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Adding 2 Extra Drives to a G5

Posted by timothy on from the driven dept.

Dave Calhoun writes "The G5 tower is a work of art but Steve only provided two hard drive bays. Some of us need much more than that and don't want a stack of external firewire cases. So I found a way to add two drives inexpensively. They sit between the front of the G5 grill and the CPU fans."

9 of 53 comments (clear)

  1. Wow! by timothv · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Wow. Basic case modding. PC users have been doing this for decades, yet it's big news when a mac user does it.

  2. And...? by nystagman · · Score: 2, Insightful

    How is this news? There have been several variations on this minor mod. And this one is, well, a bit ugly, to be frank.

    --
    Theory and practice are the same in theory, but different in practice.
  3. work of art from....Steve? by WMD_88 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The G5 tower is a work of art but Steve only provided two hard drive bays.
    Wrong. Jonathan Ives only provided two hard drive bays.

    1. Re:work of art from....Steve? by Jeff+DeMaagd · · Score: 3, Interesting

      I wonder if the transition to desktop versions of Intel's dual core Yonah chips will allow for better thermal management and more space for expansion.

      One major main reason the cooling system for the G5s is so huge is that the G5s are very power hungry and run hot. I bought a dual 2.5 G5 and the amount of heat flowing from it noticably flows out from under the desk. I'm second guessing the choice of buying this thing vs. a 20" iMac especially as the heat of summer is going up. My Xeon workstations have considerably more expansion capabilities, are reasonably quiet and don't seem to pump out as much heat, too bad I don't care much for Windows or Linux anymore.

      One thing of contention now is, when all desktop CPUs go dual core, will Apple have to use two of them for their high end Macs, for four processors?

  4. drawback by toQDuj · · Score: 4, Insightful

    You do mess with your air flow this way. and it is shit ugly. the two bolts that is.
    It appears that people and manufacturers are not taking a proper air flow into consideration anymore. standard pc's are now riddled with fans blowing in all directions.
    People should take a lesson from the sun E450 type machines for instance. although they are huge beasts, the air flows from front to back, is guided neatly past all 4 processors (which do not have fans of themselves) and passes out the (3) powersupplies.
    Temperatures can be monitored from inlet to cpus to PSU's like this , and there is nothing obstructing the air flow. ever. excellent design.
    Apple does the same in their powermacs, but this man either forgot or thought 200W (100W per proc) would be easy to dissipate.

    --
    Every experiment which ends in a big bang is a good experiment.
  5. Looks like dead G5 soon. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Disrupting the air flow that goes into the CPU coolers is STUPID. Sure the fans may be spinning, but it doesn't mean they are moving the same volume of air, which leads to a hotter G5 then a dead G5.

  6. Yikes! by Hadlock · · Score: 3, Interesting
    Holy desicration of industrial design, batman!

    What happens if you need to take 100 gigs of information to a friend of client? I'll give you a hint: Taking the whole computer, or unplugging the drive from your computer and installing it in theirs isn't a good solution. You might as well just get a SATA card for the G5, and run the cables through a hole in the rear to a seperate ATX case (that you already had to gut for the drive bay holder) with it's own power supply to house the drives. At least then

    • You don't fuck up the air flow
    • you have more capacity for future drives
    • you're not taxing the G5's power supply
    • the ATX case can be used as a sort of uber fire wire (or in this case, SATA) drive, that can be plugged in to other G5s.

      oh, and you don't have those stupid bolts sticking through the front of the case.
    --
    moox. for a new generation.
  7. That thing isn't art. by generalleoff · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The G5 case is a joke. That damn thing not only limits you with only 2 internal drive bays it also dose not allow you to have a second optical drive or anything else. the front panel is all bare and boring. The last generation G4 case was a work of art.

  8. G5 Drive Bracket by walterc · · Score: 5, Interesting
    My friend and I designed this solution, and we've been having them fabricated for some time now (9+ Months).

    We've moved quite a few of them since and have received a few suggestions for improvements, but overall people have been very happy with the product and it seems to fit their needs (feedback can be read at either the G5 Drive Bracket site or eBay). It's also much cheaper then the other solutions covered in the previous slashdot article.

    --
    Walter