Project PowerMac G5/X86 - SLI you bet!

winuser2000 said:
How much did you spend on the actual computer components (excluding monitor)? I would love to build this type of box and dual with osx and windows
Click to expand...

Mmm..difficult one...let's see

All pricing Aussie $'s

2x 7950 at roughly $1079 each
1x X6800 at $1500-
GSkill 2GBHZ ram at $400-
Asus P5WDG-WS-Pro at $440-
2x 320Gig Seagates at $165 each

Oprical drive (Pioneer 111) at $65-

1Kw PC power and Cooling PSu at $795-

Case was $165, another $150- to ship from USA

Sheeting about $100-

Apple Keyboard $65-

LCD $3200-

Watercooling goodies another $350 odd

Quite bloody expensive.

But one monster racing-sim rig.

Thanx to all others for feedback, it is appreciated Guys :)
 
looks about right, my rig cost me around $2000 6 months ago... with $260 for my 19"WS and $300 for my watercooling loop....

its lookin good man, I am helping a guy at work do the same mod... little less nice because my sheet metal work is not nearly as clean as yours... what tools do you use? I usea dremmel and a scroll saw, I have thought about a nibbler but havent ever bought one...

I really like your blackplate Au sheeting, really clean man
 
For those of you who dont wanna add it up, i did it for you.

Just over $7200. USD.
 
Bbq said:
For those of you who dont wanna add it up, i did it for you.

Just over $7200. USD.
Click to expand...

That's in Aussie dollars.

Edit: Holy crap, it is 7200 in USD. What's your job man? Doctor? Shiiiitesss.
 
Nice updates MrBean..love the system..I guess we all can tell your very detailed in your work..OUTSTANDING :eek: :eek: :D

Oh yeah..MrBean how are you going to get those 7950 to run in "SLI" on a 975x motherboard...I'm still new to alot of this..do tell :confused:
 
As stated earlier, you need to start your own worklog. People do take breaks from their work so it's best not to hijack their worklog if they haven't been around. Please don't clutter up his worklog anymore folks.
 
Thanx Qtip42 :)

Been very busy at work the last 8 weeks or so, will start on this very soon again.

Br,
MrBean
 
Take your time, I can wait. My G4 case should be here sometime next week so I'll be busy modding/converting it for PC parts too. :)
 
i plan on doing a mod on a g5 case too, just wondering how light the case is anyway before any hardware?
 
keep up the GREAT work dude!! I got a G5 Case too which I haven't gotten around to it.. So as of right now I have been doing research and reading blogs like this one.. best work I have seen so far is yours!
 
Thanx for the comments, Guys - appreciated :)

a Small update - been very busy at work, travelling abroad, but, getting something done at least :)

As mentioned earlier, I am using a standard ATX PSU in this case, it will be my PC Power&Cooling 1KW Quad unit. It will be relocated to the top of the case, where the harddrives were positioned, which have since found a new home in the bottom of the case.

Making a cutout in the top to allow the psu fan to breathe, left me with this - quite fugly, and not in sync with my end goal - take note the following few shots are with the case upside down......

original_psu_cover.jpg


After a few careful measurements, some cutting, and filing, I re-used one of my 1st bottom plates, which is now in a new role as a psu cover plate:

psu_cover1.jpg


Once mounted, it looks like this:

psu_cover_prelim1.jpg


nice and cosy fit all around:

psu_cover_prelim4.jpg


Another one:

psu_cover_prelim3.jpg


and a last one:

psu_cover_prelim2.jpg


Now, one of my original goals were to re-use the original Apple G5 AirBaffle, so I need to fit it's latch again....in the original position....

After some careful measurements, and marking it out on the psu cover plate, it will go here:


baffle_latch_pre_cut1.jpg


And then onto some drilling, jig-sawing, and careful filing.....this is the end result.....

latch_cutout.jpg


And here we have the psu cover plate located over the latch, perfect fit!

baffle_latch1.jpg


And the next 2 shots of the AirBaffle in position, and locked:

baffle_fitted1.jpg


baffle_fitted2.jpg


Much better, plan is coming together nicely.

