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| The Complete Sawtooth G4 Mod |
| Written by JJ Arthurs | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Monday, 04 September 2006 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 This article contains several different mods all done on the same machine. Some have been seen before, and some have not. The time span for all these mods was almost 6 months from when i first got this G4 until now. I will show you some of the mods i have done in full detail with pictures for you all to see. First is the underglow mod: My next door neighbor bought a 4 wheel quad, and after ripping it apart, he gave me a set of LED lights that came off of it. So after doing some research on what the lights were, i figured i would spice up my Sawtooth a little. The LED lights are 6 (3 across in 2 rows) and they hook up via 12 volt. he gave me the LED's, the fuses and all the wiring for them. So, i decided to start the mod. Here i double sided taped them to the bottom of my case, and zap strapped the wires so they go into the bottom of my case nicely.  After rerouting the wires so they go to the top of my tower, i stripped the wires so that they show the red and black wires.  Here are some of the wires and the endcap that i will be using for this mod.  Here i attached the end caps for the fuses so that if there is a surge of power, i blow the fuses first and not the LED's.  Here is a shot of the other end caps for the fuses completed.  Here is a shot of the fuses together and ready for the end power plug.  I used the end plug from an old PC motherboard and filed it down so that it would mate up with the 4 plug 12v that sits above my power supply. I also hot glued the wires to the plug so that i wouldn't cause a short anywhere. The hot glue is rubber, so no conductors.  Here is a shot of everything put together and ready for the covers to be put on. I like how this looks so neat and tidy.  After puttung the case handles and case side back on, this is how the computer looks in the dark turned off.  Here is what the computer looks like after it comes to life and the lights turn on.   Altold, this mod took me about 30 min to complete. Now i have a pimped out computer with a car underglow look. Second is the CPU heatsink mod i did: What i wanted was for my CPU to run cooler and any other CPU's that i put in later. Why you ask, doesn't Mac have superior cooling than a regular PC? Well, to a point it does, but i wanted better. Parts used for this mod was a 40mm fan from an old external SCSI enclosure, a PC molex 24W connector, 2 inch and a half long screws and my original heatsink.  I took out the wires from the 24W PC molex and cut them right at the base of the metal. I did the same with the SCSI 40mm fan.  From there i soldered the wires to the metal nubs i kept from the 24W molex.  After the soldering, i put the wires back into the connector and it's hooked up via 12V.  I then screwed the fan onto the heatsink and routed the wires so they wouldn't dangle out where they could get pinched.  Then i installed the heatsink as pictured, plugged the fan into an unused molex and turned on the machine.  When i turned on my machine, i noticed that it seemed faster. I'm not sure if that's due to the heat being blown off of the heatsink or the fact that my machine had time to cool down for 15 minutes. Either way, it seems to be twice as fast as before. Also for some odd reason, i seem to smell a burnt rubber smell coming from somewhere. I checked the Mac and no smell from that. I am just wondering it it's coming from outside. But in the meantime, i will pull out the wires that i put into the heatsink just in case.
Third is the top fan mods 1 & 2:
Part 1Well, due to my sawtooth running real hot with the fans and all, my GPU and hard drives got to a nice toasty 60 degrees Celsius. NOT GOOD!! So i decided to take a page from Aqua-Macs MDD and Quicksilver mods. A dual fan on top for exhaust. Yes my cutting isn't the straightest, nor is it the best, but i like it and it gets the job done. This is a pic during the process. I used the fans for the 4 hole template and i used a jigsaw for cutting out the center holes.  Here is the finished product in running order. Now my hard drives are at a constant 40 degrees celcius and my GPU is at a constant 44. Better than the 52 when i first put it in.  Ok, now we know what the old system looked like and how it was while running with my comp. Well now see in full illustration on the new and improved!!! Part 2 Well, here is some of the parts i got today. All told, these parts cost me $60 CND. Not too bad for mod pieces. Everything consists of 2 Cooler Master 80mm purple led silent fans (22dB), 2 Mutant Mods Dragon laser cut fan grills, 1 power supply dampener kit (Vantec), and 2 80mm dampener kit (Vantec).  Here i had to clean off some of my desk for workspace.  Here is a shot of the old fans in place. Yes that is pretty ugly for cutting and I have modded several computers before this one. Well that is about to remedied.  Here is a shot of the inside looking at the fans and how they pull air from the rest of the case.  This is a lovely shot of my 450W power supply. Yes, this is getting a revamp also.  First I had to take the side panel off (again) in order to get to the power supply and also be able to take off the top plate of my tower.  Here is a shot of what my one side looks like. At least none of the wires here are bare exposed and none of them get pinched or get in the way.  Next I had to take off the handles in order to take off the top plate.  In order to take off the top plate, you must gently pull back and it will release the 6 clips holding the top plate in place.  This is a shot of what the top plate looks like from the reverse side.  Well, time for these noisy pieces of crap to hit the garbage. I have no idea of how old they are, and I really couldn't care. Garbage time!!!  Here are the new fans with the dampeners fitted in place.  Here is a mockup of how they will sit on the top plate. Fans and fan grills.  A shot of the fans in place. Using standard 1cm bolts and just tighten them in place with a nut.  Here is what everything looks like from the back.  And now on to the power supply. Oh boy, this is going to be fun.  In order for me to get to the power supply, I had to remove the front CD cover, and the 2 screws holding the drive cage in place. Then just pull the cage out a bit and then you can access the power supply.  Unfortunately with all my wires set in place this is how much room I had to play with. Here you see the power supply dampener in place.  Here is a shot of the back cover back on and the power supply back in place.  Here is a shot with the power wires in place. Yes, kind of messy, but hidden by the side panel. Nothing to see here.  A shot of the top in place and the handles back on the comp. Don't mind the G3 B&W handle, the actual clear handle was broken when I bought the machine.  Here is a pic with everything in place, all plugged in and showing all it's wonderful splendor. Yes, they are purple, don't ask...  A dark shot. I like this, the red, blue and purple mix really well. Fourth is internal cleanup mod I noticed that each time I opened up my case, I always saw the rats nest of wires. So I took the liberty of fixing all that. Here you see the wires and the new resting place for the 120mm fan without the metal housing.  I had recently installed a 6 port USB 2.0 card to run my internal Bluetooth and wireless internet adapters.  Here I hot glued the wires to the case to clean everything up a bit.  Here I glued the wireless and Bluetooth adapters to the outside of the metal housing.   Here is a nice shot of the 120mm fan zapped strapped to the case. It is held in by friction fit and it still spins. I removed the metal shroud to make more room inside the case.  Here is a shot of the extra diagonal pieces to hold future cold cathode lights.  The same was done to the previous side of the case also.  Here is a shot of the old inverter box that used to run a red cathode a long time ago. I think it still works. It still has the on/off switch still attached to the back of the case.  These are the modded screws that hold on the side panels and case handles and feet.   Here is the Mac with power turned on and lights on.   Some nice shots with power on and lights turned off.   Here is a couple of shots showing how bright it gets on the inside with the 80mm fans going.   Well, this is my Sawtooth for now. As you can tell, some mods have been performed before, and some are still to come. The ones I don't have pictures for is the cutting of the metal case, the modding of the power supply to work with a Sawtooth G4 and the front red LED mod. If you would like more info on these mods, feel free to visit XLR8yourmac, Riscx and Aqua-Mac. The mods that I won't be able to get done in time for the 2006 Great Mod Challenge would be the clear G4 side panels and the dual cold cathode lights in the case. Reason why these mods might not be done is due to lack of funds. Well, here it is, my baby, my pride and joy. The specs for this machine is as follows:
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