[Build Log] - Silent PowerMac G5

[TheDornig]

 

Hello everyone

 

This is my first build log ever written, so be gentle

 

My goal for this build is to fit an atx sized motherboard inside the case and to make it as silent as possible.

 

Most parts are going to be reused from my previous build, which was my first PC build, but I got bored of my case (Fractal Design Define R4 in white) and I have always wanted to do a build in G5 case, even before I have built my first PC.

 

Parts I re-used:

 

- Intel i7 3770K

- Gigabyte Z77X-UD5H

- Kingston Value Ram 16 GB

- Samsung 840 SSD 500GB

- Corsair TX650M power supply

- Msi GTX 660ti PE

- Noctua NH-D14 w/ 2x eLoop Fans

- eLoop fan for exhaust

- Bitfenix cable extensions

 

Parts I bought:

 

- Silverstone AP181

- 2x Samsung 840 EVO SSD 120GB

- Zalman ZM-MFC1 Plus fan controller

 

To mount the motherboard I will use a kit from Laserhive and there are only good things I can say about this company.

 

I got the case from a semi-local seller and I had to spend 100 euros on it, but considering that it is almost in pristine condition (small bump in the front of the side panel).

 

Pictures:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

That is all for now, but I have made more progress so I will update soon.

Thanks for looking!

[novasae]

Looks awesome! Typo in there, though:

 

 

- Intel i7 3370K

 

 

Looking forward to it. Definitely subbed!

[TheDornig]

Looks awesome! Typo in there, though:

 

 

 

Looking forward to it. Definitely subbed!

Thank you, I just corrected it

 

Hope you enjoy it!

[Sousuke]

To be honest, I may do this myself, I own a Mac Pro so a Gaming PC inside a G5 Case would look amazing next to it.

 

If I could find the ATX Conversion Kit I would do this in a heartbeat, I would buy 2 G5s, One to add to the collection which works and will be a G5 till death.

 

The other would be a Gaming PC

[ManWithBeard1990]

These can be hard to find in good nick. They're deceptively tiny though. My scratchbuilt case was inspired by a Power Mac, but I had never seen one in real life until recently. As a result mine is about 60% bigger. As for fitting a motherboard in there, the easiest way to do it would probably be to find an off the shelf motherboard tray or test bench, and sort of hack it in there. Not sure if it can take full-sized ATX though.

[TheDornig]

Thanks for the subs
I may have an update incoming soon(ish)
 

To be honest, I may do this myself, I own a Mac Pro so a Gaming PC inside a G5 Case would look amazing next to it.
 
If I could find the ATX Conversion Kit I would do this in a heartbeat, I would buy 2 G5s, One to add to the collection which works and will be a G5 till death.
 
The other would be a Gaming PC

 
I am using a conversion kit from thelaserhive.com which comes with aluminium backplate and acrylic motherboard tray along with all the screws you will ever need and detailed instructions.
You can easily fit an ATX motherboard in, with around 1.5 cm of space at the bottom (I will measure it, when I get home), with the power supply mounted on the top. If you were to use the original power supply housing, then I believe that EATX could easily be mounted.
 

These can be hard to find in good nick. They're deceptively tiny though. My scratchbuilt case was inspired by a Power Mac, but I had never seen one in real life until recently. As a result mine is about 60% bigger. As for fitting a motherboard in there, the easiest way to do it would probably be to find an off the shelf motherboard tray or test bench, and sort of hack it in there. Not sure if it can take full-sized ATX though.

 
That is one of two reasons I started this build as late as I have, and the second one being money.   
G5 is far from a small case. I believe it is taller than Define R4.

[TheDornig]

Dissasembly!

I think I never want to dissasemble another G5, it was painful, but luckily I am not putting it back together in the original form.

 

 

Artistic shot

 

 

This did not want to get out

 

It is out!

 

CPUs and their heatsinks, this was a quad core computer, two cores per CPU.

 

 

The empty area

 

Also removed the two exaust fans and the power suply, this thing is huge!

 

Ram slots

 

PCI slots

 

Dirty, dirty

 

Empty! (almost…)

 

Next time I will make some cuts, thank you!

[HellaflushMcSwaggins]

This is awesome, I am glad I recieved my Mac Pro case already gutted Might start working on the rear I/O in the following weeks, just need a grinder

[ManWithBeard1990]

Weird. I thought the G5 was watercooled.

 

 

 
That is one of two reasons I started this build as late as I have, and the second one being money.   
G5 is far from a small case. I believe it is taller than Define R4.

 

True as that may be that does include the handles, doesn't it? Still, you saying that gives me more confidence that it can be done. Gotta admire Apple's engineers for being able to shoehorn a dual socket system into a space that small.

[btg0002]

It's always interesting to see the insides of computers like this....although I have never fully understood Apple's affinity for using daughter boards on their systems (the new mac pro trashcan looks like there are 10+ daughter boards inside that thing)

[TheDornig]

This is awesome, I am glad I recieved my Mac Pro case already gutted Might start working on the rear I/O in the following weeks, just need a grinder

 

Thanks

Be careful with the MacPro since it can fit only matx and the drive caddies are in the way. Do yourself a favour and take a look at laserhive and if you have any questions they can probably answer you. You do not really need power tools, the outside cuts, on my machine, were made using a handsaw.

 

Weird. I thought the G5 was watercooled.

 

 

 

True as that may be that does include the handles, doesn't it? Still, you saying that gives me more confidence that it can be done. Gotta admire Apple's engineers for being able to shoehorn a dual socket system into a space that small.

