I would recommend Seagate's Barracuda IV line of hard drives, if you want something that is fast and quiet. You can get good deals on them at newegg.com. Otherwise, realize that the holes on the G4 mobo and the holes on whatever case you will buy wont line up, so you will have to drill and tap your own, and cut your own plate for the ports on the back. Also, if you get a motherboard that has Gigabit Ethernet, a normal ATX power supply won't work, because those motherboards need a +24v line that an ATX powersupply won't have.
Yeah, I think Intel/AMD is +20v and the Gigabit is +22v...I know they don't match up though, but I can get an Apple PSU for cheap.I wouldn't include the cost because essentially I'm turning my G3 into this machine, so I'm nmot losing anything. I debated a while ago whether to get a G4 upgrade for my beige G3 and roll. However, I figure since a mobo is going to cost me $150 at the most (potentially almost no cost on this w/a friend) and a case can be had cheap, this would be a better option to take. Had I upped the beige G3 with a G4 card, I would still be stuck with the 66 Mhz bus and no AGP. I listed the costs pretty high initially....I think I could get that down by a lot. There's a possibility I could go ultra cheap with a G4 533 and clock it up w/some cooling.
I'll check out the Seagate Barracuda IV definitely.
Also, I'm gonna pick up a Pentium II fan to mount on top of my QS DP GHz G4's heatsink.
Can you connect your old floppy drive from the G3 to a G4 motherboard? I didn't think they would even have the connector.
As for the best value; I would have thought selling the Beige G3 intact to compensate for spending a bit more on a second hand G4 would have been better.
However as you said, the building project is far more fun.
<strong>tiger, i hope you are prepared for a lot of work and problems to solve.
ps: easy on soldering stuff on your mobo. 80°c is top. after that - its off to buy a new one.</strong><hr></blockquote>
That is near "critical" things like IC chips, right?
I was thinking about replacing the green power LED with a superbright blue one. :cool: -(Wearing welding goggles) There don't seem to be many chips immediately around the LED.
I have a question? it may sound stupid, but no one has brought it up. Why would you need a FireWire/USB card for the homebuilt G4? Aren't those ports integrated onto the motherboard?
I have been making plans to build a render box. Don't know if I want to use PPC or x86, but that's irrelevant.
My plan was to mount the board upright into an acryllic display case. I would deal with cooling by drilling holes in the top of the case, and drilling holes around the base while cutting out the center of the base in order to run the cables through.
After that, I'll disassemble the power supply and mount that in the case as well, along with a DVD/CDR, some hard drives, a graphics card (AGP riser), and perhaps another PCI card (with a riser as well).
Slow rotating fans at top and bottom. CD/DVD can pop out of side, or if I can get a slot loading, from the top.
The crown jewel: I will write a program to increase the volume of a 60Hz tone as CPU utilization rises. Being the EE geek I am, I'll rig up an analog amplifier circuit that takes this signal to as high as 120VAC. (Already a 60Hz sinusoid!) Then use this amplified signal to power a cheesy plasma disc that is also inside the display case. (lumiglas type unit).
So I'll have the PowerMac Borg. (Those things that sparkle with green lightning bolts and sit atop the Borg recharge stations are the lumiglas plasma discs of which I speak.)
Luca: It's buried deep, but he mentioned that the computer he wants to build will have USB2. I presume that's the reason for the card. Gives you more ports too, which is always useful. One might as well use the PCI slots, which are empty in most peoples' G4s.
Does anyone know what the cases they use for the Voodoo PC computers are?I want a solid, shiny, black aluminum case.
I also found <a href="http://www.colorcases.com"; target="_blank">www.colorcases.com</a> which has some OK cases, but they are pretty expensive. Anyone got any recommendations on what PC case I should go for?
Also, I'd like to know of a good fan/cooling site....I'm also going to cool and overclock my DP GHz. I've already got the PII fan on top of the heatsink mod planned.
You'll definitely want to use a real Apple power supply for this. There was a guy at Ars doing this and he tried to mod a regular ATX powersupply. He had some electronics experience, and still managed to blow the motherboard (and maybe the CPU too. i can't remember).
