Today at work, I was given something unusual - an empty Power Mac G5 shell. Some of the fans and wiring are present, but no electronics. I've been trying to think of what I can do with it, and am running dry. Anyone have some ideas? I've been thinking of possibly buying some PC bits and building a pc to go in there, but it'll be a while before I'll be able to talk my fiancee into letting me do that.
Now, before anyone gets upset, I must note that there were some dings on the case, and the G5's owner decided to have the enclosure replaced - so NO G5's were harmed in the process of getting this case. I'm open to all sorts of ideas.
why put a pc in it when it can be graced with yet another mac!
Try a 1.42GHz CPU and board. Then you got a classic machine G5
leave the side off and make it into an aquarium.
put a IIfx motherboard in there, the power of yesterday with the stylings of today
go all out, mount an apple iigs in it!
All out retro would be to mount a Replica 1 SE in it.
I like the idea of a IIfx. Or maybe a Quadra 950
John
Anodize? Put in a Intel Mac mini and an external drive or two... I bet burning it would give it an interesting appearance... then clear spray paint over it...
Or better yet, a whole array of mini's with an appropriately sized KVM switch. That'd be one sweet looking cluster!
I wonder how many mini's could comfortably fit inside a G5 case?
I'm guessing between 10 and 12 minis. ooh! this sounds like it'l' be a fun game!
John
I'd put a PC in it. Why have a sexy new case, and put some obsolete hunk of junk in it?
Junk is in the eye of the beholder, obsoletion is lack of imagination
... Like a PC? ...
Put an AppleCrate in it! Cluster computing cira 1985!
http://members.aol.com/MJMahon/CratePaper.html
Nostalgia vs. State of the Art... hmmm...
Send it to me and i'll build my Beige G4 into it!
I just got one of these too - came with a G5 power supply I purchased off eBay for a client. I'm planning to resell the case on eBay - should go for a reasonable price (hopefully $80-100).
I think I would do just that, but try to get OSX86 running on it so it would be a Mac again anyway. Even though the motherboard is not a real Mac, the case is. Or possibly a Linux tweaked to be as Mac-like as possible, but that would be a bit cheap.
I like the Mini stack idea, though.
I had the opportunity to own an empty G5 case once. I wanted to somehow put shelves in it for a classy storage unit, or make it into a beer fridge somehow. I never had the time, so I gave it away.
Once I knew a guy who had converted several large cube-ish Sun rack mount containers into liquor cabinets. It was surprisingly hip.
The VAXbar is more hip.
http://toyvax.glendale.ca.us/~vance/vaxbar.html
Wow, that VAXBar is awesome. I was working on a similar project last summer with one of those ancient giant PC cases, but sadly, it never even neared completion.
niiiiiiiice... i want one.