Goodbye Steve ! (Work in progress)

[samlefrench]

Hello everyone,

I have been reading and exploring Tonymacx86 for a couple of months now but I finally decided to go for the adventure instead of buying a new Mac (currently owning a Macbook Pro mid-2010). Hence the name is this project : Goodbye Steve !

First, I posted a couple of weeks ago for components advice since I wanted to build a Hackintosh. But the more I was go through researching a nice case, the more I was having second thoughts regarding the look of it... So I decided to have a look at Powermac G5 modding : Alleluia ! it made sense to use that case for my 1st ever Hackintosh !

Then, I started looking for a Powermac G5 in a good condition on Gumtree (I'm living in Australia) but couldn't find any good price point/good condition ones. I went on eBay and tadaaaa : I got one on auction for 50 AUD from a local video editing company in Melbourne that was getting rid of them.

Now, the modding begins...

I will share here my work in progress on this Powermac G5 modding and 1st Hackintosh project of my own. Also, I will give you a background about myself, goals with the modding and Hackintosh build ideas.

Please feel free to share any thoughts, recommendations or tips !

 

[samlefrench]

In this post, I'll give you some information about myself, goals with modding the Powermac G5 case as well as updating the status of my work and selection of parts to build the final Goodbye Steve! hackintosh.

Me : I'm quite a noob regarding the PC assembly and modding world but I'm patient and willing to learn (which will eventually happen on the way to this great project, I hope...). I don't have a lot of tools available (apart from my roommate ones that will be convenient) and not really a dedicated space to work (pretty much my room, living room and balcony).

Goodbye Steve! Hackintosh : I'm aiming at a machine not specifically silent but that will definitely need to be well-cooled as I'm currently living in Melbourne (but originally from France). This Hackintosh won't be dedicated to playing games (although it could be nice once in a while to play Skyrim or others) but rather video (from GoPro Hero 5 with 4K, Final Cut Pro, After Effects), photo (Lightroom, Photoshop), design (Illustrator, Indesign) and music (Ableton, Traktor, Itunes). I'm not looking at building a F1 car but a Hackintosh that will age well or could be updated easily if needed. I could use Windows once in a while for Office Suite and some other applications. Obviously, I will need some significant storage for Mac Os (video, photo and music) although my video files are likely to be moved on an external HDD at some point. One other important point is that I won't have a direct access to the router and would definitely need bluetooth/wifi to work. Also, I'd like to have Thunderbolt 3 and I want to keep a DVD/BLURAY reader and burner in it.

Parts (edited on 27th July)
CPU : Intel i7 7700 3.6Ghz (Amazon)

MOTHERBOARD : Probably going towards Gigabyte Z270 but can't really pick one in particular, I'm a bit lost regarding which kinds and numbers of PCIe, NVMe, SATA, Thunderbolt ports I'll need/can get... Also, I have read that some are harder to make work regarding the sound...any suggestions ?

CPU COOLER : Corsair Hydro Series H80i v2 Extreme Performance Liquid Cooler (Amazon)

RAM : Corsair Vengeance LPX 32gb (2x16gb) DDR 2400 (Amazon)
But I could go for quicker Ram if the motherboard supports it right ?

GPU : I can't really make my mind between Nvidia and AMD...My guess is that regarding my use of Final Cut Pro, AMD would be more relevant, right ? I'm thinking about waiting the new AMD Vega RX that will soon come out.

STORAGE
I'm thinking about getting :
- 1 Western Digital Blue 250gb SSD SATA III 2.5inch (Amazon) for Windows
- 1 Samsung Evo 850 500gb SSD SATA III 2.5inch (Amazon) for video, photo and music files in Mac OS (Amazon)
- 1 Samsung 960 Evo Series 500gb NVMe M.2 (Amazon) for Mac OS booting and Apps but I'm still confused if this is supported or not...can you help with that ?
Please note I have chosen 3 SSDs because of the cooling/heat issue in Australia.

WIFI/BLUETOOTH : After some researches, I found out that Broadcom chips work out of the box but they require an adapter so I just bought a BCM94360CD (Ebay) and a PCIe Adapter for it (Ebay).

PSU : Corsair CX-750M 750W 80 Plus Bronze Modular (Amazon)

Aesthetic of the Powermac G5 case modded
Ideally, I would like to paint in a color close to space gray but I might go for a matte black in order to match the screen (most of them are black right?). I don't intend to add any LED strips or any other Fast & Furious funky things ! If I can, I'd like to get a nice window fitting in the removable door to see the inside.

Modding status (edited on 25th July)
- Cleaning case outside of the case : DONE
- Tearing apart the components from the case : DONE
- Dismantling the case to work further on modifications : DONE
- Removing the Apple motherboard standoffs : DONE
- JB Welding the standoffs holes and sanding them : DONE

Now I'm hesitating between retrieving a old PC case to try to fit the motherboard tray and backplate on the Powermac G5 or buy a PSU conversion kit from LaserHive (since I don't have any knowledge in electrical stuff I figured it would be less risky to mount a PSU inside the case or even being able to swipe for a European one when I return to France...). The second option sounds "easier" to do for me and would allow me to reproduce the mesh holes at the back of the backplate.

 

[samlefrench]

Here are a couple of pictures when I had brought the case back home

It pretty hard to see on the pictures but there are a few scratches at the bottom in some not easily visible spots; it should be hidden when painted !

 

[samlefrench]

Here are a couple of pictures when I was tearing all the components apart, it was a bit trickier than I expected (especially the CPU heatskink which requires extra long tools...but I did it like Conan!)

As you'll see, there was quite a bit of dust inside...



OVERVIEW


The airport card down on the left (awkwardly set up on the mesh inside)


The graphics card


I can't remember what is this plastic thing with numbers for...


The HDD cage with a fan on the left


The optical drive


Fans next to the CPU heatsink (so much dust)


RAM (if I remember well?) + Power button and front USB/Firewire


The massive CPU heatsink


MORE RAM ? (I guess)


WIFI ANTENNA (Hidden in the back of the case)

 

[samlefrench]

I forgot to take pictures when all things were tore apart but basically I only kept a few things that could eventually be reused (fans, HDD cage bay, PSU housing, side panel, etc.). What is on the upper shelf goes to bin and the other is kept.



I removed with a pair of pliers all the motherboard stands that are attached to the inside of the case. Then, I JB Welded them and hand sanded them with fine paper. I'm pretty happy with the feel of most of them but might have to redo a bit some to make it a bit better.

 

[VEA2005]

I’m almost at the same point as your last post, do you remove all the standoff’s?

 

[laptopleon]

I am curiously reading along too. I'm still in the 'orientation' phase, but I already have a G5. I'm the first owner, so to speak. It died many years ago and I never had the heart to throw it away. I've been planning to do a Hackintosh job on it for a long time but my Mac Pro 2008 and MacBook Pro 2013 still work fine. So there is no rush, but the Mac Pro is no longer supported for the latest macOS and it's a decade old now… so I'm anticipating on it's demise.

I have no experience with non-Mac hardware whatsoever so everything is new to me

I'm curious what you ran into and how you worked around it? And VEA2005 too