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G4 Tower Build (Sawtooth)

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Cable Management
Now that the mobo, graphics card, RAM, power, and Hard Drives are back in started getting creating with running the cables so they are neatly tucked away as possible. I mounted the 2 Hard Drives side by side (the original case supports 3 rows!) and will use the original HD caddy and a couple of 2.5 SDD to 3.5 mounting brackets that will sit in the front.

Next up will be wiring the front panel Power, Power LED, Reset, Internal Speaker to the original circuit board and using 2-Pin IDC cables to the mobo I want to see if I can (per the example by @miniha ) connect to the ribbon or go direct to the original connector inputs. More to come on that!

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Another disappointment (should have know based on other builds) I won't be able to keep an internal DVR because the motherboard power connectors stick out too far and the door won't close. Decided to use that DVD door/space and include a front panel USB and Audio connection.

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You should consider using the slim slot loading optical drive, it only need to cut the hole in the front door.
 
Seems we all make the same mistakes again and again with these builds, although @chinese_spy must have done his reading prior to his build as he managed to get it all to fit nicely. Don't give up on the water cooling just yet, know I haven't, I'm now going for a custom loop. BTW @chinese_spy, you were right, the EK Predator 240 did not fit either.
 
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You should consider using the slim slot loading optical drive, it only need to cut the hole in the front door.

That's exactly what I did (where the Zip drive use to be) the model I found fit perfectly without having to cut away the original plastic, has two USB and HD Audio. This product works great out-of-the-box, not special configuration, no drivers etc.

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Getting down to the wire (pun intended), I hope to follow the wiring specs and clean up the splicing job I did shown here, and instead using the pin head connectors plug in from the mobo directly to the input connector on the original front panel card.
Found the connectors thanks to user Periodic Insanity https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCOOl4lJTn_jegMSc-1sNGWA on eBay.

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Day Two (not sure why the next set of photos don't display)
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The links are not .jpg but a special link. I recommend you either attach the photos to the OP or use your Profile's Albums (best choice as it stays with the build thread). Make sure the uploaded pictures are in one of the acceptable picture file extensions such as jpg or png.
 
Getting down to the wire (pun intended), I hope to follow the wiring specs and clean up the splicing job I did shown here, and instead using the pin head connectors plug in from the mobo directly to the input connector on the original front panel card.
Found the connectors thanks to user Periodic Insanity https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCOOl4lJTn_jegMSc-1sNGWA on eBay.

View attachment 209659 View attachment 209660
So I found a while mix and match set of single pins on Amazon, this way I can align them to the right pin no matter what combination (and under $7 USD for 40 of them!).

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Booted up and installed El Capitan!
Not without issues, still reading through all the trouble shooting threads, but right now issues to resolve are:

  • System Boot - can't seem to get the system to boot into the clover options without having the USB present.
  • Graphics - can't get the drivers working for the Gigabyte GeForce GTX Windforce so still not display options. Have the Nvidia driver manager installed fine, updated latest drivers, still no luck.
  • Audio - no sound
  • Front panel - my goal as to not have to do any soldering, splicing of wires and just use single pin jumper cables, works fine for Power and Power LED, but not Restart - looks like I will need to splice the negitive to the common ground to get that to work, no biggy.
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Where are those fans you put in the side venting to? With the plastics on anyway? I did an ivy bridge build with a quicksiver case a few years ago and ended up scrapping it after I had it going mostly because of heat issues, and also some other case related issues probably of my own doing, ended up putting it in a cheap and easy case thinking I would figure it out soon enough. I'm looking to go back and fix my mistakes and do it at least okay this time, so that's why I'm curious.

As far as your front panel goes, if you want it perfect, solder it, if not, power switch and led sounds just fine to me, what do you need a reset button for anyway?

And as far as your other issues, when I first did my build, the latest geforce graphics were a PITA to get working but work now without any effort after an OSX update or 2. Still, I would think those updated drivers you got should work? Audio, I didn't know what I was doing and bought a MB that had VIA audio which evidently OSX will never support. Workarounds to make it work were unstable to say the least. I ended up getting a cheap USB audio dongle and I have now forgot about my audio problems since.
 
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