PowerMac G8: My Apple G3 To PC Tower Mod (56K friendly!)

S

Silversierra

Limp Gawd
Joined
Apr 20, 2005
Messages
263
Welcome to my PowerMac G8: G3 To PC Tower Worklog.​

I've finished this project, at least for the most part, so I'll detail the steps I took in this mod below. Enjoy!​





I am modding an apple g3 blue and white case in this worklog. I was given this unit (in working order) which had a g3 450mhz, 128mb pc133 ram, 9gb scsi hd, firewire, and was running apple os 9.2. I booted it up and played with it some, but really couldn't think of a good use for the computer, due to its age and outdated os. If it would have been running os x, then I probably wouldn't have modded it. My goal is to keep the case looking stock on the outside, but be completely overhauled inside. I guess you could call it a "sleeper."

After playing around with it, I then overclocked it, since these units were oc'able by jumpers, and got it running at 500mhz, (it'd chime at 550mhz, but wouldn't boot) which was fun, but it didn't make the unit any more useful to me.

So I decided I'd rip out all the apple parts, and install pc parts inside. It is a cool little case after all, with the way the motherboard panel folds down. I think it'd work good as a lan box since it has handles too, although it is heavy.

Just a side note, please don't be offended by my taking out the apple parts and putting pc parts inside. I'm not anti-apple in any way, as I use both PCs and Macs and like them both.



All my pictures will be clickable thumbnails, which link to full size approx 800x600 pictures. This worklog will hopefully be "dialup friendly."
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I'll start out with some pictures of the "victim". :eek:​




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I'm not putting any super high performance parts inside (at least at this time, maybe in the future I'll put a dual core system with a decent gpu and use it as a lanparty box), instead, I'll be using some "left-over" parts I have around.

The parts I'm going to use include a matx skt 478 mobo, 512mb pc133, 80gb seagate ide, sony 16x dvd rom, thermaltake 420w psu, pci nvidia 6200, pci nic, pci slot blower, and a p4 1.8ghz w/ heatsink. I'll be reusing the apple case(obviously), the ide cables, and the 120mm case fan, which I'll have to mod to work with my psu. Since I don't have any "spare" copies of xp just lying around, I'll be using the vista rc2 on the unit.

After evaluating the arrangement inside, I decided that only a matx board would fit properly, and to my surprise a standard atx power supply and standard optical drive will fit without and serious modding. So, I decided to take out the g3 parts and test fit the matx board and see how difficult this would be.

Here's the stripped down case.​


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After taking out the mobo and disconnecting the multiple wires, I put my matx board in for its test fit. Unfortunately absolutely none of the g3's standoffs aligned with my motherboard, but the good news was the pci slots (4) aligned ok (I wasn't sure if apple had the same spacing, but they do).

Here're some pictures of my test fitting.​



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The test fitting went well, so I decided to take out some of the g3 standoffs(broke them off, I think they're press fitted), and put in just two standoffs (machine screws and nuts) at the opposite corners to get a rough idea of whether I have enough clearance between mobo and the cd drive and the psu.

Here's a picture of the clearance test.​


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So at this point I'm like, "CRAP!" The heatsink, memory, and 20 pin connector all hit. So, yeah, I have bad luck, but I found a work around. For the processor I just decided to buy a 1U server heatsink, which gives me lots of clearance for that.

This is the heatsink I purchased.​


I really like the heatsink. It's heavy copper, and has a nice secure backplate for mounting it up nice. Of course I put the heatsink on and used the never fail Artic Silver 5, instead of the crappy silicone paste the heatsink comes with.

Now, what do I do about the memory and power cable hitting the cd drives? (retorical question to myself) I decide that I have two options, remove the cd drive completely, or change how the cd drive mounts to the case. Obviously I wanted an optical drive, so I went with the latter course of action. I then made my own bracket for my drive, which solved the clearance issue, but still hides the dvd rom behind the cd "door." Problem solved!

The next issue to solve was cooling. The g3 case had very little cooling stock, basically the psu fan, and an internal 120mm fan (to blow the heat around I guess). So, since I want to keep the case looking just like stock, I decided to take the 120mm fan from inside the case and mount it to the case floor (towards the front) as an air intake. That way it can't be seen, and since it has "handles" on all four corners, it's raised off the floor about 2". I used a cd spindle protector blank as a template for my "blow hole" and cut it out with metal shears, and drilled fan mount holes for the fan. I then cut the proprietary apple power connector off and soldered a 4 pin molex power connector to the fan and heatshrunk the bare wires up. The fan apparantly has a fan speed controller built in, since it has some kind of heat sensor on it. So then I short out my psu (green wire to black) and test that the fan works and spins correctly, and all is good.

