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Inserting Motherboard Tray into G5

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eelhead

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IMG_4909.jpg

I want to give you I quick guide to installing a motherboard tray into your G5 case and some descriptive pics to look over as well.

We know there are a couple of motherboard trays you can get to pop inside your G5 case.
Mountain Mods motherboard tray or Lian Li motherboard tray, I also do know that you can also salvage the motherboard tray out of certain cases and got the same effect, I think samisnake has done this as well as several others. They can chime in with what was a good case for this because it slips my mind which one it was lol (sorry sami :( lol after you told me)

Here is the backend of my G5, you can see the red line and how I kept the cutting very close to the mobo tray IO panel.

G5MoboTray1.jpg


Here is the back side and you can see how I have it so close to the edge of the case that I needed to use washers to clasp the mobo tray to the panel of the G5. I actually cut even closer on the right side there then what the red line indicates. You can get super close there as the rear IO plate and mobo tray connection point will need that area trimmed right down.

IMG_5804.jpg


Here it is the same story. At this section you need to keep in mind the rear fans. They need room to be mounted the the rear IO panel and if the G5 case panel is to close then the fans do not fit right and your left with a strange gap.

IMG_5806.jpg


This is the two upper holes that the Mountain Mods tray have. What I did here was utilize several of the G5's logic board standoffs and reposition them into place for these spots on the upper front edge and again on the lower front edge. With these done it securely fastens the tray into place with no worries.

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The lower ones.

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Now this is done with the removal of all the logic board standoffs. You could in reality leave the G5 standoff is and try to drill the appropriate holes in the motherboard tray and affix it that way as well but I found this to be a bit more hair greying then needed to be.

Keep in Mind this is a Mountain Mods tray, other trays have different mounting locations then others so those areas may vary.

And the whole thing in and together :)

IMG_4911.jpg



So basically you would clear out all the standoffs from inside the case that would impede the motherboard tray insertion (I just removed all of them and re-positioned as needed).

You can then mount the standoffs where ever they are needed with JB Weld or the like. I did not file any down, I did make sure to use the same size ones as there are two different length standoffs used inside the case.

Also nickjf20 says that "the M3 screws fit perfectly through the original G5 mesh so don't cut the mesh where the screws mount - much stronger, and less need for accurate cutting." Nice bit of info for less cutting!
 
Very nice! Here are some pictures of how I did mine.

I taped up the back of my G5 with blue painters tape and traced my cut panel on the back and then moved the line that I had drawn in about 2 sets of holes to give me enough material to mount the back panel too.

IMG_0676_zpsc403dd9c.jpg


IMG_0677_zps8b71254c.jpg


Sorry I don't have any pictures of the completed result, I can take some if people are interested. Or you can find my build log over at overclock.net. Just search for "Rebuilding a Watercooled PowerMac G5"

Jeffinslaw
 
I want to give you I quick guide to installing a motherboard tray into your G5 case and some descriptive pics to look over as well.

We know there are a couple of motherboard trays you can get to pop inside your G5 case.
Mountain Mods motherboard tray or Lian Li motherboard tray, I also do know that you can also salvage the motherboard tray out of certain cases and got the same effect, I think samisnake has done this as well as several others. They can chime in with what was a good case for this because it slips my mind which one it was lol (sorry sami :( lol after you told me)


indeed mr EH.
i used the tray from an old aluminium coolermaster case (wavemaster, and other old alu CM cases have the same tray eg. ATC-201B).

good thing about that tray is its aluminium, the colour match to the g5 is spot on, and it fits beautifully
eg. there is a lip on the inside edge of the tray, so there isnt a need for the mobo tray to be screwed to the inside of the g5.

got the idea from aquamac
 
Just to confirm the process of using a Lian-Li motherboard tray for this:

1. Cut out back panel of G5
2. Attach Lian Li back panel
3. Work out where MoBo tray should go
4. Attach original small (or do you use large) standoffs to MoBo tray by drilling in new holes.
5. Use JB Weld (or equivalent) to attach MoBo w/ standoffs to inside panel.
6. Attach provided Lian Li standoffs to MoBo Tray
7. Attach MoBo.

?
 
eelhead, thanks for this guide!
By all this Mountain Mod Tray "mods" I always wondered how you managed the correct distance of the mainboard tray to the G5 tray and the position of the back panel. Did you cut first the back out, positioned the back panel and after that have been lucky for the correct distance of the mainboard tray?
 
I cut out the back of the G5 using the IO plate as the template. I had it backed right up against the right side of the case looking at that back of it. Basically with that right side all cut out it is very easy to to attach the tray section to the IO section with the case cut out there.

I was able to dry fit it together to set the front standoffs for the mobo tray into place. As long as your back panel is cut out and leaving enough room for the mobo tray to attach to the IO plate you'll be good to go.

My red line in the pick above on the right side should actually be closer to the side of the case making sure the motherboard tray can attach to the rear IO. This should also be just about the same set up with the Lain-Li tray.
 
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