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Phorlorn

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  1. Like
    Phorlorn reacted to wise_rice in 26 PowerMac G5 Case Modding Project - mATX & ATX Conversion - Barebones - Mac Pro Alternative   
    The End:
     
     
    Thats it for now…
    What do you think?
    Was it worth it?
    What hardware would you put in?
    Please let me know…

     
     
    Yours, sincerely
    wise_rice
  2. Like
    Phorlorn reacted to wise_rice in 26 PowerMac G5 Case Modding Project - mATX & ATX Conversion - Barebones - Mac Pro Alternative   
    The painting:
     
    Before painting it was necessary to fill dents, file edges (there were chips, especially on the feet) and sand EVERYTHING to smoothen the surface and remove unwanted oils.
    Fill, file, sand, repeat…
    I used 2K Aluminium epoxy to fill dents

     

    The Epoxy is like a cold weld. Hard and sturdy.
     

    Dents before filling
     

    Dents after filling - before sanding
     

    More filling
     

    Filled and sanded case.
     

    At first I did not want to paint them myself.
    So I bought the right 2K-Aluminium-paint (had to try different ones to find the perfect colour and shade) and handed four cases with the paint over to a professional paint shop (arm-industry - specialized on parts for tanks).
    They were happy to try this because they wanted to train their varnisher-apprentices on something that is more difficult than the usual tank-parts.
     
     

    The results were good, but It turned out that these cases are really hard to paint…
     
    I was not 100% happy with the result. They returned from the paint-shop with some varnish-runs on the bottom of the cases. They also missed some spots that were hard to reach.
    So, I changed my mind and decided to paint all the cases, myself (again...)
    What a fool I was.
    This took a week.
     
    First of all, I needed a cleanroom.
    So, I converted a shed in my parents’ garden.
     

    Shed / Cleanroom – Winter-time
     

    Thanks to my brothers’ help, the setup turned out really clean and airtight. Crucial for keeping it warm.
     

    To keep the shed warm, I used a big oven and additional electric heaters. My father even set up a big chimney, so that the smoke was led further away from the shed (as smoke=small particles that would  leave  marks on the fresh paint).
     

    I had a compressor on hand (with 30m hose) and used a spray-gun for coating the cases with Aluminium-paint. We used the spray-gun for car parts before.
     

    Paint-Shed from the inside
     

    Hanging case before spray-painting
     

    Usually two or three cases were sprayed at a time.
    All cases were sprayed at least two times with thin coats.
     

    After spray-painting it was time for drying
     

    The freshly sprayed cases were put in a sauna at roughly 80 degrees Celsius. That sped up the hardening and caked the varnish in.
     
     
    The fully varnished cases after drying. This is the result:
     
     

     

     

     

     
     

    The cases with the white bar on the back have the original Apple 2x2 Wifi / Bluetooth antennas in them (with two plugs) I installed a second 2x2 Antenna. Now they are 4x4.
    The (IPEX? MHF?) connectors are bigger than those I have seen before. They don’t fit the tiny connectors on laptop-wifi-cards.
    Maybe someone used the Apple Antennas with a PCIe Wifi-card before and can give me a tip or even post a link?
     

     

     

  3. Like
    Phorlorn reacted to wise_rice in 26 PowerMac G5 Case Modding Project - mATX & ATX Conversion - Barebones - Mac Pro Alternative   
    The different case-types:
     
     
    The painting turned out very well.
     
    I chose the best 14 cases after painting and decided to finish modding them, completely.
    I will call these “Barebones” in the following.
    In the pyramid-pictures they are always on top, because they were finished last and taken to the workshop more often.
     
    The 14 best cases got equipped with a 600W PSU, front-panel, water-cooling (for the mATX Barebones), apple power-cables, etc…
     
    They are now proper Barebones. No more hard work needed to finish the build.
    Just missing a motherboard (and maybe hard drives) - and done.
     

    12 other cases did not end up perfectly painted, but still good. Some orange peel here and there. Only 4 of them have stronger orange peel. I will call these 12 cases “Empty Ones” in the following.
     