Picture of the fan.
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My next project was to figure out how to connect the apple's power button to the motherboards front panel. The g3 power panel has a 20pin (estimate) ribbon cable connecting to the g3 board, so I get my trusty multi meter and try testing the resistance(ohms) of various wires until I find the two wires that are my power button wires. I then made a cable to connect the two jumpers on the g3 front panel to the jumpers on my mobo. I give it a test and it works ok.

I then put my power supply in the g3 case and did some wire hiding of the ide cables and the power cables. I bundled my extra power cables up and stashed them on top of the dvd rom.

Next I made an i/o plate to fit my motherboard for the g3 case. I first made a template out of paper and then went to the shop to find some thin metal. I found some thin galvanized steel and decided to use that. I marked out my i/o ports on the metal with a sharpie and proceeded to drill and dremel out my i/o ports. I got it finally done and gave it a test fit.

Here's a picture of the test fit.​


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Amazingly, the ports fit ok on the first try. I then sanded it some(it was kinda dirty in the test fit) and spray painted it silver. So while I waited for the plate to dry I put some more standoffs in the g3 case for the motherboard. I didn't use all the mounting holes as it seemed secure enough without them all. I had a front panel i/o controller from anther case so while the i/o plate was drying, I made a pci slot bracket to hold the front panel i/o ports out of left over metal from another case mod. I finally got it to fit the pci slot properly after much trial and error. Now I have a pci slot 2 usb and headphone jack adapter. As a side note I had to use longer screws than normal to mount the pci slot items as they were fully seated in the mobo, but not tight against the case mounting rail.

I then put the i/o plate in after it dried, and mounted up the mobo. I then put in my pci 6200, pci nic, and pci slot blower. Everything pretty much is aligning ok.
Pics

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So, now I'm pretty much done with it. I might add some more pictures later, but for now, this should be a good start.

Here's a final picture of the back panel.​


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Note how my psu's switch/plug fits perfectly with the plastic cutout. Luck I guess...
Also, you can see my homemade pci slot bracket to hold the usb and headphone jack in the above picture.

Just in case you were wondering about it's name, G8, I got that since apple names (or did name) their towers PowerMac G3, G4, G5 so obviously I wanted a higher number than what it had, and G8 kinda sounds cool, and it reminds me of V8 (the engine, not that drink), but mostly I picked G8 since it was easy to mod the case to say G8, from G3.

Here's the final product.​


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Case temp according to mbm is 25C, and the CPU is 35C.

Total cost for the mod: $20+shipping for the 1U heatsink, plus my time and use of my tools. Not bad IMO.



Hope you enjoyed the mod, I know I did.

Feel free to post any questions or comments.

Silversierra
 
Good work!

I am really interested in a picture of your cd-rom holding-bracket, because i have a g3 and a g4 lying around and in don't know how to make the cd-rom fit.
 
Yeah, there's a reason I didn't include a picture, because how I did the cd drive was kind of ghetto. It works ok, it just doesn't look pretty. I mounted one side of the cd drive to the case wall, and made a small metal bracket to hold the other side. I had to angle the drive to make it clear the motherboard. This was the only way I could see to put an optical drive in and have it not hit the memory or power cable. Here's a picture.

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Note, the drive I put in is a sony, so it's really short, but it still couldn't clear in the standard position. I guess as long as it works...
 
that looks so ghettoed - u shud hav checked all of the things fitted before... but i guess it wont be seen so :p
 
You sure that wont go in streight? All I see blocking it is the PSU, and that can be shaved down if need be...
 
The 20pin atx connector on the board hits the cd mech in it's normal position, and the one memory stick also hits. If I had a mobo with a different layout, it would probably be possible to get the cd in "properly." Finding a mobo that would work nicely, could be a chore though. It almost would have to be matx, with either horizontal memory slots above the processor or vertical slots very close to the cpu socket, and the main power connector anywhere but where it'd hit the cd mech. If anyone knows of a board that supports an amd(939) or intel dual core(775 c2d) that is matx and has pci-e and supports the above specs(oc'ing would be nice too, but not a must), let me know, I could make this into my lan box, and put the cd mech back "properly."

edit: I found a board that looks like it'd fit. It's small 9.6x8 instead of 9.6x9.6.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813131041
The 24pin is low enough it should clear the cd drive.
 
Can I have the G3 parts? I have some empty G3 cases that need parts to make them whole. :)

Nice mod though. I plan to get me a new Digital Audio G4 case to mod, as it has 5 slots.
 
I know some Lite-On drives are quite smaller than others, so you may want to look into one of those, then just cutting away the unneeded parts of the drive cage, to make it fit but look like stock.
 
Ok, so I'm doing/did a big update to the project.

I purchased some new parts for the "g8 mod."

