Got the screws, will see if it's too thin tomorrow... Actually, the base, front and rear sides are 5mm acrylic. The top and sides are 2mm acrylic. Thinner acrylic is easier to cut. Will be screwing through the thin acrylic to anchor it to thick acrylic so should be theoretically a secure fit.


We will see...

Dude, if I were u, I'd just use the plumber's glue to glue it together seeing as nobody opens up a PSU anyway. I doubt u'll b opening it up again once everything is nicely in place right?

Ian, you must be psychic...

I've already glued the fellow. Tried the screws, too problematic. Will only be using screws for the top lid. Need to get access to the innards to clean/change fans if necessary. Gluing the rest of it though.

Pics will follow...

Hahaha. Yes I am. Mebe I shud get sum side income from my "psychicness". BTW, ure Enermax looks gooooooooood in that perspex man. Pray that u dont need to RMA though. Coz mine has failed twice. After that, Vertex gave me a whole new unit.

Completed the PSU mod.

Figured that in order to gain access to the innards of the PSU, I really need only place screws at the TOP of the PSU. The other sides can be glued and this was duly done with Selley's Multigrip Adhesive (About RM5 from Ace Hardware). Screwed the top acrylic down with six small screws and the result looked pretty neat.









Now I began to worry....

What if I screwed up the PSU somehow... Better do a test run. So I connected the fellow up to the WorkRig...



Works fine. VERY quiet, and good airflow through to the back fan. Did not do any extended testing though... Perhaps a temp probe might be a good idea. Actually if I ever go the full watercooling route, this PSU would be an ideal candidate for a watercooled PSU....

And here's how it would sit in the G5 Case...

Nice work macdanife perhaps u should fix a temp sensor in your PSU,like Alln gap's LCd temperature ,anyway where did u buy the arcylic can u state the location,do u know where to get Plexiglass?

Bought the acrylic from a sign making shop along Jln Pudu. Not sure the exact location but it was about midway between the Pudu/Imbi intersection and the turnoff to Jln Pasar. Actually - all sign making shops sell the stuff. They come in various thickness and are sold per square foot.

If you have the exact dimensions of your window that would be best as they will have the tools (a bandsaw) to make a neat cut (better than I'm able to do with my Dremel anyway).

I bet you forget one thing...

EMI inteferance...

There is a reason why you don't see any manufacturer producing PSU out of acrylic/plastic...


However you can counter this if your mobo support "Spread Spectrum". You can set it to enable.

But the downside is, you will not be able to overclock, or else your cpu might just lock down.

Harlow? Haf u seen an Enermax Red b4? There's a biga$$ EMI ring there on the output wires man. I'm sure that's more than enuf.

Mounting the CoolerMaster Aquagate Mini Radiator.

Rather than drill into the case, I will mount the radiator onto the Apple G5 fangrille. Actually the grille is made of plastic but painted a dark aluminum color:



As with everything in this case, the grille is held on with multiple screws. In this case a total of nine fine screws. Once removed, the grille looks like this:



Flipping it over, the inside of the grille looks like this:



Note the foam vibration dampener on the grille edges. This case is full of neat details like this. With my trusty Dremel, I drilled some holes and mounted the radiator to the grille:



And a side view:



Also took the opportunity to take the DFI NB fan off (being very careful this time not to remove the square foam backing as this provides support for the DFI heatsink - the NB core being raised from the surrounding PCB), cleaned off the yellow gunk that DFI regards as thermal tranfer paste to apply some nice ArcticSilver5. Also found the time to apply some nice shiny heatshrink to the fan wires...









As a side note: I got a honking big FedEx box today. Inside was a NVidia SLi poster and this: Sticker, Case badge, 8cm Fan Grille and a wristband. Apparently the benefits of joining Club SLi. All the way from the USA. Not bad nVidia!



This post has been edited by MacDaNife: Oct 25 2005, 06:16 PM

Maaaaaaan. Ure a cruel bast@rd. I wish I cud get my hands on a G5 case too. BTW, the Aquagate looks really puny. Is it the 80mm version? Enuf to cool ure X2?

This post has been edited by ianho: Oct 26 2005, 12:11 PM

Some updates...

Decided to go without the stock 8cm fan for now.... Will need to test out what the four wires do. Don't want to burn the fan and need to get the Apple Tech Docs for the G5 to find out the voltages for each wire. So for the meantime, put a nice Aluminum CoolerMaster Fan in the bay provided. Nice rubber fan mounts btw. which fit perfectly.



And here's how it looks installed in the G5 case. I've sleeved the wires and run it down to hide behind the Mobo tray. I will be installing modding a Sunveam 4 Fan controller. The stock one is supposed to fit in a 5 in bay, I will be making a custom acrylic mount. Gosh now I'm getting adept at cutting acrylic I'm finding all sorts of uses for the stuff...



Here are how the cables run from the harddrive bay, The optical drive bay, The top compartment fan. Note that I've made a side branch floppy connector off the power cable that goes to the optical drive. This is to supply the floppy connector on the DFI mobo. This way I'll avoid having a cable crossing the front of the mobo, it will now pass unobtrusively from the back of the mobo near the bottom PCI slot.



And with the Mobo in place, the wires pass behind it to connect to headers coming off the PSU.



With the PSU at the bottom, the wires pass around the front (to avoid blocking the intake fan) and connect below the PSU. I've removed the unnecessary connectors from the PSU in order to maintain neatness. I'm planning to make an aluminum baseplate so the wires will then all go below the aluminum plate with the PSU above. All wires/connectors will then be invisible. I've not however identified where to buy an Aluminum plate. If I don't find one, I might need to sacrifice my LianLi (non window) sidepanel (that I replaced with the windowed one in my v1000b).





This post has been edited by MacDaNife: Oct 26 2005, 09:08 PM

The next step: Cutting the back of the case to fit the backpanel connectors.

The advantage of the DFI LanParty NF4 SLi-D board is that all of the frequently used connectors are concentrated in one position so I won't have to cut that much of the back of the case. Of course, if I change mobos, I might have to get the dremel out again. For now however, this is how it looks with the CoolerMaster Aquagate Mini in position. I've pencilled out where I will be cutting...

i really pity ur PSU, not even a single month and u stripped it and put it in acrylic casing..

just keep up the good work man !!!

@mac
nice work bro, really see great ability in you...cheers

Wa awesome job cant wait to see the final product ,still waitin for my RTX haihz

Dude, don't cut the back lar. Y don't u just pass all the wires through the lowest hole n just plug into the mobo. Or else u can use USB extension wires n connect the male plug to the mobo on 1 end then the female end hot glue to the G5 case USB ports? The same thing can be done for the stereo mini jacks on the sound card. The only thing that can't b done that way is the CAT 5 wire. Then u can maintain the original look of the case's back.

Mac,

You might want to tie those cables together using tie clip or heatshrink. Looks neater.

i like all ur mod however the psu + arcylics giving cheapo feeling...i think u should go for alu material

just my 2 cent

Three problems with this:

1. It's a lot of work
2. The G5 only has two USB ports. The DFI board has six. I need all six.
3. It's a lot of work

It's NOT finished yet lah kawan.... . As I said in the post, I'll be making a floor for the case so the wires will be COMPLETELY hidden. Patience please...

Acrylic cheapo? If I could I'd go with a titanium finish. Plus gold plated connectors too. Unfortunately there are two major limitations:

1. Cost
2. Ability/skill at modding

A modder must confine himself not only to the materials at hand but also to that which he is able to do. Suggestions are fine, but please at least try to confine them to what is possible (unless you are skilled at working with Aluminum - then if you wanna help me fabricate a case I'd be grateful!)