Registered: 11/16/07
Posts: 1816
Loc: Florida, USA
Hello once again. Since my iMac Slot-Load mod is on hold due to a bad logicboard I have started on modding my B&W that I have just gotten in today.
I have done some simple upgrades to it like added 640MB to it. I would of maxed out the system but I only have 3 sticks of 128MB and one stick of 256MB. Had no idea that system doesn't like using SDRAM modules higher then 256MB. I also added a 80GB IDE Western Digital Harddrive. There seems to be no SCSI at all on this even though the ad said it had SCSI.
Heres the mods I've added sofar. Soscket A Heatsink and fan. Took out a bunch of metal that don;t really need to be in the case. Cheap Zalman Fan controller for the 120mm Fan and the CPU fan. Made a connecter for the fan controller to power it self from a extra drive molex connecter.
Tomorrows modding will be the following, Over clock the CPU Cut up the metal side under the plastic and try to get rid of the fosted finish off the plastic to become clear. The rest will remain a mistry.
Registered: 11/16/07
Posts: 1816
Loc: Florida, USA
Ok, this is gay gay gay. The paint job is all messed up. Last time I use car paint on plastic. I ended up using spray paint and the black crackle paint. It came out alright but nothing that I was hoping for.
I got the CPU to overclock 100MHz higher so now it runs at a whopping 500MHz.
Registered: 06/07/04
Posts: 1266
Loc: Stoughton, WI USA
My paint job on mine was not perfect the first time. Let's just say some guy at the store swapped the hazard orange cap with the clearcoat cap (even though the can said clear coat). THAT was a major dissapointment. I ended up doing a light sand job and considered the inital paint job an undercoat.
Don't let a bad paint job get you down, just repaint if you don't like it.
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MacBook 2GHz Intel Core 2 Duo w/ 2GB DDR2 RAM & 120GB SATA 5400RPM HDD Canon Rebel XTI Google Cr-48 Beta Laptop
TCP, getting the sides clear will probably be harder than you think. I just happen to have 2 g4 side plates sitting around....Anyway, dont worry about the paint. Its a learning process every time. I feel lucky that mine turned out well. Just strip it off and start again. The best lessons are learned from mistakes. -maestro
Registered: 11/16/07
Posts: 1816
Loc: Florida, USA
I'm just going to paint what is painted so far primer then sand it smooth. I'm thinking to paint it with black and make whats the frosted parts of the case with a stone fleck then add a clear coat. I may just do a window kit on the case and replace the fans with LED fans and change out the power LED from green to blue.
I've taken out the zip drive that came with it, I have no need for a zip drive since the DVD drive is a combo drive. I'm trying to make up my mind on what to put in the zip drive's bay. I can always modify it for another CD-ROM or maybe a better fan controller.
Also i've added/modified a 450watt ATX power supply for the system. Now I need to find a better video card. I might end up getting two more ATI Rage 128s and go multi head. I have three Gateway EV500 15inch monitors I can always paint to match the case. All of my bigger monitors are already in use
Tomorrow im going to trade with one of my friends at work for two sticks of SDRAM PC133 512MB for four sticks of SDRAM PC100 256MB so I can max out the system to 1GB. Also another co worker is going to let me use his Mac OS X Tiger DVD since mine has a spider crack in it. Wish me luck on this.
A USB hub is a great mod for the usb port. I had done that, but since the g3 is taking server duty, I removed the optical drive and hub. I made a window for it. I may attach my fan controller to it. Good luck with your painting. -maestro
Registered: 11/16/07
Posts: 1816
Loc: Florida, USA
Well due to work I didn't get a chance to finish my B&W for the MacMod Challange. Heres what I have done to my B&W so far. Secerts and all.
Painted the case primer (havn't given it the it's final paint job yet) Added a 4 port USB hub under the speaker. Pulled out the zip drive and added a 120GB hard drive and in front of that a little nice fan controller. Added a cheap 550 watt ATX power supply and hacked the hell out of it and added a nice gold paint job. A Older socket A heatsink with a Red LED 80mm fan. Added a 5 port firewire card. Added a 120mm Red LED fan. Added two 40GB hard drives for Mac OS 9.2 and Mac OS X and Yellow Dog Linux. Added a Realtech 10/100 card so I can have my iBook connected to the B&W. Turned the zip drive into a external drive so I can use the Zip Drive on all of my systems. Replaced the DVD drive with a Pioneer DVD+RW. Installed four 256 PC133 SDRAM modules.
Heres a few atemps that almost worked and might of worked well with proper tools.
A little handy circut that would let me overclock the CPU from 400 MHz to 450MHz and 500MHz just with a flip of a switch. (couldn't find my box of dip switches, probly in a box in my garage.) A LCD from the PS1 on front of the case but couldn't get the damn thing to work. (must of been a dead screen.) 4x20 TEXT LCD with blacklight. I didn't have the right parts to make it USB GeForce 3 PCI with 32MB of vRam (damn BIOS flasher wouldn't detect the card.)
In all I've paid about 200 bucks for this. 150 for the system and the rest from radio shack and a few other places. The rest I had as left overs from other systems and parts from work.