Project G5

N

nimbyfaygo

Limp Gawd
Joined
Jan 18, 2006
Messages
488
I'm working on a G5 mod, its going to be fairly standard and straightforward. Over the last couple years I've wanted to mod a G5 case. Recently I was given that chance.
I saw an ad on Craigslist that had a "working Mac Tower" for 125$
As soon as I saw it, I called the guy and offered to pick it up. The next day I made the 45mile trip and was knocking on the door. The sight was pretty funny, he had a large desk/cabinet system build in the wall, and sticking out was the G5, it was about 4in too deep to fit in the cabinet. That was the entire reason for selling it.

My friend, who is one of those mac fanatics was with me. He was showing me a couple fine points, while I'm standing their thinking about buying the T9 torx that I'm going to need to pull it apart.

Its a 2004 model, with a single 1.6 PowerPc processor. Here are a few pic showing my progress so far.

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The rest of the parts are in the tupperware container.
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Out of all the things I have considered, cutting a window is top on my list.
Here are the first rough cuts on the door.
I don't have results to show, but I made the inital hole by cutting with a Saw-zall. I was very nervous about messing up the door, so I took several small steps
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After the rough cuts, I moved to my router using a 1/4in flush cut bit. I had a bit of a time deciding what to cut with. It ended up that the router cut the aluminum plate with ease, and produced the cleanest results of all my ideas.
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These shavings are little pile of pain! I should have been wearing a full body suit, the shavings fly everywhere and they stick to your skin, even though a shower. They went all over the shop, I had to use compressed air to clean up.
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Bad bad, I let the bit bind and it snapped. Somehow I got Lowe's to exchange it for no extra cost to me.
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More progress.
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The bottom lip is the actual cut, I used the upper rail as a guide for the router bit.
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The pictures in the first post were taken yesterday, I just forgot to upload them.
This is what I have accomplished this evening.
I spent a long time working on the door. I initially thought about polishing the entire case, but all the sanding as shown below has changed my mind. It looks nice, but I don't think I'm going to be happy with it in the long run, the aluminum is going to require periodic re-polishing to maintain the shine. At this point I'm going to have the entire case powdercoated.
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Sanding and polishing! I started by using 220 grit in an orbital sander to get the etching off, I then used 400grit and wetsanded until the obrital marks were gone, I stepped up to 600 grit then 800 grit. At that point I was getting very tired and my arm hurt, so I loaded up the DA with mother's aluminum and mag polish, I am pretty impressed with the results considering its only 800 grit.
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Dirty hands.
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The scratches still on the surface really show using flash.
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Interesting. Looking forward to seeing how this works out.
 
I have a smallish update.
Prepped the motherboard tray for the case. I removed the rivets and used 6-32 machine screws instead.
I countersunk them, which turned out to be a huge pain. I have Torx head screws on order, I couldn't find any locally. If anyone noticed I have lots of junk in the background, I was getting ripped off paying monthly for storage, so I packed it all in the shop.
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I had to modify the nuts by shaving off one side so they would fit without binding.
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Then I had to chop off the rest of the bolt to allow the thumb screws room to move. I just noticed as I was posting the nut is interfering with the slot cover, I'll have to trim it
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I have the rear of the case and the tray cut to fit. Here is where I was going to place it on the top of the case.
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I decided I didn't like that, so I moved it below the case, I think that is going to look much better! Of course I have to clean up the cuts I made and file the edges a bit.
Over all I worked about 5 hours today on it. So far this makes about 15 hours I have in the case, and I don't even have anything [H]ard| accomplished.
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I sent the case to the machine shop today to get media blasted and powdercoated. The inner cage will be black, and the outer shell is going to be Copper.
He's going to mill out the door window 1 mm further, that way the cut will be perfect.
Results next Friday. (slow, but its a production shop and my buddy is only charging me cost on the powdercoat.)

I still have to get a couple things to complete the parts list for the build, including a powersupply. I'm using an old antec 450w for fitment purposes
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Excellent work so far...I've always admired the early cases Apple made, and wish I could have one myself..

 
I have my mind made up, getting a corsair tx750 or tx850.

I'm still waiting until Friday so I can pick up the case. I'm very excited to see how it turns out. I want to watercool, but budget requires that I piece the kit together slowly. I spent all of my extra money on a 2005 Yamaha V Star Classic.

