Cool things to do with an empty Power Mac G5 enclosure?

April 16, 2008 1:49 PM

I've had a bare Power Mac G5 case in my office since last summer (original water-cooled quad processor melted down, needing a pile of parts and netting me an extra case in the process). What should I do with this spare cheesegrater case? I don't need a PC (Boot Camp/Parallels is doing me fine), otherwise I'd try swapping in a PC mobo/PS. A MacQuarium is probably not going to work too well. What would you do if you had a spare aluminum beast like this? Giant FireWire case with stacks of drives? Humorous solutions are welcome, something that would amuse fellow geeks if it were in my office.
posted by porn in the woods to Computers & Internet (9 answers total)

Best answer: I'd mod it into a small bookcase. People think it contains information, and lo, it does.

Alternately, I might use it as a breadbox (making sure holes are properly covered of course) or some other kitchen storage (spice rack?).
posted by ocherdraco at 1:52 PM on April 16, 2008

hinge the top and make it a trashcan
posted by bonaldi at 2:23 PM on April 16, 2008

Build a hackintosh for a fraction of the price of a mac...
posted by [insert clever name here] at 3:02 PM on April 16, 2008

Response by poster: I'd mod it into a small bookcase. People think it contains information, and lo, it does.

Now we're talking. I can showcase my tech books in this big metal husk with a minimum of modding effort. It's deep enough to shelve most everthing I've got. Plus, the unit's always there for future hacking. I'll give it a shot and post some pics if I get it off the ground.
posted by porn in the woods at 3:55 PM on April 16, 2008

Take a small round file, in some hard steel. Insert the tip of the file into a hole in the mesh. Torque upward. File the inside-bottom side of the now-bent hole. Repeat for all other holes.

Grate cheese.
posted by Netzapper at 3:57 PM on April 16, 2008 [2 favorites]

I like the bookshelf idea too. But going with the MacQuarium idea you could keep some sort of small animal in it (MacHerpetarium?).
posted by hattifattener at 6:00 PM on April 16, 2008

My store has several of these cases. We made a nice, coffee-table-ish display out of two with some nice glass on top and lights inside.
posted by now i'm piste at 9:30 PM on April 16, 2008

I would use it as an external storage device / drive enclosure. Not exactly sure how you'd best divide up the space inside into bays, but you could cram an awful lot of storage into one of those, and the front-to-back airflow would be pretty unrestricted. Plus the case itself is a nice heat sink.

You could either just put the drives and minimal logic in it, along with cooling fans, and attach it to the host computer using ESATA or SAS or SCSI or whatever you prefer ... or, for more Geek points, you could put some sort of SFF motherboard in there and maybe set it up as some sort of SAN. The latter would make it more of a standalone device.

I think it'd look neat to have it sitting next to an actual Power Mac (Mac Pro, whatever they are now), acting as your storage device.

Yeah, it'd do okay as a table leg or piece of modern art, but the geek in me chafes at not using all that heat-conducting material and air vents for the purpose they're so clearly meant for.
posted by Kadin2048 at 9:49 PM on April 16, 2008

With the price of aluminum these days, and the weight of a G5 case? dis-assemble the thing and sell it for scrap.
posted by Wild_Eep at 3:48 AM on April 17, 2008