[Rowen7]

Let me thank this great forum group for steering me in the right direction in what I wanted in an old beat up mac to fix up. I purchased a old Blue and White 450mhz from eBay off a university for $140, then put $20 of sand paper, spray paint, and time and got a nice Stormtrooper Black and White case.

From what I have found on the internet there wasn't much upgrade opinions other than bigger number cooler the product is which really told me nothing. So I am on my way to pimpin' out this old B&W salvaged from a university.

Now, in the mist of everything I decided to put a guide together, and would like to start resource or mod site with pictures, guides, and suggested upgrades for older and newer macs to push their limits. I am looking for some more experienced modders to come and lend a helping hand and be part of the project. Any help would be cool from an article to staff member or maybe some graphics. In a few days when I start getting the domain and the system up as well as finishing up an article on painting a G3 B&W which I hope to get another to do horrible experiments with but I might settle for a Cube.

I'll post back shortly but if anyone is interested email me at Rowen7 at Yahoo.com.

Thanks once again!

[MORT A POTTY]

I think that would be a good idea. there really isn't any good mod site out there for Macs. www.xlr8yourmac.com is probably as close to anything we have and that mainly focuses on speeding up your Mac. www.applefritter.com has some stuff, but it's very poorly designed and... well... very poorly designed.

[Waragainstsleep]

www.macmod.com

Mostly cosmetics though.

[Rowen7]

I have been to those sites, and talked with the owner of one. In all honesty I dont believe the sites hold a higher standard for Macintosh Users.

There isn't a good site out there for Mac modifications and thats what I am hoping with some time and effort I can start to cure. I have been working with the domain ##### right now getting the system up and running. I am still debating with a few modders what the design should look like and how it should be layed out.

[MORT A POTTY]

Originally posted by Rowen7:
I am still debating with a few modders what the design should look like and how it should be layed out.

let me pick!

[Rowen7]

Right now its in the concept phase. Whether we want to use a system like mambo, or do it the hard core way and make our own.

Right now I am researching fans and overclocking the G3 B&W 450mhz. I am seeing various results in the past but feel confident if I can find a good fan and maybe better heat sink (radioshack or hopefully another brand) I could push 600mhz-700mhz. Yes, it sounds insane but hey I'm that type of guy. I heard someone do it to 650mhz with a OWC G4 that ran at 650mhz.

The begining articles I'm working on primarily deal with the Blue and White G3. I have already painted the case ''storm trooper" style as seen on mac mod and have had quite an experience finding things they forgot to mention, etc.

The second part of this B&W G3 will be overclocking the stock chip because I can. I will work on trying to get the best results. Afterwards I'll wait a month or so and get a G4 upgrade and go onto over clocking with that.

Right now, this G3 powermac is looking to be transformer with:
40gig Maxtor with controller card(until I deem SATA an option)
Radeon 9200 PCI (which i might over clock that and add cooling)
3 more sticks of crucial ram to make it 1gb
Pioneer 108 16x DVDburner
Zip 750mb
PCI USB card (5 port)
And Processor as it comes along

Once this G3 is declared... 'pimp' I will go onto getting a G4 Cube and probably stuff many things into it, get powerlogix case, etc.

As you can tell this takes a bit of money, that is why I am looking for others who have the iMacs, laptops, and etc to help out. I am a writer, and I use to help run the original online gaming community. Since I have converted to mac, I kind of want to fill that free time I put into that community into the Mac Community.

Thanks for listening to my tangent!

[MORT A POTTY]

believe me, I know it takes a lot of money for upgrades and such... I spent 1500 this month alone on my G4...

keep us posted on progress, I'd love for a mac mod site to actually not suck.

[Hippy_Skinplant]

I've been working on an old B&W I got from eBay too. The 2 upgrades I'd highly reccomend over all others is switch it to SATA with a controller card, and install the Powerlogix G3 1.1Ghz cpu upgrade.

[Rowen7]

Did you either of you keep Xbench results from your various upgrades?

Right now one of the concept designs is to have (although I see it dramatically overused in windows) a finder type of design, with the mod sections being a type of icon in it. Another concept would be skin Mambo or another system (which i dont want to do since macmod uses mambo rather dull) and create a nice skin. The next option would be to in the spare time create a system from scratch or use vbulletin or invision's databases to power it with news and userdatabase. Myself, am leaning towards the finder aspect.

The primary goal is wanting a site that is easy to navigate, SEO and multiplatform friendly. If either of you want to write up a small thing, take pictures, etc it would be VERY appreciated. I am also compiling information on the macs, like lowendmac and everymac websites have so people know what was stock and what wasnt. I also want to have a little base of weekly mac ebay price ranges. So if anyone would want to get a mac they wouldn't be idealically set on getting a 450mhz g3 for under $150 like i did , but probably $200-250.

I'm still looking for people to help.

[MORT A POTTY]

in adiition to invision and such, you should check out phpBB. they are free and they are right now, working on a huge update to their forums and such. I'm kinda biased to them though as I used to be a forum admin for a now defunct Nintnedo news website... phpBB never gave me any issues adn I skinned 'em pretty well if I do say so myself.

but I like the finder idea.

and XBench really I wouldn't consider that accurate for... anything really. I will, however, check and see if I have any old reports.

anyway, yah, I found two reports. one from sept. 15th and one from sept 17th, the latter was after i installed an SATA PCI card and a 200GB Seagate 7200.7 Barracuda SATA 150 HD. disk test showed a gain of about 75 points (give or take) after the upgrade. Overall scores went up too, even in OpenGL and Quartz and stuff... it's really just a very inacurate benchmark suite.

