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Mod Idea

zen.state

zen.state

macrumors 68020
Original poster
Mar 13, 2005
2,181
8
I have been thinking the last while of putting the innards of my main Sawtooth in my sig. into an empty G5 case.

The logic behind it..

As many of you know I love the reliability of the Sawtooth hardware and am happy with the performance after the multitude of upgrades. I would like G5 power but don't trust the reliability of the hardware itself to invest money into it. Reliability is just as important to me as performance. Maybe even more important.

However, I love the G5 case look and would love to run my current hardware in one not only for aesthetic reasons but also for the much much better airflow the G5 cases have. I have seen several empty cases on ebay over the years. Most were around 60-100. About the same as a quality ATX case.

Thoughts?
 
I think with the G5's case being so proprietary, it wouldn't be worth the time to modify it.

I've been inside 2 G5s so far, and everything is customized for that model. From what I see, it would require a ton of cutting and modification to properly fit anything.

With you having a sawtooth board, a nice PC ATX case would be more your route. All you would have to do is modify the case by drilling and tapping the case for the standoffs, and modify the I/O shield off the G4's case to fit the PC case. Then fit your ATX power supply and get it all put together.

Hmm... now you got my wanting to put my Digital Audio's board into a PC case I have...:D
 
WGoins88 said:
I think with the G5's case being so proprietary, it wouldn't be worth the time to modify it.

I've been inside 2 G5s so far, and everything is customized for that model. From what I see, it would require a ton of cutting and modification to properly fit anything.

With you having a sawtooth board, a nice PC ATX case would be more your route. All you would have to do is modify the case by drilling and tapping the case for the standoffs, and modify the I/O shield off the G4's case to fit the PC case. Then fit your ATX power supply and get it all put together.

Hmm... now you got my wanting to put my Digital Audio's board into a PC case I have...:D
Click to expand...

I am very comfortable cutting metal and using a dremel and have a lot of experience mounting logic board of all sorts where they are not intended to be. I used to work in the security hardware industry. Not installing alarms but building custom systems for security companies. All the circuit boards are very similar to logic boards or motherboards.

I would rather have my hardware in the current beautifully painted G4 case than any ATX box.
 
zen: great idea, go for it. As you have needed skills and tools, it's way better move than fitting your Sawtooth's guts int any PC-like case. If you have PCI USB 2.0 card with internal port, you'd be even able to use G5's front USB.
One of MR members has fitted his Quicksilver in G5 case and final impression was very good IMO (there were pics in his post).
If you need some info (pinouts etc) and inspirations, see hackintosh sites, especially Aquamac's forum (tons of very useful tips there).
 
666sheep said:
zen: great idea, go for it. As you have needed skills and tools, it's way better move than fitting your Sawtooth's guts int any PC-like case. If you have PCI USB 2.0 card with internal port, you'd be even able to use G5's front USB.
One of MR members has fitted his Quicksilver in G5 case and final impression was very good IMO (there were pics in his post).
If you need some info (pinouts etc) and inspirations, see hackintosh sites, especially Aquamac's forum (tons of very useful tips there).
Click to expand...

Great idea about the front USB ports. Yes I do have a USB 2.0 PCI with an internal port.

Thanks for the encouragement and I will look for that thread of the QS in a G5 case.
 
hmm great idea , certainly helps cooling and a modern look , but have you thought about , that if you mount the logicboard in the G5 case where its supposed to be ,on the back wall, that all pci slots face actually in the wrong direction , means towards the front :confused:
as i guess thats the biggest obstacle , everything else should be fairly easy to fit in once you emptied the G5 case complete
 
ah i know why , because i have a MDD in front of me in bits and there the CPU is under the pci slots , thats why i would need to turn the board around to match the pci slots with the slots of the G5 case ,but then the pci slots would face in the other direction , but in the sawtooth and quicksilver the cpu are above the pci slots and then it works out fine if placed in the G5 case
 
loves me some dremel.

i like the idea, but when i did my mod, apple was still selling the g5 systems, and the cases were more than a house payment. no good. went looking for something else all alum. that i could use, and came up with THIS mod.

not what you wanted i know, but thought you could use some of the ideas. if you don't care about the sawtooth case, you can use the entire backplane/side which makes lining things up no problem, and solves some of the fab work on the back side. also, i used the onboard firewire port, and a pci usb card to port connections to the front, worked well. just my two cents, best of luck with the project. pictures as you go, or at least when you are done is a must!
 
the G5's are fine, esp if your a little sceptical grab the 2.3 air cooled model. I love mine, and it will continue to run for a long, long time to come.
 
4JNA said:
i like the idea, but when i did my mod, apple was still selling the g5 systems, and the cases were more than a house payment. no good. went looking for something else all alum. that i could use, and came up with THIS mod.

not what you wanted i know, but thought you could use some of the ideas. if you don't care about the sawtooth case, you can use the entire backplane/side which makes lining things up no problem, and solves some of the fab work on the back side. also, i used the onboard firewire port, and a pci usb card to port connections to the front, worked well. just my two cents, best of luck with the project. pictures as you go, or at least when you are done is a must!
Click to expand...

I like your mod but personally don't want to use an ATX case. Nice work though!

I'm guessing that round screen the the front of the tower is more than a fan controller? It looks pretty badass.
 
Last edited:
zen.state said:
...don't want to use an ATX case...

I'm guessing that round screen the the front of the tower is more than a fan controller? It looks pretty badass.
Click to expand...

sawtooth in the g5 case is the way to go no doubt, just thought the side panel mount idea might help out. easy is good, if you have the case parts around that is...

the fan controller was pretty over the top, it did temp monitor, volume control, preset fan modes, and had cool lights that changed color with the push of a button. neat-O.

only problem with the mod was needing to keep the zip drive for customer work, i got more crap about that damn drive... can't wait to see what you come up with, should be a nice home for your list of parts! best of luck.
 
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