    An “empty case”
     
    What to do with the “Empty Ones”?
    They are also clean and modded. Ready for ATX or mATX boards, empty PSU-Enclosure…
    One could make furniture or art out of them…
    One could finish the mod with a new front panel.
    Or one could paint them again in a different colour…
    I don’t know…
  4. Like
    Phorlorn reacted to wise_rice in 26 PowerMac G5 Case Modding Project - mATX & ATX Conversion - Barebones - Mac Pro Alternative   
    Preliminaries:
     
     
    All the planning that goes into modding one case actually affected 26 cases. It had to be perfect. That’s why I planned every step and every purchase of parts, meticulously.
    Then I applied every individual operation to all cases, one after another.
     
    This raised the quality of all cases.
     

    The metalwork (Filing, sanding, equalizing, gluing and painting) took a very long time. I don’t even know how many hours it took per case because I always did one individual operation to all cases (e.g. filing or cutting) and then started the next task. It probably took a couple of days per G5.
    Then I broke my shoulder in May 2017 (doing something stupid on an Austrian glacier). That made it harder to do the sanding for a couple of weeks.
    But even though it was painful, I couldn’t stop...
     

  5. Like
    Phorlorn reacted to wise_rice in 26 PowerMac G5 Case Modding Project - mATX & ATX Conversion - Barebones - Mac Pro Alternative   
    Finished Builds:
     
     
    I do not have the money to equip all cases with CPU, RAM and SSDs right now.
    But it would be so much fun to do it, now that all the hard work is done.
     
    I will definitively equip machines later and build completely custom machines
     
    I already equipped two of the shown modded cases with complete hardware.
    One was for a music-studio. One for my brother.
     
    Threads for the finished build projects will be linked here later:
     
     
    - Workstation & Gaming-Beast for my brother:

    - ATX- X99-Mainbaord
    - 8-Core Intel XEON E5-1660 v3 (Overclocked to 4 GHz - all-core)
    - 64GB ECC-RAM (Registered DIMMs) with dual Copper heatsinks & Heatpipes
    - 3x1TB SSD RAID5
    - Two 1080Ti in SLI (two flexible SLI Bridges were later installed)
     
     
    - Ryzentosh (For music production studio):

    o mATX Mainboard
    o Ryzen 1700X
    o biggest cooler on the market (BeQuiet! Dark Rock Pro)
    o 32GB RAM (ECC Unregistered DIMMs) with Aluminium heatsinks
    o 3x1TB SSD RAID5
     
     

    A finished (painted) case from the outside.
    The Apple logo is gone after painting…
    For the better, I think!
     
    The rear of a finished build
  6. Like
    Phorlorn reacted to wise_rice in 26 PowerMac G5 Case Modding Project - mATX & ATX Conversion - Barebones - Mac Pro Alternative   
    So, I am officially crazy...
    I bought 26 Powermacs (G5)
    And I modded them ALL
    They are now ready for ATX and mATX Mainboards…
    But why 26?
    Did I mention I was crazy?!
    (And they were only sold together…)
     
     
     
    I modded G5 Cases before – They kind of became my passion.
     
    This time I wanted everything to be perfect:
    - Keep as much of the original design as possible
    - Cut as less as possible
    - Since it is impossible to find a G5 Case without dents and scratches, I wanted to paint them, freshly.
     
     

     
    I am done now and it is time to share my experiences:
    It was a rough 6 months from start to finish.
    The project kept me busy during all of the winter.
    I worked every weekend on it, till late.
     
    I need to apologize…
    …to my family for occupying their workshop, guest rooms and garages
    …to my friends for neglecting them during the last months
    …to the dogs and the cat for waking them up from their afternoon nap every now and then (because of the metalwork-noise).
     
    I hope to be able and show everybody that it was worth it - And that someone out there is appreciating the work, as well.
     
