On Wednesday, May 5, 2004, at 09:17 AM, Joshua Coombs wrote:
Fellow Listers,
After much reading and thought, I am contemplating attempting transplanting a beige G3 desktop into a PC case, which has been detailed at the following link:
http://www.xlr8yourmac.com/systems/BeigeG3DT_ATX_conversion/ BeigeG3inATXcase2.html
Has anyone on the list attempted this? If so, are you satisfied with the result?
Actually, I did something like this a few weeks ago with my Beige G3/266. While I'm not too happy with the appearance of the front of the case (ugly bezel, nothing I did :)), it works Ok. I got the cheapest case I could find that had a removable motherboard tray and didn't have holes in said tray. It cost $30 at TigerDirect.com's outlet store in Raleigh, NC, and was an EZMedia case.
Currently, it has a 10GB IDE drive for OS X and 9.2.2, and a 9.1GB and
4.3GB UW SCSI drives for extra storage. These are attached to a 68-pin
SCSI cable with a converter to the internal 50-pin connector on the
logic board, easily found on old servers. There is one other converter
to connect a SCSI Zip100 drive. Go ahead and wince - I don't have a
U/W card compatible with the Mac. A Yamaha 16x10x40 drive rounds out
the drives.
It also has an ATI Mach64 PCI video card, a RealTek 8139 10/100 NIC, and a USB 1.1 card attached to a Microsoft Intellimouse Optical trackball (whew), a Canon BJ-2110 printer with a blank only cartridge, and occasionally a Gravis USB Gamepad Pro.
The I/O shield is provided by the metal shielding from the inside of
the Beige G3 desktop case, cut up and bent to fit over where the ATX
I/O shield would be. Rather than remove the on-board video, I cut the
case to allow it to stay. It was quite easy with a pair of tin snips.
I don't know about you, but I can't afford a Radeon 7000 PCI card right
now. :) I also cut some of the slot covers to allow me to use the
Audio Personality card to remain intact sans the back plate. With the
modified slot covers screwed in, the personality card stays in place
very well.
If an empty Beige G3 MT case comes my way, I can simply take the contents of this Mac out and put them in the other case.
If I could do it over again, I would do the following: 1) get a better looking case. 2) make a custom I/O shield for the back of the case 3) do a better job with the mounting holes. The PCI cards have a slight bend to them. So does my finger... (one miss on the mounting holes, nothing serious).
Brian Futrell -- Sharkey: G3 AIO/266/320MB/40GB/Zip100/10.2.6 Minty: Beige G3-ATX 266 (oc 300) 256MB/10GB,4GB,9GB/Zip100/16x10x40/10.2.6 Borg: Digital Prioris MX/4 6200 server 4x PPro 200/512MB/7x4.3GB/Linux
I'd suggest a cheap Enlight case, or any other that uses LONG standoffs for the motherboard screws. Remove the standoffs, you won't need them. Go to Home Depot, get a sheet of plastic, this will be your adapter plate. Cut the plate to match the footprint of your motherboard, and drill it to match your mobo's mounting holes. Place the plate in the case, where you want it to sit, note the case mounting holes, mark, and drill the plate for those as well. Next go back to Home Depot and get some 6-32 screws, washers, and nuts. Place screws through all the mac mounting holes so the bolts stick up. Take the plate, and screw it down into the pc with the mac bolts still sticking up. Next drop your mobo over the plate, let the bolts pass through, then use the nuts to lock it in place. I recomend a washer on each side of the motherboard, more if it sits too low.
Poof, instant adapter plate with no need to sacrifice the case. As ATX mounting is standard, you can move the adapter from case to case as you see fit. Upgrade to a G4, just make a new plate.
If you want to adapt a PC powersupply, I suggest picking up an ATX Powercable extenstion, and do your wiring mods to it, so again, you can flop powersupplies in and out without altering them.
Joshua Coombs http://www.outofspec.com/frankenmac
That works if you have sacrificed the on-board video port. Mine is still there for now.
Also with the Beige G3 logic board, a standard ATX power supply will work.
Brian Futrell
--
Sharkey: G3 AIO/266/320MB/40GB/Zip100/10.2.6
Minty: Beige G3-ATX 266 (oc 300) 256MB/10GB,4GB,9GB/Zip100/16x10x40/10.2.6
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