Intro:

On this page I will blog about my custom Apple G5 case mod. Basically, I’m taking the case of a non-working Apple G5 PowerMac, gutting it, and putting higher-end PC components such as Quad Core capable motherboard, Quad Core CPU, BFG / Nvidia 8800GTS 512MB/256 Mbit GPU, 4GB RAM, custom front I/O panel, & custom power switch. On the outer case, sanded and polished exterior. On the inner case, a metallic orange paint. On the back, a custom rear back panel to cover new mobo’s I/O ports, and relocation of 2 – 92mm rear-exhaust fans. On the inside, 2 – 120mm black or orange fans with amber LEDS for main mobo area intake, 2 – 60mm. My pictures so far are ok, nothing to brag about, but at least I got something to document the build. Thanks for reading this blog and stay tuned!

Getting the case

I searched long and hard for an Apple Power Mac G5 case on eBay. “Why an Apple Power Mac G5?”, you ask? Well I always like the sleek and industrial look of the G5 case or the cheese-grater as my friend Jeff calls it. I always wondered if I could fit a “normal” ATX style motherboard and pimp it up. After finding several dozen or so other projects where very skilled modders were doing the same thing, I was convinced I could.

Apple Core Duo (Cyprio’s)
Bad Apple (Mr. Bean’s)
How I PC’d an Apple (Hilarious G5 Mod Spoof)

Anyways, I ended up paying $311USD on a non-working G5 unit. The good news is that I was able to part it out, the motherboard, 2 CPUs w/ cooler units, various little parts, parts from the PSU, etc, for a total of $325USD. So I actually made $14 on the case deal.

Here’s a shot of the case from the front, with the side opened.

Here’s a shot of the case from the Right side. Here the front is on the left.

Here’s a shot from the rear:

Nice, huh?

Well, the first thing I had to decide was, “how am I going to mount the motherboard?” The answer depends on if you are a Apple G5 purist or not.

My definition: The Purist – The purist holds Apple and all of its products amongst the greatest products, ever. They would never denigrate the Apple G5 case by changing the way it looks, from an external point of view.

But, anything goes on the inside to maintain that asthetic appeal. Which means a lot of things have to happen on the inside to achieve the stock look on the outside. To sum this up – lots more cabling, lots of cuts on the inside, practically no cuts on the outside. I’m not knocking this type of mod. Some that I have seen are truly awesome, achieving the stock look of the G5 running Wintel, Lintel, OSx86, etc.

However, I am not a purist. That said, anything goes. One of the limitations of the purist approach is that it limits the type of motherboard you can use to those with only 4 expansion slots. I knew this simply wouldn’t work for me especially with current motherboard I had on hand, an MSI Neo2 865 something or other. Another obstacle, how to mount the motherboard. This sounds easier than it really is. Whats at issue here is that the standard G5 motherboard, when compared to any ATX or microATX mobo, is way longer than it is wide. In fact, the G5 mobo takes up most of the length of the case, while a typical ATX only takes up about half. “So what’s the problem?”, you ask? The problem is two-fold: The first of which is the motherboard mounts are in non-standard ATX positions. The second is more cosmetic, from a purist point of view. The stock G5 Power Mac has 3 distinct zones for cooling. The top deck – where the optical drive and harddrive are. The CPU area – where the motherboard, memory, & CPU(s) are. And the power supply area. Each zone is mostly seperated by some piece of metal and has its own cooling system. Some purists would like to keep every facet of the G5 mod as stock as possible, preserving these zones. On this point, I’ll concede I am a bit of a purist with. As much as possible, I’d like to preserve these zones.

This is a mod, of course.

[Insert G5 with mobo pic] [insert my mobo pic here]

My solution to this problem was to go ahead and use a Lian Li mobo tray from Performance-PCs.com. My thoughts on using the mobo tray were:

1) If I’m not going to use the existing I/O ports on the rear of the case, then they must go.
2) By mounting the mobo tray onto the existing stand-off, it will allow me to hide some of the cables underneath, a la – the original configuration, and provide a cleaner look on the inside.
3) Prove that I am a genius. OK. I just threw that in. But its true.

That decision having been made, I ordered the mobo tray from Performance-pcs.com

Sorry for the extremely bad picture. It was taken with my old RAZR phone, bad lighting, and a shaky hand.

The System Layout

Here is basically what I want to do with the G5 mod:
1) DVD drive in stock location.
2) HDDs in stock location (hiding as much of the cabling as possible).
3) PSU to remain on lower deck, slightly abbreviated in length because of motherboard.
4) On the DVD/HDD deck, keep the stock Apple fans, running at 5V DC.
5) Everywhere else, all fans are being replaced with quieter fans.
6) Mount Quad core capable Mobo
7) Install BFG/nVidia 8800GTS GPU

Here’s what it’ll look like graphically, sort of:

Mobo-tray Installation

For some reason, I started pulling out some of the standoffs that I knew I would not be needing, which is weird. Because in hindsight, they were not in the way. Especially for this type of mobo tray. I guess because I had decided to use just 4 of them in a large square shape, I guess I didn’t need them all. So, after deciding which ones to use, I measured their positions relative to where the mobo tray would be positioned. I then drilled these out one by one and test-mounted the tray with screws to make sure they were accurate.

