What have you done with a PowerPC today?

[MacMaverick855]

Well, it was bound to happen. After a long battle with trying to get a Linux distro to load and run on my Mac G4 Quicksilver, the power supply (or maybe something else) failed and it would no longer power on. I tried to replace the power supply but it still didn't start up. I have removed the Nvidia GeForce4 MX GPU card and am now experimenting with it being installed in a Mirror Door Mac G4 along side a Radeon 9600XT card. This may be a short experiment because my goal would be to drie an Apple Cinema Display from the Nvidia card and VGA and DVI monitors from the Radeon Card. If Linux would boot and use all of the monitors then I'd be set. Early indications are that with the ACD attached, Linux will not boot to a DM screen.

Another cool thing I discovered during all of this is the Radeon card has an S-video out connection and I just so happen to have a 36" CRT TV with an S-video out port. I will be trying that too.

Someone should stop me...

MacMav

 

[Doq]

Laugh reaction because adding solar power is a mark of not kidding around when it comes to how much power the quad devours. To think running a pair of quads together amounts to being a kilowatt of consumption is… staggering.

I might as well use it to heat my house this winter and get a small amount of compute out of it. Two might be pushing it but one's easily less than my home heating in energy consumption.

 

[Halian]

If you need some motivation, recapping an eMac is the latest topic on Action Retro.




Laugh reaction because adding solar power is a mark of not kidding around when it comes to how much power the quad devours. To think running a pair of quads together amounts to being a kilowatt of consumption is… staggering.

(And here I was, after upgrading the CPU in my late 2013 iMac last week and seeing total wattage spike from about 80W to nearly 100W as concerning…)

I saw it on Patreon in the middle of trying to fix mine. :3

 

[ToniCH]

Wife noted that a G5 Quad with a bad case has been standing in our kitchen corner since April. I guess its time to finally do what I was planning: dismantle it, refurb the water cooling and then transplant the logic and CPUs to my G5 2.0DC which is broken (cannot figure out what is wrong with it) but has a perfect case.

Here is where I am after about 90min of work. Next to figure out how the PSU comes out.

 

[Tratkazir_the_1st]

kitchen

Why there?..

 

[ToniCH]

Why there?..

Because I was going to do the project right away, when I brought the Quad home...6 months ago. But, too many projects too little time.

Also, my home office doesn't have free table space enough for bigger projects. Kitchen has plenty of space to spread parts around but only for quick projects, I should not store stuff there - even I realize that nowadays. 😅

One of these days we are going to build a large garage for all of our hobbies and get all these projects out of the house. For some reason I already have wife's overwhelming support for it.

Ps. got the PSU out and rest of the fans too. Dismantling is now done. 👍 Next I'll plan for the liquid cooling rebuild but that is a project for another day.

 

[mac57mac57]

This is undoubtedly a silly question, but has anyone ever tried taking out the liquid cooling system, exposing the CPUs and then using a really high efficiency and QUIET air flow cooling fan set in place of the liquid cooling system? I am thinking some of the larger Zalman units I have used successfully with high clock rate Pentium IV systems. The trick, I am guessing, would be securing the coolers to the CPUs, since the relevant clips may not be there...

 

[Certificate of Excellence]

This is undoubtedly a silly question, but has anyone ever tried taking out the liquid cooling system, exposing the CPUs and then using a really high efficiency and QUIET air flow cooling fan set in place of the liquid cooling system? I am thinking some of the larger Zalman units I have used successfully with high clock rate Pentium IV systems. The trick, I am guessing, would be securing the coolers to the CPUs, since the relevant clips may not be there...

Iirc there is a thread here about this - op removed the lcs and replaced it with the air cooled heat sinks & dram assembly of a 2.0ghz DC a1117.

 

[ToniCH]

This is undoubtedly a silly question, but has anyone ever tried taking out the liquid cooling system, exposing the CPUs and then using a really high efficiency and QUIET air flow cooling fan set in place of the liquid cooling system? I am thinking some of the larger Zalman units I have used successfully with high clock rate Pentium IV systems. The trick, I am guessing, would be securing the coolers to the CPUs, since the relevant clips may not be there...

Yes, some have done it but I think there has been little long term success. The 2.5GHz G5s just run so veryvery hot. They like to die quite easily like I've seen happening in some such cases.

And then there is the fact that somehow you need to communicate with the logic board to let it know what is happening, everything is ok and no need to shutdown now etc. Same problem with aftermarket liquid cooling stuff.

 

[mac57mac57]

Ah yes, I can potentially cool it with air flow fans, but I CANNOT make the logic board understand what is happening.

