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G4 Powermac Case Mod

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Jan 14, 2012
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Motherboard
GA Z68XP-UD3
CPU
i7 2600K
Graphics
AMD 6850
Mac
  1. MacBook
  2. Mac mini
Classic Mac
  1. LC
Mobile Phone
  1. iOS
I found a really cheap G4 case on craigslist ($20) and so I decided I wanted to do a G4 case mod. I just got started today, but I've been reading a lot of people's mods on here to get some ideas. So far all I've done is take all the side panels off and start to take off the old mounting screws. Below are the pics. I'll add more as I go.
As you can see in the bottom picture I did break part of the plastic on the back part of the case. I'm going to just epoxy it or something to get it back together should be alright. I also need some advice on parts. The microcenter near me doesn't have any of the Gigabyte mATX boards for the Z77 chipset, so I was curious about everyones opinions of the ASUS P8Z77-M PRO http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131833&nm_mc=KNC-GoogleAdwords&cm_mmc=KNC-GoogleAdwords-_-pla-_-NA-_-NA I know that I'll have to flash the bios if I go with that board, but I was just curious if I would run into any other issues. Obviously the reason I'm asking is to get the $50 off at Microcenter.
 

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I found a really cheap G4 case on craigslist ($20) and so I decided I wanted to do a G4 case mod. I just got started today, but I've been reading a lot of people's mods on here to get some ideas. So far all I've done is take all the side panels off and start to take off the old mounting screws. Below are the pics. I'll add more as I go.
As you can see in the bottom picture I did break part of the plastic on the back part of the case. I'm going to just epoxy it or something to get it back together should be alright. I also need some advice on parts. The microcenter near me doesn't have any of the Gigabyte mATX boards for the Z77 chipset, so I was curious about everyones opinions of the ASUS P8Z77-M PRO http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131833&nm_mc=KNC-GoogleAdwords&cm_mmc=KNC-GoogleAdwords-_-pla-_-NA-_-NA I know that I'll have to flash the bios if I go with that board, but I was just curious if I would run into any other issues. Obviously the reason I'm asking is to get the $50 off at Microcenter.

Exciting times, guy!

I can't really comment so far as the operation of the ASUS P8Z77-M PRO and having to flash the bios, but i can certainly comment on the structural issues of getting it to play nicely with your mod.

As far as the ASUS P8Z77-M PRO goes i see two issues...
1.) There is no gap between the first (blue) PCIe 16x slot and the Audio I/O panel at the back. This leave you with three options. One is to negate the first PCIe 16x slot and offset the mounting of your mobo to accommodate the the steel bar between the PCI slots and I/O Ports at the back of your case and use the second PCIe 16x slot for your GPU, which will probably block your last PCI slot too, leaving you with only one usable PCIe 1x slot. Option two is to cut out the bar that would normally block the second row of Audio I/O ports (ie. Pink, Green & Blue sound ports) and then re-fabricate or leave open that part of the rear chassis. DoctorEvil has a great example of this method here: http://www.tonymacx86.com/case-mods/59694-doctorevil-30564s-powermac-g4-graphite-hackintosh.html
Option three is to find a motherboard with just the right gap between the PCIe 16x and Audio I/O block. These are rare enough on Sandy Bridge boards and probably impossible on the new Ivy Bridge designs – so far.
This was the route I eventually took on my Sandy Bridge setup, even after cutting out the steel bar. This allowed me to re-attach the original G4 plastic moulding to the back of my case and still keep my PCIe 16x slot and Audio I/O ports accessible. See my final build here: http://www.tonymacx86.com/case-mods/54122-applemacidiots-g4-i5-rebirth-lots-pics.html

2.) The 4 RAM slot design is almost guaranteed to crash into your optical drive bay – and these look especially far back on the layout. You might just get away with only using the first one or two slots (probably only the first one) without hitting the optical drive, but I'm almost 100% sure that even if you choose to not have a DVD drive in there, that the second two slots WILL hit the drive or even the tray that holds the DVD drive when it's empty... Either way it's going to be tricky.