 

Some of them are water cooled, but mine is not. ATX is simple, I have it running on my desk, but i need to rebuild it, because I need to take some more photos of the progress, better cable management and I need to find a company to laser cut aluminium for me to clean the overall look. 

 

Here is a photo for comparison. (G5 vs Define R4)

 

It's always interesting to see the insides of computers like this....although I have never fully understood Apple's affinity for using daughter boards on their systems (the new mac pro trashcan looks like there are 10+ daughter boards inside that thing)

 

Internal design of the G5 is, when compared to a trashcan MacPro, conventional. You can swap graphics cards, hard drives and it has internal expansion, this is where the new mac pro fails for me.

[HellaflushMcSwaggins]

Thanks

Be careful with the MacPro since it can fit only matx and the drive caddies are in the way. Do yourself a favour and take a look at laserhive and if you have any questions they can probably answer you. You do not really need power tools, the outside cuts, on my machine, were made using a handsaw.

I already have mATX motherboard, easier to handle than ATX overall, and no wasted space

As for the drive caddies, mine didn't have any, just the bare case, looking forward to making a new motherboard tray, but I need cable  extensions for the CPU 8 pin though, the cable from my PSU is too short.Mine will probably be painted in black(the mesh) and candy red, like the heatsinks on my Z97MX-Gaming 5, also to complete the red theme[that I didn't choose actually )] I am probably going to get an MSI R9 280X Twin Frozr.Not sure about how I am going to manage to get to the button of the optical drive, because it will be hidden behind the cover that the case has, might have to make an extension.

[ManWithBeard1990]

Seems manageable then. Is laser cutting aluminium expensive?

[nicholaswillems]

The G5/old mac pro case is still one of the best looking cases I know, seems like a nice project!

[MrDavid]

Are you going to install OS X on it? Subbed btw! Looks good so far. I'm converting a G4 myself.

[MeepLikesToBuildPc's]

cool subbed

[TheDornig]

I already have mATX motherboard, easier to handle than ATX overall, and no wasted space

As for the drive caddies, mine didn't have any, just the bare case, looking forward to making a new motherboard tray, but I need cable  extensions for the CPU 8 pin though, the cable from my PSU is too short.Mine will probably be painted in black(the mesh) and candy red, like the heatsinks on my Z97MX-Gaming 5, also to complete the red theme[that I didn't choose actually )] I am probably going to get an MSI R9 280X Twin Frozr.Not sure about how I am going to manage to get to the button of the optical drive, because it will be hidden behind the cover that the case has, might have to make an extension.

Nice one, will there be a build log? Someone has routed his optical eject button to the top and it just barely protrudes through the mesh, it's a nifty idea.

 

 

Seems manageable then. Is laser cutting aluminium expensive?

I hope not to much

 

The G5/old mac pro case is still one of the best looking cases I know, seems like a nice project!

Yes and the locking mechanism is amazing, a pain to put apart, but it works like a charm.

 

cool subbed

Thanks for looking! 

 

Are you going to install OS X on it? Subbed btw! Looks good so far. I'm converting a G4 myself.

 

I have done so already, the parts are reused, from my first build that was a hackintosh. I have seen your G4, if you manage to make everything not cluttered it will look amazing.

[TheDornig]

Update!

I did not know how to start cutting, because I do not own any power tools, so this was all cut with hand tools. I found a handsaw that was suitable for the job, and cutting was not that big of a hassle.

 

Picture quality is not as on par as before, because the lightning was bad. The photos are also out of focus...

 

Template

 

The first cut.

 

 

With the flash on, it was better.

 

I had to file some of the handsaw’s handle as there was no room for it to fit.

 

I had to cut it in paterns because of the form of the handsaw.

 

 

 

 

Then I forgot to take more pictures but it involved a lot more cutting and a ton of filing.

 

Backplate assembled. (somewhat)

[ungreedy]

subbing this for sure,I might be picking up one of these tomorrow for a long term build i have planned. 

 

cant wait to see what you have planned!

[wolfgang]

Following.

[TheDornig]

I know I have not updated in a while, but I filmed a short stop-motion video as a part of my entrance exam. I decided to post it here to maybe get some feedback on my work.

Hope you guys like it.

[TheDornig]

UPDATE!

 

I have always wanted to watercool my PC but the price always made me hesitate, since I did not want to spend over 500 euros on watercooling equipment. 

But when EKWB announced they will be designing Predator I decided to buy it as soon as it was available, as it is a compact pre-filled and pre-assembled product that would satisfy my needs for watercooling.

I preordered it as soon as it launched and it arrived yesterday. 

 

And today I will mount it into my case with the help of Laserhives 2x120 front fan mount.

 

[TheDornig]

As I promised yesterday I installed EKWB predator and a Laserhive radiator mounting plate.

 

 

 

Empty case with the radiator mount on the left.

 

 

First I started by replacing the standard backplate with the one EKWB included.

 

 

 

 

The fans on the Predator come configured as pull but because i wanted to use it as intake in needed to turn the fans around.

 

 

Done.

 

 

 

I mounted the radiator and motherboard.

 

 

 

 

 

Everything mounted and ready to go.

 

 

Now i just need to do some cable management, but I ran out of zip-ties..

[k1llampt]

Cool build so far, but what is the knife in the pictures??

[TheDornig]

Cool build so far, but what is the knife in the pictures??

Thank you. Its a Kershaw Emerson CQC Series, cheap but fun little knife.