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So the parts are a biostar p4m890 m7 pci-e, intel e4300 allendale, and 1gb stick of hyper x.
Before anyone bashes the board too much, it's one of two motherboards that will fit in the case that I could find(since it has a depth of 7.5"), so it's the better of the two options. The board has vcore and vdimm, and locked pci-e, but no pci lock, so that's a big overclock stopper. Also it basically can't be overclocked with the integrated graphics in use. I got the 1.8 e4300 to 2.1 until my pci was "giving out." I'm thinking of doing a bsel pin(or pad) mod to get it to auto detect as a 1066 fsb chip at 2.4ghz.

So I put the new board in and made an i/o plate holder for the board. It barely clears the optical drive(sony ~6.5" depth), but now my optical drive isn't angled, it's back to the stock configuration. I modded the apple speaker to work with the new board(soldered a new connector on). I also put a led for hard drive access into the front panel, so it shines through the button. Right now, it looks pretty much stock(with the exception of saying g8 on the side). I'm debating whether I should put the c2d sticker on the front, or if I want a stock look. I've installed vista home premium on it and am using it as a pvr/media center unit.





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Probably have a few more pics up later. If you have any questions or comments, I'd be glad to hear them.
 
I've made the same mod with following parts:
- C2D E6400
- Asus P5L-MX
- 2x 1GB/667 DDR2 Patriot
- ATI X1900XT
- 320GB HD SATA2
- Terratec Sixpack soundcard
- Nec DVD-RW
&
Dell 2407WFP

It looks just like a normal G3, with front apple lit when the PC is ''on''. No ghetto shortcuts. Most newer DVD burners are shorter, mine is 175mm long, enough to clear the RAM sticks.

You should have made more research, there are some excellent sites around about turning G3/4 case in PC case. This one is by far the best one:
http://ichau.com:59/G4/
 
I don't think I took any ghetto shortcuts with the new parts I put in. With the original parts I tried(had lying around), I had to have my cd drive in a really ghetto position, but now it's back to normal. It looks stock on the outside and the inside isn't bad either(except my poor wire management :)). The site you linked to was a pretty nice mod. Whoever did that did a very nice job.


I finally did the e4300 800fsb to 1066fsb mod today, so I thought I'd share some more information for anybody wanting to pin(pad) mod their e4300 using the bsel pins.. It worked for me (so far ).


I used the permatex rear window defogger repair kit I bought at the local auto parts store to jump the two "pads."
I will say it wasn't easy to tape and paint the cpu, the pads are very small.


Thanks to tweakpcs.com for hosting my pics!

Picture of taped and painted cpu.
http://tweakpcs.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/02/dscf0037.JPG
Picture of cpu from above after mod.
http://tweakpcs.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/02/dscf0042.JPG
Closeup of cpu mod.
http://tweakpcs.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/02/dscf0044.JPG

I connected as was suggesed on ocforums, specifically from this picture.
http://img178.imageshack.us/img178/9697/success1xz8.jpg

I had to reset my cmos, but then I got it working.
I have a biostar p4m890 m7 pci-e board that has fsb and voltage, but doesn't have pci locks so this was a good mod in my case.

I couldn't find too much info on the mod in google searches, so I thought I'd post with more info, and to say the mod worked for me.

I'll try to get interior pics up soon, so you can see that the cd drive is no longer "ghetto."
 
hi Silversierra! I am mike from singapore.

I have a G3 with me which I want to mod my pc into it. Anyway the biggest concern I have now is how to connect the power switch to the PC mother board (I may consider buying the biostar p4m890). However I am not a computer person, just an average guy with some very basic knowledge.

I went to few shops that do upgrades and repair, and when i tell them about your tip for connecting the power switch
"The g3 power panel has a 20pin (estimate) ribbon cable connecting to the g3 board, so I get my trusty multi meter and try testing the resistance(ohms) of various wires until I find the two wires that are my power button wires. I then made a cable to connect the two jumpers on the g3 front panel to the jumpers on my mobo."
Click to expand...

Most of them give me :confused: looks.

So I am wondering can you send me some pictures (close ups) of how you connect the G3 power wire to your mother board. Hopefully I can print it out and just show it to the IT guy and hope he can understand better.

I try to download the dscf0028etg8.th.jpg but the image is no more linked.

If I show the IT guy the information from
http://ichau.com:59/G4/G4_FrontPanel.htm
will he understand?

So far it seems like nobody has try modding a pc into G3/G4 case in singapore yet. Hope I will be the first one :)


hope to hear from you soon

thanks!
 
Your link and this one http://homepage.mac.com/josephk/G4_led.html
did the job.
Click to expand...

thank you very much suntrace1 :) I checked out the link that you give, hopefully the IT person can understand the diagram.

However to make things easier, can you post some of the wiring picture of your G3? It will be even better if you can start a new thread to show us your G3 PC. I checked with two shops in singapore so far they only carry P5L-VM and P5L-1394... will try to locate the MX mobo to see whether its within my budget.
 
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