That's awesome! I have a spare G4 case in my closet that I just might have to use. Keep us updated and post lots of pics!
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Powermac G4 Case Uses
- Thread starter nomar383
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That's awesome! I have a spare G4 case in my closet that I just might have to use. Keep us updated and post lots of pics!
Anyone know of a specific dremel attachment to cut through the tough metal of the I/O plate? Mine is designed to cut through "soft metal" lol. I used a separate power saw for a good part of it, but I need the precision of a dremel to get in close.
I did the same mod!!!!
Hey!! I did the same mod!!!
Here's my setup!!!
MSI 945GCM5-L
Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 -Small Heatsink
DDR 533 RAM Generic
500GB Western Digital 2.5" HDD
Maxtor MiNi-2600 5.25" DVD/BD-ROM -About 5-6cm shorter than normal drives
Generic 500W Power Supply with Bottom Fan
Runs: Mac OS X 10.5.2 Kalyway /w iLife '08
I designed my own boot rom so that it boots with a GUI Bootloader! Some friends in the software publishing circle made a software like this.
PM me if you need any information on this mod. My latest project is installing my current Antec900 Gaming Rig into a Mac Pro case. I've got a thread to this....
Hey!! I did the same mod!!!
Here's my setup!!!
MSI 945GCM5-L
Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 -Small Heatsink
DDR 533 RAM Generic
500GB Western Digital 2.5" HDD
Maxtor MiNi-2600 5.25" DVD/BD-ROM -About 5-6cm shorter than normal drives
Generic 500W Power Supply with Bottom Fan
Runs: Mac OS X 10.5.2 Kalyway /w iLife '08
I designed my own boot rom so that it boots with a GUI Bootloader! Some friends in the software publishing circle made a software like this.
PM me if you need any information on this mod. My latest project is installing my current Antec900 Gaming Rig into a Mac Pro case. I've got a thread to this....
. . . This is why I really wish Apple had a Mid-Tower Option. I love Macs hands down, they are the best designed and most elegant computers I have ever used since the iMac back in 1998. About 3 months ago I almost went the Hackintosh OSX86 route to build a new system, but I ended up getting a Power Mac Dual G5 1.8Ghz which I love.
I really wish Apple could make a Mid Tower and hey even bring back the Power Mac Series so you would have the following lineup.
Mac Mini
Power Mac
iMac
Mac Pro
I always envisioned the Intel Power Mac to run a Core 2 Duo ~ Core 2 Quad (The Quad being the higher configuration) having the DDR2 ram expandable to 8gb nothing ridiculous like having 32gb of ram like the Mac Pro, 2 slots for internal hard drives, one slot or two for a DVD drive etc, and PCI Express for the Video.
I really agree with this article on Low End Mac:
http://www.lowendmac.com/thomas/tt07/0713.html
I really do think Apple is missing a huge potential market and I think alot of customers would buy this new Intel Power Mac to have a mid range tower that they could easily upgrade as they needed.
-iGrant
I really wish Apple could make a Mid Tower and hey even bring back the Power Mac Series so you would have the following lineup.
Mac Mini
Power Mac
iMac
Mac Pro
I always envisioned the Intel Power Mac to run a Core 2 Duo ~ Core 2 Quad (The Quad being the higher configuration) having the DDR2 ram expandable to 8gb nothing ridiculous like having 32gb of ram like the Mac Pro, 2 slots for internal hard drives, one slot or two for a DVD drive etc, and PCI Express for the Video.
I really agree with this article on Low End Mac:
http://www.lowendmac.com/thomas/tt07/0713.html
I really do think Apple is missing a huge potential market and I think alot of customers would buy this new Intel Power Mac to have a mid range tower that they could easily upgrade as they needed.
-iGrant
My motherboard is mounted (kind of lol) and my power supply will be here today. I had three of those screws previously mentioned, but I don't know if that will be enough to hold it in place. I bought some more off of eBay, but they were way too small, can anyone link me to a good method (or more of the correct screws) to mount the mobo, or do you think 3 screws will do it?
