- Joined
- May 29, 2013
- Messages
- 45
- Motherboard
- Mavericks
- CPU
- Two Hexcore Xeon x5650
- Graphics
- Sapphire Dual-X 7970
- Mac
- Classic Mac
- Mobile Phone
As the title suggests, I'm doing a G4 case mod!
I got my hands on one of these cute little units bout half a year ago and have kept it around in order to work on this hackintosh project. I told the ex-owner of the case I would document what I did with it and send him progress when I start working on it.
Sorry its taken me so long bud!
This will be my 3d hackintosh, however with a build like this I'm left with a few extra problems that I'll highlight below, I would love some peoples insight as I've seen many great builds on this sub-forum.
Roadblocks & Goals:
~CPU
I'd like to use a x5650 but.....
My business partner is donating his i7-2600k for this project.
~Motherboard *Not Bought Yet*
I don't want to spend over $100 on a motherboard.
I'd like to use a micro 1366 socket board but....
To work with the i7-2600k I'll need a 1155 motherboard.
I'd like it to be micro atx or micro itx, I'm leaning toward mitx due to size limits.
1x firewire 400 port is required *and must work* for a firewire sound card that this rig will be used mainly for.
I "think" I'm going to use the MSI H61M-P31/W8:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813130659&cm_re=lga1155-_-13-130-659-_-Product
With a usb 2.0 to firewire 400 converter. If not I have a pci-e 1x to firewire card I can try to pop in beside the video card.
I seen in this build that it seems to be a vanilla build without editing the DSDT so this is the main reason why this board lures me.
http://www.tonymacx86.com/user-buil...8-geforce-210-ssd-4-gb-ram-i5.html#post940291
~Ram
I have two sticks of F3-14900CL8D-8GBxm
Thats DDR3-1866 CL8 Ripjaw ram sticks, best clock to cl to price ratio I've been able to find anywhere.
I used to use them in my a8-6600k system due to the low CL being perfect for APU systems.
They have pretty blue metal heat sinks with fins.
The motherboards all seem to max at ddr3-1600 so I'll have to under clock them down to CL7, no big, still crazy fast.
~Video card
I have a amd sapphire dual-x 7970 in my mac pro clone atm, works perfect, gives a great cinebench score, low watts pull vs power given, so I would like to be able to somehow fit one of these into the G4 case as well since they're great cards and decently priced used.
~Power Supply
I have a generic true 600w from future shop that I'm going to see if I can get to fit in, otherwise I'm on the hunt for a new one.
Every video I've seen has taken apart the power supply and replaced the inside guts with the guts of another psu, I plan on doing something much like this, however I have the added complexity of needing the extra wattage for the video card as well as the two 8pin lines on two different volt lines.
I don't think the 500w psu's I've seen people use will cut it for this task.
I also want 100w+ headroom so that the card+system isnt fully using the psu, so the psu isnt maxxed out all the time and forced to live a short life.
~Cooler **Biggest problem**
My cooler of choice at the moment is the Gammax300, it gives great temps and is really cheap.
It has direct contact between the copper pipes and the cpu plate, with NT-H1 thermal gunk, gives me under 50 temp on max load on a pair of stock x5650 hexcore cpus.
However I'm not sure I'll have enough room in the case between the cpu and the rest of the G4, so I'm giving serious thought towards a compact type sealed watercooler, however I've seen enough return horror storys from newegg to know to stay away from corsair ones... Not really sure what brand I can trust to put a waterblock on the middle of my rig when the warranty doesnt cover any of the broken parts, only the faulty cooler... as if you'd trust it a 2nd time when you get it back haha.
I've seen a thread with someone cutting the old g4 cooler and re-fitting to use for today..... but then he fried his mobo and this kind of makes me think I should throw away the one I have and not even try it. I'm thinking at this point I'd rather buy something someone else has already tested to work fine.
