The PowerPC Mod Thread!

128keaton said:

well...GOOD.

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Also I have compressed gas (compressed air)
and it sucks.
Really bad.
It's better to use a min shopvac blower side or some other blower than compressed gas duster.
The gas duster contains propellants so if you shake it or hold it sideways or upsidedown it shoots out this white stuff and stains stuff, also it makes things very cold which causes condensation in the electronics which can cause damage. It also can cause frostbite if sprayed at your hand.

P.S. it is not compressed air, it is compressed fluorocarbons, such as 1,1-difluoroethane, 1,1,1-trifluoroethane, or 1,1,1,2-tetrafluoroethane.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gas_dusterIt should not be called compressed air because people may think it is compressed air and try to inhale it.

One of the reasons why I like working on computers at work is that I-quite literally-have dry compressed air and nitrogen "on tap." Of course, for just cleaning stuff like computer parts, compressed air is perfectly fine(we use the nitrogen for things like freshly-polished platinum electrodes), although I did use nitrogen before back before we moved to our new lab(and I insisted that we have air plumbed in).

It's fun to take something like a fan and give it a blast of compressed air and watch it spin at warp speed (it gets them clean, too).

bunnspecial said:

It's fun to take something like a fan and give it a blast of compressed air and watch it spin at warp speed (it gets them clean, too).

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yeah I did that once in my DA when I blew it out with a blower side of mini shopvac. But i've heard it damages the bearings.

I would think it would only damage the bearings if severely over revved without ample lubrication.

Altemose said:

I would think it would only damage the bearings if severely over revved without ample lubrication.

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It could also generate electricity that flows back into the system and could fry components.

poiihy said:

It could also generate electricity that flows back into the system and could fry components.

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I doubt it would be enough to cause damage but if you want to be safe simply unplug the fan first.

ctmpkmlec4 said:

Where did you get those SATA cables?

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I found them on eBay. I've tried so many different SATA cables in order to find a set that are long enough and are angled correctly so that the door can still close. The connectors are actually straight at both ends but I was able to bend the cable to the right angle at the drive end.

My first mod was my Quicksilver, which I acquired off the side of a road in 2013, alongside a Sawtooth. Well, the Sawtooth has long since died and the Quicksilver is still alive! I don't use it much because of my DP G5, but I would totally use it if I could somehow get it to work with my Radeon 9600XT.

Mods to the Quicksilver:
-250GB Hard Drive
-ATA-133 PCI Card
-ATI Radeon 9000
-USB 2.0 PCI Card
-Broadcom Wireless-n PCI Card
-1.5GB of RAM
-New PRAM Battery

Wish I had a SATA Card for the beast.

As for my now put aside MDD, I don't know what I will do with it. I may sell it, but I would never sell the Quicksilver .

CYB3RBYTE said:

I don't use it much because of my DP G5, but I would totally use it if I could somehow get it to work with my Radeon 9600XT.

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I believe the ATI 9600 XT can be taped off on pins 3 and 11 to allow use in a G4.

Altemose said:

I believe the ATI 9600 XT can be taped off on pins 3 and 11 to allow use in a G4.

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This is correct, provided it has a 4x AGP slot(digital audio and later). I'm using a taped 9600xt now in my main Quicksilver.

MatthewLTL said:

does the 9600XT support CI and QE?

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Yes to both.

Any card that supports CI also supports QE.

The only Mac AGP card I'm aware of that does not support QE is the Rage 128.

This is my PowerPC Mod. I took an iMac G4, stripped it down, cut the inverter connections, stripped them and hooked them up to an external molex. Then took apart the LVDS connector and rewired it to a DVI connector which then goes to a mini display. This is all connected to a Mac Mini 2011, so I get the vintage design, but an actual useable computer. I have enough parts to do more conversions, so I listed them on the Marketplace. I'll take better pictures this weekend.

MatthewLTL said:

is the mini inside the dome?

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Not at the moment, it should eventually be though.

