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| Overview
all the materials for this project are easily
available, some basic skill is required to use
the power tools and make and take measurements.
Costs are moderate on this project because I built
this out to be a relatively good performing system
(casual lan party capable even). I am sure this
same rig can be made for substantially less if
you are good at scrounging up parts.
This being my first public project I want to really
stress safety and discourage those that don't
have practical tool skills from trying this project.
Any who. on to the part list for this build.
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The
old, busted, and lonely Mac G3
We chose the classic green G3 case for a few reasons.
First and fore most, it has to be one of the most
recognizable Mac's ever made. Secondly there are
thousands of this model in surplus storages, and
on eBay. They are relatively cheep and parts are
very available for these models so getting extra
parts to get creative with is no problem.
We
got ours from the University of Utah Surplus and
only paid 25.00 for it. It was a complete and
working system, but we gutted it before the project
started. We see these in varying condition on
eBay for 15.00 - 90.00
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A
new micro ATX form factor motherboard
We used the asus P4P800-VM in this build, we chose
this because it's a really quite descent motherboard
and supports a fairly high performance rig, and
is definitely good enough for gaming. Now we had
this board just laying around, but it sells for
under 100.00. Other micro atx motherboards will
work just fine so long as they match the standard
case mounting hole pattern.
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One New 120mm case fan
(old and busted the old one likely is)
One major challenge once we got this all together
was cooling. The old Mac CPU runs much cooler than
the new P4 we dropped in. This becomes a problem
especially if you are running the newer Intel Prescott
CPU. So we upgraded the 120mm case fan to a newer
high performance main vent fan by Thermaltake.
We also found that a pci slot cooler fan was very
helpful under the higher end video cards and even
just to enhance the amount of air actualy moving
in the case. |
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New
power supply
We went with a new power supply to support the Prescott's
power grubbing needs, as well as our new ATI video
card. The Ultra X-Connect 500-Watt supply we chose
also helps support the higher airflow we need with
the air circulation in the case, and also acoustically
is fairly quiet. The case is actually really well
sound insulated, and we were able to get away with
a little more noise on this as it's a cosmetic mod.
Finally we chose one of the new modular cable based
power supplies just for that reason. Modular...
Mmmmmm modular... |
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All
the other main system goodies.
Hard drive, video card, ram etc... if you make this.
Its your choice. We used just some simple off the
shelf goodies. Western Digital SATA 80 gig drive.
DVD-RW and a ATI Based video card. Inserting the
components into a computer is really the most basic
part of this build out, we will be concentrating
on the modifications the case requires to make a
system work and not the how to buld a computer 101
aspect. The flavor(s) is up to you.
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Optional
Parts
Optional Parts for this project would be for further
case appearance customization. Lighting, logos,
and color can all be modified if you need. Some
additional parts we required were: 2
peices of plexi or acrylic 4" X 4" X 1/4"
2-6 led arrays powered off the internal power
supply
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Tools
that we used
( I.E. you may want to use as well )
One note on power tools: use them at your own risk.
Be sure to read and understand any and all documentation
on the tools you use. No amount of documentation
can make up for experience, but there are many people
with serious eye injuries at the school of hard
knocks. If you don't know what you are doing, don't
do it and find some one that can help.
Dremel tool
Drill + assorted bits
Can of black or dark grey spray paint
Screwdrivers
Allen wrenches
Pliers
Paper
Razor
Printer
Motherboard mounting posts
Sand paper
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