~Harddrive
I've used and tested kingston ssdnow v300 120gb harddrives already with mac so I'll be buying more of these since I feel they're your biggest bang for your buck, I'm using a pair in raid even. Microcenter has them on for $69 so its a hard deal to pass up for a dual-boot OS drive (40OSX/40OSX so I can clone if I {censored} anything up, I'm debating last 40gb as windows since I hear theres no issues doing this all on the same drive)
I'll also toss in one of the 1tb hybred ssd/hdd drives for storage.
~Bluetooth
GBU521 iogear bluetooth usb works out of the box so I figure this is the best/cheapest solution for me.
~Paint
I'm debating what exactly to paint it, but the case I have is in less then perfect condition, so I was thinking taking it apart as I've seen others do, this would give it a more professional finish and I could even alternate colors between say red and black or something, however again I'm not really sure what two to use since odds are I won't have this rig forever, I'd want to make it luring to the every day persons eye as much as mine in otherwords.
I've seen people paint the *inside* of the case, to keep their glossy outsides, however my case has seen better days, I'm thinking a sanding of some of the scratches would be the first course of action, then painting on the outside would be next. I was thinking using the same bed liner spray I use to touch up my speakers, or someone would use to touch up their truck bed. It comes out as a hard protective coating that is great for travel, doesn't scratch or ding, but it is jet black.
I seen a project someone did with a white outside panels and the center top/front being black, looked pretty good but I don't think bedliner comes in white haha.
I think thats everything... So far the biggest "problem" for me is picking out a motherboard that is as vanilla as possible, as both my mac pro clone and my laptop both where a breeze to get setup due to part selection matching up.
The other problem is the cooler.
If I go water cooling I'm going to have to worry about it traveling. I would want to do the cutout mod so the rad is laying on the bottom of the case with two fans on the bottom of the case.
Alternatively I'd like to line up the side case fan with a wind-tunnel to connect to the cpu fan/cooler if I don't use water cooling.
Both ways are going to take some custom doing and I would love some input on these subjects, since I haven't even torn apart the case yet so I'm not fully aware what I'm in for yet, while I'm sure most of you are very aware of what it takes to make this happen, things like the video card being able to miss the psu ect that I may have missed if I didn't read one guys build.
Anyways you guys are rad, I didn't know there would be a whole sub form army of you guys doing this so hats off to you guys paving the way to make this happen and giving everyone else something to learn from
I got my hands on one of these cute little units bout half a year ago and have kept it around in order to work on this hackintosh project. I told the ex-owner of the case I would document what I did with it and send him progress when I start working on it.
Sorry its taken me so long bud!
This will be my 3d hackintosh, however with a build like this I'm left with a few extra problems that I'll highlight below, I would love some peoples insight as I've seen many great builds on this sub-forum.
Roadblocks & Goals:
~CPU
I'd like to use a x5650 but.....
My business partner is donating his i7-2600k for this project.
~Motherboard *Not Bought Yet*
I don't want to spend over $100 on a motherboard.
I'd like to use a micro 1366 socket board but....
To work with the i7-2600k I'll need a 1155 motherboard.
I'd like it to be micro atx or micro itx, I'm leaning toward mitx due to size limits.
1x firewire 400 port is required *and must work* for a firewire sound card that this rig will be used mainly for.
I "think" I'm going to use the MSI H61M-P31/W8:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813130659&cm_re=lga1155-_-13-130-659-_-Product
With a usb 2.0 to firewire 400 converter. If not I have a pci-e 1x to firewire card I can try to pop in beside the video card.
I seen in this build that it seems to be a vanilla build without editing the DSDT so this is the main reason why this board lures me.
http://www.tonymacx86.com/user-buil...8-geforce-210-ssd-4-gb-ram-i5.html#post940291
~Ram
I have two sticks of F3-14900CL8D-8GBxm
Thats DDR3-1866 CL8 Ripjaw ram sticks, best clock to cl to price ratio I've been able to find anywhere.
I used to use them in my a8-6600k system due to the low CL being perfect for APU systems.
They have pretty blue metal heat sinks with fins.
The motherboards all seem to max at ddr3-1600 so I'll have to under clock them down to CL7, no big, still crazy fast.
