ATX Power Supply Adapter for Macs?

Swift Guru asks: "I've seen many comments on Slashdot stating that people would love to try out Mac OS X if only they could afford the hardware. Many roll their own Macs, but unfortunately have to rely on proprietary Apple power supplies (or hack together their own), a caveat that hinders Mac geeks from delving into the wide world of case modding (mmm.. watercooling), and prevents PC users from using familiar ATX case hardware. The PPC platform requires its own processors and logic boards, but last I checked computers all used the same kind of electrons. Hardware hacking is supposedly the next killer app, so why isn't there a simple adapter solution to allow current Macs to use ATX power supplies? Or is there?"

Is a "clone" capable of cloning the experience?

Keep in mind that it is also Apple's SOFTWARE and industrial hardware designs are part of the experience as well. Not to mention the "it just works" comments from so many "switchers" would be hard to duplicate after hours of reading message boards and piecing together hardware.

Even if this works, the best it does is offer another option to run an OS. It will not duplicate owning an Apple.

Re:There experience and there's experience

Maybe it also covers paying premium prices for hardware just because the case looks cool.

My G4 tower case does not just "look cool". I'm going to give examples of why I like it.

• It has handles, and so it's much easier to move around than the beige boxes.
• The door hinges on the bottom of the right side, opening 90 degrees down. This exposes the entire motherboard for easy replacement of peripherals, RAM, or CPU. Very few cables are flying around.
• The case doubles as an Airport antenna, which means you won't need a fragile little antenna sticking out the side.
• The case is quiet.
• The hard drives are mounted on the bottom of the case, along the width of the case. This means that the ribbon cables are only a few inches long.

Many of these are not hard to duplicate, but the point is that it's not just good looks.

I can't believe it's that hard to duplicate a Mac's ease-of-use features.

What's your (lack of) belief based on? If it's easy, then surely by now there'd be other competitors that have duplicated or surpassed it, and you'll be able to cite specific examples.

And lots of us would be very happy to see a low-budget way to play with software that only runs on the Mac platform.

Why do you want to play with it, if the "Mac experience" is so overrated, expensive, and easily duplicated?

Re:There experience and there's experience

Macs are not for people who want to do things to their computers. They are for people who want to do things with their computers.

If you want to hack a computer together, visit your local nameless commdtity computer shop, go download some slackware or debian iso's, and get busy. Better yet, why not run Plan 9 on it?

On the other hand, if you really want an economical solution for running Mac software, visit the "Special Deals" section on the Apple Store. Refurbs can be had for not much more money than bargain basement wintels. If economy is your primary concern, I would like to point out spending your time on a venture like building a Mac from scratch is a false economy.

Oh yeah, and I proactively call bullshit on any follow-ups proclaiming the joy of hardware hacking. If that's the case, you really don't need a stinking adapter for a power plug.

Re:Is a "clone" capable of cloning the experience?

It will not duplicate owning an Apple.

And it certainly isn't a cost-effective way to try out OS X. If that's want you want, go to E-Bay and find yourself a a good deal. (Unlike low- or medium-end PCs, a two year old Mac will be in great shape.)

Not to challenge anyone's joy of hacking, if that's what they're after (Please put up a page describing your results and submit it here! We'd love to see it!) but don't do this to save $150.

why no power supply?

there are like 10 voltages that go into the motherboard, I don't know for sure but I think on macs they're different.

taking the voltage down is easy, you can use a diode or something like that, stepping it up when needed is a different story (we're talkin an adapter half the size of a whole power supply)

computer power supplies have to be really spot on, otherwise everything blows up.. anyways, you really should compare apple power supplies to GOOD ones in the PC world, because to do otherwise is playing down the fact that cheap power supplies suck [tomshardware.com]

they sure do...

My $2000 PC's power-supply exploded after two years of use, seriously fucking everything up. That's why I have an iBook now. The funny thing is that I think I spent more money making the PC work the way I wanted it to (replacing broken components, upgrading, etc.) than the total cost of my iBook, which works great (although the baclight is kind of dim when it's really bloody cold). So now I've got a mac and everything is fine and dandy, except my wireless router is non-apple, from SMC, in fact. Damn thing never fucking works (with macs or PCs). One of these days I'll replace it with an airport. I will never try to save money by buying PC equipment again. If my time and sanity are worth anything, then the apple stuff is cheaper.

