Project Bad Apple (FINISHED)

[Gordy]

I've just received a key part of my next project. Its one I've been wanting to do for a while now but I've only just got around to attacking it seriously.

I've always been a fan of the Apple quicksilver cases and have been trying to source one for a while but to no avail. So I bought a older g4 one from ebay which arrived today (Sods law there was a quicksilver on ebay a week later argggggg!)

Any the project is going to be to make this apple case into a pc case. I've seen 2 previous examples of this mod and they did run into a few problems so this could be a ruff ride.

The mobo is a Gigabyte MATX board its a tasty board, the psu is a 250watt matx psu that I've had for ages , its been sprayed bloo and had the black 80mm fan replaced with a coolermaster white led fan on 5volts for silence.

Anyway enough blurb heres the pics ( there is still coatin on the case as its brand new so dont get confused ) :









Full gallery: http://www.gordonhandley.co.uk/php-cgi/gallery/MATX

I've got some ideas as to where I want this project to go but I leave them as a surprise for later

[Gordy]

Quick update:

I've run into the problem I feared , that is that the optical drive bay fouls the motherboard. There is 2 ways round this either ditch the internal optical bay and use an external one. Or use a flex atx mobo.

I think I'm going for the former its cheaper in the long run.

I've taken it apart to see whats what which was fun. I think there is space for 2 extra fans. The main 120mm fan is temp controlled which surprised me

Piccy of the case nakid

[Gordy]

Done some more work on it today:







This is the psu plate being made out of perspex

[Gordy]

More updates on the psu plate.

Finished the plate and done all the holes. It fits perfectly









Thats it for the day, I'm going to attack the 120mm fan and wiring tommorow I think

[Gordy]

I'm still trying to work out wot the heck this is ??? Any ideas cos I've not seen it before.



I've had some thinking time tonight and I may have a solution to the dvd writer problem.

First off here's why its a problem at the mo



When u close the door the mem slots hit the 5.25 bay .



The solution I've come up with is to remove the 120mm fan , I dont like big fans anyway but then to mount the dvd drive inside facing the back and have a stealth slot at the rear

Pretty certain it will work

[Gordy]

More updates from today.

I took the case apart again to remove absolutly everything I could and make it more like a pc case.

Here are a few pics of the case nakid again. I've removed the wireing round the outside of the case which makes it look much more tidy





And here's the inside before I attack it.



There were two parts I wanted to remove , one is the unidentifyable peice of metal that I now reckon is some form of support mechanism for extra long pci cards. It was held in by 3 rivets so out came the drill.
And here it is afterwards.


Interestingly there was a magnet on it which must cause problems with pci cards ?? Damned if I can work out why it was there it was very powerful and took some leverage to remove.



Next up was to remove the central strut that orginally supported the drive bays and psu. Again this was held in by rivets 7 in all.

Heres the case with it removed. Much better , and it means the mobo has no obstructions now:




Slight problem was my drill bit which didn't like rivets hehe



Doh !

[Gordy]

Yet another update:

I've been working on a fan bus which will allow me to control all the fans from one rheostat probably going to be mounted in a pci slot.

The basic of the circuit are slightly more complicated than say a microbus from pcmods as I'm using LED fans and I want to have the LED circuit on full power the whole time. So all the fans are going to be connected using four pin versions of the normal 3pin fan connector. I've allowed enough connections for 4 fans.

The rheostat is running in my shuttle at the mo so I cant show you it at the mo but it connects via 3pin fan connectors so it connects via the 2 three pin connectors on the circuit.

The whole thing is powered by a single molex connector.

Enuf blurb here's the pics.

[Gordy]

More work on it today, this time I was cutting a blowhole at the bottom of the case. This will be where the air comes into the case.

I'm going to install a filter in place to prevent any dust entering the case .

[Gordy]

I started some of the more serious not for the faint of heart modding today.

In order to fit the mobo into the case the audio ports have to be removed. Queue lots of struggling with pliers soldering iron and desolder. My solder iron isnt man enough for the task it appears so alot of brute force and ignorance later the audio ports and parrallel port (I dont use them so there is no point in it being there) were removed from the board

Piccys:

Mobo at start:


Parrallel port being removed:







And then I removed the audio port which was a major pain being soldered to the board in around 20 places





All sorted and much better now.


The mod was far from painless as this piccy shows



OWWWWWWW!

[Gordy]

Updates from today...


Not done much cos my finger is hurting like hell. So I decided to finish the fan bus. I finished the circuit and then installed it in place in the case with velcro sticky pads.

The circuit gets power from a molex connector then a rheobus installed into a pci slot adjusts the voltage from 12v-5v which powers the fans. The fan leds are powered from a seperate 12volt line so they are always on full brightness. I may install another rheostat on them as it would be useful at night.

[Gordy]

I've done lots of work on the case today all with the trusty dremel.

First on the list was to remove the orginal mobo mounts as they arent the same as required for a matx board

[Gordy]

As you can see it was quite difficult so I broke a few dremmel blades but its all done now.

Next was to remove some metal where the IO ports are going to be , I just did it around the serial and vga ports for the time being as those require me to cut before I can get the mobo mounts in place. Its been cleaned up now with a file, its quite untidy in the pics. I'm not fussed at the moment as I will be covering the entire io plate with a custom cut plate when I have the mobo in place.















The injury count is up by two today as I burnt my fingers picking up a hot peice of metal and frazzled my arm hairs on the sparks from the dremmel , doh!

[Gordy]

Daily update from today.

I've been working on getting the motherboard into place today. I had to drill out the holes for the new motherboard standoff's and make sure the clear the case side lock. I also cut out all the ports for the back plate so the motherboard slides into place perfectly.

Piccy's from today













Tommorow I will be making a custom shield for the i/o ports I think, tho I need some more dremmel blades.

[Gordy]

Sorry for the lack of updates over the weekend I ran out of dremmel blades and sanding barrels which I had to get more of. B&Q charged a fortune for the blades and didnt have the sanding barrels so I've been restricted on what I could do.

What I have done today is to do some of the work on the top blow hole. It needs more filing and I need to cut the plexi top panel but I want to have sanding barrells before starting this final part of the blowhole.

Piccys as usual ( Click on them for larger 800x600 shots)

[Gordy]

I had to do another fan today so I thought I'd do a guide while I was at it for you.

First up the fan:



All me bits ready and waiting:




Peel back the sticker and place something to hold it in place:



Desolder the two power cables on the far right solder point:



Then the yellow fan sensor cable as its not going to be needed on a four pin connector , if u want u can leave it :



Then desolder the negative wire to the leds (Keep it seperate from the positive cables for later):



Next get a 120ohm resistor and solder the power lines to the leds to one end:



Add a cable extension to suit the other side and heatshrink the exposed cable.
Extend the negative cable to the same length.

After this cut the connector off the fan power lines, this should leave you with four wires. LED +/- Fan +/- I've used a non stock connector but if u want to run the fans at 5volts for example u would connect them as follows

FAN + = MOLEX Red
FAN - = MOLEX Black
LED + = MOLEX Yellow
LED - = MOLEX Black

[Gordy]

Another update : (Maybe 2nd of 3 today )

I've had some more parts arrive today , these have been very kindly sent by Overclock.co.uk

They include a Swiftech MCX4000 cooler , a set of fan grills and a fan filter for the bottom blowhole.

Pics:





The heatsink is very heavy and is top notch

Thanks have to go to overclock for supplying them