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G5 Case Mod — GA H370M D3H GSM — i5-8500 — RX580 Pulse 8GB

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Jun 13, 2017
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Motherboard
Gigabyte A520i AC
CPU
Ryzen 7 4700G
Graphics
Radeon Vega 8
Mac
  1. MacBook Air
  2. Mac Pro
Classic Mac
  1. eMac
  2. iMac
Mobile Phone
  1. iOS
Craig's G5 ModSapphireGaming/Creative: GA H370M D3H GSM — i5-8500 — RX580 Pulse 8GB







COMPONENTS

Gigabyte H370M D3H GSM Motherboard. AmazonNewegg

Core i5-8500 processor 6 core, 3GHz Base 4.1GHz Turbo, UHD-630. AmazonNewegg

Team T-Force Delta RGB 8GB 288-Pin SDRAM DDR4 2666 (PC4 21300). Newegg

HP EX900 M.2 250GB PCIe 3.0 x4 NVMe 3D TLC NAND Internal (SSD). AmazonNewegg

HP EX900 M.2 250GB PCIe 3.0 x4 NVMe 3D TLC NAND Internal (SSD).
AmazonNewegg

KingSpec M2 SSD PCIe 120GB NVMe SSD 2280. AliExpress

MSI Radeon RX 560 AERO ITX 4G OC 4GB 128-Bit GDDR5 PCI DirectX 12Express x16 (Uses x8). AmazonNewegg

GIGABYTE Radeon RX 570 DirectX 12 REV2.0 4GB 256-Bit GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 x16. AmazonNewegg

Sapphire Pulse Radeon RX 580 DirectX12 8GB GDDR5 256-Bit OC PCIe x16 Dual DP, Dual HDMI. AmazonNewegg

EVGA 500 W1, 80+ WHITE 500W. AmazonNewegg

Noctua NF-R8 redux-1800 PWM, 4-Pin, High Performance Cooling Fan with 1800RPM (80mm, Grey). Amazon Newegg

ARCTIC F9 PWM PST - Standard Low Noise PWM Controlled Case Fan with PST. AmazonNewegg

2 X Noctua NF-B9 redux-1600, 3-Pin, High Performance Cooling Fan with 1600RPM (92mm, Grey). AmazonNewegg

G5 Front Panel to ATX Adapter Cables. BlackCH mods


PREVIOUSLY OWNED

Thermaltake Gravity i2 95W 7-Bladed 92mm 4-Pins PWM Aluminum Extrusion CPU Cooling Fan. AmazonNewegg

USB 3.0 Dual Port PCI Bracket Cable with Built-In-20-Pin Header.
AmazonNeweggEbay

Fenvi FV-T919 PCI-E Broadcom BCM94360CD Wifi Card Adapter, Bluetooth 4.0, Airdrop / Handoff. AmazonNewegg

M.2 NVMe SSD NGFF TO PCI-E Adapter M-Key Interface Card M2 to PCI-Express. AmazonNewegg


COMMENTS

I was given a 2004 Power Mac G5 last year, it had been sat in a cold damp basement for over three years. I'm a big fan of this case, many, many years ago our college graphics room had 12 of them all lined up, it was an awesome sight. It wasn't in good shape, booting was random or the fans just spin up. Ebay came to the rescue with the purchase of Power Mac G5 installer disks, Mac OS X 10.5.3 Panther. I was able to clean install Panther and got some screen shots before the capacitors gave up.


Power Mac G5.jpeg
ATI9800XT.jpeg


I looked through tonymacX86 excellent PowerMac G5 Case Mods Forum, to get some ideas about building a Hackintosh inside the G5 case. One thing that struck me was, why are they cutting the case?. After reading Petri Chron's thread, Super-cheap NVMe fusion drive using Dell 7010 Q77 motherboard. And trs96 [Guide] Install High Sierra or Mojave on the Dell Optiplex 7010 / 9010 Desktop PC - Revision II. I set about building a Budget G5 using a Dell 7010 mobo.


I enjoyed this project enough to want to upgrade it and create a Windows gaming build and a macOS that can handle Affinity graphics Apps like Photo and Designer, I also use Glyphs, a Typography Creation Tool. The H370M D3H GSM motherboard was the part I spent the most time researching. It's a mATX board and it fits perfectly under the top shelf of the G5. The PCIe x1 is accessible when the PCIe x16 is full of graphic card. You can fit 3 NVMe SSD on this board, two in the M.2 slots and one via an adapter in the PCIe x4 slot. I haven't used the M.2 CNVI slot yet, but I have been reading about it on these forums so I know it's a possible upgrade in the future. That's another consideration too, Future-proofing!. I'm sure I'll still be using this motherboard for years.