Ok, well I've been searchin for different part prices on the side, and I won't be doing this till Thankgiving at the earliest since that's when I'll be going home.
Here's my system spec proposal:
800 G4 (o/c job or o/c an 800)
Radeon 8500 64 MB
512 MB PC133 (gonna order 2 sticks since it's cheap....and probably put 1 in my DP GHz)
24x10x40x Lite-On CD-RW
100 MB internal Zip drive
floppy drive
DVD-ROM
CD-ROM
20 GB 7200 RPM HD
USB2/FW
Mac OS 10.2
This should give a pretty nice little rig I think.
Costs:
Radeon 8500- $72 shipped
512 MB PC133- $30
PowerLogix G4/800- $447.99 @ OWC
mobo- $149
ATX case- $45
Apple PSU- ????
Now, I don't know which upgrade card I should get, the Sonnet or Powerlogix? Which one is better?
I was thinking about dual 500 over an 800 but I'm gonna go for raw MHz probably and overclock. I plan on purchasing some tricked out cooling options to use.
The cases I've been looking at are some aluminum ones at dealsonic.com. I want something with 3 5.25 and 2 3.5 w/ front USB and Firewire ports. Lian Li & Cooler Master make good cases but they are pretty expensive.
Been readin up on the DIY G4 in the Ars threa, some cool stuff there. One guy has a screenshot of the desktop for his Black Mac homebrew G4.
One thing I thought about was the upcoming Radeon 9500, that could be flashable for Macs but most likely not. It's supposed to be around the Ti 4200 price, so I could splurge for one if I could get it workin on a Mac. Unfortunately I haven't heard anything about the Mac Radeon 9700 that I plan on buyin for my DP GHz machine.
Anywayz, the home brew is meant for a home machine to replace the aging beige G3 that we have set up. I will be using it during my college breaks, so I will probably be doing light Photoshop work, web design, and all my music stuff like touching up tracks/making beats whatever. Would you think a dual 500 would be better to get than a single 800? They are around the same price, but I feel like for something at home that my mom can use a higher clock G4 would be better. I'm sure an 800 Mhz G4 will be fine for everything, and I can clock it up to 1 GHz hopefully.
Seems like the mobos that are available are the Gigabit G4, but those only have the 100 MHz bus. Do you know how hard it is to clock up the bus speed to 133, or if I can get a DA G4 mobo anywhere? How much difference am I really going to noitce between the 2, especially with an 800 G4?
Do keep us/me posted. I've been thinking of doing this myself, I just haven't made the decision to do it yet.
Anyone else think that the upgrade makes should offer upgrades for motherboards even if those upgrades wouldn't work in the original case? What I mean is like a dual GHZ upgrade for a DV iMac so someone could pull the board out and put it in a tower case and make a better machine? Just a thought....
Comments
I'll check out the Seagate Barracuda IV definitely.
Also, I'm gonna pick up a Pentium II fan to mount on top of my QS DP GHz G4's heatsink.
As for the best value; I would have thought selling the Beige G3 intact to compensate for spending a bit more on a second hand G4 would have been better.
However as you said, the building project is far more fun.
ps: easy on soldering stuff on your mobo. 80°c is top. after that - its off to buy a new one.
<strong>tiger, i hope you are prepared for a lot of work and problems to solve.
ps: easy on soldering stuff on your mobo. 80°c is top. after that - its off to buy a new one.</strong><hr></blockquote>
That is near "critical" things like IC chips, right?
I was thinking about replacing the green power LED with a superbright blue one. :cool: -(Wearing welding goggles) There don't seem to be many chips immediately around the LED.
[ 10-28-2002: Message edited by: Ebby ]</p>
I have been making plans to build a render box. Don't know if I want to use PPC or x86, but that's irrelevant.
My plan was to mount the board upright into an acryllic display case. I would deal with cooling by drilling holes in the top of the case, and drilling holes around the base while cutting out the center of the base in order to run the cables through.
After that, I'll disassemble the power supply and mount that in the case as well, along with a DVD/CDR, some hard drives, a graphics card (AGP riser), and perhaps another PCI card (with a riser as well).