[ insert actual picture of mounted mobo tray, sans mobo et al ]
Mobo installed!!

The Back Panel

Originally, I planned to use the back panel that was attached to the mobo tray. However, 2 things made me change my mind. Looking at the whole setup, I figured with 2 – 120mm fans forcing air into the case, the single 80mm fan probably wouldn’t be enough to force the air out. A single 92mm fan was too big for the opening. So I figured I needed at least two 80mm fans… which was made even easier for the simple fact that I cut to much material from the G5 case in the rear. The rear panel ended up being too narrow. I’ll need to fabricate a custom back panel. While I’m at it, I can work 2 80mm into it…And relocate the power connector for obvious reasons. I can’t work the two 80′s in without moving the power. So, I’ll relocate the power to a position just under the door latch.

Speaking of two 92mm fans, I have these.

Hmm. Wonder if I can get them to fit somewhere?

I’ll post more pictures as that develops.

Update – 10/6/08
My friend Damien, who has mad metal working skillz, was able to fabricate 2 back panel pieces for me. I’m just waiting on the pieces to be shipped from Canada. Thanks Damien!

The Front Panel

Originally, I had hoped to reuse the front panel ports, switch, and led. This proved to be very problematical. It seemed like every wiring diagram I found for it was different from the last one. In a nutshell, I couldn’t get it to work. And that was just the power Switch/LED part, forget about the USB, FireWire, and audio port. If you can get all that going, you’re definitely better than me. Luckily for me, I happened across this front port panel piece from Lian Li (seeing a trend?) on Performance-PCs.com.

I also got this neat vandal proof switch with an amber led ring:

While waiting on these to arrive, I began prepping the front panel for work. First, I measured where the new panel would go on the case. Using my Dremel, I began to cut these measurements out from the existing front panel area as shown here:

A few days later, the switch and front ports arrived from performance-pcs.com. I then began working on the panel cover the ports would be getting attached to. My first attempt wasn’t so good…

Ok, ok…you can’t use a Dremel for everything.

Then, I was inspired…by this:

I went to Menard’s to pick up some needle files and a hole-punch. This time around, I took better measurements, etched them with an Xacto knife into the filler panel. I then used the hole-punch to tap the pilot holes needed to drill and file-out the resulting holes with the needle filers. What do you think? Better, right?

I forgot to take pics of the panel all by itself…but here is the resulting panel semi-installed into the case. I used JB Weld to fix it together to the case from the back side.

Here’s a shot from the other side:

I know it looks messy. But I plan to sand and re-drill any holes that were filled. That’s after I give it the same treatment from the front for a smooth appearance.

OK. Now to sand down both sides.

See? Not so bad, eh?

Here’s the “finished” product.

And yes, I plan to get rid of that bottom screw and filling in the hole.

The Rear Panel

One of the last major things to do with this mod is the rear panel. I saved this for last because depending how I did things with the power supply, HDDs, and CPU cooler, it would end up with different looks. Here are a number of changes needed for the rear panel:
1) It had to be wider. The original was too narrow, by about a .5 inch.
2) It had to be taller. To hold the original G5 exhaust fans and to make area around the door-latch seemless.
3) The power connector had to be relocated for the exhaust fans. Tentatively, the position will be just under the door latch.

So I’ll need to fabricate this new rear panel. I found a suitable 24″x24″x.125″ Aluminum sheet on eBay. This should be enough for the rear panel as well as the lower deck covering the PSU.
Here is shot of the original panel and the way I want it to look. I used The Gimp for this.

[7/5/08]I’m still waiting on the Aluminum sheet to be delivered so more on that later…

[7/7/08]UPDATE – My sheet metal order just came in!!! 24″ X 48″ X .125″ of aluminum goodness, all 16 .lbs of it…yeah I think I may have ordered enough to build two entire cases from scratch. I’ll probably just need half to make both the back panel and the lower deck over the PSU. I’ll be working on that this week, hopefully. My friend, Jeff, just got a brand spanking new jigsaw that he’s going to let me break-in. I just need to get the right cutting blade.

The Floating Fans and New Color Scheme

Well I decided I had had enough with the chocolate bar look of the “hammered bronze” spray-painted case. Since the color orange is quickly becoming new favorite color; my watch-band is orange, my LG VX-9900 enV is orange, my favorite shirt is orange, I live on Orange Ct., etc, guess what? I going to paint the center case pumpkin orange. I was hoping to find a metallic orange, similar to the look of my enV or one of those Honda Elements, but no luck. I even tried spray-painting the case gold first, then overlaying the pumpkin orange…didn’t work the way I hoped, but I like the finish anyway. Hence the new name of my G5 case mode – Project Orange. This works because, well, its not an Apple anymore.

Here are some new pics to compare against the old pics…

First, I decided to re-do the area around the power switch, to make it more uniform with the front panel.

While waiting for the orange paint to dry, I put together this fan assembly using two 120mm amber colored fans and some nuts, bolts, & eyelets.

Always looking for a reason to use my Dremmel, I did cut off the extra bolt and nut so the DVD would still fit on the top shelf. I removed the extra bolt at the bottom of the fans. These weren’t LED fans, but I’ll be adding amber LEDS later.

New color!