My first Hackintosh (G5 Haswell mATX)

[Kiuruja]

Hi you all!

I am just starting my first G5 case mod and I’ve read a bunch of worklogs (actually my first ever computer build from start to finish). I got my G5 case yesterday, bought it for 30e from a local mac-userboard. I am glad it was already defective, so I don't have to feel bad for gutting it

The build is going to be Haswell mATX based on the Buyer’s Guide.

Since I am not the handiest man on the planet I am going to go to the Lazer Hive route. Just for the simplicity of it all. Their parts look great and getting everything at once is a plus.

I was just wondering about the pros and cons of the 120mm vs. original 2x92mm?
Is there some future options I loose, if I choose the original look? Possibility to use water cooling for CPU? Not sure if I will ever do that. Are there drastic differences in noise or temps between 120 and twin 92? Is it just a matter of taste in the end?

I really would like to preserve the original look of the case, but since there’s going to be a back plate anyway the looks are already lost.

I’ll have to buy all the parts for this project anyway, so that doesn’t dictate anything. There are so many great G5 mods, that I’m getting overwhelmed and confused

I guess I’ll just have to learn the hard way. Fortunately I am not in a hurry and I'm glad I've got "little help". This will be a slow process, since I haven’t got excessive amount of cash for this at the moment (we are saving for the wedding, or so I’ve heard )

 

[Dschijn]

With 120mm fans you a have a much more options you can choose from.

 

[Kiuruja]

Thanks for the info Dschijn. I decided to go with the 120 mm case fan.

So, this project has taken baby steps forward. I have stripped the case completely empty. Apple's engineers have done really impressive job designing the G5 (and used quite a lot of bolts and nuts to keep the case together).

I can't remember who built the black-chrome G5 here, but that was really impressive and I decided to do something similar. Maybe not that amibitious, but somewhere to that direction.

Here's the G5 pretty much intact. Nothing new here, but this can be quite intimidating sight for a a beginner.


G5 stripped and case separated to two pieces. The plan was to paint the perforated middle part black, and leave the side panels as they are.


Some of the screws. There's a lot of them.


G5 guts. I was going to reuse the HD-cage and PSU case, but I have some second thoughts. G5 hd screws are hard to find, and I got another HD-cage for free from butchered atx-case.




I got 120 mm mATX-kit from LaserHive. The quality of their products is really impressive and the delivery was fast.

I bought 20€ multitool to make the cut. The tool itself was adequate, but the blades and accessories were awful. The cut is not neat, but since there are no sharp edges I'm ok with that. LaserHive backplate covers it up completely.




I painted the cage with spray. Powder coating would have been much better, but it was out of my price range at the moment. I should have had to drive a long trip to get it done. Paintjob is still a bit uneven. I am going to add one more coating of glossy black. I think the black-aluminium colour scheme looks really nice.





Now that the case is pretty much done it's time to order new guts. I am not going to overclock this, and decided to go with sort of entry level parts. In case I mess something up, I don't feel too bad wasting tons of cash. The build is somewhat based Haswell mATX on the January buyer's guide. Any thoughts before I press the order button? Are two 92 mm and 120 mm fans complete overkill? Could I handle the temps (if there's a GPU) with only the rear fan?



Here's my list for intended parts:

- Gigabyte Z87M-D3H
- Intel Core i5 4570 Quad Core Retail CPU
- 2x Noctua NF-B9 PWM Case Fan 92 mm / 17.6 dB / 4-Pin - for the front
- Kingston Technology HyperX DDR3 1600MHz CL9 8GB DIMM XMP Memory Modules (Kit of 2 x 4GB)
- NF-P12 PWM 120mm Cooling Fan - for back
- Kingston Technology HyperX DDR3 1600MHz CL9 8GB DIMM XMP Memory Modules (Kit of 2 x 4GB)



Already owned:

- Corsair Builder Series CXM 500W Modular 80 PLUS Bronze
- Kingston 120Gb SSD
- Samsung 1 Tb 7200 HD


Going to add later:

