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ATX Power Supply Adapter for Macs?
Swift Guru asks: "I've seen many comments on Slashdot stating that people would love to try out Mac OS X if only they could afford the hardware. Many roll their own Macs, but unfortunately have to rely on proprietary Apple power supplies (or hack together their own), a caveat that hinders Mac geeks from delving into the wide world of case modding (mmm.. watercooling), and prevents PC users from using familiar ATX case hardware. The PPC platform requires its own processors and logic boards, but last I checked computers all used the same kind of electrons. Hardware hacking is supposedly the next killer app, so why isn't there a simple adapter solution to allow current Macs to use ATX power supplies? Or is there?"
Keep in mind that it is also Apple's SOFTWARE and industrial hardware designs are part of the experience as well. Not to mention the "it just works" comments from so many "switchers" would be hard to duplicate after hours of reading message boards and piecing together hardware.
Even if this works, the best it does is offer another option to run an OS. It will not duplicate owning an Apple.
I only came here to do two things; kick some ass, and drink some beer...looks like we're almost out of beer.
Calling it the "experience" is just a pretentious way of saying that Macs are easy to use. (Maybe it also covers paying premium prices for hardware just because the case looks cool. Yawn.) I can't believe it's that hard to duplicate a Mac's ease-of-use features. But even if it is, so what? People who build their own computers are sophisticated enough to live with that. And lots of us would be very happy to see a low-budget way to play with software that only runs on the Mac platform.
there are like 10 voltages that go into the motherboard, I don't know for sure but I think on macs they're different.
taking the voltage down is easy, you can use a diode or something like that, stepping it up when needed is a different story (we're talkin an adapter half the size of a whole power supply)
computer power supplies have to be really spot on, otherwise everything blows up.. anyways, you really should compare apple power supplies to GOOD ones in the PC world, because to do otherwise is playing down the fact that cheap power supplies suck
If you feel comfortable case modding or even switching cases i dont see why you need a PS adapter. The wires are all colour coded and intividual interfaces are the same(wire heads). just remove the wire ends from one plug and insert them into another. I havent looked closely at either my mac's (qsilver 2002 dual 1ghz) or my athlon's (dual 2ghz tyan) to see which has more wires. Also since macs use standard agp and pci companents you know at least that most of the voltages are going to be the same. Of course now this question is going to bug me till i pull my service source cds out and look at the ps/ wiring on a mac.
Bad Panda! No Bamboo for you! In matters of importance ACs will not be responded to. Want to say something critical,OK
Step 1: Figure out how to get an OSX capable motherboard & processor w/o the bulky case, power supply, HD, RAM package they all seem to come with. Step 2: Worry about stupid crap like why I can't just buy an adapter to use one of the many ATX power supplies I've got lying around. Step 3: No, dude! This is HARDWARE you want hardware hacking - then hack it! The specs are online, it has been done.
Apple embraced the idea of using some commodity parts. This is evidenced by the Apple / ATX PS jumper you can find on the Beige G3 motherboards (specifically the "Gossamer")
You can flip that jumper from 1-2 to 2-3 and slam your ATX supply on there, and you're juiced and ready to go!
Slashdot still doesnâ(TM)t support Unicode after it was added to the HTML standard in 1997.
since i was wondering after my previous post (above) here is the link for the p/s with voltages and pinouts.
:)
posted anonymously to supress karma whoring
xlr8yourmac.com is probably the place to go for something like this. They've got articles on converting a Beige G3 and converting a Blue & White G3.
Apple's machines seem to use different voltages than what's on a standard ATX power supply, at least in some machines.
Step #3 - ATX Power supply
[Reminder: The ATX supply does not have 28VDC used on Gigabit G4 and later Towers for ADC. The pinout of the power supply connector/motherboard connector on the Gigabit and later G4s is not the same as earlier Sawtooth models. See my notes above.-Mike]
Lars T.
To the guy who modded me down from perfect to terrible Karma - Apple haters still suck
mmm.. watercooling
Why the hell would you want to watercool a machine that runs so cool it doesn't even require a CPU fan?
My $2000 PC's power-supply exploded after two years of use, seriously fucking everything up. That's why I have an iBook now. The funny thing is that I think I spent more money making the PC work the way I wanted it to (replacing broken components, upgrading, etc.) than the total cost of my iBook, which works great (although the baclight is kind of dim when it's really bloody cold). So now I've got a mac and everything is fine and dandy, except my wireless router is non-apple, from SMC, in fact. Damn thing never fucking works (with macs or PCs). One of these days I'll replace it with an airport. I will never try to save money by buying PC equipment again. If my time and sanity are worth anything, then the apple stuff is cheaper.
...one of those Universal Convertors that IBM touts in their commercial? They sound like they would work, unless you're trying to do this in Europe, I suppose.
Yep... I know I was envious of all those little nerdlets down at Tandy/Radio Shack getting LEDs and switches and speaker grilles to put on their beige (or sometimes black!) sheet metal cases. I envied them as they spent a few extra hundred dollars and all I got for my money was this G4 Cube... I mean it's pretty and small and functional and all, but it's got no temperature LCD or radio knobs or big cooling fans...
We cant mod macs? Well damn, nobody told me! I guess I need to take the window kits, paint, dremel, and all the other stuff back to the store. Contrary to popular belief, modding is all good on the mac. Every mac I own is repainted, window-kitted, and blessed by neon. For more fun, check out Applefritter.com. XLR8yourmac.com also has more. As far as power supplies go, thanks to chop shops, ebay and the like, a power supply isnt hard to come by. Its just a matter of knowing what you need. 20 pin, 22, pin, or double connector.
And YES, one can pack dual cold cathode neon into a bubble imac. and yes, it looks rockin!
I know that the older Beige G3 motherboards had a jumper on them to use a standard ATX power supply.
Apple has always had a major thing about its power supplies. This goes way back to the earliest days of the company. I was a repair tech back in the early days of the Apple II, one of the highest failure rates was the power supply. There was no reset switch so people liked to flip the switch on and off to reset the A2 when it hung. This resulted in a ton of switch failures, and of course the PS was a closed module, and being an official Apple repair center, we couldn't just replace the $3 switch, we had to swap the $80 power supply. The result was a lot of disgruntled customers.
Since that time, Apple has always overkilled the design of their PS units. They're always more reliable than anything you'd find in a pee cee. While I'm no longer a HW tech, I've dealt with hundreds of macs since '84 and I've never even HEARD of a unit with a PS failure.
Most of that type of machine were truly abused. My neighbors all lost their power supplies on theirs because it was so easy to stack crap on to of and next to the squarish design, blocking the vents. Our Mac Plus, 512K, and Classic all are still up-and-running (ok, I trashed the 512k last year) because we didn't run them in direct sunlight or with the vents blocked.
Granted, it wasnt good thinking on apple's part, but most of the PSU deaths were user error in my opinion. Not blocking air vents seems like common sense to me, guess it's just how I was raised.
"Sometimes, I think Trent just needs a cup of hot chocolate and a blankie." -Tori Amos on Nine Inch Nails