Power Mac G4 "Rainbow Apple" Build (repost)

[ProjectIcarus]

This is a repost as my previous thread was deleted by mods due to containing external image hosting, so I have used a cached version to restore all the information from the original post:

Sep 25, 2017

Hi Guys

Yet another Power Mac G4 build !

For right now, I don't actually have any plans to put a computer inside, this is more of just a fun project to learn and develop my skills. Eventually, this will replace my 2010 Macbook Pro, which I use as a daily desktop replacement. But it is getting on a bit, and when it eventually packs up, then I will most likely put a computer into the G4 case. But for now, it's just a fun project

I bought the G4 back in Jan 2016 for 99p from eBay. A bargain, as it was in pretty good condition!

First thing to do was strip it out.

Then Cut out the side fan hole, which was a bit messy (will be cleaned up later).

Next to cut out a side hole for any future power supply

This hole came out much better

Next a fan mount for underneath. This will either be for a water cooler radiator, or just another fan, I've left the options open.

Included a dust mesh protector to collect the inevitable floor dust and dust bunnies

I also cut a hole in the front for some front mounted USB and Audio ports

Using the G4 mATX kit from The Laser Hive, I drilled the holes and cut off the old stand offs for the new mATX setup.

Using an old donor computer I had laying about, I test fitted the motherboard

I wanted the side panels to be coloured white, but I wanted to do something different from all the other Stormtrooper style case mods. So I set about removing the silver paint from behind the side panel. The first panel I sanded it all off, which took a LONG time!

Masked up ready to paint

4 light coats later

I always loved the old rainbow apple logo. It always brings back fond memories from my childhood, so I wanted the side logos to be the same retro design. I printed out a test image to stick to the side to see how it would look with the new white side panel, and I really liked it!

The second panel I used Methylated Spirit to remove the paint, which to be honest, was just as hard as the sanding !

Had some professional decals made up for the rainbow apple logo

If people are interested in doing the Retro Apple Logo themselves, here's the custom template that I made specifically to fit the Apple Logo on the side panels:

Just ask any decal printing company to print this in 11x11cm and it will match up perfectly with the apple logo on the G4 side panel .

Really happy with how they turned out

Next step was to get the front power switch to work with a conventional mother board.
Following some google searches I found which cables did what and soldered on the connections.

The power button worked first time to my surprise. The only problem was the reset button doesn't work. I put this down to it sharing the same ground wire, so I may have to solder it direct to the board to get it to work possibly.


Next are painting the top and bottom panels. I wanted them to be the same satin texture as from factory, so I painted them Satin Black:

I also painted the power button housing and the inside fan housing. Forgot to take pictures of the end result

That was May 2016, I then went through a rather nasty break up, and just lost all interest in the project.
And it lay boxed up in my attic for a good year before I stumbled upon the project photos while having a computer clean up and I then decided that I really wanted to finish the project that I started with such enthusiasm before .

So down it came, and I started the project up again.

Next, I wanted to have a front intake fan for better cooling. The CD/Zip drive bay was almost exactly the same size as two 80mm fans, so I bought two ARCTIC F8 80mm fans and two 80mm guard covers. The guard covers were too wide to fit in the hole left by the CD/Zip drive bay, so I had to trim and sand the sides down to fit. I then used some P40 that I had left over from a car project and I bonded them together as one cover

I then glued it into the front panel. I'm really happy with the fit

I decided that I didn't like the front USB/audio ports, it didn't look as professional as the rest of the build, so I decided to fill in the holes before the front got painted.

Tried P40 first, but it didn't give a smooth enough finish for the holes to be unnoticeable after painting, so started agin with some P38 instead

After sanding

Had to cut out a lot of the front section of the metal case to get the two 80mm fans to fit

I then had to fill in the holes I cut for the front USB hub on the metal case as well

P40 for the outside

P38 for the inside

I plan on painting the whole of the metal case Satin Black as well, so the filler won't be noticeable on the final result.

As I had completely taken the metal casing apart, rivets and all, and there has been a lot of hole cutting and metal bending, I wanted to be sure that everything fitted back together properly before doing any more work on the case.
So I put all the unfinished parts back together to test fit it

It looked really weird, but after a small amount of panel bending, everything fitted back together ok

The inside with the fans and painted parts

I then put my donor computer in just to make sure that everything worked fine, as I had been dismantled and sat in an attic for a year. Everything worked fine

 

[ProjectIcarus]

Sep 25, 2017 continued...

I decided that I wanted to paint the handles as well. But I wanted to do the same thing as I did with the side panels and paint the inside rather than the outside for something a bit different.

