Been years but did not forget about this thread, Sorry everyone for being MIA. unfortunately a lot came up in life around the time I started this thread, got a bad case of covid back then that changed my life still to this day not for the better, along with a move has been a hectic few years. However I never lost interest, just recently been going through my Mac collection & I have at least 10 water cooled G5's I picked up over the years I did not realize how extensive it got lol, I know we lost TenFourFox but still have interweb PPC & the Newer Sorbet Leopard at this point not going to be browsing the web much on a PPC Mac anyways but still does work, now we're definitely in the hobby era for these machines. Decided to hop on eBay just to see what the desirability was of these older machines still, and there's no more $50 Quad G5's, more like several hundred selling for. With that said I changed the tune of this, I'm now thinking on a clear guide for these machines that are NOT leaking & still work just run to hot. Something that's not too imitating for a beginning hobbyist just sort of a "refresh" of the system, if it is leaking or any corrosion that's obviously at very minimum a complete rebuild. My method would be flushing out the radiator/cooling pumps,possibly o-rings (can't really find a clear size so I'll have to experiment myself), but most out of everything getting that corrosive coolant out of the system! & visually being able to see the liquid flowing, obviously new thermal paste or pads to. Right now I'm on a air-cooled Dual 2.0GHz G5 love how the community is keeping these going support wise! the "test subject" will be a dual pump, Dual 2.5GHz that boots but runs too hot under load that's the kind of refresh I'm aiming for. If all goes as planned I should be able to create a easy to follow guide with links to the items needed on Amazon, the coolant is going to be bright fluorescence green (or if someone wants to try it themsels make sure obviously choosing a color liquid as long as it's non corrosive to pinpoint any leaks quickly if any do pop up) along with clear hoses which will give it a real neat look to if anyone were to want to keep the side panel off and just the plexiglass air shield in, could also throw some modern LEDs behind it for a cool custom loop look. I have them all and all different pump styles, Dual 2.7,2.5,Quad single and dual pump, along with the Panasonic which is by far the most reliable but most rare I do not plan on doing a guide for the Panasonic as everyone I have is still good, I will be going through all of them eventually but starting off with the Dual 2.5. I know there is tons of guides out there and a complete rebuild is the correct way which I will be doing to some I have. As most know the single pump is the least reliable, I will keep this thread updated not like clockwork but every few months at minimum still have a lot going on, but hopefully come up with a guide that can be easily done by most of the hobbyists with little technical knowledge. Let's keep these alive even though we lost some elements for modern day activities on PPC we gained a lot of community projects it seems in the last 5 years. The repair service I was originally thinking of, is not out of the question but very unlikely at this point, just due to the complexity of shipping even if just the cooler, lack of critical parts if need be & skyrocketing prices of these machines. That would be something I would figure out after every machine I have is repaired which is quite far out & at that would only be for at best running hot machines that just need a simple rebuild or refresh the owner does not feel comfortable doing, I'll toy with that idea in the future but work on making a really detailed guide with a lot of pictures now for a simple refresh on most of the NON LEAKING liquid cooling systems 🙂
