The problem - part A. My new, expensive Antec case for my new PC is ugly. And for PC cases - it's not that bad. But I still hate it.

The problem - part B. My amazing Dual 800Mhz Power Mac G4. I love my Mac (it trounces my p4 PC) but sometimes I have to use a Windows box so I can't trash Windows and PCs completely. Solution? Make it into a cool Mac too!!

I hit up Ebay (it's this cool site where....) for a Quicksilver case just like my Dual 800 has. Well, almost - this is from a Dual 1Ghz and there are a few small differences. However, after I'm done cutting, it won't matter.

Stripping the ugly PC. This isn't a bad case really - for a beige box type deal.

Parts pulled from the PC - note the PNY video card.

Checklist: Yes, I've got my mug of coffee. I'm ready to go.

Wrecking it up old school like. Don't need no stinking grounding strips or plates... or....

Seeing what needs to be done to mount the motherboard.

Why in the world would I need guides for a FULL LENGTH card (except in a Mac)? They have got to go. Same with that lame airport antenna. It's history!

Airport wires gone. Sizing things up...

Making way for PC style ports. I originally planned to cut just the black lines - but I took all of the plate out. Once I started thinking about P4 heat - ventilation seemed good.

Yank... twist and pull. Removing the old motherboard standoffs. Nothing like a PC.

Making way for the power supply mains and power switch. The plugs are in different spots - but the Mac and PC power supplies are the same exact size otherwise. Made for an easy swap here.

Again - once I thought about how much hotter a P4 is than a G4, I started marking away for cool air in vents at the bottom and hot air vents out at the top of the case.

Ditto that. More vents = true and good.

Case after cutting all my vent holes and such. One thing I did not anticipate was all the metal shavings/dust stuck all over the inside of the case. It took a great deal of compressed air to get all of the CPU killing metal shards out of the case.

Another view of the case cutting. Did I weaken the case by chopping it all to bits? Yeah - a little. Does it matter? No. I feel better that it's got more air in and out and I can still lug it easily by the handles - so it's all good.

Mounting the motherboard. Model Rocket railbuttons from Railbuttons.com make great motherboard standoffs. Try 'em. You'll like them.

Power supply mounted. Motherboard mounted. All OK so far.

Vent holes for case and for the side of the PC power supply.

The combo drive and ZIP drive mounted with the power supply and original Mac case fan below. Cool air is good on cheap, hot PC parts.

Hard drive mounted in standard Apple drive bay. Ready to rock.

OH SWIZZLE STICK!! DANG!! $%@#!!! The CD drive hits the CPU heatsink!!! NO!!

@#$% squared. Even without the heatsink the CD drive hits the memory slots. No way, no how is this case going to close with a CD drive in it. AHH!!!!!!!! DANG!!

I remember seeing a web page where a guy mounted his where the big fan is in the pic above - sideways. I quickly said - "no" and mounted it flat in the bottom of the case. I refused to cut the front of my beautiful Mac case, so I made the drive tray come out the back. Sucks - but you know - you can't plan ahead for this stuff. Well, maybe you can - but I didn't.

The nice thing is a quick soldering job had the original and very nice Mac case switches working my PC motherboard. The nice white LED in the power switch became the hard drive activity light.

Several people have asked how I did this but I cannot 100% remember. Short of taking it all apart, this is all I can tell you.

You need a multimeter that tests resistance at a minimum. If it has a diode/transistor checker in it, even better. The switches are just switches, so you just need to use your meter and figure out which wires are shorted when you press each switch. Hook the big one up to the power switch connector on your motherboard. Small one to reset.

Now, the LED diode is hooked up through some chips on the board (at least on quicksilver - it's what makes the light pulse when asleep) so you need to go straight to where it is mounted on the board and solder in wires for the LED. I used mine as the HD activity light, but you could wire it to the power LED in a PC instead. Your call. If your meter has a didode check, it will beep when you have the proper + and - connection on the LED. Again, that depends on your meter. It's not as hard as you think... take some time and you can do it.

You will need some PC wires with the motherboard connectors from an old case of course. Or something that can be used to connect the front assembly to the pc motherboard.

So, the switch is basically ready out of the mac... add 2 wires to the LED, splice with PC motherboard connectors and your are done.

Since I couldn't mount my CD combo drive in the optical bay - I mounted the floppy there instead. I did it quick like with FREE USPS priority mail tape. It's one of those jobs that's temporary that worked so well it probably won't ever get changed. That tape is some sticky stuff. Did I mention it's free?

Another glitch in the system. Remember the PNY video card I told you to note? Well, it's a GeForce 4 Ti 4600 128MB. It's a great card. And it totally flaked out and just put random garbage on the screen. Randomly. I tried to take a picture of the garbage above and it worked. As soon as I stopped - it was jacked. I went over this with a monocle for a long time looking for a cold solder joint. Never could find it. Too small. Time for a new 256MB Nvidia...

New video card installed and system is purring like a kitten. Shown here in full mod glory running Apple iTunes on Windoze XP. Yeah - that Mac is running XP. In PC terms, it's as good as it gets. This will keep me semi-happy when I have to pry myself from my real Mac. Did I mention PCs suck? Just buy a Mac and be done with it. OK, I said it.

Blue LEDs behind the floppy drive cover.

Blue HAL like front speaker.

The anti gravity blue light emits from underneath the case. Looks good. Might just have to add this trick to my real Mac.

I even put my little official "yes I really did buy Windoze" sticker on the case!

The finale. XP running Apple iTunes on a PC in a Mac case. What's the world coming to?