The final result

Next was trying to smooth out the scratches and marks on the inner door from removing the old standoffs and drilling the new ones
Sanded as best I could

Sanding was taking too long, so I got out the P38 and just filled in the deep marks, also filled in the screw holes that weren't needed anymore while I was at it

Oct 5, 2017


Had a few weeks off work, so I've had the time to crack on with the build and make some good progress.

Painted the front panel Satin Black, and I'm really happy with how it turned out. The Merge of the two fan houses wasn't 100% smooth, but I'm happy with it none the less .

All primed ready for painting:

Painted with Satin Black Paint:

You can ever so slightly see where I cut the holes for the audio/USB ports, but it's barely noticeable, so I'm happy with it

The front with the plastic Apple logo installed and the power button which I sanded down the front of as the green didn't really go with the black:

I also painted the inside of the side handle white in keeping with the rest of the build:

The plastic that surrounded the I/O & PCI slots posed a problem, as the plastic strip that separated the I/O panel and PCI slots covered about 8mm of the I/O plate, and meant that any port in that area would be covered.
I really wanted the flush look, but also didn't want any ports covered. So I decided to remove the strip and fill/mould the cut off areas around to look more natural.

Cut off the plastic, no going back now:

First step was to fill the inside of the holes with P40 filler to give it a strong back:

Then fill over that with P38 to give a nice smooth sandable finish:

I rounded off the corner to give a natural finish in keeping with the standard look.

Both back plastics now sanded and ready to be primed:

Primed and ready to paint:

The painted Satin Black final result:

I then had a change of heart about the front power switch. I wanted to use the programmers button as a HDD LED, seeing as the button was redundant. Also the reset button didn't work when wired to the standard apple wiring, because they all share a common ground. So I scrapped that and bought a new ATX cable and wired it direct to the board.

First step was to cut off all the original circuit routes and drill the necessary holes:

The cable came with the power LED and HDD LED already wired in, so I thought it would just be easier to drill the holes for them and just glue them into place.

Power and reset switches wired in place and the LEDs routed underneath and glued in place:

I really love the classic Apple chime when you boot up the computer, so I wanted to recreate that with in the build.

I ordered a USB Button activated playback board that you find in music gift cards. I then wired it to the original G4 speaker.
I'm going to eventually wire it to the power switch when I figure out where I'm going to hide the board.

I got hold of the Apple Chime sound online, then I edited it to add a 3 second delay between hitting the button and actually hearing the sound, like it would be with a real Mac.

And here's the result LINK

A little OCD, but I think it adds a nice authentic touch !


Probably one of the biggest jobs was getting the inside metal case all sanded down.
Took nearly a day of hard work to get to the stage where it is prepped and ready for primer.
All the unnecessary holes were filled in and sanded:

Next step was to prime all the metal with etch primer to ensure a good adhesion to the metal:

I then realized that one can was just not going to cut it, and I ran out half way through priming.
So I've ordered another can, and I'm just waiting on it to arrive before I can do any more painting !

 

[ProjectIcarus]

Oct 17, 2017

Another big update:

Got the Etch Primer and now finished priming all the metal case parts:

All the parts painted in Satin Black. Had just enough paint to finish all the panels:

The very last thing to paint was the screws for the case:

Now time to put everything back together again.
First was the side panel with all the motherboard standoffs and IO plate:

Next was wiring in the audio playback deice for the apple startup sound:

Then for the front Apple logo, I wanted to have an LED light.
Originally I just drilled one hole in the middle, but I found that it didn't illuminate the apple logo the way I wanted it to. So I drilled 4 holes around it to house the LEDs to better illuminate it:

I bought some Rainbow effect LED's that cycle through the colour spectrum to continue with the rainbow theme:

I wired them to fit a standard Molex connector so I could connect it direct to the power supply.
I originally wanted to wire it to the power on LED, but I was told by the seller that I couldn't do that because it has a chip inside the LED. So wiring it to the 5V on the power supply was the 2nd best option:

Glued into place:

Tested the LEDs by connecting them up to an old computer, and they worked perfectly:

The picture really doesn't do it justice, it looked so nice!!


Next was to rivet the case back together. To save my self some painting, I bought some black rivets, which matched the paint job perfectly!:

Skip forward to the case all riveted together. I'm really happy with the result!:

And now for the grand unveil after putting all the case back together again:

I'm really happy with the end result. I've still got some small things to do, like polish the side panels and the handles, as they aren't completely shiny after being sanded down. And side apple logos still need redoing. But apart from that, it is basically finished!

I had another G4 lying around, so I took some pictures next to it to compare the difference:

This project took a ridiculous amount of time, but I learned so much from doing it that I can't say that wasn't worth the 100+ hours I put into it.
I look forward to my next project !

