Budget G3 Powerhack

[Toeknee182]

Excellent job. I have bought a G4 case and was about to start on my new computer. Your pics help a lot even though I can skip some of your steps.

Toe-Knee

 

[Solidww]

That is a work of art sir. Very much a work of art.

 

[spackley]

Niiiice! I wonder how could I get the front panel PCB for my G4, it didn't came with the case. Or else I'll have to find another solution for the power button on my Sawtooth G4

They turn up all the time on Ebay for between £6 - £10. That's where I got the one for the G3 from.

 

[RadMatty]

Wow! That is slick. I have a couple of G4's and a G5 gathering dust. You've given me a jolt of inspiration. -- Matt

 

[spackley]

OK, just finally finished the G3 off.
I've put in an OCZ 90GB Agility SSD drive for the OS, a 1TB Samsung for general storage and a 500GB Western Digital drive as I am dual booting Lion and Snow Leopard (Snow Leopard because I need it for the Canon scanner that I have as there is no Lion driver for it)
I also replaced the temporary Intel cooler with a Scythe Kozuti low profile cooler.


The Kozuti is only 40mm tall so there are no clearance problems in a G3/G4 case


I also made myself an Airport card from an Apple PCI-e wifi card and a mini PCI-e adapter bought from Ebay, seen here next to the graphics card.
Due to the position of the PCI-e slot on the mobo I had to separate the backplate and make a small bracket to support the card.


Recognised OOB in OSX




The backing plate is mounted in a lower PCI slot.


Getting good wireless speeds from it too


Forgotten I had this keyboard and graphics tablet but they match the G3 perfectly


Am pleased with how it turned out and it should last a year or two as a backup machine and to run the scanner from.

 

[jmpa]

Really nice work

Can you tell me the height of the case for hard drives please?

 

[spackley]

Not quite sure what you mean when you say height?
Do you mean the depth of the case from front to back or the height from top to bottom? or do you just mean the size of the G5 hard drive cage?

 

[jmpa]

Not quite sure what you mean when you say height?
Do you mean the depth of the case from front to back or the height from top to bottom? or do you just mean the size of the G5 hard drive cage?

The size at red:

 

[spackley]

Gotcha...
The height of the cage is 80mm
Just in case you want to know the depth is 160mm and the width is 135mm
and it's the drive cage from a G5 Powermac.

 

[minihack]

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I also made myself an Airport card from an Apple PCI-e wifi card and a mini PCI-e adapter bought from Ebay, seen here next to the graphics card.
Due to the position of the PCI-e slot on the mobo I had to separate the backplate and make a small bracket to support the card.


Recognised OOB in OSX

That's an interesting solution. Normally I don't like it when the backplate is kept standard just because you always have either the audio ports blocked/obstructed or you lose a slot on the board. On yours, you choose to lose the slot and then get it back again by making a special bracket for your wireless card. As in fact most mATX boards these days have the first slot being a x1 slot then you don't really compromise too much (and by moving the board "up" the door you have more room in the bottom of the case for HDs (or potentially a PSU or cooling).