Power Mac G4 Quicksilver Build

[Pexus]

Hello dear fellow Mac Modders,

on to my very first case Mod. Although I have been building PCs for around 15 years I have never really worked on the cases. Always have been focusing on the internals.

I recently started upgrading some parts of my computer and a friend of mine started working on a Mac Pro Mod.
I was fascinated from the first glimpse at the project, so I got myself a Power Mac G4 and started this build.
I don’t have any exact plans on how it will look color-wise but I will definitely paint it in some way.
The very first step will be arranging all the parts inside, though.
Currently using:

• 2 HDDs 1 and 3TB
• 1 SSD 128GB
• ASRock Z270M Pro4 mATX Mainboard
• Intel i5 7600k CPU
• 8GB DDR4 RAM
• Sapphire Nitro+ rx580 Graphics Card
• A very random 550w PSU

The CPU being water cooled (if I can fit my old system, which was originally designed for the 1150 socket)


This is, how it arrived, pretty good condition. Nothing broken or bent. There has been material cut out to fit the Zip drive but that’s no problem as this will be the place for the front ports anyway.
It is missing a hard drive but it turned on with no problems. But as I have no purpose for the guts of this thing it doesn’t matter.



After cleaning out the insides we started with taking off all the Plastic parts to prevent any damage to them while working on the metal case.

Afterwards we obviously had pizza!

The first milestone will be a 3D printed IO panel. I don’t plan on ordering anything from thelaserhive.
To me, the fun with this project lies within creating things yourself.

So long
Pexus

 

[Pexus]

Quick update:
I cut out a portion of the backplate to make room for the IO Shield.
While I still plan on printing a complete backplate. This will be the solution for now.

 

[Pexus]

Currently in the process of designing a rack for a single SSD. It is supposed to be being installed upright to safe some space and for the purpose of designing.
First print will be this week hopefully. The SSD will be inserted either from the bottom or the top. I then will fix it with two screws.
Will post the printed result ASAP.

So long
Pexus

 

[Pexus]

Managed to get it printed. Although I am quite happy with how it turned out, I figured that I wanted to change the way, the bracket is mounted inside the computer. So I did a re-design including some weight reduction.

Which is currently printing.



So long
Pexus

 

[Pexus]

SSD Brackets looking good.
If you are interested in printing them yourselves, I uploaded them to thingiverse. (I will upload the second bracket aswell as soon as I am done with final tweaking.)
https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3495233

In other news: I finally started mounting my test motherboard. I am trying to work on the case more frequently from now on.

 

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Phew this build is going slowly... Anyway!

After two failed attempts of gluing the mainboard spacers to the side panel, I decided to get myself a nice collection of metric spacers and screws. The spacers I use have a length of 10mm (without the thread obviously).
In order to fit the mainboard I also needed to put in the water cooling radiator. Just because I am far too lazy and don't want to disconnect it from the board to work on it seperately.
Thats why I printed a bracket to hold it in place right besides the graphics card which also found its way into the computer.
I actually did some minor mistakes when printing the watercooling bracket. It doesn't fit al too well. I'll will give this another shot later. Next thing up will bee the power supply and cable management.

 

[Pexus]

Yep, this is still ongoing...

As I stated in my last post, I have been working on a solution for PSU positioning and mounting. I did not want to use any mounting plates from the original design of the mac. Just for the purpose of reducing its weight a little bit. It's still a heavy case but why not shed some weight if possible..
In addition I wanted to give my friends 3D printer a rest and opted for something rather unconventional.

I Mounted the PSU with verlco strips which I bolted to the casing (I secured the screws with washers later don't worry).
I am not 100% confident with the outcome since it's not secured against sliding out to the side. But I will keep it like this for the moment as it is still a pretty tight fit.
Unfortunately, the PSU cables are waay to short to reach all the mainboard sockets. So I ordered some extensions off amazon. I will show the finished wiring as soon as I actually finish it.

While at it, I took care of the power button. I went with this guide: https://www.tonymacx86.com/threads/g4-quicksilver-switch.50729/ .
After modifying the board, I took my time disassembling the mainboard plug and rewired it. This way I can just connect the plug onto the mainboard and it turned out to work really well. But took tome time to figure all the wirings out...

 

[Pexus]

ATX wiring!

So this weekend I took care of all the ATX wiring between PSU and Motherboard. I got myself some nice red sleeved ATX extensions off Amazon.

Making holes to run the cables:

And reinstalling the hardware to wire everything.



I'm not a 100% sure on how to manage the PSU cables. I will try to come up with a solution as soon as I decided on the final position and orientation of the PSU itself (velcro still being a valid solution here).

In other news:
I tossed all the HDDs and got myself a 1TB crucial m.2 SSD. Safes A LOT of space and I could't resist.