Wanna see what makes a Mac tick? (56k warning)

Geeky1Geeky1 University of the Pacific (Stockton, CA, USA)
edited January 2005 in Hardware
...if so, I may be able to help... here are some pics of the G4 <strike>motherboard</strike> logic board, CPU and graphics card I bought the other day. I have a feeling I may be writing an article about this at some point, but for now, check these pics out.

First up are a couple pics of the logic board. It serves the same purpose as a motherboard in a PC, but Apple insists on calling it a logic board instead of a motherboard. Anyhow, in some respects it's similar to PC motherboards of the same era (this thing dates from 1999 or so I believe...) but it has 64-bit PCI slots, and how many pc boards have you seen with chips on the BACK of the board?

Comments

  • Geeky1Geeky1 University of the Pacific (Stockton, CA, USA)
    edited January 2005
    Few of the CPU cartridge/module/whatever; the cpu has a foam shim on it with a clear plastic cover that's just a royal pain in the ass. thermal compound gets under it and it's just a huge mess. So, I, being me, took it off. And haven't tested the CPU since. In theory it should be totally unharmed. In practice... we'll find out when i get around to testing it again. ;D
  • Geeky1Geeky1 University of the Pacific (Stockton, CA, USA)
    edited January 2005
    Just in case anyone is curious, here's a pic of the video card... it's no different from a PCI Rage 128 save for a better cooling setup (at least compared to the dinkyass stock heatsink with no fan that the 32MB ATi Rage 128GL AGP pc card i've got had) but whatever... and one of the whole system assembled and running off a 300w Enermax PS (with an adapter of course ;))
  • Geeky1Geeky1 University of the Pacific (Stockton, CA, USA)
    edited January 2005
    And one more... if you're curious, this is what a "sawtooth" G4 board does when it has no OS to boot off of (i dunno if it does this only when no drives are connected or what... haven't played around with it that much yet)
  • madmatmadmat
    edited January 2005
    Coolness you mac daddy.
  • Geeky1Geeky1 University of the Pacific (Stockton, CA, USA)
    edited January 2005
    I think I may have killed the entire General Hardware forum... :-/
  • ThraxThrax 🐌 Austin, TX Icrontian
    edited January 2005
    I hate you. I've found a whole new universe of pissed off as a result of finding this thread.
  • Geeky1Geeky1 University of the Pacific (Stockton, CA, USA)
    edited January 2005
    I suppose telling you that I resized and posted the pics using a P4 machine, and haven't used any of my AMD machines in almost a month wouldn't make you feel any better, huh? :D

    Although that 550MHz Athlon Engineering Sample ought to make up for some of it, no? ;)
  • Geeky1Geeky1 University of the Pacific (Stockton, CA, USA)
    edited January 2005
    More progress... picked up a GF3 Ti200 to flash with a Mac bios and a DB-9 serial port connector (remember from the AT days? had a serial port connected to a ribbon cable that plugged into the mobo?); the board side connector for the serial port is exactly the right size, shape, and number of pins to fit in the front panel connector on the logic board, so I cut the serial port off and I now have my front panel lead... assuming the one missing wire isn't connected to a pin that's important on the front panel header...
  • AnimalAnimal
    edited January 2005
    what case are you going to put it in?
  • drasnordrasnor Starship Operator Hawthorne, CA Icrontian
    edited January 2005
    It looks like you're missing the lid for the PRAM battery. There's a plastic clip that goes over that cage so the battery doesn't fall out.

    For future reference, the CPU module/cartridge/thingy/whatever for this board is called a Sawtooth module (ST module for short). All G4's with the exception of the first generation use ST modules. 1st gen boards (codename Yikes!) use ZIF modules, same as the G3's.

    Nice work on the cooling hack. That sits a bit off center though doesn't it?

    It only does that ? mark thing if it can't find a bootable volume, either a hard drive with a boot sector or a CD with a boot sector.

    -drasnor :fold:
  • Geeky1Geeky1 University of the Pacific (Stockton, CA, USA)
    edited January 2005
    -animal-: I ended up getting an Aerocool Lubic.

    //EDIT
    Oh, and Drasnor, yeah, the heatsink was off-center in that pic. Not that it's a big deal tho. :p That's not the permanent solution anyhow. It hasn't had a heatsink attached to it permanently yet actually.
  • Geeky1Geeky1 University of the Pacific (Stockton, CA, USA)
    edited January 2005
    Changed my mind on the heatsink. That AMD one is one of the ones with the copper base screwed to the aluminum. I didn't want to glue it down because the thermal paste will eventually dry up and stop working properly, and then I'll have a problem. So I picked up a Thermaltake Volcano 8SE (http://www.thermaltake.com/coolers/volcano/si/a1492.htm) for it. Which is overkill in the extreme. But that's fine. Only problem is it doesn't fit as well as the AMD 'sink did, so now I have to figure out how to glue it down.
Sign In or Register to comment.