Template for early G4 (poss G3) motherboards

[Frankylan]

useful template for G4-modders but it comes one year to late for me.

 

[minihack]

useful template for G4-modders but it comes one year to late for me.

Hah, not necessarily as you can just take off the old and put on the new....and get those audio ports back.

Nice job though, looks good and I really like your water cooling job on it too.

 

[Frankylan]

useful template for G4-modders but it comes one year to late for me.

Hah, not necessarily as you can just take off the old and put on the new....and get those audio ports back.

Nice job though, looks good and I really like your water cooling job on it too.

Thanks man,
i don't need these audio ports because i have a working audio front panel
and SPDIF port at the backside.
Maybe for a next mod, a friend will give me a G3 case.

 

[jmpa]

@minihack looks great.

 

[minihack]

You mentioned ATX and mATX in this thread, does that mean that it's possible to use a full-size ATX motherboard inside a G4 case? I have a quicksilver that is set up with a mATX board in there right now but i'm probably going to buy a core i5 this week and it'd be awesome if you can use both ATX and mATX.

And one question for others who have successful mods: Can you guys use the original apple power-LED? I've soldered the connections on my front panel successfully and can use the power button fine, and the wires going to the LED are carrying a charge, but when I plug them into my motherboard it provides power but my computer switches on and then off, almost like a short of some kind - and the power button is no longer functional.

Hi,
There have been full ATX mod.s to G4s but they don't really suit ATX mounted on the door because you cannot get to all the slots. In fact, the only full ATX G4 mod I know of where you can get to all the slots is my own to the MDD case: http://www.tonymacx86.com/viewtopic.php?f=76&t=50817. I was referring to ATX type in this thread though (meaning PC mobos...).

For the Quicksilver I have just modded one of these switch boards and yes, you can use the diode without having to do a full hot wire to it but I recommend you lever off the integrated circuit from the board as it gets power from the same cable pin as the LED + side is connected to. You also then just need to make a short circuit between the other side of the LED and the ground connection. Also you need to do a small mod to the power switch side as there is not a "direct" connection to it through the switch board. I'll post pic.s and a full explanation on a clean thread....others have also done this mod before using a full hot wire method, but the way I did it just needs one wire added to the switch board.

 

[minihack]

For the Quicksilver I have just modded one of these switch boards and yes, you can use the diode without having to do a full hot wire to it but I recommend you lever off the integrated circuit from the board as it gets power from the same cable pin as the LED + side is connected to. You also then just need to make a short circuit between the other side of the LED and the ground connection. Also you need to do a small mod to the power switch side as there is not a "direct" connection to it through the switch board. I'll post pic.s and a full explanation on a clean thread....others have also done this mod before using a full hot wire method, but the way I did it just needs one wire added to the switch board.

So right now I have a functional power button on that board with the power connectors soldered directly to the switch labeled "S1".

I have the positive and negative power LED cables soldered to the LED's pins on the bottom of the PCB but whenever I plug the cables into my mobo it won't turn on. So what do I need to remove/modify on the PCB to prevent the glitch here. I appreciate you saying you'll post a guide, that would be awesome.

Okay, I'll post what I did tomorrow when I can get some pic.s sorted.

 

[the_gael]

Oh oh!!You guys are inspiring me again - built my G5 Hac last summer - now I am thinking my old G4 Quicksilver may get done this summer

 

[eelhead]

Oh oh!!You guys are inspiring me again - built my G5 Hac last summer - now I am thinking my old G4 Quicksilver may get done this summer

Well get on it!!!

 

[dddirtman]

i like this template I'm gonna redo my g4...
or just build a new one.

 

[minihack]

i like this template I'm gonna redo my g4...
or just build a new one.

Thanks.

This weekend I got around (finally) to transferring my work computer to the sawtooth case and trying out the finished mATX config. properly.

I tried two solutions for the backplate - first using the ABS plastic approach to disguise cuts in the original and the second just using a flat 3mm perspex substitute. I'll post some pic.s when I get time, but prefer the perspex approach as it saves all the tedious dremel work and I think looks great.

The motherboard template works well. I used that to mark both the plastic latch and the door for drilling. The resulting standoff placement is just on the limit of where to place the standoffs and still make the pci cards fit to the mounting screws, but going closer to the board edge makes it trickier to fit in the two standoffs closest to the backplate. Might be able to take them a mm or two closer though......hopefully the pic.s when I take them will show more clearly what I mean.