 

[ToniCH]

Oh, and the cooler + CPUs were attached to the Logic board with 18 screws or stands. And that doesn't count the screws that attach the CPUs to the coolers. There are no clips. This is no PC, it's the overkill machine self destructor extraordinaire. 😂

 

[saxfun]

This is undoubtedly a silly question, but has anyone ever tried taking out the liquid cooling system, exposing the CPUs and then using a really high efficiency and QUIET air flow cooling fan set in place of the liquid cooling system? I am thinking some of the larger Zalman units I have used successfully with high clock rate Pentium IV systems. The trick, I am guessing, would be securing the coolers to the CPUs, since the relevant clips may not be there...

QUAD G5 AIR COOLED (dxf included)

It first started when I bought a quad core logic board to fix my broken dual core g5. Then I said to myself: wait a minute, I could convert my dual to quad! Then soon, I bought a quad with a broken lcs. Then I said to myself: wait a minute, I coud convert my quad to air cooling !! So here ya...

forums.macrumors.com

 

[ToniCH]

Ps. got the PSU out and rest of the fans too. Dismantling is now done. 👍 Next I'll plan for the liquid cooling rebuild but that is a project for another day.

I put the empty case with pics to our local Graigs list kinda thing (better to give it to somebody than trash it). Price: 1 can of our local favorite beer of mine. After 45 seconds (really!) somebody contacted me and wanted to come pick it up right away but then realized he read the town wrong and was too far away. Too bad. Now after few hours another guy contacted, offered 2 cans of almost as good beer and he is now on his way to pick it up. 👍 EDIT: he picked it up and I am now enjoying the beers.

This case has bent "handles", 1 on top and 1 on bottom so it needs some metal work. But, I was thinking that if one cuts the handles completely off and replaces them with chrome pipe handles on the top and height adjustable feet (think MacPro 7.1) then it would be somewhat cool Mac G5 Pro or something... 😂

 

[mac57mac57]

I can't decide what to do with my G5 Quad. It still runs perfectly, but the cooling system IS failing - the fans run at about 3166 rpm continuously. It is a long and arduous process to remove the LCS, empty it, clean/flush it, recharge it and then reassemble the whole thing. Since it still runs flawlessly, I am thinking of listing it on eBay and letting someone with more time take on the task of restoring the cooling system to full operation.

I will have another look through the instructions for this, but they looked pretty long and involved. I suspect that I will either sell it, or set it aside for the proverbial "rainy day" when I have a week or two to dedicate exclusively to this task.

@ToniCH, did you pick up any time/labor saving tricks in the work you have done disassembling your G5 Quad? Thanks!

 

[ToniCH]

@ToniCH, did you pick up any time/labor saving tricks in the work you have done disassembling your G5 Quad? Thanks!

I did a complete disassembly but to remove the cooler you need 3 and 4 mm long round headed hex tools and a 1/4" nut driver. A philips screw driver is surely needed somewhere too. After you take all the fans around the CPUs out its just matter of loosening and/or removing 18 screws in particular order and disconnecting the wire harness from the cooler.

Possibly the most important thing is to first download the Power Mac G5 (late 2005) Service source. With it everything is easy. And it also shows the correct order to remove the screws. Tried to upload it to here but it was too large.

How to refurbish the cooler? There are dozens of forum discussions and web sites discussing that. Its no more complicated than a radiator swap on a car. Most difficult thing being bleeding the system out of air but that is surely doable with patience.

I will be doing "the new blood" mod where I replace the pump cover with acrylic one and the hoses with transparent ones. Mine is a one pump model though. Should make getting the air out easier and probably getting the thing leak free also easier...maybe...

 

[mac57mac57]

QUAD G5 AIR COOLED (dxf included)

It first started when I bought a quad core logic board to fix my broken dual core g5. Then I said to myself: wait a minute, I could convert my dual to quad! Then soon, I bought a quad with a broken lcs. Then I said to myself: wait a minute, I coud convert my quad to air cooling !! So here ya...

forums.macrumors.com

Thanks @saxfun. I *really* appreciate the link. I hunted for the posting on this, but did not find out.

This "air cooled" approach looks harder and more involved than a "straightforward" LCS extract/empty/recharge, if that is possible!

 

[Doq]

This is undoubtedly a silly question, but has anyone ever tried taking out the liquid cooling system, exposing the CPUs and then using a really high efficiency and QUIET air flow cooling fan set in place of the liquid cooling system?

Yes.

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/because-i-can-air-modding-a-quad-with-pc-coolers.2427612/

(you could get some Noctuas to achieve the "quiet" part, though I'm particularly fine with the stock fans' volume as it is)[/url]

 

[ToniCH]

I started the G5 Quad cooler disassembly by separating the liquid cooler and CPU-cards. IMO an easy job this far, just lots of screws. Tool needed is 2.5mm hex.

Happy to report that no sign of leakage.

Next I will take hoses, the pump and the water blocks out. I hope to be able to put the whole radiator into an ultrasonic cleaner.

