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Geden

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Feb 25, 2006
2
0
I have started the now almost common "PC in a G5 case" project, as I got a workstation from my workplace, but coulnd't bear getting one of those fugly Dell computers in my office next to my sturdy Mac Mini. I was lucky enough to get a case with both the two harddrive fans and the from panel intact, and I would like to use these in my PC setup instead of replacing them with parts from an old ATX case.

My question to you guys is how to connect the 3 wires from the front panel powerbutton to a normal ATX motherboard, and also, is it possible to get the 4 wire G5 fans to run by using the standard ATX 3 wire fan connectors.
 

matticus008

macrumors 68040
Jan 16, 2005
3,330
1
Bay Area, CA
Chances are that you can get everything to work if you identify the pinouts. Obviously there will be a + and a - wire on the power switch, and the third is probably a ground, which you don't strictly need. The fans might be a little more difficult. You could always just plug them in to a bare motherboard and give it a shot...there's some risk involved, but not tremendously so.

If you have a spare motherboard, give it a shot (just the power connector). Since you can start a computer with a screwdriver, you should be okay. You might have to get plastic sleeves or pull the wires and rearrange them (if you're lucky the two important ones will be colour-coded, say green and green/white stripe) and you'll know which of the three to disconnect.

If you don't know much about electronics or wiring, I would recommend just getting a friend who knows what s/he's doing to help you out. It should only take about 5 minutes to get the fans and power switch connected to an ATX board, unless Apple did something weird with the fans, in which case you can rewire them completely or just not use them.
 

Geden

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Feb 25, 2006
2
0
yeah, that's a possibility, but unfortunately I havent got a spare motherboard just lying around, and I dont feel like risk frying a brand new one, I hope you can understand me. The fans are by no means essential to the build, and I'll just replace them with papst fans if I cant them those to work.

I saw something a few days ago regarding that the connectors on the fron panel board should be specified in the Apple service manual for the G5, but the stuff I've been able to find mentions part numbers at best. Anyone know of this?
 
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