My wife won't be my wife for much longer if I keep spending. Hey she got a new TV, so its not completely unfair. :cool:

I want to get WC parts that will allow me to upgrade to the next intel or amd socket. I'm skipping 1366 altogether, the Q6600 is beast enough for the time being.
 
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ALRIGHT I GOT IT BACK!!!!!
I picked it up from powdercoating today. I didn't make any further progress other than getting the 2 halves fitted without scratching. As you can see, the outer shell is a red/copper mix. The finish is actually a 3 stage powder coating process. It consists of a primer, a color coat, a candy coat, and clear. Their is some Orange peel, but I'm not overly worried about it. the person who did the powdercoating is an apprentice, and only charged me for supplies.
So I'll let the case speak for itself. Please forgive the poor lighting, I'm going to work on my photography skills.
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Hey, that case is amazing. I've figured out where you got the mobo tray/ backplate but how did you convert to a 120mm fan in the back?
 
caw2007 said:
Hey, that case is amazing. I've figured out where you got the mobo tray/ backplate but how did you convert to a 120mm fan in the back?
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Thanks for the compliment.
I didn't make any changes to the motherboard tray. That fan cutout you see is the one that came with it.
 
I did some minor work today. I got the front CD bezel polished and reinstalled, the same thing with the door latch.
I also did some test fitting and managed to get the upper partition trimmed to fit. I still have to file the edges flat and square it up.
Which leaves me needing to move the HD caddy closer to the door.
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I took apart an old Raidmax 630 and got it fit into the Mac powersupply case. Its up and running. I'm running a stress test on it, to see if the little fans can keep up with cooling without getting crazy loud.
It seems to be handling the temps just fine so far.

Eventually I'm going to put the TX850 in its place. Sorry no pic's of the swap.
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LOL I tried to get better photos of the case. I was reading online about light tents, I attempted to follow the idea and set something up.
It turns out I didn't have the space to pull it off, and using drop lights didn't work to well. Either way I got a couple interesting photos that came out decent.
I'm waiting on my WC parts to arrive before I continue the build.
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its a great job so far. i sent the worklog link to a friend who is mac crazy enough to have gotten the apple logo progression over the years tattooed on his forearm. his quote:
"that case mod G5 project is the sexiest goddamned thing I have ever seen. PERIOD"
he works at the apple store i used to work at. thought you'd like to know what apple employees think.
 
xjmtx said:
its a great job so far. i sent the worklog link to a friend who is mac crazy enough to have gotten the apple logo progression over the years tattooed on his forearm. his quote:
"that case mod G5 project is the sexiest goddamned thing I have ever seen. PERIOD"
he works at the apple store i used to work at. thought you'd like to know what apple employees think.
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Now that's funny! Good to know that some apple fans don't consider what I'm doing wrong.

One of my close friends is following what I'm doing. He was with me when I picked up the computer from Craigslist. He showed me the OS and and some of the "cool things" it could do.
Then he kinda freaked when I showed him the huge pile of parts that used to be a working Mac.
He acted like I was modding the Arc of the Covenant.

He started to come around when I picked it up from powdercoating. Can't deny the sexiness that is Candy powder.
 
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i have some mac pluses laying about my basement along with a mac mini c2d and mbp 15" c2d 9600gt. the os is great for home theatre stuff, outside of that i'll stick with windows and linux. i tell you what, as soon as i'd seen your log, i thought about dismantling the 15" unibody mbp i have and getting it a powder coat only thing to worry about is the speaker holes. but yes, my former coworkers think you're doing a sexy sexy awesome job. especially with the sanding job you had going. i think you're doing great work. keep it up.
 
God damn, I have wanted to mod a G5 case since the first time I saw one. Its the whole reason I dropped ~$300 on my Lian-LI when it came out (didnt have the skill or know-how to pull off a mod like this). :)

Amazing work it looks fucking baller so far. One request, can you pretty please post pics when you manage to shoehorn that 850w PSU in the Mac enclosure :D

One thing I notice is that (as with the V1000 and all inverted atx setups) you will run into heat stagnation issues in the top of the main "compartment". In a normal case a blowhole would cure this but what are you planning to do? Only reason im asking is because you dont have a hypothetical hardware configuration posted in this thread (and it may have been something you overlooked?).
 
