Contribute
Register

My First Mac Case Mod (G4 Graphite)

Status
Not open for further replies.
Joined
May 2, 2010
Messages
31
Motherboard
Z390 AORUS Master / 32GB 3600 Ram /10.14.3
CPU
i9 9900k @ 5.0Ghz
Graphics
Dual AMD Vega64 (Gigabyte)
Classic Mac
  1. Apple
Mobile Phone
  1. Android
So I have been running OSX on PC hardware all the way back since the Tiger days on a variety of computers that I've owned. However this is the first time I built one into an OLD Mac case. It took some work but I had a blast doing it and it turned out great.

So here are the meat and potatoes of the system:

- Pentium G3258 Running @ 4.4Ghz
- GA-Z87MX-D3H
- 8GB Kingston HyperX Black 1600Mhz Kit
- Intel 530 240GB SSD
- 2x 500GB WD Black
- Sapphire HD 5770 1GB GDDR5 Video card
- Generic 550w Dual Fan Power Supply
Note: I'm usually not a fan of generic power supplies but this one had an external fan pulling air into the power supply.
This external fan made it perfect for this build as it would be pulling in heat from the system through itself and out the exhaust. Since the power supply is one of the few parts that are designed to run constantly hot I decided to use it as part of my dissipation. To simulate max system load I ran FureMark CPU and GPU stress test, the power supply was running at about half it's maximum load capacity and did not heat up at all; the exhaust was nice and cool. I ran the the same stress test with the tower closed and the exhaust was warm but very acceptable.
- Generic Bluetooth USB Adaptor
- Monitors: 42" LG AQUOS TV and 17" HP 1740 LCD Screen With USB Hub
- Running OSX 10.8.5 (XCMP Free Kernel) / Windows 7/8.1/10 Developer Preview

(Built it mostly out of spare parts I had lying around, only bought the CPU, Main board and Power Supply)


Also for the mod:

- Laser Hive's G4 Mod Kit 1 and 2
- A couple of cans of Krylon Paint (black and satin black) and Paint Thinner
- 1 blue LED for HDD Activity Indicator which I placed behind the Apple Logo on the front. (I do not subscribe to Apple's stupid philosophy of not indicating if the hard drive is active or not)
- 1 Blue LED 120mm fan
- 1 regular 80mm fan plus hard drive bracket to mount it on one of the Hard drive trays at the bottom of the case.
- Wires from an old case's front panel. (wired the 3 buttons as power/reset/clear CMOS)


I've Attached pics of most of the project. (forgot to take some along the way)


Some Notes:

- I had to cut off about an inch and a half off the back part of the Optical Tray as well as a about half an inch off the 3.5" tray under it so the case would close as it got in the way of the RAM DIMMS; this also made it impossible to install a standard Optical Drive. I will be Installing a Slim Blue Ray Burner plus front USB 3.0 via a 5.25" Bay adapter for slim optical drive in the near future. (you'll noticed on the pics after assembly the part that's cut off)
- I currently only have 3 P-States 8/32/44, not the end of the world. More would be possible through setting up an SSDT file but I don't have the time for it right now. My Priority was to get it running as the machine it has replaced was old and time to be retired.
- OSX desktop pics are a different size as I use the Windows 7 side as HTPC (the 42" as primary monitor) and the OSX side for audio recordings and well as for work as a test bench; connecting audio interfaces/DJ controllers. (the 17" as primary monitor)
- You'll notice the picture with the rear view that there is a small gap (a couple of millimeters). During the project there are small clips that snapped during an opening or closing of the case. It is a very old tower and we all know how plastic can become brittle after many years. If I ever come across another case like that I will harvest it out and replace the broken part.

Hope you all find this cool and informative.

Thanks All,

M.
 

Attachments

  • 1.jpg
    1.jpg
    87.9 KB · Views: 805
  • 2.jpg
    2.jpg
    191.7 KB · Views: 819
  • 3.jpg
    3.jpg
    312.2 KB · Views: 829
  • 4.jpg
    4.jpg
    74.1 KB · Views: 749
  • 5.jpg
    5.jpg
    95.8 KB · Views: 757
  • 10.jpg
    10.jpg
    129.8 KB · Views: 847
  • 9.jpg
    9.jpg
    75.4 KB · Views: 835
  • 8.jpg
    8.jpg
    206.2 KB · Views: 797
  • 7.jpg
    7.jpg
    102.8 KB · Views: 788
  • 6.jpg
    6.jpg
    189.3 KB · Views: 787
  • 15.jpg
    15.jpg
    255.4 KB · Views: 846
  • 14.jpg
    14.jpg
    250.6 KB · Views: 862
  • 13.jpg
    13.jpg
    301.7 KB · Views: 1,121
  • 12.jpg
    12.jpg
    88.8 KB · Views: 878
  • 11.jpg
    11.jpg
    204.1 KB · Views: 921
  • 19.jpg
    19.jpg
    267.7 KB · Views: 1,262
  • 18.jpg
    18.jpg
    59.2 KB · Views: 1,197
  • 17.jpg
    17.jpg
    150.9 KB · Views: 1,145
  • 16.jpg
    16.jpg
    141.4 KB · Views: 1,043
  • 20.jpg
    20.jpg
    88.8 KB · Views: 1,138
  • 21.jpg
    21.jpg
    463.8 KB · Views: 957
  • 22.jpg
    22.jpg
    63.4 KB · Views: 810
Last edited:
You can hear the fans, around 40db (according to my cheep smart phone app)

Temperature idle or doing light stuff like browsing internet , playing videos, etc is around 40 degrees Celsius

while playing a games around 70

I do feel it's quieter then the original G4. You can really only hear it if the room is silent. Plus I'm not doing mic recording just straight SPDIF from the mixer so it's really not a bother.
 