~Video card
I have a amd sapphire dual-x 7970 in my mac pro clone atm, works perfect, gives a great cinebench score, low watts pull vs power given, so I would like to be able to somehow fit one of these into the G4 case as well since they're great cards and decently priced used.
~Power Supply
I have a generic true 600w from future shop that I'm going to see if I can get to fit in, otherwise I'm on the hunt for a new one.
Every video I've seen has taken apart the power supply and replaced the inside guts with the guts of another psu, I plan on doing something much like this, however I have the added complexity of needing the extra wattage for the video card as well as the two 8pin lines on two different volt lines.
I don't think the 500w psu's I've seen people use will cut it for this task.
I also want 100w+ headroom so that the card+system isnt fully using the psu, so the psu isnt maxxed out all the time and forced to live a short life.
~Cooler **Biggest problem**
My cooler of choice at the moment is the Gammax300, it gives great temps and is really cheap.
It has direct contact between the copper pipes and the cpu plate, with NT-H1 thermal gunk, gives me under 50 temp on max load on a pair of stock x5650 hexcore cpus.
However I'm not sure I'll have enough room in the case between the cpu and the rest of the G4, so I'm giving serious thought towards a compact type sealed watercooler, however I've seen enough return horror storys from newegg to know to stay away from corsair ones... Not really sure what brand I can trust to put a waterblock on the middle of my rig when the warranty doesnt cover any of the broken parts, only the faulty cooler... as if you'd trust it a 2nd time when you get it back haha.
I've seen a thread with someone cutting the old g4 cooler and re-fitting to use for today..... but then he fried his mobo and this kind of makes me think I should throw away the one I have and not even try it. I'm thinking at this point I'd rather buy something someone else has already tested to work fine.
~Harddrive
I've used and tested kingston ssdnow v300 120gb harddrives already with mac so I'll be buying more of these since I feel they're your biggest bang for your buck, I'm using a pair in raid even. Microcenter has them on for $69 so its a hard deal to pass up for a dual-boot OS drive (40OSX/40OSX so I can clone if I {censored} anything up, I'm debating last 40gb as windows since I hear theres no issues doing this all on the same drive)
I'll also toss in one of the 1tb hybred ssd/hdd drives for storage.
~Bluetooth
GBU521 iogear bluetooth usb works out of the box so I figure this is the best/cheapest solution for me.
~Paint
I'm debating what exactly to paint it, but the case I have is in less then perfect condition, so I was thinking taking it apart as I've seen others do, this would give it a more professional finish and I could even alternate colors between say red and black or something, however again I'm not really sure what two to use since odds are I won't have this rig forever, I'd want to make it luring to the every day persons eye as much as mine in otherwords.
I've seen people paint the *inside* of the case, to keep their glossy outsides, however my case has seen better days, I'm thinking a sanding of some of the scratches would be the first course of action, then painting on the outside would be next. I was thinking using the same bed liner spray I use to touch up my speakers, or someone would use to touch up their truck bed. It comes out as a hard protective coating that is great for travel, doesn't scratch or ding, but it is jet black.
I seen a project someone did with a white outside panels and the center top/front being black, looked pretty good but I don't think bedliner comes in white haha.
I think thats everything... So far the biggest "problem" for me is picking out a motherboard that is as vanilla as possible, as both my mac pro clone and my laptop both where a breeze to get setup due to part selection matching up.
The other problem is the cooler.
If I go water cooling I'm going to have to worry about it traveling. I would want to do the cutout mod so the rad is laying on the bottom of the case with two fans on the bottom of the case.
Alternatively I'd like to line up the side case fan with a wind-tunnel to connect to the cpu fan/cooler if I don't use water cooling.
Both ways are going to take some custom doing and I would love some input on these subjects, since I haven't even torn apart the case yet so I'm not fully aware what I'm in for yet, while I'm sure most of you are very aware of what it takes to make this happen, things like the video card being able to miss the psu ect that I may have missed if I didn't read one guys build.
Anyways you guys are rad, I didn't know there would be a whole sub form army of you guys doing this so hats off to you guys paving the way to make this happen and giving everyone else something to learn from
