Information is provided for purposes of entertainment only. I am not and cannot be held responsible for any harm you may or may not do to your computer, based on information obtained from these pages.
 |
So
about three months ago, on my birthday, I started my quest to build
a G4 from parts. I found a Gigabit board on ebay for about $270 ( looking
back, I wish I had taken the DA lobo that I had seen at the very same
time ) and asked for it as a gift. I expected to find a good deal on
a Sonnet Duet card and be able to mount it in my B&W G3 case. This
never happened, so I was stuck with a Gigabit board and nothing to do
with it for about two months.
One day I'm sitting at work, taking a short break, and looking on ebay
for parts for the G4 that would never be, when I ran into a QS 867 CPU
that hadn't even been bid on. The day before I had lost out on an AGP
case with all of five seconds to go so I was a little reluctant to even
do anything with it for a while. I bid the minimum and walked away.
Three
days later I am looking at the page and getting nervous...I'm losing...should
I even buy it?...what if it doesn't work?...what if it blows up?...most
importantly, WHAT IF I DON'T GET IT!? As if this wasn't bad enough,
I was then told to go out on an appointment, which if went longer than
half of the alotted time, would make me unable to get back to the auction.
I wasn't worried...I'm a good technician...I could fix a PC or Mac blindfolded,
on ice skates, dodging rush hour traffic, while listening to country
music...well maybe not the country music...
Thirty minutes passed...
...If I wasn't freaking out before, I am now. It's approaching noon
PST ( I am on EST ) and I have yet to resolve the issue which has me
on the call. I'm getting desperate too...the problem is due to the net
not working in the room...plus my watch doesn't even have the exact
time, and I don't remember how much it's off by or in which direction...oh
yes, I'm screwed.
With three minutes left, I had resigned myself to the fact that I would
not be winning the auction and told the customer that I would have to
take the two computers into the shop...
...When I realized that I had totally forgotten about my assigned laptop,
which is able to get to the web in this room (wireless). Although with
one minute left showing on my watch, I wasn't even sure that there would
be an auction to bid on.
The thinkpad booted (its situations such as these that make me wish
I was better under pressure) and I hurried to the site. Thirty seconds
to go as far as my watch was concerned. On to the auction page, which
I had to search for also. I got to the page and saw there was all of
TWELVE SECONDS LEFT IN THE AUCTION!!!!
Oh no...I was not logged in...but I've never logged into anything faster
in my life...had to confirm my bid (as a side note to ebay: with five
seconds left in an auction, bid confirmation is not a feature I value)...
...The page reloaded and actually had the balls to say zero seconds....
...I reloaded...
...I had won!!!....
Total
was $210 with shipping...best money I've ever spent. The next week I
found a Gigabit power supply for $134 including shipping, and a bare
G4 Yikes chassis for about $100...which is the only thing I think I
payed too much for...in the future, if anyone else shows me a picture
of an AGP case and sends me a Yikes case, I will fly out to where ever
it is they live...and MAKE THEM LISTEN TO THIS STORY!...so be forewarned
ebay sellers...I'm crazy;)
So
here's that G4, pretty much complete.
|
Gigabit Model Logicboard with QuickSilver CPU Module
Here's what the board looks like with the QS CPU mounted. In order to
fit the module, I had to de-solder the CD-ROM IDE connector from the
board. The QS module is much wider because of the 4th mount point, not
found on older boards.
|
12 Volt Power Connector for 4th Mount Point
The computer will not boot without 12V connected to the 4th mounting
screw of the QS module. I used a 6/32 screw, which I shortened to avoid
contact with the heatsink, and 2 nuts which I placed a crimped 12V terminal
between. The 3 other mounting screws I did not have, so I used 3 6/32
screws and 3 nuts for each to mount the module. With the 2 nuts in between
the module and the board, the mounting was perfect. Those mounting screws
are not grounded to the case.
|
Altered Chassis
I had to alter the chassis in order for the case to close. I used tin
snips to cut through the "upper deck" and sized it to about
an inch or so larger than the QS heatsink. I then had to take apart
the CD-ROM/ZIP assembly so that I could cut the ZIP assembly and allow
the heatsink to pass through it. I put it back together with the same
6/32 screws that I love so much:).
|
Port Cover
All I did to alter the port cover is to drill a hole for the sound port
of the Gigabit board and widen the firwire openings so that the firewire
ports would fit. There is a small gap around the firewire ports and
a space for the modem, so I will be covering them up with some spare
scrap in the future. No biggy...
|
System Profiler
Here's a picture of the screen with System Profiler open, since you
probably wouldn't believe a screen shot...hehe. The module would not
run above 800 Mhz with my 100Mhz bus. I tweaked the voltage and everything
short of changing the bus speed of the lobo.
|
Finished
So here is the finished case. I know its not as pretty as the retail
Gigabit, but I'm not spending $250 on a throbbing light:)
|
Information is provided for purposes of entertainment only. I am not and cannot be held responsible for any harm you may or may not do to your computer, based on information obtained from these pages.