Do you have the 120mm fan venting the case or acting as an intake.

I am working on a mod myself right now and the question of cooling remains unresolved. I've gotten the hardware working together fairly well outside of the case, but I've been waiting for paint to dry and for a few parts to come in before putting it all together.

One thing that may help me is that I'm going to be using an SFX power supply attached to an ATX adapter. This is useful because the exhaust fan can actually face the CPU, unlike ATX power supplies that have to mount with the exhaust fan facing the left side of the case with only small gap in between.

Interested hearing your thoughts on cooling such a case.

Here's mine, still in progress:

QuickSilver.jpeg
 
Last edited:
Nice Colors. I initially wanted to leave the Silver parts original colors and paint the blue parts black but the case was far too badly scuffed and scratched.

The SFX PSU is great for creating a bit more space for the CPU and cooler. However I do not recommend one with bottom/top fan like this one.
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817256063
A PSU like that which has an Intake fan so close to the CPU could end up depriving the CPU fan of air as you will have 2 fans facing away from each other in close proximity (very bad if your CPU fan is horizontal like the stock Intel one, or like most after market low profile CPU cooler which are the only ones that fit in that space.)
And as you stated mounting the PSU the other way with the intake facing the side of the case just doesn't work for proper air flow either.

Something like this with a rear exhaust makes a bit more sense i think. (plus conveniently an intake fan like mine to pull heat form the tower out through the PSU)
http://www.directron.com/apmp4atx40.html
Depending on the configuration you will be setting up you might need a higher wattage PSU since there will be a considerable amount of heat heading up to the PSU.

In my setup the power usage was around 300 watts. So lets assume my generic 550w can realistically do 450w. As stated when the case was open (mother board down) the PSU didn't heat up at all on high load. So Having about 50% head room I think was perfect. Basically under normal ideal circumstances (like in a PC tower where the PSU is Under the system board it will not heat up at all with the same parts).

Keeping one thing in mind the SFX might heat up a little more just off the bat as it has most of the same components as a standard ATX PSU just smaller and pact closer together in the housing.

For the Fans I kept the Side 120mm in its original position as intake and added an 80mm on the rear most Hard Drive tray (there are holes in the metal chassis there which will allow for air intake). I had this old Hard drive bracket which allows you to fasted an 80mm fan to a hard drive. It gave it enough height for proper air flow and fit perfectly on the plate which you screw the hard drive to.

So the theory was the 2 fans would pull air in and create enough pressure to push heat up through the slit in the back on to top of the main board back plate and through the power supply. (sorta how a rack server uses flow and positive pressure to push heat out the front)
So now I'm sending the heat of the system trough the PSU, which normally doesn't heat up in this system. It's basically heating up as it would normally in a system with a higher load.

I've seen some people who have bored a large hole in the top of the case and installed a 120mm fan for outtake. I personally wasn't a fan of the aesthetic change that created. My goal was to make as little external physical modifications to it other then color.

I'm also perhaps lucky that the configuration of my system doesn't generate allot of heat. If I had a crazy overclocked i5/i7 and Higher Graphics card it might not have worked out so well. (or at least needed a much more serious power supply to pull it off)

Note:
Installed Steam and been playing Mini Ninjas, The Last Remnant and The Legend of Korra with no Problems. ( i know there not Super Heavy on the 3D like some of the new games but it is an old video card plus I had used Intel Burn to test the System on "very high" with no problems)

Anyways hope this helps.

Regards,

M.
 
Mushin, I totally love your color choices as well and I understand what you mean about the side panels. I actually took these side panels from a MDD G4 which had less battered side panels than the Quicksilver.

I see what you're saying about the SFX fan essentially pulling against the CPU fan. Maybe if I flip the SFX fan so it's facing the left side panel it wouldn't interfere with the intake air hitting the CPU. Because the SFX PSU is slimmer, this configuration isn't as bad as an ATX PSU, which would have only about 1/2" gap between it and the case.

Your point about wattage is also well taken. My current PSU is only 450 watts, so perhaps I should consider getting a 600 watt model just to give me plenty of overhead and a very, very durable unit that can comfortably withstand both the load and the heat of this machine.

Can you post a link to a hard drive bracket that will take a 80mm fan like the one you referenced? I'm thinking of putting one in the front of my case behind the hole that used to be used by the speaker. I may also place some filtering mesh over that hole to prevent dust from invading.

Thanks for the very helpful explanation of your setup!
 
Hi Corduroy,

If you haven't already purchased the power supply you can go with something like this.
http://www.directron.com/apmp4atx80fep8.html
(DUAL FAN)

If you already have the 450 then definitely try it out with the Fan facing the case and see how it does. I think you gain about an extra 3/4". It might be enough. You'll be able to gauge how it's working by how hot the power supply gets.

For the bracket It was in my junk for like 10 year. Can't really find it online

Something like this but higher.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835200033
 
I got my rig up and running and when I run Folding@Home I have CPU temps of 79° C.

Is that an unhealthy level?
 
79° C is fine but I'm not sure how graphic card intensive it is.. You will need something that will run the videocard at high load as well to simulate correctly.

Something 3d based
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top