    Back me up, guys - Spread the love :-)
     

     

    I believe in Apples high quality and the unique design of Sir Jony Ive
      

    My mods include a preinstalled power supply (and even watercooling on some)
     

    Countless hours of work and high-quality components & tools were used
     
    Of course, you can come and have a look if you are near the South of Germany (or the North of Switzerland).
  7. Like
    Phorlorn reacted to chitoZ in SCRATCH BUILD !!!!! ROAD TO CES2018 or COMPUTEX2018 . Project F24   
    Ill be using my old parts for this build since i dont have that biiiiiigg budget on my hand hehe because i need to put my funds on the materials needed for the build and it cost so much. Just ordered a 3d printer for my needs 

  8. Agree
    Phorlorn reacted to Whiskers in "Spectre-IV" - 10+ years in the making   
    It's really interesting to see how someone's build and desk setup has evolved over the years. Very nice setup.
  9. Like
    Phorlorn reacted to Newbithian in "Spectre-IV" - 10+ years in the making   
    Little over ten years ago, at the age of 11, I decided I wanted to build a computer after watching my father and brother build them so many times before. I proposed the idea, received a Core 2 Quad Q6600 for my birthday, a motherboard for Christmas, and started building the rest out of parts we had lying around. Ever since then, I've slowly been upgrading it piece-by-piece, and below is an idea of that journey:
     







     
    Through to now:
     






     
    Also a bonus hardline-tubing planning render:

     
    As well as a bonus photo of the exterior cable management (& the side of my desk I neglected to stain):

     
    Fun fact: every picture from 2012+ was taken with the same camera (Nikon D3200), so the timeline kind of serves as the development of my photographic abilities, too!
    A very detailed list of nearly every part featured currently, as well as what I paid for them, can be found here: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/pnr2RJ
     
    First post, so I hope I'm not breaking any rules or anything.
  10. Funny
    Phorlorn reacted to EnergyEclipse in "OdySSey" project (finished)   
    I guess you could say this build will be rather fantastic...
  11. Like
    Phorlorn reacted to B4Quattro in Black Desk Project   
    A picture from the side. I have 2 case fans on each side and one in the back to create some airflow for the mainboard and the other internal components.

  12. Like
    Phorlorn reacted to B4Quattro in Black Desk Project   
  13. Like
    Phorlorn reacted to B4Quattro in Black Desk Project   
  14. Like
    Phorlorn reacted to B4Quattro in Black Desk Project   
  15. Like
    Phorlorn reacted to B4Quattro in Black Desk Project   
  16. Like
    Phorlorn reacted to B4Quattro in Black Desk Project   
  17. Like
    Phorlorn reacted to B4Quattro in Black Desk Project   
    Hey guys,
    with these pictures i want to share the building process of my desk-pc case with you. It took me about a half year to build it, some planning mistakes included (production tolerances can be a b****, unnecessary stuff bought and so forth...) The goal was to build a system with superior cooling power for very silent operation and enough cooling capacity for future upgrades. The frame of the case is made from aluminium profiles which are connected with t-shaped sliding blocks, the panels are made from aluminium sheets. For the cutouts in the metal sheets i asked a local company to do them with their lasercutter. The shelfs for the mainboard tray (from a lian li case) are made from 5mm aluminium sheets, the panels are 2 mm. To protect the radiators from cat hairs and my feet i bought some hexagonal perforated sheet. All the parts are black powder coated.
     



  18. Like
    Phorlorn reacted to ZeroMo in Project Ki to dō (木と銅)   
    a week later...im back. Wood is painted and assembled.
    Now for some testfitting.
    yes i know...the GPU is tiny...but i won't buy some ridiculously priced GPU for an office PC
     
    and the for the finished thing:
     
    and in its natural habitat
     

     

     
    Big Thanks to all of you who stopped and read through this little project. I learned so much and i am already improving the design.
    Feel free to leave some comments on what you think should be incorporated in the improved version.
     
    Until next time, have a nice day.
    Bye
  19. Funny
    Phorlorn reacted to kittycannon in My XP Build everyone hates   
    But does it run minesweeper?
  20. Like
    Phorlorn reacted to Eric Kazer in My XP Build everyone hates   
    I built a XP Gaming rig for old games. I wanted no drop in frames. I also wanted to have EAX support though a Digital Output. I used newer and older hardware.
     
