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ATX Case Mac G3 (Under Construction)
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How to build your own...

I had a beige G3 233MHz Desktop that had bad video so I bought a replacement logic board for it. I had a leftover G3 logic board that still works but needs a PCI video card to bypass the onboard video problems.

I had this old ATX style case I paid $5.00 for at the thrift store complete with power supply. So I decided to build what's commonly referred to as a "FrankenMac".

 

The beige G3 Macs are practically made for this. The Beige G3 logicboard was originallt designed for the Mac clone builders and is made to use with a standard ATX power supply. There's a jumper on the logicboard near the power connector you just move to the other pin for ATX compatibility. It's amazingly easy to do. 

Nice big case with room for goodies

This was a mid-size tower but hasa lots more room than the original desktop G3 for optical drives and hard drives.

And I had to add the little Apple logo pulled out of an old Mac SE that was trashed.
Where's the Floppy Drive ?
I could put a Floppy drive in the case but I plan on installing OS X when it's finished and the on-board floppy controller won't work so why bother. And who uses floppies anymore anyway ?

I added a Jaz drive and a SCSI CD-RW and have room for a DVD-ROM still. It's nice to have more than one optical for making back-up copies of CD/DVD's.
ATX Cases and Powersupplies

Any Case with an ATX powersupply will work for your Beige G3 FrankenMac. I would have used a much nicer case but unfortunately the Beige G3 is pretty limited and upgrades are fairly expensive so it didn't seem like money well spent.

And this is just a toy so who cares how fast it is. I haven't decided what to use it for yet, so at this point it is a fairly stock configuration. If I wanna dump money in something I would dump it in a REAL Mac...... This is really just a bastard child of Apple anyway....

It's not an Apple but it works....

I used the "budget" method and put a 350MHz G3 Zif CPU out aa B&W G3 in it. The G3 is now running at 333MHz due to the Beige G3's 66MHz bus speed. I could have changed some jumpers and over-clocked the processor to 366MHz or maybe even 400MHz but I underclocked it to 333MHz because it's a project and I din't want any possible instability issues while putting it together.

Any Apple G3 or G4 Zif processor wil work in the Beige G3 with the correct jumper settings. Apple CPUs and aftermarket CPU upgrades for the Beige G3, All-in-One G3, B&W G3 and Yikes G4 will work in the Beige G3. Those moels all used the Zero-Insertion-Force type processors and are interchangable. FYI- The B&W G3 was deliberatly blocked by firmware from using a G4 Zif because Apple was selling a Yikes G4 at the time for more money and didn't want it to cut the G4's sales. Luckily the aftermarket G4 Zif makers developed a Firmware update that removes the G4 CPU block from the B&W G3's firmware and allows for the use of a G4.

 

The Beige G3 boards can use G4 Zif's too but are kinda high priced. The upgrade path depends on your butget nad the beige G3 can be upgraded quite a way. I personally would not spend much on any Beige G3 due to their strange flaky behavior at times. I beleive Apple deliberately made these boards lower quality than "official" Apple parts due to their originally designed use in Mac clones.

I added 512MB's of PC100 RAM. FYI: Macs like the Beige G3 need double-sided RAM if you use 256MB sticks. Single-sided 256MB PC100 RAM can only be read as 128MB's by your Mac. But most PC100 double-sided standard PC RAM will work. You do not have to buy "Apple" RAM, which always costs more. In fact there are many standard PC components that work just fine in Macs and are much less money than the Apple branded components. XLR8yourmac.com has a great compatibility report archive that lists many non-Apple components that work in Macs.

XLR8 also has a database for processor upgrades for your Mac and tons of great information for lots of Macs.

Lotsa room inside !
I wanted to put a fan inside the case nest to the logicboard where there is a fan mounting position. But the logicboard was a little bigger than the standard ATX size board and covered part of the hole. So I decided to put a fan in the fornt of the case pulling fresh air in. The air runs across the board and is forcesd out the rear holes in the case and works well. But I could most likely get by with no fan in the case but I wantd to make sure there are no heat issues. Adding a fan to the CPU heatsink would be an alternative to the case fan.
Final thoughts

As I mentioned, any ATX case will work. Some of the board mounting riser positions may need to be changed to accomodate the Beige G3 logicboard. Figuring out how to cover the rear of the case where the ports are was the only hard part of this project. It can be done many ways or even left open but open is not advised for dust and animal hairs, etc.

 

I have used cardboard, heavy photo mounting board, Aluminum tape and of course....Duct tape the wonder tape to cover holes in cases. I don't care what it looks like becasue nobody sees the back of the case. It really does not matter what you use as long as it seals the holes so it's up the the builder and how much tuiem he want's to spend making a piece to fit. Metal would be nice but I did't want to spend a lot of time on this because the final product will not be anything special. I just wanted to do the ATX case conversion and see how hard it was and it is fairly easy and a novice could do it.

You can have your own FrankenMac that easy !
If you have any questions or comments feel free to email me.