Now, of course I will have to make some breathing holes for the PSU intake fan again, so I am considering using 1 of these for the top cover plate, underneath the PSU:

psu_fan_cover1.jpg


and a close-up shot:

psu_fan_cover2.jpg


This should go nicely with my idea of having 2 similar ones above the harddrives mounted underneath the floorplate, to allow breathing/airflow over them.

Let me know what you think so far.

Next up is the mounting brackets of the 2 seperate radiators. Will keep you posted.

Br,
Beanie.
 
Woo woo! glad to see the train getting back up to speed.

Great work here, take your time. It's the journey that matters, not the destination.
 
Well done looks very nice, unquie but still very professional looking which is good to see, you havn't taken to much away from the original look. Can't wait to see what it looks like when its done.
 
Thanx for the feedback Guys, I will try and get my backside in gear so I can finish this off.

At least from hereon in, progress will be quicker, as it is mainly fitting/wiring/bolting together :)

Will keep you posted.

Beanie
 
Excellent thread MrBean_Oz :cool:

Just picked up a G5 chassis myself and I am in the process of doing a similar mod



I plan on using some of the same ideas you have done with your G5 and I will be hopefully using a mobo tray from a Coolermaster Stacker 830

Your thread has been extremely informative and inspiring and I look forward to seeing the finished product.
 
Fantastic attention to detail... I'm really impressed. One comment though, you aren't going to use that shiny tin-plate i/o shield are you? With all your efforts in the rest of this, could you spend a few hours making an i/o shield out of aluminum plate instead? Of course, if you already mentioned this somewhere, I apologize... I didn't read all the way through the thread, just mostly looked at the pretty pictures. :)
 
I plan on doing also modding a G5 case... except mine will be a little different. I have to find a way to fit a PC power and Cooling 850 watt SSI (monster of a power supply, extended size).. in there and I also plan on putting a CoolIt Sytems Freezone in there. I am not sure yet whether I will use a mobo tray or build a custom backplate like you did. I am going to wait until I purchase the case and can take a look at it.

Just curious... so far from everyone I have heard of that has modded a G5 case, Where did u happen to get your case from? A lot of ppl said they bought theirs from ebay, but any specific seller you would recommend to buy from?
 
Hello Boyz,
Back finally - between modding a carputer for my 600HP UTE, and work comittments, I have been rather busy, and away from casemodding for to long!

But, after a good rest, I have restarted this G5 mod, yes, it will get finished!

I have made a topplate to cover the ugly Apple G5 original, and this will have dual functionality -hiding the Apple area just below the optical drive, creating a mount for the PSU, and, act as a locator for the radiator -I want to keep the inside relatively clean, free of backets, etc.....so, I needed an alternative way to locate the rad.

At the bottom will be 2 small little pins on the rad, going into receptor holes in the floor-plate - and then, on the top, a receiver area for the top rad tank......

Here's a pic of the rad sitting in the case....(it is mounted, and will be located like this for the final setup)

rad_fitting.jpg


Ad here is a shot of the top=plate, and rad position....

rad_topplate.jpg


And, here a close-up of the rad-tank receiver area to positively locate and fix the rad in place.....

rad_topplate_close.jpg
 
looking great mr. bean; glad to see you are back in business again. i know what you mean with work and travel commitments killing your time to work on your projects. been there, done that. too bad yous tarted such a huge following, now long breaks between updates kills your readers ;) but that's a good thing i spose.

good luck sir.
 
Awesome work man! I've always really liked the G5/PM cases, so it's always fun to see what people do with them.
 
