My LOL scratch build

[neilhart]

As a way to introduce myself I thought that I would share one of my projects.

This case was intended to be a “just for fun” quick project to re-house my thin Haswell motherboard.

The LOL case is a scratch build made up from G5 Power Mac materials from my salvage bin.

As this was intended to be a “zero dollar” build, I used the following components that I already owned.

Motherboard - ECS H87H3-TI, source Amazon
CPU - i7-4770T (45 watt version), source ACME Micro Systems
Memory - Patroit DDR3 SODIM (2x4GB) 1333MHz, source Fry’s Electronics
mSATA - mushkin MKNSSDAT 120GB-V, source Amazon
HDD - Toshiba SATA 1TB 9mm tall, - owned from an early USB3.0 external drive.
CPU Cooler - SilverStone AR04, source Amazon.


And then I moved to using an i3-4330 CPU and updated to OS X 10.9.2. With this hack, I went back to the i7-4770T CPU and found that I had to add “dart=0” boot flag to the org.chameleon.Boot.plist (Chimera boot loader).

Construction details:

As seen here the G5 mesh was repurposed by selectively reassembling bits to make up the core panel. Nothing really new here. Just takes time and patience to get the hole pattern aligned (x, y, and z directions).

It is hard to see here, I used clear food wrap sandwiched between the parts to be epoxied and the alignment pieces.

I masked off all but the row of holes (actually the land area around the holes) control where the epoxy is to be placed.

Then with the masking removed after the epoxy cures. I used JB Weld for this.

This is after sanding away the excess cured epoxy.

I have trimmed the edges and epoxied in some stiffener strips on the inside.

I used may 10” table saw with an 80 tooth blade to rip the handles from a G5 outer shell. Then cut to size seen here.

This was the test “glue up” where I used quick set Loctite epoxy to put the parts together to evaluate the concept… a go or no go decision point.

I decided it was worth while to proceed. And after a lot of work this is core cover.

I then used JB Weld to epoxy the handle part to the core part to form the major portion of the case.

The thin motherboard assembly has plenty of room in the new case shell.

And after many hours and several redos the system is finally complete. I added the removable front panel with the USB 2 and 3 ports, reset button and the audio ports. Also the power button is from a G5 Power Mac with power LED and HDD activity LED.

I maintain this system in my collection and as indicated above it is a hackintosh and only ever known Apple OS X.

Comments and questions are welcome.
neil

 

[Kmpkt]

That's pretty sweet. Nice job repurposing the old Mac Pro case.

 

[|||]

Did you make the outer hoop multiple times? In the bottom picture I see each a bunch more I/O and 4 pieces, but in the top two pics, I just see a power button and LEDs with two pieces.

 

[neilhart]

Did you make the outer hoop multiple times? In the bottom picture I see each a bunch more I/O and 4 pieces, but in the top two pics, I just see a power button and LEDs with two pieces.

Yes this project actually took several months from start to finish. The first final is seen in the first photo. I decided to mod the mod and made up a removable front panel and the first pass of that I did not have the added IO on the center line which bothered me to no end. The final front panel as seen in the last photo was a major pain as I modded the USB cable lengths via solder splice. The USB 3 cables were a real trick to get right.

 

[3lfk1ng]

That turned of fantastic. Nicely done.

 

[Arboreal]

Great piece of work; best G5 mod I've seen, and probably the first SFF one!
Looking closely, you can see the pain and effort that has gone (multiple times...) into getting it just right.
A pretty powerful thin client - definitely worthwhile.

 

[stree]

Very worthwhile, commendable.

 

[DocH]

Amazing! You sir should be doing apple engineering that looks better than half the stuff they put out.

 

[neilhart]

Amazing! You sir should be doing apply engineering that looks better than half the stuff they put out.

Thank you DocH. I am now retired and build things for my own pleasure. And the LOL is just one example of my many computer case projects.

Neil

 

[Soul_Est]

So clean, well done, @neilhart .

 

[Josh | NFC]

1. I hate you for your butchery of a Powermac G5.

2. I bow to your modding prowess.

3. Take notes, furuners. This is how we American's do things. +5 to JB Weld!

 

[fminus]

@neilhart: Nice to see you here! I follow alot of your builds on the tonymac forums.

 

[Phuncz]

Very nicely done, I love the design ! I've done a PowerMac mod too, although really not as extensive or remotely SFF as you did.

 

[neilhart]

Very nicely done, I love the design ! I've done a PowerMac mod too, although really not as extensive or remotely SFF as you did.

This project was just for the fun of doing something different and not for serious intentions. As it turned out well, I take the credit and show it around where people might enjoy it (as here in this great forum).

Neil

 

[Curiosity]

Fantastic job!
You really can't tell that you blended parts.

 

[Ceros_X]

This looks like it came out of a factory, not bodged together at all. Very nice aesthetics as well!

 

[dinosoar]

LOL...'''labor of love?". Indeed, some nice work w/ smart ideas. You are an inspiration to the novice and the experienced as well. Thank you for reply to my question.

 

[neilhart]

LOL...'''labor of love?". Indeed, some nice work w/ smart ideas. You are an inspiration to the novice and the experienced as well. Thank you for reply to my question.

This is not a problem as I spend much of my time with my projects. This is a line up of my Apple hacks completed prior to the LOL.

Neil

 

[dinosoar]

I would like to thank all respondents feeling responsible enough to feed my queries. I still have a bunch of questions. Do,all H170 boards have the I/O in the same persespective (location)? Thanks.

 

[neilhart]

I would like to thank all respondents feeling responsible enough to feed my queries. I still have a bunch of questions. Do,all H170 boards have the I/O in the same persespective (location)? Thanks.

The IO location is defined by a specification as is the board size, mounting holes and keep-out areas. Google for the specification and look for more on the wikipedia. This applies to EATX, ATX, MATX and ITX and maybe a few mote. However whenever a design requires something unusual the system manufactures gin up some non-compliant motherboards to suit their current need.

Neil