You might be able to do it with just screws but you will have to be extremely careful with the motherboard. I would recommend trying to find more screws. Can you post a picture of the three screws you currently have that work? That would help in finding more.
-iGrant
Yeah, when I get home tonight and get the power supply installed I'll take a bunch of pictures to show my progress and any problems
Update
Here is where I am:
The Power Supply looks great
I don't think more than 3 screws is necessary for the mobo (it seems very stable)
I need tips on how to get the front panel hooked up to this mobo, I am trying o force it to where I think it goes, is there something I am missing? There is a picture below of the connector
And I took a picture of the back panel too (it needs a little more work lol)
Here is where I am:
The Power Supply looks great
I don't think more than 3 screws is necessary for the mobo (it seems very stable)
I need tips on how to get the front panel hooked up to this mobo, I am trying o force it to where I think it goes, is there something I am missing? There is a picture below of the connector
And I took a picture of the back panel too (it needs a little more work lol)
Attachments
Mainly you have the three screws to better support it when installing and removing components connected to the motherboard, so it does not snap so easily
.As for the front panel hookup, you will need to rewire it to use with an ATX motherboard.
This article explains it some a little over 3/4 of the way down.
This page has some clearer pics of a soldered switch.
Well I checked out the links to hook up the front panel and they gave me a start, but did not go into detail. Can anyone give me a link or better explanation? A google search gave me nothing lol and I think this will probably be the biggest obstacle. What does anyone think of hooking up a regular atx front panel connector and having the button on the front of the case just press in on it? Any ideas?
Nomar, what kind of processor was in the PowerMac? Depending on what it is, I might be interested in purchasing it from you.
It's a 400Mhz G4, I still have every part of the machine, I feel bad throwing any mac parts away lol. If you really want it then PM me
Me too!
I am also doing this mod. My Gigabit Ethernet G4 psu conked out and it isn't a standard 20 pin it is 22 so I cant get one! I decided to go with an INTEL® Pentium® 4 E2160 dual core processor. I am going to try a full sized atx mobo but I may need to get a slimline optical drive for this to work.
Good luck to all who are making G4 Hackintoshes.
P.S anyone in the U.K want to buy my mother board and processor? It is a 450mhz.
I am also doing this mod. My Gigabit Ethernet G4 psu conked out and it isn't a standard 20 pin it is 22 so I cant get one! I decided to go with an INTEL® Pentium® 4 E2160 dual core processor. I am going to try a full sized atx mobo but I may need to get a slimline optical drive for this to work.
Good luck to all who are making G4 Hackintoshes.
P.S anyone in the U.K want to buy my mother board and processor? It is a 450mhz.
Not an issue... DA and Quicksilver models allow for a much larger cooler. In fact they could even use a taller fan, still. It's unfortunate that all the CPU upgrades on the market are made backwards-compatible to the restrictive Gigabit/Sawtooth clearance. I'm running a similar cooler on my GigaDesigns upgrade in my DA:
You can mod it into a Beer Server..... I've seen the G3 Blue&White moded into one.
I'm still running my G4 so can't gut it... yet. but I am also looking into Hackintosh.
Link to this, please.
I used an old g4 case to convert to a pc many years ago now.
Here's the guide I wrote at the time http://www.gordyhand.co.uk/badapple.htm
It may help you out with some of the issues due to the case's unique design.
I'd do it differently now tho.
Here's the guide I wrote at the time http://www.gordyhand.co.uk/badapple.htm
It may help you out with some of the issues due to the case's unique design.
I'd do it differently now tho.
So I am installing Leopard now on my new rig. Here is my current Config:
Gigabyte Mobo
4 GB RAM
430W Power Supply
20 GB IDE HD (Soon to be seriously upgraded)
DVD Burner IDE
2.4 Ghz Intel Core 2 Duo Processor
I obviously have a little more work to do. I still have to secure the power supply, mount the front panel connectors, upgrade to a 500GB SATA HD, upgrade to a good graphics card, and iron out any software issues. This has been a real fun project so far and I will post more pics as I finish
Gigabyte Mobo
4 GB RAM
430W Power Supply
20 GB IDE HD (Soon to be seriously upgraded)
DVD Burner IDE
2.4 Ghz Intel Core 2 Duo Processor
I obviously have a little more work to do. I still have to secure the power supply, mount the front panel connectors, upgrade to a 500GB SATA HD, upgrade to a good graphics card, and iron out any software issues. This has been a real fun project so far and I will post more pics as I finish
Attachments
No offense, but I really want to kick you for putting that intel sticker on there
Remember, it's "intel inside" (Like all the other macs now), not "Windows Inside".