Thanx for the support, Guys :flowers:

I am now looking at installing my 2x spare SAS 146gig 10k RPM drives too....following up on some backplanes to incorporate them into this design - of course I need to get my hands on most likely a Perc 5/i SAS Raid Controller too, which works very well in the 2nd PCI-Express 16X slot on the P5WDG2-WS Pro motherboard.

Will post back with new progress soon.
 
Hello Guys,
To keep the interior of this mod the way I intended from the beginning, i.e. simple, clean lines, uncluttered, et al, I am seriously considering using the new Apogee Drive from Swiftech.

I will not use the rad, to small to expect it to properly cool an overclocked X6800 Xtreme Core 2 Duo - it will probably do a great job on a stockie setup though.

Rad will be the 120x2 setup rather - and, depending on the flow I manage out of the pump, I might swap the MCP350-derived pump on the Apogee Drive to a spare MCP-355 based unit - I had a look on the Swiftech website, and I have a very good idea that the MCP355 will retrofit.

This will make for a very nice, small footprint, clean, but extremely capable setup :)

Just what the doctor ordered.

I will keep you posted on developements.

I might consider actually getting a 2nd Apogee Drive, and modding it so it will fit onto my 8800Ultra - now, there's another idea for you.

Kind regards,
MrBean.
 
I will, thanx Tyler :)

Been a while, but I am getting the last few bits for this, so it will be fisnished very soon - the bulk of the work is complete.
 
Fantastic attention to detail... I'm really impressed. One comment though, you aren't going to use that shiny tin-plate i/o shield are you? With all your efforts in the rest of this, could you spend a few hours making an i/o shield out of aluminum plate instead?
Click to expand...

I will make a new better i/o-plate from aluminium :)

I plan on doing also modding a G5 case... except mine will be a little different. I have to find a way to fit a PC power and Cooling 850 watt SSI (monster of a power supply, extended size).. in there and I also plan on putting a CoolIt Sytems Freezone in there. I am not sure yet whether I will use a mobo tray or build a custom backplate like you did. I am going to wait until I purchase the case and can take a look at it.

Just curious... so far from everyone I have heard of that has modded a G5 case, Where did u happen to get your case from? A lot of ppl said they bought theirs from ebay, but any specific seller you would recommend to buy from?
Click to expand...

I am planning on dumping my 1Kw PC P&C Turbocool in there, you are correct, it is humongous - but, arguably the best power supply out there.

I picked my case up from Allmacs (ebay)

Nothing available currently, the G5 cases are scarce for now.
 
Great work so far. I flipped from page to page and was like :D the whole time haha. What do you use to cut the aluminum, also what do you use to cut the small box holes in the mobo tray for the cables??

Excellent work I look forward to seeing the rest.
 
@ rsmaverick: Thanx for the feedback - appreciated :)

I use normal jigsaw for the longer, outside cuts....and the Dremel for the inside smaller cuts....and fine metal files to tidy up the edges - I hate to hide bad cuts behind rubber channel.....

Anyway, this project is going ahead, fast-forward mode really. a While back I purchased 2x hellishly expensive SAS Harddrives - for those in the dark, SAS=Serial Attached SCSI.

These drives are 10k RPM, enterprise-version server drives, 146Gig in size, and nice and fast. I know I have 2x 320Gig drives for this G5 setup, and yes, they will remain in the bottom where I mounted them, but I will be mounting the SAS drives on the top, think Intel Mac Pro -style. They are only 2.5" drives, quite small, and can fit anywhere really.

Well, I just pulled the trigger and got myself another bit of hardware still needed to make this work, i.e a Raid Adapter

It will support various Raid modes, and will plug into the 2nd PCI-Ex 16x slot on my P5 WDG2-WS Pro board - yes, it's confirmed to work in this slot - it will run/requires 8x anyway, so...

Well, all I still need now is a SAS fanout cable, and then the 2x SAS backplanes to plug the drives into - going to look real nice, I must add - and the performance is going to be second to none :)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top