- Joined
- Sep 27, 2012
- Messages
- 2
- Motherboard
- Intel
- CPU
- i3
- Graphics
- Intel
- Mac
- Classic Mac
- Mobile Phone
Hello, all. I was in the market for a used Intel based Mac, but when I saw this G5, I got a great idea. Little did I know that there is a whole community of people with the same idea. When my wife saw the computer, she immediately asked if she can have it, so I said sure. So, here I am, typing on her new shiny G5.
I wanted to preserve as much as possible the original appearance, both inside and especially outside. I also wanted to minimize noise, which shouldn't be too difficult as this is a low power system with onboard graphics, that, like most of my computers, originated as an HTPC (home theater computer). So here it the build:
My test motherboard placed in the case; a different one goes into the final build, but I couldn't use it until everything else was in place and tested, and then I had only about an hour to do the switchover. Note the back panel cut from the original G5 logic board.
Then I had to figure out the front panel pinout and do the harness; first the power switch and led, then usb and headphones:
So far, so good. Next is figuring out the PSU pinout.
Success; now make a replacement ATX power cable. This was tucked in more in the final build.
Ready to Gorilla superglue (the miracle adhesive from my other hobby) the standoffs in ATX positions.
Ah, the quiestion of position and orientation. The first is what I originally thought, but check out the IDE and SATA connectors in the other one. Quite compelling. I ultimately decided to go with the first one because the G5 fan assembly was interfering with the CPU fan.
Now to the back panel. In addition to analog audio, usb, and ethernet, I did optical audio, but didn't bother with FireWire.
For video output, I didn't feel like putting three feet of video cable in the case, and if I have to cut it and solder anyway, then I won't need to run to the store or order online. So I used a spare adapter and some leftover CAT5 cable. Color coding turned out to be most useful. This was probably the harderst part of the mod. It gave me some trouble dremmelling a back expansion cover, and then it wouldn't take solder at all. I had to superglue it, but I'm pleased with the outcome. For the time being, it's only a single HDMI, but in future builds I can revisit this.
Ready to assemble everything. Oops, there goes my clean cable management. The SATA cabe is shorter than I thought, and will have to go above the board. Note how I striped the IDE cable for the optical drive, so it looks better, and more importantly, it reaches the drive. It looks a little bit better on the final board, as I have a little more space there. I replaced the superdrive with a blu-ray drive, so we can play movies on this, too.
Fans and cover in place, and the back of the case; ready to go:
Or I though so... Turns out the PSU fans are really noisy, so I first turned them off, thinking this is a low power system, and it's all attached to a lot of aluminum, so it won't overheat, but after a few hours, it was getting hotter, so I decided to put a silent 80 mm fan I had lying around, and now it's almost silent. The only problem is that can't use the PSU cover, but that's okay. I don't want to cut it, as I'm planning to use a picopsu (from mini-box.com) and a power brick instead. I have a similar setup in my HTPC, and it works great. Just like in that project, the powerbrick will be inside the case.
The finished computer in its environment:
Thanks for following. Looking forward to any comments.
I wanted to preserve as much as possible the original appearance, both inside and especially outside. I also wanted to minimize noise, which shouldn't be too difficult as this is a low power system with onboard graphics, that, like most of my computers, originated as an HTPC (home theater computer). So here it the build:
My test motherboard placed in the case; a different one goes into the final build, but I couldn't use it until everything else was in place and tested, and then I had only about an hour to do the switchover. Note the back panel cut from the original G5 logic board.
Then I had to figure out the front panel pinout and do the harness; first the power switch and led, then usb and headphones:
So far, so good. Next is figuring out the PSU pinout.
Success; now make a replacement ATX power cable. This was tucked in more in the final build.
Ready to Gorilla superglue (the miracle adhesive from my other hobby) the standoffs in ATX positions.
Ah, the quiestion of position and orientation. The first is what I originally thought, but check out the IDE and SATA connectors in the other one. Quite compelling. I ultimately decided to go with the first one because the G5 fan assembly was interfering with the CPU fan.
Now to the back panel. In addition to analog audio, usb, and ethernet, I did optical audio, but didn't bother with FireWire.
For video output, I didn't feel like putting three feet of video cable in the case, and if I have to cut it and solder anyway, then I won't need to run to the store or order online. So I used a spare adapter and some leftover CAT5 cable. Color coding turned out to be most useful. This was probably the harderst part of the mod. It gave me some trouble dremmelling a back expansion cover, and then it wouldn't take solder at all. I had to superglue it, but I'm pleased with the outcome. For the time being, it's only a single HDMI, but in future builds I can revisit this.
Ready to assemble everything. Oops, there goes my clean cable management. The SATA cabe is shorter than I thought, and will have to go above the board. Note how I striped the IDE cable for the optical drive, so it looks better, and more importantly, it reaches the drive. It looks a little bit better on the final board, as I have a little more space there. I replaced the superdrive with a blu-ray drive, so we can play movies on this, too.
Fans and cover in place, and the back of the case; ready to go:
Or I though so... Turns out the PSU fans are really noisy, so I first turned them off, thinking this is a low power system, and it's all attached to a lot of aluminum, so it won't overheat, but after a few hours, it was getting hotter, so I decided to put a silent 80 mm fan I had lying around, and now it's almost silent. The only problem is that can't use the PSU cover, but that's okay. I don't want to cut it, as I'm planning to use a picopsu (from mini-box.com) and a power brick instead. I have a similar setup in my HTPC, and it works great. Just like in that project, the powerbrick will be inside the case.
The finished computer in its environment:
Thanks for following. Looking forward to any comments.