Building a Hackintoh inside a PowerMac G5 case was quite a dream of mine. And after lots and lots of hardware. I pull it off. Here is a small gallery of pictures showing of my beloved machine.
Getting a Case
The power of the internet
I came across a broken PowerMac G5 on the internet. As an old Apple fan, the idea of buying that case and repurpose it for a PC popped up. The idea is old but the young me was very excited, even tho I don’t have the skill, or money, or anything at all.
But I knew how to clean it up, and spray paint it.
Power Supply Transplant
Better Not Get Electrocuted
Stripping out a random brand of PSU I could find, replacing the origninal double 8cm fan with two 6cm fans. You can’t tell how old the PSU was can you, straight from the Pentium 4 days!
Componant Fitting
Old Hardware Used as Template
How do you mount and motherboard without making a template nor having the knowledge? Just find a old motherboard sitting in the shelf and use it as a template. Good thing is that ATX has standards, unlike me.
First Generation Done!
Why did I bother?
Yes. It looked like that. Just bunch of hardware that I found happened to be compatible with OS X 10.7 . The only “new” hardware was some Corsair fans that I found second-handed. Come on guys I was broke. (Still is, but you get the point).
- CPU: Intel® Core™ i3-2100 Processor
- RAM: Corsair Value DDR3 1333mhz 2GB x 2
- Motherboard: Gigabye H87
- GPU: ASUS 9500 GT Magic
- PSU: GTR 450W Unit
- HDD: Seagate Baracuda 80GB
ahh... This should last awhile. everything is settled, and so I thought.
And The PSU Blew
Old PSU Releases Magic Smoke! Who Would Have Thought?
Yes, using a random brand PSU was a bad idea, let alone the custom modifications I did to the PSU. Out with the old, in with the new. Notice the Y joint in the pic that I totally soldered, instead of twisting the wires together and called it a day. Yes, totally.
Did I replaced it with something free? Yes I did! Another GTR Unit!
Small Upgrade
Jumping from i3 to i7, night and day
Somehow I come accross a wonky set of motherboard, CPU, and RAM for bascially free. Out comes the Sandy Bridge Platform, in with the “then” new hardware.
- CPU: Intel® Core™ i7-4771 Processor
- RAM: Corsair Value DDR3 1600mhz
- Motherboard: ASUS H97M-E with custom UEFI hack for NVRAM compatibity
- GPU: Gigabyte R9 270x (GV-R927XOC-4GD)
- GPU (upgraded): Saphirre Nitro + RX570
- SSD: WD SN550 512GB
- HDD: Seagate Baracuda 3TB
I also learnt a think called “Outsourcing”. Drawing on computer, boom! metal plates fan and HDD brackets!
Replaced the rear exhaust fan with some AVC 9cm industrial (or so they claimed) fans. Cooler upgraed to the legendary CoolerMaster Hyper 212
it was at this moment he knew he fucked up.
New(er) Hardware
Building The Ultimate "Officially" Supported Hackintosh
With the release of the Apple Silicon, Hackintosh is bascially dead in the water. With the release of Hogwarts Legacy, one last upgrade is planned before the timely dismise of the Hackintosh community.
- CPU: Intel® Core™ i9-10900k Processor
- RAM: GSkill Trident Z nero DDR4 3600mhz 16GB x 4
- Motherboard: ASUS ROG Strix Z490g-Gaming Wifi
- GPU: Saphirre NITRO+ AMD Radeon™ RX 570
- GPU (Later Upgraded): Saphirre NITRO+ AMD Radeon™ RX 6800 XT
- SSD: WD SN570 512GB
- HDD: Seagate Baracuda 3TB
- PSU: Corsair RM850x
This time I gave it the best treatment. Therermalright Fans everywehre. Oh yes, I added RGB lighting, even tho I can’t see it, as you might have noticed, this case has got no side windows.
At the end of the day, this is just a PC, it cannot compete with most majar PC. But for mostly nostalgia reason. I kept convincing myself this is my best options.
This is possibly the worst valued computer in my life, but was it worth it? probably yes.
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