Well.... not yet, that is
I'd like to try something like this with my MDD, but i think it would be pretty much impossible with the motherboard your using due to the drastically different design of the back of the base, e.g. the pci card holes are at the top of the case and the ports are at the bottom and the case doesn't have a large space in where the ports are like the previous models did. Plus i think it would be unbearable to do, turning my pride and joy into a frankenstein unofficial mac
, if it did, every time i looked at it i'd have a person behind me playing a sad violin tune But yours looks awesomely powerful though
And it's done!! Here is my final config:
Gigabyte Mobo
2.4Ghz Core 2 Duo
4 GB DDR2 800Mhz RAM
500GB SATA HD (OSx86)
120 GB IDE HD (Windows XP + Ubuntu)
256MB 7200GS Graphics Card
ASUS PCI Wireless adapter
3 Port PCI Firewire Card
It triple boots via GRUB, which was surprisingly easy to set up. I am running 10.5.2 and EVERYTHING is working. The only weird thing is that sleep under OSx86 spins down my HDs and Graphics card, but it doesn't completely kill all the fans.
Basically I drilled holes in the old front panel and then used duct tape to hold the new buttons in place from the back. So, from the outside it looks completely normal. When the power button is pressed, the computer comes to life and a green power LED is now mounted where the throbbing white one used to be. It worked really well after I put a lot of thought into it.
I will post a bunch of pics tonight!
Here is my final config:Gigabyte Mobo
2.4Ghz Core 2 Duo
4 GB DDR2 800Mhz RAM
500GB SATA HD (OSx86)
120 GB IDE HD (Windows XP + Ubuntu)
256MB 7200GS Graphics Card
ASUS PCI Wireless adapter
3 Port PCI Firewire Card
It triple boots via GRUB, which was surprisingly easy to set up. I am running 10.5.2 and EVERYTHING is working. The only weird thing is that sleep under OSx86 spins down my HDs and Graphics card, but it doesn't completely kill all the fans.
Basically I drilled holes in the old front panel and then used duct tape to hold the new buttons in place from the back. So, from the outside it looks completely normal. When the power button is pressed, the computer comes to life and a green power LED is now mounted where the throbbing white one used to be. It worked really well after I put a lot of thought into it
.I will post a bunch of pics tonight!
Pretty impressive, just a few questions,
(if you don't mind)how much did it all cost ?
do the fans have any control or do they just run full blast all the time ?
Do you still have the optical drive inside ?
How stable is the system and how fast is it compared to the original G4?
It was in the ballpark of $500-$600, the case alone was 125, you could probably get a better deal than that.
The fans don't really seem to change speed ever, but I haven't really pushed it that hard yet. It is whisper quite, the loudest part is the IDE Hard Drive.
I only used an optical drive for the installation process, the case was open for that part. Once I closed the case, an optical drive would not fit. I have seen pictures of a slim drive being mounted, but I use the DVD drive so little, I don't really care.
This system is WAY faster than the original 400Mhz G4, no question. It scores a 150ish on Xbench. To compare, the MacBook Pro in my sig scored a 98 and my brand new $1700 iMac scored a 158.
How did you do it?.....
Did you cut the little things with spheres on top off? I'm trying to redo my mod because I sold my old one to my friend. But i remember if I sawed off some the whole case panel comes loose. So which ones did you saw off. Can you take me a picture of your case? Or can you pm me your phone number so we can chat about this all night?
Did you cut the little things with spheres on top off? I'm trying to redo my mod because I sold my old one to my friend. But i remember if I sawed off some the whole case panel comes loose. So which ones did you saw off. Can you take me a picture of your case? Or can you pm me your phone number so we can chat about this all night?