- Another set of Kingston Technology HyperX DDR3 1600MHz CL9 8GB DIMM XMP Memory Modules (Kit of 2 x 4GB)
- EVGA Nvidia GeForce GTX 760 Superclocked ACX 2GB GDDR5 Graphics Card
- another SSD for Windows

 

[Kiuruja]

The case is now assembled back to one piece and this project is taking baby steps forward. Just ordered first set of parts. Actually only thing not ordered is mobo (and GPU which I'll buy later)



Kingston Technology 120GB Solid State Drive 2.5-inch V300 SATA 3 Kingston Technology 120GB Solid State Drive 2.5-inch V300 SATA 3


Crucial Ballistix BLS2C8G3D169DS3CEU Sport XT 16GB (8GBx 2) 240 Pin DIMM DDR3-1600 PC3-12800 Memory Module Crucial Ballistix BLS2C8G3D169DS3CEU Sport XT 16GB (8GBx 2) 240 Pin DIMM DDR3-1600 PC3-12800 Memory Module

Switched my plan to use Noctua fans to these Shadow wings. They were a bit cheaper and should perform pretty much as well.
2x Be Quiet Shadow Wings SW1 92mm PWM Case Fan 2 of Be Quiet Shadow Wings SW1 92mm PWM Case Fan
Be Quiet Shadow Wings SW1 120mm PWM Case Fan Be Quiet Shadow Wings SW1 120mm PWM Case Fan

92mm fans are going to the front of the case. This splitter wasn't probably necessary, but I think I could clean up the cable jungle.
Akasa AK-CBFA04-15 PWM Fan Splitter Cable for 2 Fans Akasa AK-CBFA04-15 PWM Fan Splitter Cable for 2 Fans

I7 was unfortunately out of the price range. I don't have intentions to over clock this build, so no K.
Intel Core i5 4430 Quad Core Retail CPU (Socket 1150, 3.00GHz, 6MB, Haswell, 84W, Intel Graphics, BX80646I54430, 4th Generation Intel Core, Turbo Boos


Now the only thing left to choose is the mobo. I think I'm going to go with the Gigabyte Z87X-D3H. I really would like to add multiple GPUs for 3d-rendering, but since 3d is just a hobby, it might be in quite far future funding-wise. So the Z87X-D3H will be just fine.

 

[Dschijn]

why just 92mm fans in the front?

 

[Kiuruja]

Somehow I got stuck in idea about using the original bracket to mount them. No other reason.

Bigger fans would have probably been more efficient, but I guess it's live and learn. I'll have to do another cleaner mod after this

 

[Kiuruja]

Oh my, this didn't go as planned. I finally managed to get all the parts together and find the time to assemble them. I tried to be super careful as i haven't build a whole computer before. Everything dropped smoothly into their places. I was eager to turn on the power switch. Nothing happened. Such a disappointment. Now I am totally lost.

Could the power supply be defect? Some intensive googling how to test the PSU. Paperclip as a jumper from green wire to black. Flick of a switch. It functions.

Could I have short-circuited the board with the case? Disassembled the whole thing and tried to run the thing on a table. Still nothing.

Changing RAM-sticks to another slots. Nothing, not even the PSU-fan starts. Took every unnecessary cables off, still nothing.

Help please? Should the case fan and/or cpu cooler be running even if the cpu was broken? Or? So probably it's the MoBo?

Best guesses what's wrong?

 

[Mörkö]

How is your motherboard power switch connected ?

 

[sebgreen]

Are you using the converter cable to make the front case I/O work with the ATX board? Does it have the firewire jumper?

 

[Kiuruja]

Thanks guys for helping me! I actually got it to power up with a jumper straight on the MoBo power switch pins. Made my way to the bios setup, until run out of alone-time from the family So the build is actually functioning and all the parts should be ok. What a relief.

I am using converter front panel cable, but only power switch and audio cables were actually installed. There is a jumper on firewire though. I thought there is supposed to be one.

I am using BlackCHMods front-cable, so either I must have done something wrong assembling it or I have damaged the original front panel somehow (or it might be faulty cable, but I am pretty sure it's not).