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Intelling a G5?
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Forum Regular
Join Date: Feb 2006
Location: Florida
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You guys have seen the processor upgrades for older G3's and G4's, granted they are based on the same architecture and perhaps the same logicboards...
( http://www.sonnettech.com/product/encore_stg4.html)
How possible could it be in the future to supply an Intel-upgrade say for a G5 tower?
could this be a logicboard/processor upgrade only or would it be a total internal-surgery ending up with a machine like the first MacTel prototypes?
I'm just curious, i would dig keeping my G5 case once the transition has passed,
Could this be plausible in the near future?
Any guesses? Mr Duell?
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"He uses statistics as a drunken man uses lamp-posts... for support rather than illumination."
Andrew Lang (1844-1912)
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Posting Junkie
Join Date: May 2001
Location: Portland, OR
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Not possible. Intels use an entirely different motherboard design.
You could gut it but that would be messy. The dev boxes didn't use a single G5 part except for the bare case.
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8 Core 2.8 ghz Mac Pro/GF8800/2 23" Cinema Displays, 3.06 ghz Macbook Pro
Once you wanted revolution, now you're the institution, how's it feel to be the man?
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Posting Junkie
Join Date: Oct 2005
Location: Houston, TX
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Sure, it could be done. Rip out the logic board, drill a few holes for standard ATX mounting, and slap in any Intel mobo you want. Lining up the ports would probably be a lost cause, so you'll have to remove part of the back panel and fabricate something yourself. Hacking in an ATX powersupply would also be possible, but a pain. One of those aftermarket fan controllers could take care of the 9ish fans in that beast of a case.
Of course, after all that effort, you can't run OSX on it (well, at least not in an Apple approved way). There are other ATX aluminum cases on the market. I don't find the G5 cases that attractive; they're huge for what they hold.
Speaking of upgrades and G5s, where are the G5 upgrades for G5s? We're coming up on 3 years since the first models were released and I'm sure some people are itching to upgrade.
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Last edited by mduell; Apr 12, 2006 at 11:37 PM.
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Clinically Insane
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: Los Angeles
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Originally Posted by 24klogos
You guys have seen the processor upgrades for older G3's and G4's, granted they are based on the same architecture and perhaps the same logicboards...
( http://www.sonnettech.com/product/encore_stg4.html)
How possible could it be in the future to supply an Intel-upgrade say for a G5 tower?
could this be a logicboard/processor upgrade only or would it be a total internal-surgery ending up with a machine like the first MacTel prototypes?
I'm just curious, i would dig keeping my G5 case once the transition has passed,
Could this be plausible in the near future?
Any guesses? Mr Duell?
Come on, 24klogos, you cannot abandon the cause. I thought you were a PPC zealot like me.  But no, it's quite impossible to have an Intel chip swap for a G5. G5s are essentially impossible to upgrade to faster G5s, anyway, and Intel chips are thoroughly incompatible with G5 logic boards.
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"The natural progress of things is for liberty to yield and government to gain ground." TJ
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Forum Regular
Join Date: Feb 2006
Location: Florida
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Originally Posted by Big Mac
Come on, 24klogos, you cannot abandon the cause. I thought you were a PPC zealot like me. But no, it's quite impossible to have an Intel chip swap for a G5. G5s are essentially impossible to upgrade to faster G5s, anyway, and Intel chips are thoroughly incompatible with G5 logic boards.
BigMac, my apologies for flirting with the dark side. PPC forever!
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"He uses statistics as a drunken man uses lamp-posts... for support rather than illumination."
Andrew Lang (1844-1912)
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Mac Elite
Join Date: Aug 2001
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Originally Posted by mduell
Speaking of upgrades and G5s, where are the G5 upgrades for G5s? We're coming up on 3 years since the first models were released and I'm sure some people are itching to upgrade.
Have you seen the contortions that you have to go through to bring up a G5 board? It's not pretty.
http://www.970eval.com/970FAQ.html#anchor%234 <-- 
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Forum Regular
Join Date: Jun 2006
Location: Sydney, Australia
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The problem is the north bridge, and the G5 centric CPU socket. So you'd need to employ some trickery to get an Intel CPU in the CPU sockets of a G5. It would probably involve custom ICs and great expense. I am thinking of some emulation that made the motherboard think it had a G5 connected, and allowed the CPU to talk to the northbridge. This would probably entail some huge performance hit.
An easier way to do it, would be to put an Intel based system together on a single PCI/PCIe card. It would be slower, though, for accessing all the onboard stuff. But you could use it as a coprocessor board, and farm out certain functions to it. This kind of thing has been done before, but it would be sub-optimal.
Given the Power Mac's market, I can't see any demand for a system that would probably only give small performance/utility gains (if any) at such a large price.
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Power Mac G4 Digital Audio 533MHz 1.5GiB RAM, 2x 80Gb ATA HDDs, 320Gb SATA HDD, Radeon 9650 256MiB, Airport Extreme compatible PCI card, Zip 250, Pioneer 110, Firewire DVD burner, 21" CRT, Harmon Kardon Apple Pro Speakers, OS X 10.4.6
Powerbook Pismo G3 400MHz, 768MiB RAM, 80Gb HDD, AirPort Extreme PC Card, Bluetooth 1.1, DVD-ROM, OS X 10.4.6, Ubuntu 5.10, MacOS 9.2.2
To buy: RAM for Pismo, CPU upgrades
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