    I have: 
    A crappy 300 watt Lite On PSU
    E8500 Intel CPU running @ 3.16GHz Because yeah Core 2 Duo
    Asus duel fan 750TI (powerful as hell with Direct X 9c in Windows XP
    G Skill Memory running at 1333 MHz which is supported on the old MoBo
    Asrock G41C-GS R2.0 Motherboard
    1 TB 2.5 inch hard drive from a Seagate portable HDD. Cheap/works
     
    A somewhat simple system. Also having some generic HP DVD/CD writer. It has cable may ham. Only because I plan to change the PSU to a Corsair VS-500 that is more appropriate. Cables are all over. Also because I have a Duel Molex to 6 pin PCIe adapter that should not be. 
     
    I could not get other pictures of the sound card and RAM. case is too small to get a good shot of that.
     
    It does run cool. No heat issues.
     
    Oh, it does run Crysis and GTA 3,4, and Lost Episodes.
     
    I have yet to test out the Digital Out on my Sound card with my 7.1 surround receiver. I am waiting an a 3.5mm jack to RCA adapter so I can connect the Digital IO to the Receiver and be able to decode Dolby Digital and DTS from it. It does support full SPDIF. Also sounds awesome if I remember right.
     
    The Mother board also supports Floppy. Funny what Asrock did. 
     
    Some of the problems I had where from not reading the Manual. There was a jumper to adopt 1333 MHz memory. I was having stability issues till moved the jumper. After that it seems to run fine.
     
    Just a cheap ordinary build from yesterday and today. I might also install a 64 bit OS. Maybe Windows 7 and upgrade to Windows 10. I think that it can still be done. It would give the best of both worlds. Also justify the 8 GB of Memory.


  21. Funny
    Phorlorn reacted to Dat Guy in Most beautiful Linux distro   
    Linux is ugly because of the userland, not because of the desktop.
  22. Agree
    Phorlorn reacted to Jrasero in Finally 2018 Build   
    For all the people claiming that he overpaid, okay but
     
    Ram lowest price was $167= $88+
    SSD he overpaid $23
    GPU lowest was $480= $80+
     
    So $191 difference.  Money is money but $191 isn't life changing if he needed or just simply wanted a computer now.  
     
    One could argue he could find some idiot to buy the GV-N107TGAMING OC-8GD for $700 
  23. Agree
    Phorlorn reacted to Vandorlot in Finally 2018 Build   
    I hate comments like these. Not only did you tell him nothing about the parts he chose but you also had to act like a dick about his PC when he already bought all the parts. Just making him feel worse about his build.
  24. Like
    Phorlorn reacted to jbpb in Finally 2018 Build   
    2014! 2014, I decided to build my own PC. I don't know what exactly happened but I postponed it year after year.
    So, came 2018, and I saw my post on Facebook that I was thinking of building a new PC for myself. This depressed me. I asked myself what the hell am I doing and why am I still haven't built my own PC.
    I have suggested 4 builds, 2 to my friends, 2 for my brothers! They built it, we built it!

    NOW WHERE THE EFF IS MY OWN BUILD!?
     
    Finally! It's here!
    I present to you my personal PC...
     
    CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 1700 [
    MOBO: Gigabyte Aorus AX370 Gaming K7
    RAM: GSkill Trident Z RGB 16GB DDR4 3200
    PSU: Seasonic M12II-620 EVO 620W 80Plus Bronze Fully Modular
    SSD: SanDisk Ultra II 240GB
    HDD: Seagate Barracuda 2TB
    GPU: Gigabyte GTX 1070 Ti Gaming OC 8GB
    CASE: Rakk Hawani Gaming Case Black

    PC PART PICKER

    Planning to build it this weekend...
    Photos of the build to follow...
     
     

  25. Funny
    Phorlorn reacted to Thermosman in 4x Titan V prototype   
    Y tho?
    How can you possibly justify spending this much?
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