[Rowen7]

Lol, looks like I won't be using xBench.

[Rowen7]

btw, the reason I am unsure of using phpbb right now:

http://www.google.ie/search?hl=en&q=...arch&meta=

New virus, and a security flaw that allows a person to get username and pw to the system.

[MORT A POTTY]

if it's what I think you're talking about, it's an issue with PHP n general, not exclusively phpBB.

[adam_tj]

I've started an apple hacking blog at aplehacks.blogspot.com. New stuff will appear everry week.

[MORT A POTTY]

just for fun, here's a pic of the back of my Quicksilver now that I have swapped out the big-ass 120mm fan. it's now quieter with a bit more airflow through there... and it looks like a toaster

[Rowen7]

Neat, could you give me a link to the fan (if it is the same size that goes into the G3).

Also I just ordered the Pioneer DVR-108 since a western digital 160gb just crashed... I lost alot Will be making back ups of what I have left... I hate WD, Maxtor or Seagate for me!

Btw, Adam give me an email ( Rowen7 @ yahoo.com ) I am looking for people to post news, do write ups, etc. I'll probably use a feed from macnn at first <3

I will be taking pictures of my G3 soon, probably as I do the DVR-108 upgrade and the overclocking.

[traktimino]

dude, i love you

it's about time somebody has gone about making a good mac modding site. the ones out there are all pretty bad. I know of a lot of good mods floating around on the internet that do not find a home on any of the existing sites.

[MORT A POTTY]

Originally posted by Rowen7:
Neat, could you give me a link to the fan (if it is the same size that goes into the G3).

first, congrats on the DVR-108. I currently have a 106D and although it's much slower than your 108, I'll keep it around for quite some time as it's been dependable and very quiet (esp. compared to the CD-RW drive I had before, yeesh) I do wish I had the 108 though, and I wish my drive was black...

anyway, here's the fan.

http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProduc...126&amp;depa=0

I must say, the free NewEgg stickers are quite large. I have three sitting here doing nothing.

with the fan though, I didn't want the light coming through the side panel... (it was, VERY bad) so I had to put something over more than a quarter of the inside of the side panel or else I could see the toaster-red light coming through. I ad forgot there were air intake holes cut in the steel side of the inner case behind that cage/fan. ah well, I fixed that up and now it only shines through the back (quite brightly I might add, the picture is pretty accurate in this respect) so.... yeah.

[Rowen7]

After looking at that and others I think I am going to go get the exact same fan but this time in the clear form.
Here is the link:
http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProduc...127&amp;depa=0

The dvd burner will probably be used to start up CD duplication for local band. The studio I worked at fell to the dark side and started bootlegging DVDs with the Primera Bravo II. (Same 108 burner I bought is the one they put into it) So I will be running off a good amount of CDs and DVDs, since I am going to be doing things on my own with this mac until the first few jobs pay for new equipment. So it isn't automated but with a firmware upgrade and the fact its not run though USB, it will scream even on this old machine.

The next thing I am looking for is Processor. I have heard to stay away from Sonnet because it lowers the bus speed. (Btw, I also do public relations and can get free samples when I get the mac*****.com up to do more testing) Gigadesigns dont have any for specifically the G3 powermac, although I am not sure if it would work in one or not. And it looks like Powerlogix offers a 1.1ghz G3 which seems reasonable - depends on if you want altvec engine.

Thanks, I am just waiting for things now.

[MORT A POTTY]

I would advise caution with PowerLogix. as you can tell from my sig I'm still waiting on a processor from a LONG time ago... sad thing is, this is not uncommon at all.

I think you'll be happy with the fan. it's much lighter than the stock black one that came in my tower... you will have to make the holes in the fan threaded though, but you can just put the screws (included) in the holes a few time with a screwdriver and then screw it to the cage.

[Waragainstsleep]

This is a great mod:

http://www.mujmac.cz/art/hw/tatra_mac_eng.html

[Rowen7]

Ordered,
Pioneer DVR-108 (XL?) - December 30th
80 Wire, 40 pin Cable for DVD Burner - December 30th

Aspire 120mm Fan, 35ish dBA, 77cfm -December 30th
New egg.com stickers which apparently add 25mhz for being on your case - December 30th

Jumpers for CPU overclocking - Local Radioshack (probably today)
Bigger Heatsink with fan - Local Radioshack (when I feel $20 is worth it)

So, this might sound like a dumb question but whats a good temperature monitor that works with mac os x and the b&w? I think it is unsupported by "Temperature Monitor" or at least I am getting those results. Maybe I will have to install my own monitor?

Thanks

[Rowen7]

Everything is in, let the fun commence!

I'll be posting pictures and guides on the mac modder website when I'm done.

[Rowen7]

[MORT A POTTY]

very nice. this may just be me, but I personally would have taken the side panels off and taken the paint on the inside off and then painted the inside, thus preserving the glossy shine over it. would have made the white parts more iMac white-like...

but overall, looks like no other that ive seen. nice job.

[Rowen7]

Well, I made the mistake in not using Flat Black... I also made a few other mistakes and one or two innovations to make the process easier from others who have painted it.

The mac logo. One word. Hairdrier. Heat up the glue and you dont have to brute force the logo out.

[KeriVit]

loving it!

[David Lee]

Nice Mod to the B&W! Love the Black and Whiteversion. As for B&W CPU upgrades, check out OWC's CPU upgrades (accellerators/OWC/left paneand get the Z7600 ZIF the one that runs at 600MHz, it will seem like it is faster than a 733. That verssion of the G4 is the fastest mod to the B&W available. IMO
Cheers