Any questions about the build feel free to ask !

 

[ProjectIcarus]

Nov 15, 2020
So finally a long awaited update for this build. It's not a Hackintosh I'm afraid, but those of you who wanted to to see it finished, here you go.

For the last 3 years, the case has been sat, unused, on a shelf, just as an ornament until I decided what to do with it. I did consider selling it at one point, but I had put so much work into it, I knew a time would come where I would finish it, and that time came in the form of the worldwide lockdown.
I had already sold my old Hackintosh a year ago, as fun as the Hackintosh project was, the main reason I switched to Mac in the first place was the reliability and ease of use of MacOS, and even though I got my Hackintosh to be pretty stable and reliable, it was always one update away from not working, and I just decided to stick with a genuine Mac in the form of a Late-2013 15" Retina, which is my daily computer, and I love it.

During the Lockdown, I rediscovered my passion for gaming, and the old Hackintosh was a pretty good gaming machine, but I had sold it, so I thought about building a new Gaming PC, but one on a tighter budget (£1000), and aim for a Mid-Range machine rather than the all out power house I built before (i7 4930k, 32GB RAM in 2015).
So, with the restriction of an mATX form factor, and only the ability to use a 120mm AIO water cooler, I settled on these specs:

AMD Ryzen 5 3600 Processor
ASUS Dual GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER EVO OC Edition
MSI MAG B550M MORTAR WIFI Motherboard mATX
Crucial Ballistix 16GB 3600MHz CL16 DDR4 RAM
Be quiet! Pure Power 11 600W CM PSU
WD Blue SN550 1TB High-Performance M.2 Pcie NVMe SSD
Noctua NF-F12 PWM chromax black Fans x2
EZDIY-FAB Sleeved Cable extension kit

Test fitted the motherboard, and after a bit of tweaking, it fits perfectly

Ordered a Corsair TX650M Power supply, because it looked like the switch and plug would line up perfectly with the original holes in the case. Turns out it didn't! So I'm ordering a different power supply, and I'm going to begrudgingly cut the case to fit. I wish I had cut the case when I was originally making it, but you live and learn.

I thought I would plug everything in and test it all works.
Everything works perfectly ! I love that PC building is so much easier these days. Everything just plugs in and works!!

Power supply was a bit too long for the original bracket, so I had to cut the raised end off for it to sit properly. Luckily I had some satin black metal paint, so I could at least hide the cuts.

Power supply now sits flush on the bracket

I didn't have the heart to cut the outside of the case, so I cut the inside enough so that the power switch had enough room to fit

I'll survive without the use of the switch, I'll just turn it off at the wall.

Had to order extension cables for the power supply, so thought why not go for ones that match the colour theme of the build.

To keep all the cables tidy and organised, I decided to make holes in the case to route the cables through, so they can be hidden between the chassis and the outer plastic casing. I added some rubber edging to neaten up the holes, but also to protect the cabling from catching/ripping on the metal.

Also made holes under the motherboard to route the various cables.

Made a cardboard prototype for the custom radiator/fan bracket, before ordering the aluminium part.

Aluminium bracket arrived and fitted to the case so I could measure the exact position of the fan placement and cut accordingly

Had to use the angle grinder to cut the metal, as the Dremel was just taking so long. I used the Dremel to finish off the cuts and then filed and sanded down the edges to give a nicer finish.

Now time to start organising the cabling. I really love the white power cable extensions with the cable combs

Organising the cabling ended up taking a lot longer than I was expecting. And when I finally got it organised, the plastic side panels just wouldn't fit on the side of the case. So it looks like I will have to take it all out and rethink my strategy to make the cables fit.

To route the cables a different way, I decided to route the main large power connector through the radiator mount, so it didn't have to go behind the side panel, and there would be enough room for the side panel to fit correctly. I made a cut out on the radiator bracket to allow the cabling to pass through, along with a little hole to fit a cable tie through to secure the cabling.

A new hole had to be cut to route the cables through, so I had to dismantle the case again and get cutting. I decided to use some more rubber edging to tidy up the fan holes as well.

The power cables were so large and the tension very tight, I thought the adhesive cable tie mounts wouldn't stay stuck to work well in this gap, so I cut holes in the case for the cable ties instead, as I knew there was no way they could come off this way.

Cables now all neatly organised at the back, and the panel screws on with only a small resistance

In keeping with the theme of the build, I used some Satin Black wrap I had to cover the 1TB hard drive I would be using as the backup drive, so it was nicely hidden and didn't ruin the aesthetic.

And finally, I used my Dremel to cut a gap in the bottom of the plastic side panel to allow for better air flow. I don't know how much difference it will actually make, but in a closed case like this. I'll take all the air flow I can get!

