PowerMac G5 Case Modding Project - mATX & ATX Conversion - Barebones - Mac Pro Alternative

[wise-rice]

I am looking to mod a mac pro case as well for a hackintosh. I'm concerned about the standoff positions and sizes. Did you reuse the standoffs it came with or got new ones? If you resued do they come off easily or did you have to grind them off?

I reused them. They come off easily with a hammer.
Glued them back in with epoxy.
Try positioning them by screwing them to a motherboard. Or make a mask out of hard plastic.

 

[wise-rice]

@wise-rice I just bought an A1177 G5 case yesterday, I am stuck on a few things. My board is a mATX board but I don't want to butcher the case and I want to keep the same style of the case. I also cant use the stock power supply. I used another guide of yours HERE for the power supply but I need to put an atx power supply in to connect to the cable. I do not want to buy a server PSU. I mainly need help with the motherboard mount, i/o shield, and the front Power/usb. The front power and usb is an issue because it connects to the board not with wires but with contact pins on the board itself. (Picture attached below) It is tricky because I can't use the cables you used in this guide for that, unless there is another cable that I can't find online.

View attachment 386966 View attachment 386965

I was going to buy a kit for the rear i/o and motherboard tray but they are expensive. Any advice or resources you can share or point me in a good direction? Please help.

Sincerely,

Devin

You can leave the cover of the G5 PSU housing off and put an ATX PSU in the case. But it will be a bit too high. So i recommend to first install your motherboard and then place the (ideally modular) PSU in. I would attach it using velcro Tape. There is industrial velcro that is activated by soaking it in Aceton for a couple of minutes. That stuff sticks to metal. Put it on the PSU and the bottom of the Case and you can securely place your PSU and also remove it if you need to change your MoBo

The front panel you have can not be used. But you can try to find one with a connector plug on ebay and then buy a cable from blackchmods.

Or instead (cheaper): buy a complete front panel assy from The Laser Hive. But this means you need to butcher the case a bit more. Also more risk of damaging something with the dremel. But in return you get USB3

Where are you from?

 

[devinbeane]

You can leave the cover of the G5 PSU housing off and put an ATX PSU in the case. But it will be a bit too high. So i recommend to first install your motherboard and then place the (ideally modular) PSU in. I would attach it using velcro Tape. There is industrial velcro that is activated by soaking it in Aceton for a couple of minutes. That stuff sticks to metal. Put it on the PSU and the bottom of the Case and you can securely place your PSU and also remove it if you need to change your MoBo

The front panel you have can not be used. But you can try to find one with a connector plug on ebay and then buy a cable from blackchmods.

Or instead (cheaper): buy a complete front panel assy from The Laser Hive. But this means you need to butcher the case a bit more. Also more risk of damaging something with the dremel. But in return you get USB3

Where are you from?

I am from Alabama. How about you?

Oh, I did go look at the front panel assy from the Laser Hive but they are out of stock. :/ Hopefully that comes back in stock soon because I am on a budget. If they however do not come back in stock I will go the other route. How should I proceed on the motherboard tray and rear i/o? I have a rear i/o and motherboard tray I dremel out of an old case but I am skeptical on fitting it.

 

[wise-rice]

I am from Alabama. How about you?

Oh, I did go look at the front panel assy from the Laser Hive but they are out of stock. :/ Hopefully that comes back in stock soon because I am on a budget. If they however do not come back in stock I will go the other route. How should I proceed on the motherboard tray and rear i/o? I have a rear i/o and motherboard tray I dremel out of an old case but I am skeptical on fitting it.

Up to you.
There are plenty of threads for both variants. Inserting a shield from another case or not using one at all (like me, see log)

The front panel alone will probably cost you more than you paid for the case itself, though. Either way. These Adaptor cables are expensive, as are the compatible boards.
Laser Hive is a bit cheeper, but still... overall the best solution. Send them an email. The boss always helps and knows when things will be back in stock (he makes them)

 

[AlphaNDB]

Wow! This looks brilliant. I've just ordered a PowerMac G5 to convert to ATX. Been wanting to do it for years but finally getting around to it.

 

[MACAK]

The End:


Thats it for now…
What do you think?
Was it worth it?
What hardware would you put in?
Please let me know…


Yours sincerely,
wise_rice

I would like Gigabyte Aorus Pro ATX, with Radeon VII and GC-Titan Ridge with a Seasonic 850PX.

 

[wise-rice]

I would like Gigabyte Aorus Pro ATX, with Radeon VII and GC-Titan Ridge with a Seasonic 850PX.

I would like that, too

 

[KhoGao]

Thank you for this project. I've been hesitate between cutting the rear IO or leave it intact and using many extension cable/IO card. Now I cut it like you did and feel sooo happy about it.

 

[Kaitain]

These Server PSUs still have some proprietary connectors (and some cables, that are a bit shorter than usual), So, I bought different adapter-cables and extensions for the PSUs to make everything universal.


PSU-Cables:

- PCIe 8-Pin (2x) for graphics cards (over CPU 8-Pin adapter)
- CPU (1x 8-Pin, 1x 4-Pin) – actually there is one more 8-Pin, but it is occupied by the PCIe-adapter. So, it is possible to do a dual-CPU setup with a small graphics card, that does not need a dedicated power plug, as well.
- Molex (2x) (6x over SATA-Adapter)
- SATA (5x) (over Molex adapter), black sleeved
- 24-Pin ATX (20 Pin is possible) + Extension (black) + Dual PSU connector
- 12V Fan (4x over Molex Adapter), black sleeved

Hey wise-rice, can you give further details about where these cables came from? Are they from SuperMicro themselves, or from some third party? (Do you happen to have specific part IDs for them?)

Thanks,

KJ

 

[wise-rice]

Hey wise-rice, can you give further details about where these cables came from? Are they from SuperMicro themselves, or from some third party? (Do you happen to have specific part IDs for them?)

Thanks,

KJ

AliExpress third party