With our m.2 SSDs mounted on the motherboards themselves, both of the drive bays were free for expansion. Luckily these components were designed at a time when Apple actually allowed people to open their computers up and swap out parts, so they still work with today’s optical drives and HDDs. So we decided from the beginning not to cut out the top shelf, and to retain both the optical drive bay and the two 3.5” drive bays. We wanted to keep the design of the cases as close to the originals as possible. Luckily Russell was up to the task.Īnd here we have our modified cases, ready to begin accepting new parts. While the other models have jumper cables that can be easily attached to modern motherboards, this one has to be soldered. For reasons unknown, this specific model had a different type of front panel switch. One of the machines we were modifying was a rarer “Late 2005” model. We went through an insane amount of cutting wheels grinding down the aluminum. Next we cut out the backs of the cases to accommodate our new backplates and I/O shield. Like a lot of people who do G5 mods, we used “ATX Low 120” kits from The Laser Hive, which were simple to work with and removed a lot of guesswork and extra labor from the project.įirst, we stripped the G5s of all their components, leaving just the bare cases. He’d never built a computer, so I helped pick out the parts for both of us. Dremels and soldering are not my forte, but I was joined on this adventure by my friend Russell, who’s an expert with electronics. I’d built 4 computers before, starting in 2012, but never a project like this, where the actual hardware needed modification. (Plus, with all the speculation in the air about ARM-based Macs, I knew that if this was gonna be one of the last Hackintoshes I ever built, I’d be kicking myself if I hadn’t gone all out.)
And while scouring Craigslist one day, I came upon two working-condition G5s for a song and thought, if not now, then when? So I knew I needed to build a new workstation. When my college sent us home early because of the pandemic, I lost access to a high-powered desktop computer, one of the most vital components of my livelihood. Even Apple must have loved it because they kept it in production for ten years, a lifetime for them. Whether by rose-tinted nostalgia or the effects of advertising on the 6-year-old brain, the design of the G5 to me represents the pinnacle of conventional desktop computer construction. It’s been a longtime dream to build a Hackintosh in an old Powermac G5 case.
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