Trippy Apple G5 - PC Mod

for instance I've done a lot of usb rewiring. I'm betting your motherboard has 4 pins(used) 2 usbs have 10 pins but key takes one then there were 9 and one is not used) per usb connection the red goes to the +5 pin, the shield and black goes to the ground pin. (Off the top of my head) Green goes to +data white goes to -data. FireWire shouldn't be much harder to figgure out. switch.. 2 connections polarity will not matter, leds 2 connections polarity will matter but if you get it wrong, the led won't light and all you have to do is reverse them, no harm done. Anyone who has a suggestion on the audio chime in here I could stumble through but I'd rather hear from someone who has done this before.
 
mashie said:
Remember, if you give up it will just sit there in a corner and haunt you until end of time ;)
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is that personal experience whispering in your ear mashie?

oh and back before macs became popular agian i wanted to mod a G4 quicksilver case myself... was a bit too expensive to procure the case myself + very hard to find (mostly ebay i think) then about 3 motnhs later as i was saving anyways low and behold lian li announced their v1000 case so that ended that for me.

wanna see you do it!
 
mashie said:
Don't give up, the annoying people are gone from the thread now. If they return so will the delete button...

Remember, if you give up it will just sit there in a corner and haunt you until end of time ;)
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Thank god for Mashie. :)

And if you do give in send it my way and I'll make you proud. :)
 
krizzle said:
Wow, this looks very promising. I can't wait to see the finished product. IMO, just leave the apple logo on there, it will add to the irony of the situation....

To all you mac bashers out there... don't say they have merely "decent" hardware. Their hardware is superb for what it does. Take one look at the insides of their watercooler on the dual 2.5 G5.... that sheer engineering is unparalleled.
Software wise, G5's are applied as WORKSTATIONS, not as your pimped out gaming machine mods. Try running Apache Server on an x86 platform. Or Maya Mental-Ray 64-bit UNIX-native rendering optimizations. Or real-time, 64-bit HD video editing. Go on.

I completely support you trying to reach that level of finesse of apple without shelling out the bucks it requires. Good luck, and Godspeed
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I aaw pics of a cracked open dually G5 and was shocked to see that it's a single-loop watercooling system. I love Apple engineering too, but that's a gigantic oversight if you're going to watercool a dually machine. The second proc has to deal with all the thermal energy passed into the watercooling loop from the first proc - and i would have done things different.

to the thread poster: GL, man! Keep us updated, looks like a damn interesting project. Have the Apple Service Manuals helped you much in this mod?
 
krizzle said:
Wow, this looks very promising. I can't wait to see the finished product. IMO, just leave the apple logo on there, it will add to the irony of the situation....

To all you mac bashers out there... don't say they have merely "decent" hardware. Their hardware is superb for what it does. Take one look at the insides of their watercooler on the dual 2.5 G5.... that sheer engineering is unparalleled.
Software wise, G5's are applied as WORKSTATIONS, not as your pimped out gaming machine mods. Try running Apache Server on an x86 platform. Or Maya Mental-Ray 64-bit UNIX-native rendering optimizations. Or real-time, 64-bit HD video editing. Go on.

I completely support you trying to reach that level of finesse of apple without shelling out the bucks it requires. Good luck, and Godspeed
Click to expand...

Macs have merely decent hardware.
 
//Modified Images//

Ok, I'm pushing forward! I just purchased a scrap case with the perfect mobo tray for the job, I'll get pics if I can off the process with sparks flying everywhere, etc.

mod-5.gif
mod-6.gif


I just sold my old Logitech sound system and getting the new Z-5500 (5.1 500 watt beasts), except no one local has em in stock so I need to survive with my headphones for now, also need to get an Audigy 2 card so I can have optical out or something similar.
 
I've dissasembled the front connector/button area, as seen here:
mod-4.gif


The actual power button has been hardwired into the case making it difficult to remove without damaging it, however it has a 3 wire connector (that says RBW, one letter per wire) that connects to the left side of this board.