And now for what you've all be waiting for, the pictures of the finished build:

The temperatures have been pretty good. Using prime 95 synthetic load, It hit a max temp of 69'C, and under real world load, a max of 62'C, so not bad for a G4 Case.
I really wanted to go with an air cooler, but the biggest I could fit in the case would be a Noctua NH-L12S, which scored worse in cooling tests than a corsair H60 (with a Noctua 120mm fan), so I knew I had to go with the water cooler.

Quite a few people mentioned on another forum, that I shouldn't have mounted my radiator at the bottom. Aparently a video came out a few months ago basically stating how it was bad, as the trapped air in the AIRO would settle in the pump on the CPU (rather than the radiator) because it was higher, causing poor thermal performance, and overtime, failure of the AIO, so I may have to look at different options for placing it. God knows where it's going to go in such a small case, but I will try and work it out.

 

[ProjectIcarus]

Dec 17, 2020

Update:

So after posting the build on another forum, quite a few people pointed out that the radiator mounted on the bottom was a bad idea due to air pockets being In the radiator pump on the CPU (because it's the highest point), which would cause issues and also cause the pump to fail earlier, and that Gamers Nexus made a video showing why, and what the optimum positions were. LINK TO VIDEO

So after watching the video, I sat down and stared at the inside of my case and tried to think about where the hell I could actually mount the radiator to insure that the top of the radiator was higher than the pump (so the air pocket collected there rather than the pump).

I decided that seeing as I had air coming in from the front of the case with the two 80mm fans I added, that was probably the best place to put it, as I didn't want to be cutting holes in the top of the case and ruining the look. I wanted the outer look to remain unchanged.

I decided to test fit the radiator bracket I made and drilled the holes into the chassis. If I decided It didn't work, the holes would be covered by the door tray, so It wouldn't matter. I made sure the bracket lined up with the door tray, and that it would clear everything when the door was closed

I couldn't mount the radiator to the bracket with the tubes facing down (the optimum position), so I filed out two sections to allow the tubes to fit.

I ran numerous tests and benchmarks to see if there was any difference to the temperatures, and I did notice that during the Prime95 stress test the highest temperature it reached was 62'C, while before it would get to 67'C, but general use, the temperatures were more or less the same, maybe slightly better.

Seeing as everything was working fine and fitted, I decided to go with this set up, and drill the holes in the door tray.

They're not the best holes, but I thought it doesn't really matter, as the bracket will be covering them anyway.

I used a spacer and a nut to allow just enough room to clear the door tray, but not be too high

The Cable combed 24pin lead fit just nicely in the gap between the motherboard and bracket. The cable management doesn't look quite as nice as it did with the radiator on the bottom, but it's still alright.

Radiator and fan fitted. It's really difficult to screw in the fan screws with the ATX cable in the way, so in future, I will probably unscrew the bracket and then remove/install the radiator and fan.

Now it's all finished and working, I decided that I wanted to paint the radiator bracket to match the rest of the case.
I didn't have any satin black spray paint, but I had some normal brush on paint, so I thought I would use that, as the bracket is mostly hidden anyway, so Even if the brush strokes were visible, you wouldn't really notice them.

The bracket came out alright, though In hindsight, I wish I had just gone out and bought some Satin Black spray paint and just did it so it matched the rest of the sprayed case.

The final result:

I also purchased a Noctua NF-S12A PWM chromax.black.swap to go on the bottom where the radiator was, to bring in cool air, which has definitely helped with cooling. The case still isn't the best for cooling, but the temperatures never go over 70'C on the highest. It's just the idle temperatures that can be erratic sometimes, where it can be anything from 40-60'C at idle, but it's still not high enough to cause any concern and should be fine.

 

[ProjectIcarus]

24 Aug, 2023

The Rainbow G4 is still going strong, the only changes I've made for it was to buy another 16gb of Crucial Ballistix but in white to contrast the original black sticks and to match the build colours, which I had to wait for a second hand set to come up on eBay, as they had stopped making them. I also upgraded the storage with a 256gb M.2 for the OS, a 1TB M.2 SSD for games, and another 2x 1TB SATA SSDs, also for games, which were installed behind the door side panel, as well as a 3.5" 2TB hard drive for backups installed in one of the original G4 hard drive bays, using the original 3.5" adaptor.

I also made a custom Windows 10 loading screen with HackBGRT for the G4, with the vintage Apple font.

How the computer currently looks:

Hopefully this post won't get deleted, and will stand as a resource for others who wish to mod their own G4 Case.


Feel free to ask any questions, I'm always happy to help .


Also, if people would like to see the original post with it's comments, the cached version can be viewed here:LINK