A Tour Of My MDD G4

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Over the last few weeks I have had a ton of help from various forum members with upgrading my G4. I've always enjoyed taking a look at the various setups that people have, so I thought I would take a few photos and show you what you guys have helped me make so far!

0724101218.jpg


When I got this MDD, this secondary bay was empty and I hated reaching to the back for USB ports, so I purchased a 3.5/5.25 front side 2.0 USB card. It has green LED lights that glow when a port is active, and works wonderfully for adding a few new songs onto my shuffle. I'm sure it will also come in handy with thumb drives as well

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Here we have the rear of the computer where you can see the new USB 2.0 ports as well as the FW800/USB ports. I also added 2 PCI exhaust fans to help keep the case nice and cool. On the advice of some of the forum members, I decided regular cleanings would be better than going crazy and replacing all the fans.

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This is the hard drive bay closest to the heatsink. Two bays can fit here, however I opted to keep one in the lower bay and place one here (to keep one HD away from the heatsink incase of heat issues). In it's place I purchased a fan which blows directly on the heatsink to help keep it cool.

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Here is another view of the inside. You can see the two pci fans, usb cord from the front side ports, and new video card (I went with the ATI 9200 128mb).

A big thank you to everyone out there, hopefully I can help some people as much as you've all helped me!
 

pigoo3

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That is a pretty well upgraded MDD computer!!!:)

Especially with all of the USB ports (front & rear)...and those PCI fans are pretty neat as well. Do you know what the computers temps were before & after installing those PCI fans?

And what is the deal with the fan(s) that you installed in the hard drive bay to blow onto the cpu heat sinks?...I don't think I've seen that before. is this an actual part made for MDD computers...or something you customized?

Wow...you really added a lot of fans to this computer!!! Stock MDD computers were known for being very loud (lots of fan noise). I would think with all of those additional fans it might even be louder...unless the extra fans keep the computers temp low enough...so the stock fans stay at a low rpm.

Thanks for the photos,:)

- Nick
 
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I read alot about these systems being REALLY loud due to fan noise, however even with these added fans I barely hear it. The exhaust fans really move the air out of the back pci slots and when you put your hand back there and feel the heat coming out its worth any minute sound I hear lol

The fans by the heatsink/hd I found on ebay by searching HD fan, I found alot like these, they seem to be universal.

As far as temperatures go, I just added the copper heat sink with AS5 in replacement of the old aluminum heat sink and am currently sitting at 123 on the CPU and 94 on the HD. Its 84 in my apartment. Before I was at 133 on the CPU and around 104 on the HD, so it looks like I dropped 10 degrees =)
 

pigoo3

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Thanks for the info. That 10 degree drop might be all that's needed to keep the stock fans from hitting high rpm's. Like you said...the MDD G4's were known for being loud...and they wouldn't get that reputation if it wasn't true.;)

Since your apartment is 84°F...your MDD will probably run even cooler in the Wintertime when your apartment temp may only be 65-68°F.

Definitely still a very useable computer in these days of G5's & Intel Macintosh's!!!:)

- Nick
 
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I find this MDD handles all my needs. I use it everyday for video, my ipod, web browsing, its great! Its so hot out I'm sure it'll run cooler in the next coming months.

I had a dual 2.0 macbook but didn't need the portability any longer and sold it. This is a more than ample replacement =)
 

pigoo3

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I find this MDD handles all my needs. I use it everyday for video, my ipod, web browsing, its great! Its so hot out I'm sure it'll run cooler in the next coming months.

I had a dual 2.0 macbook but didn't need the portability any longer and sold it. This is a more than ample replacement =)

Yes...your MDD is definitely a capable computer. The only limitation is if you needed to run software that requires OS 10.6 and/or an Intel cpu.

The only thing I do that "needs" a newer computer is for running Parallels...to run Windows stuff. Otherwise I would be fine with something like your MDD.:)

- Nick
 
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Yeah I run into an intel only application now an then, learning to watch for them is a little weird after having an intel mac.
 

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