? Directly connected front panel? *!?"*§"! I ended up using only the top shelf and the hard drive bay, although even the bay had to be modified because they changed some standoffs with the 2005 model.
Now to the fun part: JB welding the standoffs to the right place.
One first test fit - it's a tight fit, but it's a fit!
I wasn't going to change the rear panel because of the asthetics and my poor skills with metal - I've seen that on the G4 already, no need to repeat that again.
Because I really don't need a graphics card for my usage I decided to only cut a little piece out to be able to use the DisplayPort connector of the mainboard.
I don't need the other ports - there are plenty USB headers on board and I wouldn't have used onboard audio anyhow because of it's inferior quality.
The back fans were mounted into the original place, for the front fan I had to drill holes to mount it to the top shelf. I was thinking of adding another fan right underneath this one, but I've got enough airflow as it is now. The CPU is cooled passively, only using the airflow from the front fan and the two rear fans and it is idleing at around 30° celsius, with Prime95 heat of about 65° celsius - that's really nice considering the low noise emission of my setup.
In the meantime I bought another G5, this time looking for the right model. I only needed the power supply (for the power connector) and the original power cord, but I got this one so cheap I even made some money out of it. But still: driving several G5 cases around, dismantling another one, like the others filled with a lot of dust... doesn't make the wife happy.
For the hard disk I built a case out of the old PowerMac DVD drive where I put several layers of bitumen to cool the drive while damping the noise (I wasn't happy with the WD Green's noise level even though it should be one of the quieter drives with two platters).
With some twisting I was able to fit this box into the old power supply housing next to the new power supply.
About two and a half months after starting this project it's finally finished. I'm impressed by the noise level as I hardly can hear the fans (all using the ultra low noise adapters to 7 volts, resulting in very little rpms). The hard disk is pretty quiet now, though with a SSD only it would be even better - if only 1-2 TB SDDs would be affordable some time soon.
The wife will be happy again, sometime.
