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My first G5 mod - planning stage - any thoughts? esp. PSU position/cable

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kilgoretrout

kilgoretrout

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Hiya - overcome with the excitement of the new buyer's guide and a languishing old G5 of mine, I'm just about ready to leap into building my first hackintosh!

I'm very much a noob to this, but I've looked through the forums over the past few weeks and I've got a pretty good idea of how I'm going to go about things - trying to make it as easy as possible on myself - and want to steer clear of a soldering iron if at all possible!

Here's my plan:

- Grab all the goodies from the Ivy Bridge CustoMac Pro Build suggestions
- Get this LianLi mobo tray http://www.kustompcs.co.uk/acatalog/info_2012.html (Being in the UK has dictated my choice of mobo tray - doesn't seem to be an affordable way of going for mountain mods)
- dremel the back of the G5 case and screw in the mobo tray
- get i/o cable for front from http://www.insanely-mac.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=222735&st=0

The bits I'm not so clear on:
- thinking of placing the PSU at the bottom middle/front - one thing I'm not sure is how best to make a cable reach from the PSU to the socket at the back of the case? Is there a good extension cable to go for?
- what fans to go for? My G5 was very loud and I'd like it to be as quiet as possible. Any positioning tips?
- do I need a CPU cooler?

Thanks in advance for any comments/suggestions!

Tim
 
One of the key decisions is ATX or MicroATX motherboard. I suggest MicroATA as this requires less surgery to the case. Also you can look at this tray... http://www.kustompcs.co.uk/acatalog/info_2014.html

Location of the PSU is your choice. I am biased towards diss-assembly of an ATX PSU and installing the parts into the Power Mac PSU chassis, however this does require some soldering and basic electricity knowledge to re-engineer the assembly and have it be safe.

Good luck with your hack,
neil
 
One of the key decisions for me was the placement of the power supply. If you don't put it into the original G5 case, there is basically two places it can go; on the top shelf or at the bottom. When I was analyzing this aspect, I came across a comment here on tonymac that essentially made the decision for me. When the power supply is at the bottom, the fan usually faces up and things like screws, etc can fall into it. It then becomes quite a process to get them out. So I decided that, for me, the best place is on the top shelf, fan facing down. The one drawback is that if you need/want to change the power supply, an almost complete disassembly of your mod is required. So I bought one with a 7 year warranty.

With the PSU on top, there is still room in the lower section for a full ATX motherboard.

Hope this helps.
 
If you want a good airflow, you should place the PSU on the top. See my mod in my signature.
 
Cool - thanks so much for the advice. So - I'm sold on the idea of putting the PSU at the top with a hole in the shelf for a fan.

This is actually my first PC build let alone mod so forgive me for the very basic question - what's the easiest way to add a power connector to the back?

I see you've cut a hole in the back and added an IEC socket - is it possible to connect this socket to the PSU via an extension cable or is that going to require soldering (which I'm trying to avoid!)? Is there a short extension cable I can just buy? I'm not sure what the PSU's mains cabling is like.

Thanks!
 
You can buy a double female pass through and use a small 1' extension but I don't see those plugs to much so you might have to at least buy one and splice the wire to it.
 
Z77X
GA-Z77X-UP4-TH |  i5 3570K |  GeForce GTX 970
kilgoretrout said:
I see you've cut a hole in the back and added an IEC socket - is it possible to connect this socket to the PSU via an extension cable or is that going to require soldering (which I'm trying to avoid!)? Is there a short extension cable I can just buy? I'm not sure what the PSU's mains cabling is like.

Thanks!
Click to expand...

When I was shopping for my IEC power inlet, I noticed that there were versions available that had screw terminals or terminals that accepted crimp on lugs. You could get one of those and crimp the lugs onto the end of your cut off pig tail. Im sure the crimp on lugs are available at a local automotive store.
 
Thanks - really appreciate those suggestions. I might see how I get on - maybe I'll persuade myself to wield a soldering iron! Some really inspiring mods in your signatures, too - can only hope mine will be half as good!
 
I'm too impatient for soldering. You need to sit there and wait for the wire to heat up before the solder can melt on it. I'm just going to use crimp connectors in the psu wires. I'm also going to take apart the psu and put it down stairs. When done right, crimps can be just as good or better than soldering.
 
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