investinwaffles said:
God damn, I have wanted to mod a G5 case since the first time I saw one. Its the whole reason I dropped ~$300 on my Lian-LI when it came out (didnt have the skill or know-how to pull off a mod like this). :)

Amazing work it looks fucking baller so far. One request, can you pretty please post pics when you manage to shoehorn that 850w PSU in the Mac enclosure :D

One thing I notice is that (as with the V1000 and all inverted atx setups) you will run into heat stagnation issues in the top of the main "compartment". In a normal case a blowhole would cure this but what are you planning to do? Only reason im asking is because you dont have a hypothetical hardware configuration posted in this thread (and it may have been something you overlooked?).
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Yep, I'll take pics when I get the 850 stuffed in the mac power supply case.

Actually my hardware list is pretty bare. I have the following going in the case when I get completed
q6600 with a single WC loop. That includes the 120x2 rad.
Two 1gb hard drives.
And my GTX275

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The plan I have for cooling, follows the fact that the case is partitioned. It has a smaller upper chamber and a larger chamber that houses the Mobo.
There is a 3rd partition that splits the GPU into its own little chamber.
The little GPU section has its own dedicated fan that's going to be blowing air from front to back.
That should eliminate the " hot spot" that plagues the upside down ATX model.
 
I made a good bit of progress today. I worked mostly on the WC system, I got all the parts fitted and placed, I got the lines cut to length.
I finally found something that I liked enough to use as a reservoir. Venom bottles are made with unusually thick aluminum, and it has the right color scheme. I'm not 100% about the way I added the fittings to the bottle. They are surprisingly sturdy, but I'm going to keep my eye on them.
The interior of the bottle has a coating on it. So I don't have to worry about the aluminum in the loop.

I still have to figure out a way to mount the radiator.

And I'm running an overnight test on the WC equipment.
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the venom bottle is about the funniest thing i've seen this morning. nice work. i am excited to see your progress. also, i think its funny (and i remember this bullshit from working at apple) how they label their stuff "class 1 laser product", among other bullshit. what a bunch of goofs.
 
I made more progress, partly in thanks to the forums being offline. I finished work on the window using thin plexiglass (roughly 2mm) and cut to fit the hole in the door.
It was tricky cutting with such precision, I used my plunge router and a guide to create straight cuts.After words I filed the corners to fit the hole. That was a lot of painstaking fitting and filing to get the fit right.

After I was satisfied with the fit, I used some thin scraps to create a backing for the window to sit on. The window rests on the backings, held in place with double sided tape.
The whole thing is fairly sturdy, considering the thin plexiglass.
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Nice paint job,i've got a G5 case myself that i'm planning on doing something with so i'll be watching this closely,keep up the good work,subbed.
 
nimbyfaygo said:
Now that's funny! Good to know that some apple fans don't consider what I'm doing wrong.
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Are you fucking kidding? I'm one of those Apple fans, and you're doing what I've always wanted to do. Your build looks godly. :eek: I've always wanted to do a badass build in a Mac Pro case, but for a number of reasons (money) I can't. Keep up the awesome work man. It looks fantastic.
 
Thanks for all the comments!
I don't have any major updates from this weekend. I have been pretty busy, and Starcraft's release isn't helping me stay motivated.

I did a couple minor things, however nothing really picture worthy.
Rough cut the powersupply cover out of black acrylic, and I have it fitted.
Finished reassembling the front I/O panel.

I bought a cheap propane torch, I'm going to be bending some acrylic for various things, the Radiator mounting brackets for instance. Torch and plastic should lead to some fun photos:eek:
 
Today was all about working on the power supply. I removed the Raidmax 630 from the Mac enclosure, and swapped in the TX850.
Even though its not going to be visible, I took extra measures to make sure that the swap was tidy and neat.
Power can be dangerous, to yourself and your equipment, so I wanted it to be safe for a long term install.

The first picture is the temp install I did using the raidmax. And don't ask, it's a lid under the unit.
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The Raidmax is on the right, Corsair on the left.
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I soldered on the terminals, its a bit sloppy, but very sturdy.
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The left side holes lined up on the standoffs. On the right side I used rubber blocks as standoffs.
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This is basically the finished up interior.
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Here it is, in all its glory. I had to enlarge the left side hole. I used a grommet around the edge so that the wires won't rub on it.
There is a panel that sits on the top of the power supply when its installed. So all of this will be hidden.
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