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Aircooled g5 quad done
Posted by: imactheknife on 2024-10-14 16:27:00
Finally got around to putting this back together. I had to finish cutting down the heat sinks and making some mods to the base so the heat pipes would work from the processors. I also had replace a few caps on logic board. I broke off when removing lcs system, and another one had leakage which sucks. These are also soldered on with non lead solder so that’s stinks too. I also repasted anything on the back of logic board before putting back into place.

Now that i got everything back together i got decent idle temps and even the g5 cover fits🙂
Posted by: Unknown_K on 2024-10-15 00:55:03
Are there any gaps between the processors when the heatsinks are installed so that air goes around them instead of through them?
Posted by: CircuitBored on 2024-10-15 08:53:53
Nice work. The existence of air-cooled Quads always begs the question: why didn't Apple just do this themselves?
Posted by: Unknown_K on 2024-10-15 09:14:13
The Quad G5 came out in 2005 and heat pipes for CPU started coming out in 2003 or so. There was probably a period where water cooling was the only option.
Posted by: 3lectr1cPPC on 2024-10-15 10:17:22
The Quad G5 came out in 2005 and heat pipes for CPU started coming out in 2003 or so. There was probably a period where water cooling was the only option.
I've got a laptop from 1995 with a (very) primitive copper heat pipe, and a few others from years after. Good ones started coming out around 2001/02 though.
Posted by: finkmac on 2024-10-15 10:22:21
heat pipes for CPU started coming out in 2003 or so.
this is unequivocally and categorically false.
i'm actually impressed at how absurd this claim is.
Posted by: Franklinstein on 2024-10-15 11:19:54
Neat. The only question is: how effective is it? Does the Mac stay cool under load? I did an air mod to a DP 2.7 and, while it mostly works, sometimes the fans will not spin up under load and it starts overheating. I did thermal recalibration on it and it passed. If I open specific programs like iPhoto it usually figures itself out and triggers the fans, but running just TenFourFox it would just sit there and cook. I don't know what the deal is. Honestly I wouldn't mind keeping the LCS on these if I could get compatible CPU blocks and pumps that were fully compatible with the Mac's thermal management control system (I think you can mod some specific pumps but I don't recall).
Posted by: Unknown_K on 2024-10-15 13:49:13
this is unequivocally and categorically false.
i'm actually impressed at how absurd this claim is.
How so? I never said they were invented in 2003 (more like 1940's) just becoming common use in PC's after 2003.

Most PC CPU's used simple Aluminum or exotic Copper heatsink/fans when TDP was user 80W (Athlon XP and P4 ERA in early 2000's).

Thermaltake came out with heat pipes around 2003.
Posted by: 3lectr1cPPC on 2024-10-15 14:22:58
this is unequivocally and categorically false.
i'm actually impressed at how absurd this claim is.
No need to be rude about it.
Posted by: imactheknife on 2024-10-15 17:08:09
Are there any gaps between the processors when the heatsinks are installed so that air goes around them instead of through them?
I think so. Just a big copper plate then the heat pipes.
Posted by: imactheknife on 2024-10-15 17:10:31
Neat. The only question is: how effective is it? Does the Mac stay cool under load? I did an air mod to a DP 2.7 and, while it mostly works, sometimes the fans will not spin up under load and it starts overheating. I did thermal recalibration on it and it passed. If I open specific programs like iPhoto it usually figures itself out and triggers the fans, but running just TenFourFox it would just sit there and cook. I don't know what the deal is. Honestly I wouldn't mind keeping the LCS on these if I could get compatible CPU blocks and pumps that were fully compatible with the Mac's thermal management control system (I think you can mod some specific pumps but I don't recall).
Hmmm, never thought of app’s not triggering the fans. Both my 2.7’s and a dual 2.5 are aircooled now. Would rather have the original style lcs for all systems, but so hard to rebuild them and the cost or parts. The quad i wasnt sure of. It over heated and so i took it apart. The lcs had hardly any fluid in it. The o-rings had leaked too. So did the air cool on it.
Posted by: Franklinstein on 2024-10-16 12:45:16
Yeah I don't know what the deal is. Another person on here a while back did the same mod to a 2.7 with the same results: overheating on some apps, normal on others. It's not apps but the OS that's supposed to control the fans, either directly or by communicating with a thermal subsystem microcontroller, so I don't know why it wasn't working properly. Running thermal recalibration with the ASD disk should have caused the system to figure itself out after the mod.
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