Project:G5-ATX-Conversion

For this project, I took an old Apple Power Mac G5, removed all interior parts and replaced the interiors with modern PC parts. I consider Apple's 20-year-old G5 chassis a timeless piece of design (much better than their "trashcan Mac Pro"). It is sturdy, spacious and made of 100% aluminium.

The first step was to create a vector drawing for an adapter plate, which I wanted to cut from a matte black acrylic: I measured the G5 enclosure's screw points (Apple motherboard's mounting points have nothing in common with the ATX standard). I also had to take into consideration that the new ATX board's I/O ports and PCIe-cards are in a different place than with the old PowerMac G5. Last put not least, I wanted to be able to fit 2 large rear exhaust fans below the new I/O ports. This is all possible, but the adapter plate design had to be fairly precise. The easiest way to make it all fit was to place the power supply into the bottom of the enclosure.

The finished vector drawing contained 3mm holes for the G5 enclosure screw points AND for the ATX board mounting points. I used our Laser Cutter to cut the adapter plate from matte black acrylic, and then used a soldering iron to apply heat to 3mm threaded inserts and push them into the acrylic for the ATX mounting points. I would then add motherboard spacers (standoffs) to create enough distance between the acrylci and the new motherboard.

I decided to have 3 fans on the front, and 2 on the rear, to create positive pressure inside the enclousure. That way, air will only enter from the front grill (which can be fitted with an air filter). I designed 2 more vector files for our laser cutter, with mounting points for the fans: one file for the front fan assembly and one for the rear. The rear one would use the G5's perforated aluminium (3mm holes) to connect the acrylic "fan and I/O-ports plate" to the G5 enclosure.

Prior to final assembly, the fans created an (unnecessary) headache, at least in my mind: I tried to find "rubber mounts" for the fans, because I was worried that if I attach them directly to an acrylic plate, they might create audible vibrations. So I did a lot of research, trying to find "anti vibration" rubber mounts, but nothing would fit my 3mm diameter acrylic material. In hindsight I can say: nothing vibrates at all, the entire machine is incredibly quiet.

Overall, the trickiest part was designing the vector files for the laser cutter. Once this was the done, the reast was fairly straight-forward. Before final assembly, I had to remove the original G5 motherboard standoffs. I then used a rotary tool to remove the original I/O ports and create a large-enough hole for the rear fans.

As mentioned before, the power supply is on the bottom of the enclosure, between the front and rear fans. I ran a 3-pin C13 to C14 extension cable from the motherboard to the rear acrylic plate (next to where the rear fans are mounted). Because I don't understand enough about electronics, Pakue thankfully helped me to connect the original G5 power button to power-up the machine.