I have a Micro-ATX case for my hackintosh. So far it's been great, however, when I threw a GTS 250 in the mix and realized I could no longer close the casing, I decided it was time for a change. And so I got myself a PowerMac G5 case.

Like most, I checked around online to see what others have done before me. Some amazing work has been done. Probably the most inspiring mod I found was by MrBean_Oz over at Hard Forum ([url="http://www.hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1074089"]http://www.hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1074089[/url]). I have to admit though, I haven't seen one case mod that catered to my fancy. Most mods start out with "I'm leaving the back untouched" and then compromises are made as the project progresses, which is understandable, however, I'd like to mod a G5 without changing the external appearance (this includes getting the original power button and LED to work with my board as well).

The actual mod process took me about 24 hours (including the curing time for the J-B weld). It went quite well. There's definitely a lot more I could do to better this mod, but for now I'm content.

Here are some pictures of the finished product. I didn't make the back ports functional (due to the time it would take and my utter lack of know-how), but I may attach the G5's connectors just to clean it up aesthetically. I also have most of the original G5 fans working, but they aren't installed in the following pictures.

I mounted the motherboard on the G5's original standoffs by removing them, screwing them into the appropriate holes on the motherboard and reapplying them in the case with J-B Weld. That mobo ain't goin' nowhere!



Getting the cabling under the motherboard was a bit tricky, but it worked out well, and there's no flex in the motherboard either.



Power button and LED work (didn't bother with the front USB and Firewire, though I might later)



ATX PSU has been modded to fit inside the G5's PSU enclosure, and the rear power port has been kept the same. The PSU fans from the G5 are hardwired to the one I installed and work great (I love those G5 fans!)



For sound I installed an M-Audio Revolution 5.1 sound card, and for expansion ports I threw in a USB / Firewire PCIe card. Unfortunately the PCIe card isn't recognized until an OS loads, so I have two internal USB ports tucked away beside the hard drive bay for the odd time I need to get into the BIOS. For network I'm using an Apple USB Ethernet adapter.



Finished product from the front.



Finished product from the back.



I know it isn't the most functional mod, but I did it the way I wanted to and I love how it turned out. I'm about form over function for the most part, so I'm just happy I didn't have to cut up the back of the case in the end

(First one to respond!)
Awesome job, you should get with the admins and get that cool hack into the mod section.

Really well done! Looks great!!!
Can you tell me how you got the LED working?
I notiched that I have 3 wires coming from it, with an connector on it. And 2 of them are for the powerbutton.
I'm doing a similar mod got the G5 case from early 2005.

Very nice and best of all it's clean.

not bad not ad at all