CASE MODDING PART II:

The Details...

Ok... I have successfully installed a DVD RW drive. However the original case-tray is useless without an original drive.





I also installed an on/off button so I can finally close the case! Its from my old case's reset button... :-)




Here it is completed:



And case closed!



Thats it! I am done!

Powermac Case Modding Project

PUTTING MY PC INTO AN APPLE POWERMAC CASE:

So i got bored of my old Thermaltake case:



And I decided to buy a new one. But I could not find any decent original pc case. In my opinion
there are only two kind of them: The "Extreme-Poser" cases and the "Why-buy-this-piece-of crap" cases.

I always admired powermac's and mac pro's cases. They are beautiful and elegant. I also run a hackintosh OSX leopard on my computer so I thought that it would be very cool to set up my pc in a Powermac G5 or a mac pro case. So I bought from Ebay a mint Powermac G5 case and I modded it so it could host an ATX motherboard and the rest of my hardware.

My PC has the following parts:

Motheboard: MSI X58 PLATINUM
Processor: INTEL CORE I7-920 2.66 GHZ (overclocked @ 3GHZ)
Power Supply: TAGAN TG500-U88 BZ PIPEROCK SERIES 500W
VGA: GAINWARD BLISS 9800 GX2 1GB
Memory: 2X OCZ OCZ3X1333LV3GK 3GB (6GB Total)
HDD 1: OCZ OCZSSD2-1VTX60G SOLID STATE 60GB SATA 2 VERTEX
HDD 2: WESTERN DIGITAL RAPTOR WD740ADFD 74GB 10000RPM SATA
HDD 3: WESTERN DIGITAL 500GB WD5000AAJS CAVIAR SE SATA2


Click on the images if you want to view them at 12Mpx resolution.

So here is the case as I bought it:
















i used an old Pentium 3 ATX mobo for my tests so I would not put in danger my MSI.

Firstly I removed all the parts (seperator, fans, cables, HDD case) so I could work in convenience:





Some TORX-8 and 11 screws for the seperator and some Philips one for the HDD case and the fan.

So here it is the case completely emty:



Then i removed the screw bases so I could put them in ATX positions. That was really easy. Just pulled them with my pliers and they were out:



Using the P3 mobo I marked with a pencil the places that the screw bases should be. I also replaced the dots with arrows so I wouldn't stick them over the pencil's graphite. The glue I used requires very clean surfaces. I also checked them with a ruler so they were aligned and sticked them in their positions:



I did the same thing with the other 3 screws.

So the first test with the motherboard on its position revealed me the 2 main things i had to mod at the case, so everything would fit normaly.

As you can see at the following picture, the connections at the back of the motherboard are not on the correct holes. The only thing I could do is to cut the case so it would have a big common hole for all connectors:



So here I am cutting with a metal-saw!



After a lot of effort....



Here I used a rasp to correct the details in the shape.

The next major issue was the seperator. It would block the motherboard but I had to use it because it supports the DVD drive:



I did the measurements and then cutted it with the metal-saw so the mobo would fit under it.





(ok not 100% straight sawing but who cares... its not a visible part!)

So we are done with the Hard work. Then I placed the parts inside the case.

First was the Power Supply:



It fits perfectly at the bottom of the case. Very steady. The cable enters the case through the power plug's hole.

Then I placed the motherboard (thanx a lot ATX format - every screw base was in the correct position)



Then came the VGA. I was a bit anxious before getting the case, because the 9800 GX2 is enormous, but the case is very spacious and wide, so there were no problems.



All the connectors came in their possitions (i should have sawed more deeply, but even this way you can connect everything)



Powermac's HDD case is perfect for me. It fits nicely at the bottom, and its very steady too:



I removed the metal cover and then I placed my SSD over the raptor:



Then I made all the connections, made sure everything was in place...




And show time!



Everything works great, and the temperatures are pretty low. I will post some screenshots of the hackintosh system later.

I have to do the following to make it perfect:

Get two 9cm fans for the back of the case so I can get rid of the ugly and useless 12cm over-the-hdds fan (i dont think it actualy cools something there)

Get a power switch.... (I am lucky that my Mobo has a power switch on it!)

Figure out the DVD port system and install a DVD drive.

Anyway, the project was fun and now I have a nice looking case for my desk!





(thats dirt not scratches!)