sircabulon
Well-known member
My father passed away in May of 2020. My mother has finally started to clean out some of his old things including the PowerMac G4 he used for his business. I now work a career in IT, but this computer was the first one I was ever paid to repair, and being my fathers, it also held an incredible amount of sentimental value to me. It was not longer working correctly and had some water damage, but I was able to do data recovery. I ultimately decided I would make this a custom PC build that paid homage to my first computer - a Quadra 950, my first paid gig - this G4, and my father's love for bold designs.
I decided to convert his G4 into an mATX case that I can use for my gaming computer. This case was never meant to handle as much power as my components use, so some drastic rewor would be needed to make this work without everything getting absolutely roasted when I game. I decided using a custom liquid cooling loop would be needed to get the heat out of the case effectively. Based on the components and that I also like to overclock, I would need about 480mm of Radiator capacity as well. This will be tough in this case. I knew I would have to get airflow in the front somehow as well.
Seeing as I need it not to be a flat plastic front, I decided re-working the front to look more like my Quadra would be a cool effect. I got two 240mm radiators and started marking out what metal needed to be removed.
This gave me confidence to move forward, so I started working on getting components small enough to fit inside.
After a ton of measuring, lots of metal needed to be removed to fit all of the parts.
After I got everything fit, I needed to make sure I could still open and close the case.
The video card has 3mm to spare! Now I can get to making the liquid cooling loop. I had to use hard tube to keep rigidity so things wouldn't get caught and tangled inside, but I also need flexible tube so it could open and close. Why not both?
I filled her up and did a bench test.
Time to see if will close!
The wiring and front leave a lot to be desired, so I started custom designing parts making cable combs, pipe hangers, and a new front panel.
The vision has now come to life so it was a matter of finishing the build.
Overall, I call it a win. My siblings loved it and it made us all feel a bit closer to Dad. It was very cathartic for me and was good to see some life out of an old broken computer destined for the trash.
I decided to convert his G4 into an mATX case that I can use for my gaming computer. This case was never meant to handle as much power as my components use, so some drastic rewor would be needed to make this work without everything getting absolutely roasted when I game. I decided using a custom liquid cooling loop would be needed to get the heat out of the case effectively. Based on the components and that I also like to overclock, I would need about 480mm of Radiator capacity as well. This will be tough in this case. I knew I would have to get airflow in the front somehow as well.
Seeing as I need it not to be a flat plastic front, I decided re-working the front to look more like my Quadra would be a cool effect. I got two 240mm radiators and started marking out what metal needed to be removed.
This gave me confidence to move forward, so I started working on getting components small enough to fit inside.
After a ton of measuring, lots of metal needed to be removed to fit all of the parts.
After I got everything fit, I needed to make sure I could still open and close the case.
The video card has 3mm to spare! Now I can get to making the liquid cooling loop. I had to use hard tube to keep rigidity so things wouldn't get caught and tangled inside, but I also need flexible tube so it could open and close. Why not both?
I filled her up and did a bench test.
Time to see if will close!
The wiring and front leave a lot to be desired, so I started custom designing parts making cable combs, pipe hangers, and a new front panel.
The vision has now come to life so it was a matter of finishing the build.
Overall, I call it a win. My siblings loved it and it made us all feel a bit closer to Dad. It was very cathartic for me and was good to see some life out of an old broken computer destined for the trash.
