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PowerMac G5 Hackintosh with original PSU and cooling

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Joined
Sep 6, 2017
Messages
5
Motherboard
Supermicro X8SIL-F
CPU
Xeon X3440
Graphics
Radeon R9 280
Hi there! This is the first post I make in this community, but it's the result of hundreds of hours spent lurking.

I present to you my PowerMac G5 Hackintosh:

x2adrnE.jpg


This is the result of months of research, work and frustration.

The list of parts:

-Supermicro X8SIL-F Motherboard
-Intel Xeon X3440 CPU
-Sapphire AMD Radeon R9 280 3GB Dual-X
-Bluetooth module from a 24" early 2007 iMac, connected to a USB header on the board
-Original PSU, heatsink and fans. The fans are wired up to the motherboard, with the speed control line connected to 3.3V on the PSU
-80GB Western Digital laptop drive (provisional)
-2GiB Kingston DDR3 1333 (Provisional)
Here are the guts:

tfK3acS.jpg


I'm using the original heatsink, fans, CPU covers and PSU. Even the original air baffle.

6JCzJCJ.jpg


pk7deO9.jpg


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The back ports are also the originals, sawed off from the factory logic board, which was sadly dead:

jdvEFv6.jpg


Only USB and Ethernet work, though.

I couldn't have done it without getting the information from the following threads:

-G5 to ATX PSU conversion:
https://www.tonymacx86.com/threads/g5-mod-with-intact-case-and-reused-psu.80767/

-Front panel conversion:
https://www.tonymacx86.com/threads/power-mac-g5-front-i-o.119105/

I also have some crude build logs in my Youtube channel, but I'm not sure if that counts as spam.
 
very clean! looks stock, nice!
are you using that G4 iMac as a monitor?
 
very clean! looks stock, nice!
are you using that G4 iMac as a monitor?
Thank you!

Yup, the 24" iMac (It's a Mid-2007 Core2Duo, or rather used to be) I'm using as a monitor. It's not finished yet, though. I have to put an internal USB hub in it and wire up the ports.
 
This is insane. Could you share the details.

Thanks.
 
This is insane. Could you share the details.

Thanks.

Sure.
There's really not much to it, mounting the board was quite the standard affair of hammering the original standoffs off the case and gluing them back into the mATX positions. First I used mirror glue, but it didn't work as expected and I ended up using epoxy.
IMG_20170922_125520.jpg

The board fit like a glove.

Then, I did the PSU, which wasn't that hard, since the voltages are all marked inside, so it was just a tedious splicing job.
78953cc8-e17b-49f8-a831-9c4dcb7def0c.jpg


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As a side note, the ATX specification requires a "Power Good" signal to be pulled up from the PSU to indicate the system that all the power regulation is working. The G5 PSU lacks this signal, so I simply tied it to the 5V rail.

Here's the almost finished PSU, with the PCIe connectors missing:
a6c6e555-98e0-47ff-abdc-a4210f1a0c71.jpg


The heatsink wasn't that easy to do. First I marked the holes for the LGA115x mount, and then I ground off the "bump" for the original CPU. I also had to add a metal shim between the CPU and the heatsink.

05e36b56-247c-441b-bd0f-c2f1f5000eee.jpg


The holes for LGA115x are 7.5cm apart from each other in a square pattern.

Then I simply hot-glued the back ports to the motherboard and soldered everything together.

8ddfd634-7051-4360-b007-8dca57ef2bdc.jpg


I have some videos about this build in my youtube channel.

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLTRT13hW5dGFpcAHLo2DcrywbUAl8KBmN
 

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That is an awesome build!! It's very clean looking from the outside. I'm curious about the method you used to get OS X installed with that board? I have a case I'd like to use for a "mini" MacPro Hackintosh and that board will fit in the case I plan on using. Was it a standard UniBeast USB stick with default settings or did you have to use certain kexts and strings to get it to boot and install.

Thank you!
 
That is an awesome build!! It's very clean looking from the outside. I'm curious about the method you used to get OS X installed with that board? I have a case I'd like to use for a "mini" MacPro Hackintosh and that board will fit in the case I plan on using. Was it a standard UniBeast USB stick with default settings or did you have to use certain kexts and strings to get it to boot and install.

Thank you!

It was a standard USB installer, made with the utility included in the retail installer app, GUID partitioned and with Clover installed. The board works without the need for any additional kexts except for AppleIntelE1000e, and I also changed the SMBIOS to MacPro5,1. I did also use Lilu and WhateverGreen for the GPU. All of that was done using Multibeast.
 
Awesome build mate, might I ask what temps you get with the original cooler? I'm really tempted to go that route especially when imagining how quiet the system could be
 
Awesome build mate, might I ask what temps you get with the original cooler? I'm really tempted to go that route especially when imagining how quiet the system could be
Thank you!
They used to go up into the 80s (Celsius), however that was because I was using cheap thermal paste and the TIM inside the CPU had aged. I delidded the CPU and applied some Arctic MX-4, and now the max temps I've seen are around 70 degrees Celsius. Right now it's idling at 45 on the hottest core and 43 on the coolest, with a 23 degree ambient temp.
 
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