Slow rotating fans at top and bottom. CD/DVD can pop out of side, or if I can get a slot loading, from the top.
The crown jewel: I will write a program to increase the volume of a 60Hz tone as CPU utilization rises. Being the EE geek I am, I'll rig up an analog amplifier circuit that takes this signal to as high as 120VAC. (Already a 60Hz sinusoid!) Then use this amplified signal to power a cheesy plasma disc that is also inside the display case. (lumiglas type unit).
So I'll have the PowerMac Borg. (Those things that sparkle with green lightning bolts and sit atop the Borg recharge stations are the lumiglas plasma discs of which I speak.)
EDIT: Moved an apostrophe.
[ 10-29-2002: Message edited by: AllenChristopher ]</p>
Search in "Apple" for:
"board"
"motherboard"
"logicboard"
"processor"
The going rate for g4 Gigabit mobos is about $150.
Other sites with stuff to buy:
newegg.com
tcwo.com
macsales.com
Powerlogix (I think it's them) makes a dual 867 G4 card for $800, single for $450. Consider.
As for fans, the ThermalTake 80mm are good ones.
I also found <a href="http://www.colorcases.com"; target="_blank">www.colorcases.com</a> which has some OK cases, but they are pretty expensive. Anyone got any recommendations on what PC case I should go for?
Also, I'd like to know of a good fan/cooling site....I'm also going to cool and overclock my DP GHz. I've already got the PII fan on top of the heatsink mod planned.
Maybe use some liquid nitrogen for this puppy?
There's a nice article about building a Mac.
Not worth the risk.
-robo
Here's my system spec proposal:
800 G4 (o/c job or o/c an 800)
Radeon 8500 64 MB
512 MB PC133 (gonna order 2 sticks since it's cheap....and probably put 1 in my DP GHz)
24x10x40x Lite-On CD-RW
100 MB internal Zip drive
floppy drive
DVD-ROM
CD-ROM
20 GB 7200 RPM HD
USB2/FW
Mac OS 10.2
This should give a pretty nice little rig I think.
Costs:
Radeon 8500- $72 shipped
512 MB PC133- $30
PowerLogix G4/800- $447.99 @ OWC
mobo- $149
ATX case- $45
Apple PSU- ????
Now, I don't know which upgrade card I should get, the Sonnet or Powerlogix? Which one is better?
I was thinking about dual 500 over an 800 but I'm gonna go for raw MHz probably and overclock. I plan on purchasing some tricked out cooling options to use.
The cases I've been looking at are some aluminum ones at dealsonic.com. I want something with 3 5.25 and 2 3.5 w/ front USB and Firewire ports. Lian Li & Cooler Master make good cases but they are pretty expensive.
Anyone got any more ideas for me?
One thing I thought about was the upcoming Radeon 9500, that could be flashable for Macs but most likely not. It's supposed to be around the Ti 4200 price, so I could splurge for one if I could get it workin on a Mac. Unfortunately I haven't heard anything about the Mac Radeon 9700 that I plan on buyin for my DP GHz machine.
Anywayz, the home brew is meant for a home machine to replace the aging beige G3 that we have set up. I will be using it during my college breaks, so I will probably be doing light Photoshop work, web design, and all my music stuff like touching up tracks/making beats whatever. Would you think a dual 500 would be better to get than a single 800? They are around the same price, but I feel like for something at home that my mom can use a higher clock G4 would be better. I'm sure an 800 Mhz G4 will be fine for everything, and I can clock it up to 1 GHz hopefully.
Seems like the mobos that are available are the Gigabit G4, but those only have the 100 MHz bus. Do you know how hard it is to clock up the bus speed to 133, or if I can get a DA G4 mobo anywhere? How much difference am I really going to noitce between the 2, especially with an 800 G4?
Come on I'm the only one here doing this and yall aint showin me any love!!!
Do keep us/me posted. I've been thinking of doing this myself, I just haven't made the decision to do it yet.
Anyone else think that the upgrade makes should offer upgrades for motherboards even if those upgrades wouldn't work in the original case? What I mean is like a dual GHZ upgrade for a DV iMac so someone could pull the board out and put it in a tower case and make a better machine? Just a thought....