Build your own powerpc based computer

By thermal+paste
in Essential Guides

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thermal+paste

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This guide will allow you to build your own computer that will run OSX

Parts List u will reqire :)

a) Motherboard (apple only)

b) Processor (apple AND aftermarket with exceptions)

c) Optical drives (fairly generic, some don't work)

d) Disk Drives (universal, all work)

e) Power Supply (apple will work, you can mod ATX ps to upgrade)

This review will allow you to build a G4 up to 2.0 GHz PPC 7447A, 2 GB PC100 RAM, DVD BURNER, RADEON 9800 PRO 256 MB AGP 2X (best you can get for this setup), POWER SUPPLY AND DISKS AS NEEDED.

Let's review part sources

a) Motherboard (eBay)

b) Processor (eBay + aftermarket with exceptions)

c) Optical drives (plextor, anyone, but check this first to determine if it will work)

d) Disks (anyone, WD, SEA, HIT, MAX, SAM, FUJIT, ...)

e) Power Supply (must modify to get atx to work, read this)

PUT IT ALL TOGETHER

a)Find Case

b)Install Motherboard

c)Install Processor

d)Install opticals

e)Install disks

g)install video card

f)power everything

DETAILED COMMENTS

MOTHERBOARD

The G4 motherboard you should find is for a G4 400 MHz single processor system. You can buy a used G4 on ebay to start off with and then just upgrade as needed. The motherboard you could buy from a seller on ebay by itself. Parts are not common but entire systems are. I rec. purchasing a Sawtooth G4 Power Macintosh. Strip the motherboard (will leave up to you, very easy to remove). Items of note: There is a chipset on the back of the mobo that will require cooling. Place a heat sink on this. You can tell what one needs this because it is big, in the middle, and if you have a case you can see where the original heat sink is. Note where the mother board support holes are. You will need to DRILL your own STANDOFF holes in the case your are using. This is VERY simple. Just line up the PCI cards in the slots and then SHARPIE the places you will support the mobo. Then drill and do this = use hardware nuts to achieve correct height. 5 WILL BE PERFECT IN MOST CASES. A screw and then five nuts for height. Then place mobo over (on top) of these 5 nuts and then secure with ONE MORE nut. Now your mobo is secure.

>This is the hardest part of all of this<

PROCESSOR

You will prob. want more speed. I understand. The 400 MHz G4 is pretty peppy. You will be surprised. This is where the crap hits the wall. If you want to upgrade the proc you will have to follow these steps.

a) YOU WILL HAVE TO SOURCE A COPY OF OS 9

b) YOU WILL NEED TO UPDATE THE MOBO FIRMWARE FOR YOUR SPECIFIC UPGRADE CARD

The application that apple wrote to upgrade the firmware for the Sawtooth ONLY runs on OS 9. Speechless, crazy I know. EBay will get you a copy of OS9. So the procedure is (and this is ALL THE SAME for all the aftermarket proc suppliers)

1) upgrade mobo firmware (apple written firmware) (apple site has this)

2) upgrade mobo firware AGAIN (from your specific proc supplier)

3) Install and Enjoy hardware

The aftermarket proc suppliers are

a) GIGA DESIGNS

b) SONNET

c) FASTMAC

d) POWERLOGIX

I don't know of any others. They will supply you with the fans, hardware, and instructions to complete the upgrade.

read up on the G4

OPTICAL DRIVES

Not all optical drives work with the sawtooth mobo. Check the supplied link above to check the xlr8 drive database for compat. I run a DVD-ROM from BenQ and it works fine. It's a compusa brand :p

no problems here, THE PLEXTOR PX716SA DOES NOT WORK, DON'T TRY IT, I ALREADY DID, NO LUCK

HDD

Any will work. If you want SATA you can get a PCI card from FIRMTEK. Firmtek is the ONLY company that makes a PCI card that will BOOT your mac. All others work fine, but the FIRMTEKS will boot. This is concerning SATA. RocketRaid by HighPointalso supposedly works good.

POWER SUPPLY

The ps your get if you buy a system will be a 237W delta electronics 20 PIN ps. You CAN upgrade to 1KW+ if you get the pcP+c one. Just FOLLOW THESE INSTRUCTIONS.

SPECS

If you went nuts and bought max of everything you would get a

2.0 GHz or DUAL 1.8 GHz 7447A PPC G4

2 GB PC 100 RAM

DISKS AS BIG A CASE AS YOU CAN GET :D

POWER SUPPLY, what ever you want to pay for

VIDEO

ATI will be your only bet. NVIDIA made some cards but are very not current. Check out NEWEGG and ATI.com for info on the card that will work best for you. I have tried 3 cards with no prob, ATI Rage 128 (standard), Radeon 9000, Radeon 9800 256 MB version. This is about 250 US dollsars from newegg.

RECAP

Find your parts. Buy case. Install parts. Load OS.

Veteran

thermal+paste

Posted
  • Author
Posted

kinda cool I guess, but after all the time and trouble wouldn't it be easier to just buy a new mac?

with all the parts you have to buy it would probably cost more than a new mac mini...

correct, and plus if you want to play insane FPS games a G5 would be the best bet.

I did this because I couldn't shell out more than about 200-300 bucks at a time

  • 4 weeks later...
  • 2 weeks later...
Experienced

konstantinos

Posted
Posted

how ironic, people keep complaining that you HAVE to buy your mac from Apple yet when someone post a GREAT tutorial on how to build one, you guys a complaining :wacko:

i completely agree. this tutorial is great, if you don't like it then offer something constructive rather than moaning.

i am a pc user who wishes to make the switch to mac at some point in the future. this tutorial has giving me a cheap option to get me started.

why is the guy banned?

Grand Master

shockz

Posted
Posted

i completely agree. this tutorial is great, if you don't like it then offer something constructive rather than moaning.

i am a pc user who wishes to make the switch to mac at some point in the future. this tutorial has giving me a cheap option to get me started.

why is the guy banned?

Spamming... attacking mods.

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