Screen Shot 2020-03-29 at 9.10.18 AM.png


BIOS

I have commented on the changes I made in post #78 of this thread. To access BIOS you press DEL key on startup and this will send you to the BIOS home screen. Following this guide Unibeast: Install macOS Catalina on any Supported Intel-based PC. In step three of the guide, Recommended BIOS settings, I made the following changes.

Load Optimized Defaults. After this I saved, exited and restarted back to BIOS.
  1. If your CPU supports VT-d, disable it.
  2. Set OS Type to Other OS.
  3. If your system has IO Serial Port, disable it.
  4. Set XHCI Handoff to Enabled
  5. Save and exit.

INSTALLATION

Following this guide, UniBeast: Install macOS Catalina on Any Supported Intel-based PC, with UniBeast 10 I created my USB installer. Make sure to choose APFS as the format in Recovery/Disk Utility. HFS will not work.


MULTIBEAST 12.1.0 CONFIGURATION

Drivers>Misc>VirtualSMC is already installed when using UniBeast 10, It's normally greyed out on the Drivers page.


Screen Shot 2020-03-29 at 5.58.22 AM.png
KEXTS/OTHER

Lilu, WEG, VirtualSMC and IntelMausEthernet are installed using Unibeast 10.1.0. SMCProcessor and SMCSuperIO were installed with MultiBeast 12.1.0.

Screen Shot 2020-03-29 at 6.00.15 AM.png
CLOVER CONFIGURATOR

In this App I changed CsrActiveConfig from the default 0x3 to 0x67. This disables SIP.

Screen Shot 2020-03-29 at 6.08.42 AM.png


WHAT WORKS

iTunes DRM
AirDrop
Touch Bar
Bluetooth
Wifi
iCloud
Audio
USB3 front & back
Sleep/wake

WHAT DOESN'T

Working on Messages, Facetime and Hand Off.
Although I can see SideCar in System Preferences, I'm not able to test it. I have a 1st generation iPad mini. It won't make you a cup of tea unfortunately, I've asked numerous times.


UPDATE

I currently have macOS Catalina 10.15.4 installed, post #120. I updated easily from System Preferences. Clover 5107 boots much faster than 5102, less pausing in the progress bar.

Screen Shot 2020-03-28 at 5.48.17 PM.png

LINKS

What started me off on this build was this thread by Petri Chron, Super-cheap NVMe fusion drive using Dell 7010 Q77 motherboard. There are many other useful threads that have informed and inspired me over the past year, and I have listed some below.

[Guide] Install High Sierra or Mojave on the Dell Optiplex 7010 / 9010 Desktop PC - Revision II Thread by trs96
[Guide] HackrNVMeFamily co-existence with IONVMeFamily using class-code spoof thread by RehabMan
[Guide] G5 Front Panel Thread by eelhead
[Guide] BoomR's twist on the G5 Front Panel Thread by BoomR
Unibeast: Install macOS Catalina on any Supported Intel-based PC
Budget G5 Hackintosh. 'No Rear Cut'.
Everybody in the PowerMac G5 case mod forum for their inspiration and trs96 for his support and help.


BENCHMARKS

Unigene Valley Benchmark, Mode 1920 x 1080 2xAA, Fullscreen & High Quality.

Screen Shot 2020-03-21 at 8.37.11 AM.png


AmorphousDiskMark testing macOS Catalina using an M.2 to PCIe adapter in the PCIe Gen3 x 16 (x4 Link). In post #80 you can compare with the speed of M.2 (x4 PCIe mode) slot on the motherboard.
Screen Shot 2020-03-01 at 6.36.20 AM.png
Geekbench 5, my G5 GB5 score (iMacPro1,1) compared to the 27' Retina 2019 iMac. And latest GB5 score after updating to 10.15.4, broke 5K for multicore score right.

iMac (27-inch Retina Early 2019) vs iMacPro1,1.png
Screen Shot 2020-03-29 at 6.35.27 AM.png

 

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While waiting for metal cutting tools to arrive, I modified the original G5 PSU enclosure by screwing the bottom shelf directly to the base of the enclosure, yellow circles. I left the top of the enclosure off, it was unnecessary, heavy and would of meant cutting the same hole twice!. The bottom stand offs for the heat shield have dropped by 1mm which I'm happy with because the shield will be secured firmly.