Ps. are there o-rings or other seals in the water blocks? Are they prone to leakage? I am wondering if I should open them and try to get new ones while I am this deep into the system?

 

[mac57mac57]

Hmmm... Perhaps I will try a middle ground - extract the CPU and LCS assembly, replace the thermal paste and reassemble. This is a low impact short term "fix" if it lowers the CPU temps by the several degrees C that thermal paste replacement usually does.

This is also a good way to "ease into" the bigger job of LCS recharging if that proves to be necessary.

Still a longer term project, but I think that this is a good way to go for the short term. I have been looking on eBay, and G5 Quad's are scarce, really scarce, and the ones that work are expensive, very expensive. If you have one that still works it is probably wise to do as much as you can to keep it working.

In the meantime, I am now very thankful that way back in 2006 I could not afford the 2.5 GHz G5 Quad that I really wanted, and instead purchased the air cooled G5 DP 2.3 GHz instead. It has proven to be a solid, hard working and reliable piece.

Just for reference, I picked up the G5 Quad mentioned above on eBay back in 2011, when they were still abundant there, and not all that expensive. At that time, I "retired" the Xeon-based 2008 Mac Pro I had purchased as an upgrade over the G5 DP, and used the G5 Quad as my "daily driver" for the next year or two. I eventually "retired" the Quad in 2011, replacing it with a 27" iMac, 3.4 GHz Intel i7.

 

[ToniCH]

This is also a good way to "ease into" the bigger job of LCS recharging if that proves to be necessary.

Well, I it is very likely that sooner or later all Quad coolers will leak and then take the CPUs, PSU and even the logic board with them leaving you with something not worth repairing.

First priority should be flushing out and replacing that corrosive GM coolant as soon as possible. Thermal paste is just something you do anyway when doing this after taking out some 30+ screws. You really going to do all that again (incl. thermal paste) later on, there is only ~ 4 screws left at this point? Doing it half way, I don't know if it's the best approach.

If you have all the parts like new hoses etc. I think this is something what one can do over a weekend among other family activities. One can use good automotive stuff or buy LSC transparent tubing - there is not much difference in cost.

 

[DouglasCarroll]

BTW. does Tie-Fighter or X-wing exist for PPC/OSX? Are there any space combat stuff for Mac?

Both X-Wing & Tie Fighter exist for PPC Mac, but will run under classic only as they are OS 9 only. You can get them at Macintosh Garden.

http://macintoshgarden.org/games/x-wing

http://macintoshgarden.org/games/star-wars-tie-fighter

”X2 The Threat“ is a PPC OSX Space Combat Game for the Mac…

http://macintoshgarden.org/games/x2-the-threat

”Freespace Silent Threat“ is also a PPC OS X space combat sim…

http://macintoshgarden.org/games/conflict-freespace-silent-threat-ppc-beta4

 

[TheShortTimer]

Both X-Wing & Tie Fighter exist for PPC Mac, but will run under classic only as they are OS 9 only. You can get them at Macintosh Garden.

http://macintoshgarden.org/games/x-wing

http://macintoshgarden.org/games/star-wars-tie-fighter

Have you tried them under Classic? Most games run terribly - or won't even work at all in the Classic environment. I can't imagine that the results will be good for something so graphically intensive.

”X2 The Threat“ is a PPC OSX Space Combat Game for the Mac…

http://macintoshgarden.org/games/x2-the-threat

”Freespace Silent Threat“ is also a PPC OS X space combat sim…

http://macintoshgarden.org/games/conflict-freespace-silent-threat-ppc-beta4

These look interesting. Thanks!

 

[DouglasCarroll]

Have you tried them under Classic? Most games run terribly - or won't even work at all in the Classic environment. I can't imagine that the results will be good for something so graphically intensive.

I don’t recall if I ever played “X-Wing” in classic, but you can always play the DOS version in Boxer on a PPC in Mac OS X. The last PPC version of Boxer was 1.2.1 here…..

Archive of January 2012: Boxer

Boxer is the DOS game emulator that’s fit for your Mac. Playing your old games just got easy.

blog.boxerapp.com

 

[Doq]

I remembered I have a 3D printer. So I printed off bezels for my G3 Beige that I was missing.

One problem:

I only had black.

Spoiler: It adds character I swear!

For obvious reasons I'll still be on the hunt for an original floppy bezel.... and maybe some beige filament.

 

[Certificate of Excellence]

I remembered I have a 3D printer. So I printed off bezels for my G3 Beige that I was missing.

One problem:

I only had black.

Spoiler: It adds character I swear! [/spoiler

For obvious reasons I'll still be on the hunt for an original floppy bezel.... and maybe some beige filament.

I think that actually looks really cool. Great job with the prints. They look very clean. I keep wanting to do something to the black panels but I can’t figure out what that is haha.

Great job