Really Cool G4
Written by Jason Schrader   
Wednesday, 12 January 2005
Want to make a cool G4 with out changing your stock case or adding a bunch of expensive fans?  Read on.

You've probably seen more articles on cooling and quieting the MDD g4 than any other in Apple history.  This is how I modded my G4 to run COOL and keep the case in stock form.  This is a June 2003 MDD that came with dual 1.25 cpus,256 MD of ram and an 80 GB hard drive.

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Lets look at what needs to be cooled and how.

The CPU - Apple Copper G4 heatsink with Arctic Silver 5 compound and an 80mm case fan on the outside of the case (Because the stock fan only cools half of the heatsink).  I decided to overclock it too, to 1.42 per cpu.  Its a little nerve racking but not too bad.  I used the guide on www.bitsandpieces.info.

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The Graphics Card - Ram heatsinks were installed and they work.  I have it overclocked and plan to add a heatsink/fan to the GPU.

http://macmod.com/images/stories/mods/IMG_0466.JPG

The Hardrives - I have 3 hard drives.  I put my main HD in the 2nd optical bay and removed my combo drive.  I added a Zalman heatpipe cooler to it and the optical fan blows across it. The first drive in my SATA RAID 0 is in the front bay and needs no extra cooling because the 120mm fan draws air across it.  The second drive is in the rear bay, set backwards with a heatsink/fan on it.  I removed one fan to help with the noise.  The remaining fan cools the chips

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The DVD-R/W - Today one drive is plenty.  You can purchase a fast universal DL for cheap.  I removed the back plate to help with airflow.  I am still not sure if that is better than leaving it on.  I will update this.

The Power Supply -  I removed the useless front speaker to aid in cool air flow to it.  I am looking into a clear air deflector to aid in cooling.  I also put in a pci fan to evacuate upper case hot air.

RAM -  I used heatspreaders here which work great.  The aluminum spreaders have proven in tests that they are more efficient than copper.

http://macmod.com/images/stories/mods/IMG_0430.JPG

My Desk -  I have cut holes in the bottom to aid in cool air flow to the bottom case entrance.

http://macmod.com/images/stories/mods/IMG_0471.JPG

So how did it turn out you ask.  I have done a battery of tests and my conclusion it that these are very effective.  It runs cooler than factory stock and is much faster too.  My final temps are 50.4 degrees C for the CPUs and 37.0 degrees C for the main HD.  My room temp was 21.0 degrees C.  This is under heavy use.  Under normal daily use it is at 46/32 C.  I am unable to test my SATA drives as of yet becuase I cannot find the sensors.  Of course it runs louder, but I will address that in part 2 of my mod.  I also have some plans to make the cooling even better, so I will update those too as time goes on.

My real world test software included:  Photoshop 7, DVDSP 1.5, AOL, iTunes, iMovie, mpeg append suite.  I also use CPU Monitor, Hardware Monitor, and a manual temp gauge.  Using xBench, I am in G5 territory with a score of 185.46.  You can see it on XBench site under Maestro.

 -Maestro



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