I'll show the connector to some of my electronics friends to see if they can help, if not I'll go else where...
 
GodSpeed said:
I've dissasembled the front connector/button area, as seen here:
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OK, cool, you got it out. Now you should be able to look/trace the wires and tell what's what. Then, decide if you want this to connect to the internal headers on the motherboard or the external ports through a pass-through. Get the connectors you'll need and some wire, or hack up some spare USB, Firewire and audio cables to achieve this. (I'd buy spare extension cables and cut and splice one end.) Solder one end to the circuit board, the other connects to the PC, (internal or external), and re-attach the board to the front. Done deal.

As for the power button; 3 pin? Weird. I'd take a multi-meter to the pins/wires and see what works for a momentary contact, then wire up your mobo power leads to those 2 wires. Forget that it has 3, and use the 2 that work.
 
ProphetSix said:
What he said -----^
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I believe the 3rd one could be related to the fading mechanism, remember that this button has a light inside it, so it's a 2 in 1 per say (not to mention macs don't have a restart button) :)
 
GodSpeed said:
... remember that this button has a light inside it...
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I don't think it does. That's what the LED above it is for. I'll doublecheck when I get home tonight. (I have a G5. :D )
 
Yeah, the power button doesn't light up. It's just carved aluminum. The LED above is lit. No clue why there are 3 wires. But, like I said, find 2 that work and forget about the third.
 
About mac's watercooling the dualCPU in series;::
If you look, even Alienware does it the same. It's not as much about the temperature of the water, it's about the rate at which it moves through. The more water you can move across the surfaces and the faster you do it has a much bigger impact than the temperature.

About the front panel.. is there any way to hard solder the power button and LED feed to a regular PC 2-wire shorter on the mobo at all?
 
I've decided that, since this a new case... it should have brand spanking new hardware as well. I'm going to be pushing my budget (and selling my old machine after the mod, so look out in the for sales thread when I'm done!) to get some really really nice equipment in this rig.

The main problem is even though I want a complete feature set yet conflicting colours (using blue/silver theme on a red mobo, ugh).
 
Ok bad news...

While I was out at work my small 15 year old (fat) brother decided it was a nice idea to try and sit on my "junk case", needless to say half the metal is bent (since I removed sidings which gave it strength)
tard.gif


It may be a little longer till the next update but I assure you guys it will be worth it. There is some news though: I've sent off the front port connector to a guy in New York who will get it all fixed up and compatible with the motherboard. So stay tuned...
 
GodSpeed said:
While I was out at work my small 15 year old (fat) brother decided it was a nice idea to try and sit on my "junk case"
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Point your brother to the link with the case only prices for $300.00. Tell him he owes you a "new case" to replace the last one.
Sit back and enjoy the look on his face when you tell him you're going to pimp him out to ugly chicks 'til he earns $300 the [H]ard way. :D
 
ProphetSix said:
Point your brother to the link with the case only prices for $300.00. Tell him he owes you a "new case" to replace the last one.
Sit back and enjoy the look on his face when you tell him you're going to pimp him out to ugly chicks 'til he earns $300 the [H]ard way. :D
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ROFL :D And be sure to tell him that you're letting him take the easy way out..... :eek:
 
ProphetSix said:
Point your brother to the link with the case only prices for $300.00. Tell him he owes you a "new case" to replace the last one.
Sit back and enjoy the look on his face when you tell him you're going to pimp him out to ugly chicks 'til he earns $300 the [H]ard way. :D
Click to expand...

Quagmire from Family Guy: "You could whore yourself out to 1000 fat chicks for $50 a piece. Or 50 really fat chicks for 1000 bucks a piece. What? Don't look at me like that. Fat chicks need love too... but they got to pay. ... " :D
 
ProphetSix said:
Point your brother to the link with the case only prices for $300.00. Tell him he owes you a "new case" to replace the last one.
Sit back and enjoy the look on his face when you tell him you're going to pimp him out to ugly chicks 'til he earns $300 the [H]ard way. :D
Click to expand...

wow... that's better than my idea... which involved putting a few more dents in that case ;) :D
 
Post some pics of the damage he did. I'm interested to see how badly he messed it up. If it's bad, you should beat his ass.
 