It's a really tough decision, though. One involves sacrificing your case or PCI/e slots, while the other means sacrificing your desire for certain motherboards and what they do and don't offer. I ended up sacrificing on motherboard functionality to suit my case design and keep it as vanilla as possible. So basically, i had to give up all hopes of 6GB/s SATA and the extra two RAM slots for my specific mobo (MSI H61M-E23 B3) to fit comfortably in my build. Luckily, I gained maximum PCI slot estate (ie. 4 slots), so I could alway re-gain 6GB/s SATA via an add-on card on one of my open PCI slots if i become desperate. As for the RAM? Oh, well! 8GB is going to have to do for now.

Good luck with your build! It's tough, but SO worth it in the end.
 
I agree, Doing a powermac G4 case mod isn't super easy, but it's worth it. At least IMHO anyways.

Good luck with your mod and be sure to post your build here in the case mods section, I'd love to look at it.
 
If your going to toss some paint on the case i would recommend, rustolium (spelling???) or krylon... i went with the glossy enamel version of rustolium, it took 1.5 cans to paint the case (two coats on outer and 3.5 coats on the inner case), and 1 can for 3 coats for all the accessory items (things you took off from main case)

and at least two coats i did 3.5 coats two quick coats ( 10-15 min after painting) and one later coat about 30 min after the first two coats, with some touch ups after a 12 hour period and then let set for 24 hours after finial coat,

when your bumping things and putting screws back in you will thank your self lol.

i sanded with a very fine sanding sheet so the paint would stick better, be sure and wash your case well and dry well before the paint application.

g3/g4's are tricky but they make a fun build :headbang:

im new to these fourms but if i can help in any way shoot me a message, check out my billyjackintosh build i just completed

also a good first step was taking apart everything just to see what you have to work with lol

Cheers!

BJM
 
Thanks for the responses. I've been going back and forth on which board to get so that has delayed my process. In the mean time I did take some time to paint. I'm not quite done yet, but I went with some plastic enamel paint. Metallic silver around the case with a granny smith apple color for the apples, the front, back, and legs. Like AppleMacIdiot said it's going to be difficult to fit the 4 memory sticks if I want to have the disk drive. My delay has really been because I have $100 in gift cards to amazon, but microcenters prices are so cheap so I could use the Amazon gift card on other things. Decisions decisions. I will post pictures of the painting after I'm done. I'm pretty happy so far though.

Edit: Also I have definitely already taken a look at all 3 of y'alls mods before I started and they all look great.
 
Alright so I finally got some parts in and I did some work on the case. I was trying to paint first, but I had a few set backs on that so not many pics of that yet. There will be some later. But here are a few of the case. As you can see I did some things a little different.

First off a parts list. I'm working with i7 2600k (wanted to be able to run snow leopard still), GA-B75M-D3P (no need to OC with temps in the G4s hot already and found it on sale at amazon for $85), Coolermaster 212 CPU cooler, Corsair 650W PSU, Corsair Vengeance 4x4GB RAM, Sony Optiarc laptop disc drive(slightly shorter to fit my 16 GB of RAM), and 4 hard drives (2 SSDs & 2 HDDs)

As you can see I mounted the motherboard using longer screws like applemacidiot. I will say that this motherboard may have fit better than any of the others I have seen on here. I was able to mount it into the gap in the back without having to dremel down or use a different io panel. Granted the audio is very tight, but I will be making a custom io plate so it won't matter.

I decided to mount the PSU to the bottom front of the case. My reasoning for this is airflow. By putting it there I will be able to put a fan in the back. It also allows me to cut the shelf and put the CPU cooler in there. I believe this should help with some of the heat issues people have with this case. I have been talking to Billyjackintosh about a few other ideas, and I may also put one on the bottom in the back of the case. I just need to make sure I have somewhere else to put my hard drives.

Well here are the pics. Let me know what y'all think.
 

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Did you just luck out with this motherboard, or did you figure some way to get the IO-PCI measurements in advance? This is the only example of a G4 Hackintosh I've seen where IO and PCI slots lined up with the case.
 
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