Why is this an Issue?

If you feel comfortable case modding or even switching cases i dont see why you need a PS adapter. The wires are all colour coded and intividual interfaces are the same(wire heads). just remove the wire ends from one plug and insert them into another. I havent looked closely at either my mac's (qsilver 2002 dual 1ghz) or my athlon's (dual 2ghz tyan) to see which has more wires. Also since macs use standard agp and pci companents you know at least that most of the voltages are going to be the same. Of course now this question is going to bug me till i pull my service source cds out and look at the ps/ wiring on a mac.

Apple wiring diagrams and voltages

since i was wondering after my previous post (above) here is the link for the p/s with voltages and pinouts. [apple.com]

posted anonymously to supress karma whoring :)

THIS IS NOT NEWS WORTHY

Step 1: Figure out how to get an OSX capable motherboard & processor w/o the bulky case, power supply, HD, RAM package they all seem to come with. Step 2: Worry about stupid crap like why I can't just buy an adapter to use one of the many ATX power supplies I've got lying around. Step 3: No, dude! This is HARDWARE you want hardware hacking - then hack it! The specs are online, it has been done.

At one point...

Apple embraced the idea of using some commodity parts. This is evidenced by the Apple / ATX PS jumper you can find on the Beige G3 motherboards (specifically the "Gossamer")

You can flip that jumper from 1-2 to 2-3 and slam your ATX supply on there, and you're juiced and ready to go!

Case mod woes

...a caveat that hinders Mac geeks from delving into the wide world of case modding (mmm.. watercooling)

God, yes. You don't know what torture it is. The day I bought the Mac, I was like, "Right! Now I'm going to paint red flames on the side of this and cut a big hole in it for a plexiglass window in the shape of a skull and stuff the whole shebang with neon lights and get plasma down at the Red Cross and circulate it through a block of dry ice so it looks like the heart of my box is a writhing steaming flesh mass out of Hellraiser. Mmm...flesh mass." Imagine my disappointment when a power supply kept me from unleashing what would have surely been a chick magnet.

Some mods have been done

xlr8yourmac.com is probably the place to go for something like this. They've got articles on converting a Beige G3 [xlr8yourmac.com] and converting a Blue & White G3 [xlr8yourmac.com].

Apple's machines seem to use different voltages than what's on a standard ATX power supply, at least in some machines.

Google-dy-Google

G4 (AGP/Sawtooth) to ATX case Conversion [xlr8yourmac.com].

Step #3 - ATX Power supply

[Reminder: The ATX supply does not have 28VDC used on Gigabit G4 and later Towers for ADC. The pinout of the power supply connector/motherboard connector on the Gigabit and later G4s is not the same as earlier Sawtooth models. See my notes above.-Mike]

Um...

mmm.. watercooling

Why the hell would you want to watercool a machine that runs so cool it doesn't even require a CPU fan?

Re:Um...

You CAN put peanut butter on a hot dog. You CAN take a Mini and put a bodylift on it. You CAN hit yourself in the head with a hammer. However, this doesn't mean any of these are good ideas.

I'm definitely one for doing stuff "just cuz it's cool," but cooling systems are usually rigged together for a good reason. With a G4, there is no reason for a cooling system. If you are looking to do something just for kicks, you would be better off spending your time inserting a picture of Clarus inside your case. [axisproductions.com]

Can't you just use...

...one of those Universal Convertors that IBM touts in their commercial? They sound like they would work, unless you're trying to do this in Europe, I suppose.

Regarding Apple power supplies

Apple has always had a major thing about its power supplies. This goes way back to the earliest days of the company. I was a repair tech back in the early days of the Apple II, one of the highest failure rates was the power supply. There was no reset switch so people liked to flip the switch on and off to reset the A2 when it hung. This resulted in a ton of switch failures, and of course the PS was a closed module, and being an official Apple repair center, we couldn't just replace the $3 switch, we had to swap the $80 power supply. The result was a lot of disgruntled customers.
Since that time, Apple has always overkilled the design of their PS units. They're always more reliable than anything you'd find in a pee cee. While I'm no longer a HW tech, I've dealt with hundreds of macs since '84 and I've never even HEARD of a unit with a PS failure.