- Joined
- May 27, 2010
- Messages
- 2,364
- Motherboard
- Dell Optiplex 9030 All in One
- CPU
- i5-4690K
- Graphics
- HD 4600
- Mac
- Classic Mac
- Mobile Phone
I thought it was about time I put some pictures up of my Sawtooth mod (although some of them have already appeared in other threads about switches and motherboards).
This is where it is at currently, though I am still playing with different parts trying to decide what will be best in the end.
In making this, basically I knew what I'd be up against as a lot of others have done this before so the main things to tackle are:
1. Sort out placement of the standoffs for mATX board and adapt the rear panel.
2. Sort out the issue of the mATX board not allowing a standard DVD drive to be in the standard place;
3. Remove material from the internal shelf to stop any collisions with Ram; and
4. Sort out power supply.
Number 1 - this is detailed really pretty much in my thread about mobo trays here. Basically though I used a template to position the standoffs and drilled the door and the plastic latch thing and for the rear panel I first drilled out the rivets that hold the PCI bracket from the Mac and replaced that by a rear plate from perspex like this:
and made a front plate from perspex like this:
Both plates have holes that line up exactly with where the rivets were in the original and the rear plate has threaded inserts so that screws hold front plate to back plate with the original mac framework held between them. The original PCI bracket bit I just cut off to re-use the screw mountings for where the PCI-E cards would screw in (the rest was put away in my boxs of bits that "might come in handy later").
For numbers 2 and 3 I did radical surgery to the shelf and cut it back to be just the width of the power supply and trimmed the straight cut edge with edge trim and I cut back the holder for the DVD drive so I could mount a slot loader up as high as possible directly into it:
This slot loading drive now is up so high that when the door of the G4 is closed it is just a bit below the top edge of the motherboard but is high enough not to interfere with any components on the board I have (and should be okay for pretty much every mATX board) - so none of the sawing away corners of disk drives to fit them in.....
At the front of the G4 I decided that as the slot loader was so high up I could also add some front panel connectivity so I found a great kit from Corsair that added 2 USB 2.0 ports, a Firewire port, 2 USB 3.0 and headphone and mic outputs and did this:
As you may see from the pic.s above I pulled off the original "button" from the DVD door of the G4 and the plastic bit that was there and replaced them with a little lever I could just press down with a finger to open the door for access to the ports and for inserting DVDs. The power of the slot load eject though is enough on its own to open the door (I guess with it being right at the top furthest from the hinge it is okay for that).
Finally, for sorting out the power supply I actually gutted the original G4 one and put another supply inside the case - so I could keep the connectivity the same.
I'll post some more pic.s of the process in a while.
This is where it is at currently, though I am still playing with different parts trying to decide what will be best in the end.
In making this, basically I knew what I'd be up against as a lot of others have done this before so the main things to tackle are:
1. Sort out placement of the standoffs for mATX board and adapt the rear panel.
2. Sort out the issue of the mATX board not allowing a standard DVD drive to be in the standard place;
3. Remove material from the internal shelf to stop any collisions with Ram; and
4. Sort out power supply.
Number 1 - this is detailed really pretty much in my thread about mobo trays here. Basically though I used a template to position the standoffs and drilled the door and the plastic latch thing and for the rear panel I first drilled out the rivets that hold the PCI bracket from the Mac and replaced that by a rear plate from perspex like this:
and made a front plate from perspex like this:
Both plates have holes that line up exactly with where the rivets were in the original and the rear plate has threaded inserts so that screws hold front plate to back plate with the original mac framework held between them. The original PCI bracket bit I just cut off to re-use the screw mountings for where the PCI-E cards would screw in (the rest was put away in my boxs of bits that "might come in handy later").
For numbers 2 and 3 I did radical surgery to the shelf and cut it back to be just the width of the power supply and trimmed the straight cut edge with edge trim and I cut back the holder for the DVD drive so I could mount a slot loader up as high as possible directly into it:
This slot loading drive now is up so high that when the door of the G4 is closed it is just a bit below the top edge of the motherboard but is high enough not to interfere with any components on the board I have (and should be okay for pretty much every mATX board) - so none of the sawing away corners of disk drives to fit them in.....
At the front of the G4 I decided that as the slot loader was so high up I could also add some front panel connectivity so I found a great kit from Corsair that added 2 USB 2.0 ports, a Firewire port, 2 USB 3.0 and headphone and mic outputs and did this:
As you may see from the pic.s above I pulled off the original "button" from the DVD door of the G4 and the plastic bit that was there and replaced them with a little lever I could just press down with a finger to open the door for access to the ports and for inserting DVDs. The power of the slot load eject though is enough on its own to open the door (I guess with it being right at the top furthest from the hinge it is okay for that).
Finally, for sorting out the power supply I actually gutted the original G4 one and put another supply inside the case - so I could keep the connectivity the same.
I'll post some more pic.s of the process in a while.
. I especially like how you were able to integrate a slot loading drive into yours. I unfortunately am not able to get that into mine because of how my logic board is laid out. But the space left enables me to put the extra 80mm fan to blow across the board and other components. I hadn't thought of taking apart the original PSU from the "Sawtooth" and to insert the new one because I did a lot of careful measuring and was able to find a 600 watt PSU that fit. Ironically it was a Dynex one from Best Buy of all places (also the only place they allowed me to open it to make sure it would fit, didn't hurt that it was at the BBY I used to work at). So color wise it matches the case, the down side is that the exhaust fan for the PSU is on the back side and blows into the case. I'll probably have to drill some vent holes near the exhaust fan so it can exit the case. That should hopefully allow an ambient temp drop inside the case.