Am I the only knucklehead who chopped off the upper and lower legs to their G5 so it would fit in a rack? I have a soundproofed rack but the damn thing was too big. Now it's perfect size to lay in sideways. Loading CDs are a drag but...the fan is so damn loud.

Hey, did you get the Marathon kit, or did you just go for it?

I'm gonna probably 'knuckle-out' soon too.

I asked Marathon about this excerpt from the G5 Setup Guide (can you believe I actually read it?)

"Warning: Apple recommends that you operate your Power Mac G5 in an upright position with the side panel in place. The computer does not operate properly when it is placed on its side or when the side panel is removed."

..and they said not to worry.

I removed the side panel because the AIRPORT slot I put in the computer has no range unless the side panel is off. As far as operating the computer sideways, I can't see how that would hurt anything.

i cut the handles off as well. it took me 2 days to work up the courage to hack off the handles on this brand new G5.. if you do it right it fits the rack very well and you can hardley notice the carnage.

With all this technology, you would think that things would be getting smaller not bigger. i.e the G3 is smaller than the G4 and the G4 is smaller than the G5. At this rate, we won't be able to fit an Apple computer through our front door in about the next 5 to 10 years! heh

LOL! thumbsup

Anyone having difficulty with their computers operating sideways? And what's the best way to load CDs?

I figure I'll just pull the DVD drive out and set it on top.

I'm sure the only reason they tell you not to turn it sideways is that they haven't 'tested' it that way.

Hey Tetness,
Just a heads up about the airport... make sure you plug in the antennae that shipped with your mac into the back of the machine. My dumb ass didn't realize that my machine shipped with one and I barely had any signal too... even when the router was 3 feet away. Then I found the t-shaped antennae and all was well.

I'm not sure if this was ever verified, or if it's been changed at all, but this thread made me remember this old thread, in which someone purportedly working at apple said that the liquid cooling rig on the G5s makes it so that they don't really work on their sides (or maybe they just don't cool properly, but that's also a significant issue)..

-dave

I had a computer tech do it for me. But I'm going to check his work to see if he did correctly. Thanks for the tip!
heh

Not all Mac G5's are liquid cooled.

I sure am glad that I waited to upgrade my G4 DP. With the Intel chips coming, I will have to upgrade everything else. I might as well wait and go through all of the bugs all at once.

I had the same stupid problem. I thought it was something they took out of my computer when I had some other stuff installed. I even used it a a screw driver to open up the batter case of my wireless keyboard. When I found out what it was, I just slapped my forehead.

Works remarkably well doesn't it?


Dante

Agh... the most beautiful computer box ever and you cut it up?!?


I understand that your needs undoubtedly superceded any aesthetic concerns and ya gotta do what ya gotta do.

But when I saw the G5 tower case for the first time it was the first time I ever had Mac envy...

heh

That would scare me. One of my buddies burned out the CPU in his noisy G4 when he was trying to figure out how to reduce the fan noise. He'd been running it with the side panel off thinking that would improve air flow and cooling -- but the ingenious devils at Apple actually engineered the case so it needs to be closed up to have the proper interior air flow.

And the only hard drive I've ever had go bad in 19 years of computer ownership was one I mounted 'vertically'... my ex-hardware guy said it was okay. Now I build and work on my own -- it's so much easier and cheaper, and it gets done right. (All that said, my USB2 drive sits 'on edge'... I may still pull off the 'foot' and lay it on its side... I have to admit it makes me nervous. [ADDENDUM: I just pulled the foot off and layed the sucker out horizontally as the god of bearings dictates.])

[QUOTE=theblue1]That would scare me. One of my buddies burned out the CPU in his noisy G4 when he was trying to figure out how to reduce the fan noise. He'd been running it with the side panel off thinking that would improve air flow and cooling -- but the ingenious devils at Apple actually engineered the case so it needs to be closed up to have the proper interior air flow.

actually it's pretty standard to keep the case door on to get proper air flow in just about any computer. it's called "convection". it's nothing to do with apple being brilliant.

most computers pull the air up from the front-bottom, to the back-top diagonally if it's a tower computer.

Perhaps the whole sideways thing has something to do with the liquid-cooled Mac's?

The thing about not running the computer sideways was in the G5 setup guide long before the liquid cooled ones were released.

I would guess that the point about the bearing in the hard drives is why they want you to run it vertically.

FWIW, I used to work for Apple until last week. 2.5 or 2.7 liquid cooled SHOULD NOT be run on their side. The cooling pump is gravity-primed when you turn it on and it may not start fluid-flow if horizontal. As far as the air-cooled G5, it should work, but the airflow was designed to rise diagonally from the front-bottom to the back-top cooling chambers when upright so it may not cool properly when sideways. I had a G4 tower that I ran in a rack sideways in my studio for 3 1/2 years and never had a problem, but that didn't have compartmentalized cooling zones like the G5 has. As long as you have it in a cooling rack like an isobox or something you should be straight. There are no mechanical issues with the non-liquid cooled g5s running horizontal and the optical drive actually has clips that are designed for horizontal operation. But I wouldn't rack it between your 1073's and your Manleys because there may still be a cooling issue.

My G5 tower is quiet as a mouse. I do not know what the issue is that extremes like this have to be gone too. Am I the only one with a quiet one or is any noise at all unacceptable? Just wondering.

I've been wondering about this myself; there seems to be a wide range of reported behaviors on the G5. But I think a lot could have a lot to do with different equipment (video cards, extra drives, DSP cards, etc) either putting extra loads on the general cooling system or adding in their own cooling fans to the mix.

With the infamous G4 Dual mirror door units, the range of reported voulmes was also wide -- but, at least in the recordings they had at g4noise.com, the range of sounds was very broad, ranging from 'regular fan noise' to hair-dryer-with-a-bad-bearing banshee noises; that seemed to suggest that the PS fans in some of those units had serious bearing issues.

Bearing assemblies are like Tolstoy's families: all happy families are alike -- but all unhappy families are unhappy in their own unique ways.

Same with bearing assemblies.

Or how about this... bearings are like apples. One bad apple spoils the barrel...

(Hmm... poor choice of analogies, that last. I meant the fruit kind. Of course, nobody these days has probably ever seen a barrel full of apples, I don't imagine. Pickles, maybe.)

Thanks for all the great advice, slutz. I will not be setting my g5 on its side. I just keep it upright in my case with the door shut, only when I'm tracking something and I need it quiet.

I would not have the balls to chop the handles off my G5. Kudos to those that did.