I think you guys are missing tha fact that the $25 junk case is the one that got sat on, not the G5...
 
Are you SURE? I read that as his brother sat on what HE thought was a "junk case", since it was empty. That, and hte "posts will be delayed" led me to think he sat on the G5 case.

But, the author can clear this up if needed.
 
GodSpeed, I'm looking forward to your updates and pictures. I'm doing the same thing as you. For those looking for a case I went to a local store (www.allmac.com) in Santa Clara, bought a case from them with some internal cabling for the front power panel and usb and firewire jacks for $199.

Have you figured out what the pins are on that connector going to the power button, etc?

How are you solving the issue of having the CD-ROM tray use the stock slide down door on the case? Since there is no way to push the buttons on the CD-ROM now, how do you open and close the drive?
 
Since there is no way to push the buttons on the CD-ROM now, how do you open and close the drive?
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You could relocate the switch to a more inconspicuous location. Just solder some wires to the original switch terminals, and attach another switch in a different location. Heres one guide I found : linky
 
Speedy-

Is that place legit? I won a bid from them on Ebay for a G5 case with wiring ($99+$20 something for shipping) and I haven't heard from them in 6 days. I saw from some of their feedback that they arent very good at replying ( :mad: ) but when you were physically there, did they seem on the up and up? Tomorrow will be 1 week after I won the auction. I dont know how many days shipping would be considered normal from Santa Clara to NY before raising a stink...
 
mj - they have four stores here in the bay area, the one i went to was very legit looking, lots of product new and old on the shelves and a big work area in back i couldn't see, a few employees and in a decent industrial area for their store front

i've emailed them a couple times to on their ebay auctions, they were always a few days to respond so i just drove down there to get my case instead of playing ebay roulette

i'd call them, their santa clara store is the one that does the auctions
 
speedy624 said:
How are you solving the issue of having the CD-ROM tray use the stock slide down door on the case? Since there is no way to push the buttons on the CD-ROM now, how do you open and close the drive?
Click to expand...

you can right-click a drive and click eject. or you can probably make a keyboard shortcut/macro thatll open the drive upon pressing the corresponding keys.
 
TSS Modder said:
you can right-click a drive and click eject. or you can probably make a keyboard shortcut/macro thatll open the drive upon pressing the corresponding keys.
Click to expand...

I just need a global hotkey program, it's something I really like... as I use winamp in the background and the hotkeys have always been VERY VERY awesome.
 
New motherboard/processors will be in tommorow, hopefully the PSU will arrive in a timely fashion... I just got my new Z-5500 sound system and Audigy 2 card for the new case... as well as a new cam, totally revamping everything I guess :)

Ps. the sound system is massive, the subwoofer/amp is bigger than my torso.
 
at last some progress, i at least got the power button on the g5 to turn on my wintel board

looking at the connector with the 3 locking tabs facing up and numbering the top row from left to right pins 1-9 and the lower row from left to right pins 10-18 i can tell you that pins 7 and 10 handle the case switch

i ran hot from the mobo to pin 7 and return wire to pin 10, touch it once and it powers up, hold it down and it shuts down
 
Godspeed, can you clear up for us...did your G5 case get squashed or was it your scrap one?
 
uzor said:
Godspeed, can you clear up for us...did your G5 case get squashed or was it your scrap one?
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it was the scrap one.... not the G5. he wouldve been absolutely furious if i was the G5.
 
Godspeed, I built a PC inside a G5 case as well! Maybe we can learn from each other. I have a lot more in store for this case. I'm planning on painting the inside, but leaving the outside silver. I also want to get that woven cable wrap stuff to tidy up my mess, and remove about half of my unused power leads. I also plan on cutting out the back so I can utilize the motherboard's ports.

Here's the link to the pictures:

http://www.sarbz.com
 
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