Project- Power PC

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Project- Power PC with antec side project

Project- Power PC
Status- Day 6 epic failure
Parts still required- psu
number of swear words uttered to date- 612- the psu blowing added a good few hundred



well i made a fatal mistake last week and indulged in some drunken ebay bidding.

the result being I ended up the owner of 5 powermac G4s


now having always wanted to build a G5 powermac pc i thought this would be an ideal opportunity to build something that little bit "different"

so here we are at the beginning of Project- Power PC


final aim

G4 mac case with a fully watercooled sandybridge/ivybridge gaming system running 24/7 with fancy lights and snazzy looks

Tools
whatever i find in the shed along with copious amounts of chemical metal


this is what i picked up

i have a total of 5 power pcs one of which has been spared due to being a bit "tasty"

this has been saved

its a MDD(mirrored drive door model and comes equipped with 2x 867 mhz cpus and thanks to a bit of canibalisation from the other macs a rage 128 pro gpu and 384 megs of ram (it rocks)

slighty better pic, This is taking over my daily duties once i install osx 10.5 on it until such time as project pile of crap/power pc is completed


now these macs seem quite straightforward to work with look at the nice easy catch for opening the sides up

and the guts of a mac

this is the MDD which i am not using as the backplate is totally wrong for a atx layout so i've moved onto one of the lesser g4s

I got a bit carried away at this point and forgot to take pics so heres an empty powermac G4. having dinner then the dremels coming out, hopefully have a mobo test fitted this evening.

one stripped G4 case, see how easy that was now to cannibalise my daily rig for a psu and get stuck in


oh btw any ideas/suggestions/criticism is all more than welcome, if you think something would work or look cool then tell me

 

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Noice, proud owner of some G4's

I want them guts

if you need anything e-mail in trust.

got 2 that i've tested working along with the MDD and the other 2 are jsut spares


oh and some action shots

and yes that is our dining table. the wife is going to murder me at some point

 

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its just a run of the mill ordinary dremel from b&q

open to ideas here lol i've no idea what direction i'm aiming in atm

 

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woohoo, just bought my first hardware addition for the new build.


an apple aluminium keyboard i feel a theme coming on here

 

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Pics of the keyboard?

It would look nice watercooled with white tubing..

no pics yet, just won it on ebay for £21

 

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Never seen the insides of one of them. but one thing bothers me.

With a mac most people have them as store brought items obviously. and normally the onlything upgradable is the HDD and the Memory if i have my macfacts right.

So then. why the hell does the mac need a bloody awsome desighn in opening up the side.

that hinged sidepanel it just pure awsome.

I would be investing in some small hydralic rams. so at the press of a button the side of the case slowly lowers itself down. showing off its smexy insides.

that would be an epic idea,

///sticks small hydraulic rams on the shopping list///

wondering about cutting the side panel open to allow me to illuminate the apple logos on both side panels. or maybe open the back of it up and plastic weld a small res behind the apple logo and have coolant running through it and bubbling up

 

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you planning on keeping the internals apple or changing to PC?

its going to be all PC (looking at sandybridge/ivybridge eventually

but i've got enough 775 gear kicking around to get me up and running just now

 

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hmm who would ever have thought it, apple cases are made of something more solid than my poor dremel metal cutting bits can cope with

3 cutting discs later and i'm not even half way through the back plate opening i need to make

trip to b&q tommorow for some blades for the jigsaw and i'll crack on during the week

 

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try the speed click system for the Dremel

Much stronger discs and a joy to use.

I guess you've worked out a PC mobo won't line up with the PCI slots.

yup measured out(roughly for my backplate by lining up on the pci-e/pcie slots on a matx mobo need to finish cutting out the back plate and drill out holes for standoffs to go in and i'm getting there should have it ready for christmas (maybe)

still undecided on colour scheme etc etc and i'm really just playing it by ear so as previously said guys all suggestions are good i'm thinking about doing the painted bits in a bright gloss white with some fancy lighting shining up through the clear plastic maybe?

 

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unfortunately not, 2 12 hours shifts and 3 children really slow down your progress.

that said i'm bidding on a g5 to do next once this is finished so i better get my finger out.


spent most of this morning sketching ideas together including fitting an ipod dock into a dc/dvd drive and having it pop out at the touch of a button. and lots of other stupid plans

hopefully have an update tommorow

 

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cheers for the dremel tips


going to go get some cutting discs tommorow if i get time and get stuck in about this again

 

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well i managed a sneaky wee half day today

so off to B&Q i popped and bought this

woohoo speedclic dremel malarkey ahoy


but first things first coffee

some girly safety tips with the dremel that i ignored

and then after all the huffing anpuffing and going and buying new dremel bits i realise the bit i need to cut out is actually rivetted on.

I feel a complete muppet now



broke the drill out and 2 mins later

mobo in place

i could cut that middle support but i dont think i'll bother just now. worry about that once its all up and running if i dont end up going for a standalone soundcard

more liney up shots

and standoffs drilled into place

now rather than gluing the standoffs in i went for chemical metal

epic name

also sorted the loose backplate

stripped my daily rig for some bits

and bench tested the mobo (it works fine btw


got somore more measuring done

and now my standoffs are tightly in place i've started a quick rebuild to make sure things clear

off to the inlaws for dinner shortly so more piccies when i come back

 

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case is currently in the bath are getting a quick clean

hopefully have a running rig tonight

 

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and i'm back


decided i'm going to use this as my main rig so time for some power

looks like my 6970 might just fit

holy oversized gpu batman

psu fitted

i really need a modular power supply for this build


this is the most frustrating computer related job ever fitting a 120mm fan into a g4 case, its an enclosure with only one open side and a slight gap at the bottom, nightmare to try and line the fan up and screw it in place

Hard drives slung into a caddy

and fitted

think i need some cable extenders

woot she posts

now just to get the rest of the cabling in, tidy things up and i've got a working rig,

stage 1 of the project is complete (almost)

 

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its all turned to **** was running fine, siting in bios screen whilst i made some adjustments and all of a sudden pop, all the leccy in the house went off

reset leccy and the mac is dead

somethings shorted or popped somewhere. i think this counts as an epic project setback and failure

 

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paaa just done a quick n dirty psu test (shorted green and black) and the psu is dead.




members mart here i come.


anyone care to suggest what else may be fried?

 

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giving up

booted up the trusty powermac and rocking with dual 1ghz and 384 meg of ram woot

 

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going to strip the psu down and see if i can repair it else its no project over the weekend

was all for breaking my rig up last night and buying an imac ;( bitterly bitterly dissapointed so now to see if i can get the psu working or get a new one and see what i've messed up

 

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only good thing is i have a known working rig to test the new psu and components in

ad in the MM so hopefully get something this weekend else i'll order a new psu next week

 

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well no progress to report as i've spent the night playing with a G4 MDD which is now my new browsing rig,

slapped a gig of ram into it and put 10.5.8 on its actually quite pleasent to use despite the dual 867mhz cpus an mere gig of ram thankfully have a bit more ram on the way(2gigs) and i'm scouring ebay for a cpu upgrade. hopefully get a new psu for the project this weekend and crack on with the build- then the watercooling