My First G5 Mod (ATX): all suggestions are welcome.

[franknitty]

UPDATE
February 19th: my motherboard finally arrived for me to install OS X.



I wanted to approach the installation process by setting up everything using the just the very PC I was building without the need of another Mac and I was capable of doing so. Started out with installing 10.6.0 and was able to update to 10.6.8 with iBoot Haswell 1.0.1.



The main issue I had was the method I had to go about installing Mavericks, 10.9.0. I almost gave up, but after venting on this thread here and with a little motivation, on March 5th, I was finally able to install Mavs on my EVGA Z87 FTW, and I have a full-length guide that details it all here.

February 27: My G5 "120 low ATX Mod kit" from the Laser Hive (based out of the UK) finally arrived (thanks Neil for the referral).


I didn't immediately get started on modding my G5 case yet until I was confident that OS X could be installed using my motherboard.

March 14: Let the games begin! I had to get my tools first.


Next, I measured and marked off what part of the back of the chassis will be removed and I also pulled out the PCI slots.



After much deliberation, I decided it would be smart to be conservative about how much I would cut off during my first attempt, turns out I happened to make the right decision.


I had realigned the back panel to measure how much more I needed to cut from the chassis. I was almost on point with my first attempt.



March 15: In the wee hours of the night I continued to finish the mod by attempting to mark off and then cut off part of the front of the chassis for the front I/O panel.


Then I had to shorten the stand-offs for the motherboard tray.



When I initially aligned the motherboard tray with the chassis, one of the stand-offs didn't line-up with the tray's perforated design so I removed it, leaving only 3 that could be used. I wanted to reattach the one stand-off so that it could also fit the trays design. I applied JB Weld to attach the stand-off.



After waiting 9 hours, I felt it was dry enough for me to shorten the stand-off with a dremel so it could fit the motherboard tray. Unfortunately, the dremel moved it out of place and impatient as I was to finish, I decided I would stick with 3 and just wash the chassis so I could finally screw on the back and front I/O panels.


Back panel screwed on... I hadn't ordered a back fan yet, so with a little improvisation, I used cable ties to hold the screen/grill in for the mean time.


Front I/O panel screwed on...


Lastly, I had to reassemble the top shelf, door lock mechanism, and hard drive bay before I could screw in the motherboard tray. Unfortunately, I had initially ordered the wrong size CPU heat sink so I am not able to attach my motherboard in the chassis just yet until my new heat sink arrives in the mail. I will also update my log when that happens.


March 20: For all the folks out there with Haswells, especially the 4770Ks, I decided to do the unthinkable and de-lid my CPU. After watching a few YouTube videos, I had ordered myself a syringe of Cool Lab Liquid Ultra, and then I completed the process.

 

[franknitty]

UPDATE
On March 22, my new CPU heat sink, the Noctua NH-U12S arrived so I was able to attach my motherboard in the chassis. After assembling all the hardware in the chassis, I was able to fire it up. Now I have a fully working hack (10.9.1) that looks like a Mac. Some more good news: after the de-lidding my CPU, I did notice it was 4 degrees cooler than usual. There is still some more work to do before I feel my system is completed, but at least the hard part is done.

 

[sebgreen]

What do you have running in the hard drive cage, above the hd?

 

[franknitty]

What do you have running in the hard drive cage, above the hd?

Above the Velociraptor disk drive, I'm using a Patriot Dual Bay 2.5" SATA 3.5" drive bay with (1) OCZ Vertex 4 512GB. It was turned backwards because its cabling caused it to protrude past the drive cage's lever that holds it in place. There's also room for expansion if I wanna add another 2.5" disk drive. I was unhappy with the position of the PSU so I switched out the PSU shown with a smaller one and remounted the hard drive cage under the top shelf where the blu ray drive sits which I notated here.

 

[franknitty]

The G5 mod is finally complete.


I have one small issue though. I created an external eject button for my blu ray drive to open. I screwed the drive down in place but when I press the eject button, the drive tray gets stuck. Is there a certain height in which the blu ray drive should stack against the door?

 

[minihack]

The G5 mod is finally complete.
View attachment 88372 View attachment 88374

I have one small issue though. I created an external eject button for my blu ray drive to open. I screwed the drive down in place but when I press the eject button, the drive tray gets stuck. Is there a certain height in which the blu ray drive should stack against the door?

Have you removed the fascia plate from the blu-ray drive door? If not then try that as that is a necessary first step.

If it still sticks after removing the plate from your Blu ray drive then you can try unscrewing the little drive feet and putting in a washer between them and the player to act as a shim to raise the drive very slightly. The G5 drive bay door can be a little fussy about drive height. But play around with it and all should be solvable.

 

[neilhart]

Frank as minihack has indicated, the optical drive front plate needs to be removed; see this thread, post #27, http://www.tonymacx86.com/powermac-...estion-answer-thread-powermac-g5-hacks-3.html

And there is a link in that posting to a video instruction to removing the part.

The Apple screws look like this photo:

And key here is the height of the drive. You can use washers to space up your drive to get the proper door action.

Good modding
neil

 

[franknitty]

Frank as minihack has indicated, the optical drive front plate needs to be removed; see this thread, post #27, http://www.tonymacx86.com/powermac-...estion-answer-thread-powermac-g5-hacks-3.html

And there is a link in that posting to a video instruction to removing the part.

The Apple screws look like this photo:

And key here is the height of the drive. You can use washers to space up your drive to get the proper door action.

Good modding
neil

minihack and neilhart I wanna say thanks to both of you. I have already removed the bezel and I reattached the lever used to hold down the drive and I will be going out later to retrieve the the Apple screws to mount the drive.

 

[franknitty]

Couldn't find the screws locally so I just ordered them online here.

 

[franknitty]

My optical drive mounting screws arrived and I didn't realize magnets were incorporated in them.

I just finished setting them up and now my optical tray can release. My G5 mod is fully complete.