[nagal]

It seems I have a habit of always doing big projects for my first time at anything so I did not stop the tradition when attempting my first case mod

A lot of people here dis on Apple all the time and on occasion for some valid reason that I even agree with but I have always loved the style of their cases, especially their towers. So with a little research and more spare cash than I want to admit, I hunted down a PowerMac G5 case in good condition and started to buy the parts (mostly screws, nuts and such) to convert it to house a water cooled PC.

I wish I would have taken pics from the start but I didn't. Tonight represented the watershed as I had a few things left to do before the final assembly. So I took some pics before going any further.

Here is a side view. The hard drive tray on the bottom is normally located in the top right of the case but that is where the PSU is going. The big shiny square is my homemade mobo tray. The stand offs in the G5 were all pulled out. I got a 12" x 12" x .1" aluminum sheet, marked my stand off holes drilled them, counter shunk the bottom side and then used some epoxy to bond it to the case. Why? Everything I tried (including JB Weld) would not hold the standoff directly to the case itself. Not enough surface area to get a good bond.

Next we have where the PSU is going. I tore apart my Seasonic M12 600 so I just had the PCBs and the connector for the power cord. This involved a bit of desoldering and soldering. It is going to be a bit scary turning this thing on for the first time

You can see the 4 stand offs where the PSU is going to mount and one of the smaller PCB mounted to the rear wall.

Lastly (for this round) here is a side rear view. The G5 does not have anything close to an ATX back plane, so I took the back plane off the removable mobo tray from my Li Lain case, cut a little chuck out of it so the side panel release on the G5 was still visible (you can plainly see where my dremel jumped along it scaring it a bit). After some painful lining up, I marked an outline and cut out the entire area of the G5 and riveted the ATX back plane in. Another glaring mistake can be seen where I mis measured as their is a "hole" visible by the release.

Tomorrow I plan on getting getting the PSU, DVD RW, Pump all mounted in and the cables and tubing run. Hopefully if time permits I will get some pics of that up once I am done or the next night.

I hope you enjoy my little adventure

 

[taternuts]

omg i was going to do the same thing...except it was a big pain in the @$$ to take out the mobo and all the other crap so i just threw it away

im artarded...

 

[Akhen]

Case has a lot of potential, saw some very nice mods on bit tech with this case, you could go take a look over there for inspiration.

 

[prosser13]

Should be in the Work Log section though methinks

And you must be brave, taking apart a PSU worth that much

 

[Syrillian]

Hi.

Have you made any progress? This looks like a very interesting and challenging Mod. Kudos to you for attempting this hardware contorting project.

Is that PSU going to be essentially naked? If so, then you are a daring individual.

Keep us posted...

 

[nagal]

Yes there has been some updates but my lazy arse has not posted anything. I put in all the tubing for the WC and leaked tested it. Since it just looks like a nasty bunch of tubing and wiring hanging about, I decided not to take any pics to post

I am waiting on a some fans which should arrive today or tomorrow. Then everything goes in and I will post some pics.

The PSU is completely naked. I was going to use some modder's mesh (still might) to cage it off. Only one side is exposed and only then when the case side panel is off, so it is seperated from everything in the case.

On a side note, the PSU survived its transplant successfully. It turned on without issue when I jumpered it on to do the leak test. I might take it out of the case tonight and take pics so everyone can see what a naked Seasonic looks like

 

[dmhnc]

I'll be following this mod.

Show us what you can do with it!

 

[nagal]

Here is a shot of the PSU. As you can see it is naked but not exposed to the point it could cause any issues. Its hard to tell but that gray piece of plastic actually holds an 80mm fan. So the PSU does have some cooling on it.

And here is a shot of the tubing and some power cables just hanging around

The pump is DangerDen D5. There are 4 1/2" 6-32 screws coming from the bottom of the case holding it place. The screw holes are countersunk so they are nice and flush. Since I bought the counter sink drill bit for the mobo tray and decide to use it where ever it would make things look nicer even if no one sees it.

To help with vibrations/noise a small rubber grommet is placed on the screw and sandwiched between the pump mounting bracket and the case bottom. Also the I lined the edges of the pump mount with u-channel rubber molding. Nylon lock nuts holds the sucker down. The CPU block is Switftech Apogee and the GPU block is DangerDen Maze 5

I will post a better pic of the PSU tomorrow. I have to take the shelving out so am going to wait til the new fans come so I don't have to do it twice.

 

[dmhnc]

So, it looks as though you took the cover off your psu right? Have you given thought to Plexiglas? With slots or holes.

 

[nagal]

I have not really thought about doing any plexiglass. Not even sure what I would do with it.

The fans I was waiting for arrived today so as promised here is a better shot of the PSU. I retained the modular functionality by mounting the PCB with all the conenctors to the side panel of the case. On the rear is a small PSU that contains some of the basic AC filtering circuits. It was soldered to the AC inlet but I used some 14 guage wire to jumper the AC inlet to the PCB so I could fit everything together. The main PCB does seperate from the filter PCB through some bullet connectors.

Here is a shot of all the power cables semi-neatly zipped tied in place. I have not yet zipped tied down the SATA cables as they might be a tight fit now.

Here is a close up of the wiring

So it is all ready. Now I just have to dis-assembly my computer and put it all in the new case. Hopefully I will be back tonight with some more pics!

 

[born2killU]

Lookin good so far

Where the hell id you get a G5 Case though ?? (sry if thats already answered)

 

[Syrillian]

...nice progress...

 

[nagal]

I got the G5 case from AllMac.com I think. I contacted a whole bunch of different people so can't remember who I finally went with. The case itself was not a bad price $100 but shipping was like around $50 because it was very heavy with the orginal power supply in it.

So, everything is in and its working! It is so quiet it is amazing

I still have some work to do to get things really nice and neat but its time to take a little break and enjoy my computer for awhile with some semi-serious overclocking

Here is a little snap shop of the finally assembly. I will take some more tomorrow with a lot more detail.

I have a cable assembly built so all the front panel connections are active (FireWire, USB, Audio) I just have to put it in. I am a little leary as my pinout of the front panel showed some odd stuff with FireWire. I really need to wait until I have a enough spare cash to buy a new mobo incase something decides it time to smoke

 

[cisf0rcalvin]

nice!!..i really want that case =O

 

[Poser]

phenomenal work

 

[nagal]

Thanks for the compliments. It was an incredible fun project for me. Never having done anything like this I learned a lot. Now I am tempted to get a MacPro case and mod it but I think the wife would get a little nutty

 

[Modki]

Hehe Wolf in Sheep's clothing

Quote:

Originally Posted by taternuts omg i was going to do the same thing...except it was a big pain in the @$$ to take out the mobo and all the other crap so i just threw it away im artarded...

Hey if you still want a G5 looking case without all the hassle of modding:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16811164061

Just paint it white.

 

[Poser]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Modki Hehe Wolf in Sheep's clothing Hey if you still want a G5 looking case without all the hassle of modding: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16811164061 Just paint it white.

nice find

...

...oh yeah, tell your damned avatar to quit grillin me

 

[Syrillian]

Well done. That really does look sharp!

I agree with you on the cases' looks: I likee

 

[dhrandy]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Modki Hehe Wolf in Sheep's clothing Hey if you still want a G5 looking case without all the hassle of modding: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16811164061 Just paint it white.

I'm sure the real G5 case is sturdier. The reviews says the one on Newegg is really thin metal.