Custom PSU enclosure.jpg



It's easy to place inside the G5 with the rear fan guard removed. The red lines mark the area which will be cut to fit the CX750M PSU.

IMG_1037.JPG
 
really pleased to see the new motherboard inside the G5, everything lines up perfectly. 5 standoffs that we’re used to attach the Dell 7010 motherboard line up, the other two on the left need to be repositioned.
8B0BDEC8-1DAA-4A01-9385-9B102B514AB1.jpeg
 
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I didn’t have to cut out as much as I originally thought!. The middle shelf needed to clear the 7010 motherboard by 2”, that leaves enough room to change the ram. There are still some alignment issues to deal with, mainly more filing on the bottom shelf modified PSU enclosure.


PSU.png
HeatSheild.png
 
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Finished off the PSU enclosure, filing down the edges didn’t take long at all. I can slide out the bottom shelf fairly easily after unscrewing the two screws that fasten it to the enclosure below. I cut out a gap above the PSU socket and switch for access. And surprisingly I was able to lift the whole thing and gently place it back in without damaging anything!. I also cleaned of the top shelf using a coarse metal sanding block. The finish reminds of when macOS used brushed metal effects for windows, was that before macOS went Aqua?.

F7E948F0-1573-469B-A797-68628E1865F8.jpeg
 
Two Noctua NF-B9 redux-1600 arrived today, they were on sale at Newegg, $13 each. They’re connected to the 7010 mobo, via a Silverstone PWM fan splitter cable. With the new motherboard I’ll be able to attach up to 5 fans, more than enough. These are really quiet fans, much quieter than the Thermaltake with the blue LED I had previously installed. Temperatures are in the 30s while idle in Catalina.

E6A3A23E-AE74-44F0-99B9-BC2C11C0F6E7.jpeg



TempWin.jpg


TempMac.png


Added 11-9.

Just wanted to report on temperatures inside the G5. For the past couple of days I haven't pushed the machine, I have run benchmarks and kept an eye on the temps. On my first G5 build I did lose a RX580, 16GB Ram and HP EX920 NVMe 256 GB, so you know!. The refurbished replacement graphics card, an RX 560, is currently holding at around 30 C. I have seen it dip to around 26 C in both windows and Catalina. Processor temperatures in both OS, hover around 35 C, I do need to replace the Thermal paste though. Adding the two Noctua fans has not only been good at keeping temps low. But also quietness!, I just hear a gentle whir and I'm sat next to it. I remember sitting next to an Original G5 in art college, it wasn't this quiet!.
 
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The custom PSU enclosure I cut. The yellow circles show the two G5 processor bolts that screw into the the G5 psu enclosure. I drilled two 3mm holes into the bottom shelf, the right one is hidden by the rear fan guard. The left one is visible and I was limited to where I could put the screw. The white circle on the left is the original bottom shelf screw that screwed into the top of the psu, which I haven't used as it was heavy. The bottom two white circles show the standoffs that hold the heat shield. Access to the on/off switch is tight, I did cut a piece out, but it should be bigger. I assemble the PSU enclosure inside the case with the power cable plugged into PSU but not the mains.

cstmPSUe.jpg




I should note that the fan which sits on the middle shelf at the front, is a necessity. Whether it's original or not, if you're going to use the middle shelf there should be a fan in this area. It gets very hot around the PCI slots in the rear of the case, when gaming on the 7010 board.

Middle shelf.jpg



The fans I purchased for the G5 fan guards. When I install the H370M board I'll be able to plug in all the fans, and keep that 'Above the middle shelf area' much cooler. Also as I have just learnt, DO NOT attempt to attach all four fans via splitters to the one available fan connection on a Dell 7010. It's been pointed out before that I'm hard on my hardware by trs96. RX560 and RAM are in the post.

Fans.jpg



And the modified middle shelf. Originally you could attach the shelf to the G5 motherboard but that’s not possible with the 7010 or the H370 that will replace it. So I cut a 2” gap to clear the motherboard and allow access to ram. I didn’t use a Dremel, instead I used metal shears and a file to finish off the edges.

2A6C9863-C720-45D2-B2EB-3231D4C81280.jpeg
 
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Looks like you are taking the cooling aspect of the build very seriously this time. Very cool. ;)
 
The build is looking awesome!!! Nice work!
 
Hey, love the look of your build. Just started mine. Have my G5. Not sure what I am going to use parts wise. Mind if I copy yours? LOL. Are you up and running yet?
 
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