I've been working on this lately (in another thread)

Its and older intel motherboard with a C2D in a g4 QS case. The QS has long been dead, which is unfortunate.
It has an 8800GS, 3GB of RAM, and a 2.0GHz CPU. Soon, I'll put a 2.8 GHz C2D, another 2GB in (two slots ) to make it 4GB total, and potentially a better graphics card. The PSU I put in is about 500W so I can easily put a large card in. I also plan to install another fan soon for better air flow. Most of the metal case internals have been removed because they would be in the way and they are unnecessary. Friday I might modify the CD drive holder to make room for the RAM and stuff to have an official HDD mount instead of zip ties.

I'm not affiliated with this site, nor have any experience with their products but saw it featured in an IMNC video. This company claims to offer custom cut kits for converting PowerPC cases to accept standard mATX MB kits. For those of you interested in keeping the case stock (as much as possible).

http://www.thelaserhive.com

Altemose said:

I believe the ATI 9600 XT can be taped off on pins 3 and 11 to allow use in a G4.

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Yes I know it can, however mine does not want to boot the computer even with the pins taped off. Also I wanted to be able to use my Apple Studio Display with it but that would require moving the 24v connector as well.

I already have my current project, turning my G5 into an FTP server, taking up much of my time as I am really getting confused trying to make it accessible over the internet vs. locally. I should've figured it out by now....

CYB3RBYTE said:

Yes I know it can, however mine does not want to boot the computer even with the pins taped off. Also I wanted to be able to use my Apple Studio Display with it but that would require moving the 24v connector as well.

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Does your card work in a G5? It's possible the card is bad.

As I said, I have fair bit of experience with using these in G4s, and they generally are pretty much bullet proof once taped.

The ADC power modification isn't that difficult to do either if you know how to solder.

bunnspecial said:

Does your card work in a G5? It's possible the card is bad.

As I said, I have fair bit of experience with using these in G4s, and they generally are pretty much bullet proof once taped.

The ADC power modification isn't that difficult to do either if you know how to solder.

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Oh, I am the solder junkie. You are talking to the (young) man who one rewired an entire IDE cable just for fun. I could definitely do the modification to the card for the 24v connector.

That being said I think my card may be bad. I haven't tried it in my G5, because my iMac is currently occupying all of my desk again.

I'm currently focused on the evergoing struggle of making my iMac an internet file server. I don't think it's wifi card works by the "wake on ring" feature like it's ethernet does.

CYB3RBYTE said:

I'm currently focused on the evergoing struggle of making my iMac an internet file server. I don't think it's wifi card works by the "wake on ring" feature like it's ethernet does.

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If you can't run Ethernet then try using an old wireless router as a client bridge with DD-WRT.

CYB3RBYTE said:

I already have my current project, turning my G5 into an FTP server, taking up much of my time as I am really getting confused trying to make it accessible over the internet vs. locally. I should've figured it out by now....

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If connecting to it remotely, use the external IP of the entire network (of the router). Use whatismyip.com to find it (while under that network of course). So lets say your network's IP is 67.180.133.51, and your G5's local IP is 192.168.1.123. You would connect to afp://67.180.133.51/. The router would receive this request, and forward it to the G5 (192.168.1.123). Now, if you are connected to the home network, you would connect to afp://192.168.1.123/.

That is an awesome mod!

Macdude2010 said:

This is my PowerPC Mod. I took an iMac G4, stripped it down, cut the inverter connections, stripped them and hooked them up to an external molex. Then took apart the LVDS connector and rewired it to a DVI connector which then goes to a mini display. This is all connected to a Mac Mini 2011, so I get the vintage design, but an actual useable computer. I have enough parts to do more conversions, so I listed them on the Marketplace. I'll take better pictures this weekend.

Click to expand...

harrymatic said:

When the opportunity came up a month or so back to get a 256MB Fire GL X3 (one of the very fastest cards that can be used in a G4) I couldn't pass it up. It was very easy to flash and get up and running.

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Does that card run really hot? I have an X800 Pro and it runs really hot!

mikiotty said:

Does that card run really hot? I have an X800 Pro and it runs really hot!

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Not especially - it seems to run about the same temperatures as my old 9800XT. It's running at the standard 492/475MHz core/memory clock speeds. My card was brand new though, so the fan had never been used - perhaps the fan on your card is worn out and/or the thermal paste needs redoing?