What would it take to run Halo on a Mac without dropping frames or having to sacrifice the eyecandy?

This project started as a simple system overclock and video card upgrade. But after pricing the parts needed I decided that a completely different approach was required. After reading about Andy's mod I decided that it would be a shitload cheaper to just swap the g5's motherboard out with something guaranteed to run Halo well. I checked the Dell site and found a few cheap systems that would probably do the trick without breaking the bank. I whipped out the credit card and started to check out. That's when it hit me. Why spend all this money on a computer and video card when there's a much simpler solution?

Update: Scroll down if you can't figure out how to click on the link above.

Oh yeah

Thas right.

Step 1: Let's go over the supplies you're gonna need to successfully upgrade your system.

1. First, you're going to need a g5(duh). Any flavor will work.
2. A working xbox system, controller, a/v & power cables. We're not going to be using the g5's powersupply. You can try your luck on ebay or.... you could try your luck with a stupid friend/neighbor/coworker/little brother. I got lucky when one of my buddies asked me to take a look at his xbox because it wasn't working. I went over and checked it out. Wasn't powering up. I looked around the back and the dummy had pulled the power cable out. I made motions like I was pushing on something and told him that it was fried. He asked if he should call Microsoft to get it repaired but I advised him that could get him in trouble since he has a pirated copy of XP on his computer. He let me have it for free and gave me all of his games.
3. Screwdriver with 15 & 10 size star head thingy attachments. We'll be using these to remove the xbox from it's case.
4. Set of pliers and a saw to extract the g5 motherboard from the case. A good knife will also come in handy if you run into any stubborn cables. It's not necessary but it could help.
5. Music. No casemoddah should be without some cool music to work to. It's a must in my work area. For this mod I selected the following mp3s:
   
   David Garza: Kinder
   Blondie: Heart of Glass
   Skinny Puppy: Scrapyard
   TKK: Daisy Chain for Satan
   Billy Idol: Dancin' wif myself
   Prick: Riverhead
   TheThe: Armageddon Days Are Here (Again)
   Ray Anthony: The Hokey Pokey
   
6. **MOST IMPORTANT**
   This item wasn't originally on the list but after I posted this page I have started receiving numerous death threats and strange phone calls in the middle of the night. I strongly recommend that you have something to protect yourself with in the event that some devout Maccie finds out where you live. No shit. I keep a beretta 9mm with me at all times now. If you know Karate or something you might be ok but I wouldn't take any chances. **PROCEED WITH THIS CONVERSION AT YOUR OWN RISK!!! I AM NOT RESPONSIBLE IF YOU ARE MURDERED IN YOUR SLEEP!**

Awesome. Now we can get started...

All the tools you're going to need.

Yes, the weight of the heatsinks is in fact causing the case to tip over.

When you first crack open the case of the g5, the two huge heatsinks are like a kick in the nuts. Can't miss em. Jesus... damn... It takes a little effort but you'll eventually be able to pull your eyes away from them and focus on other areas. Give it time.

Once you've come out of shock you might notice that there is no power supply. Yep, you guessed it. The heatsinks ate it. Fuckers. No biggie, we'll work around that later.

UPDATE: My gf ended up taking these heatsinks to some place that recycles aluminum cans. They paid her $40 for each one. This mod ended up making me money. Beat that you Fat Wallet Beeeeches!

This is the part where you start tearing the g5's original guts out. Doesn't matter where you start or how you do it. We don't need any of it so don't bother being careful. I couldn't find a screwdriver that fit the screws holding down the motherboard. I used my electric saw to neatly cut around the holes so I could just pop it out. Might want to be a little careful so you don't scratch the case.

This fan is stupid. It looks like something that fell off one of my old Transformers.

Once you've removed everything from the case we can get started on the xbox.

Start gutting the xbox. Disconnect the dvd drive, hd and board. Be a little more careful than you were with the g5. We need these parts to work once it's complete. Gently disconnect all the wires instead of yanking and cutting.

The xbox only requires a 7oz heatsink vs the g5's 224oz heatsinks.

You shouldn't have any problems getting distracted by the xbox's heatsink.

Line up the xbox board with the g5 case, drop it in. After a few tries I found that placing some duct tape inside the case before lowering the board kept things in place nicely. You'll need to run the cables for the dvd-rom and xbox harddrive (ata and power) as well as reroute the power, controller and a/v cables out the bootie of the g5 case. Right now I simply snipped some quick ports out of pci slot covers. If I can figure out how to use a soldering gun I might attempt to hook the controller up to the front usb port on the case. I'll go into more detail with the expanded conversion tutorial.

Damn, that is fine.

Once all that shit is complete we can hook this suckah up to the tv and test it out.

Fuck an A, bubba. We did it.

HOT DAMN! SUCCESS!

Well, kinda. My Halo disc comes up with an error when I try to play it but I'm close. Munches Odyssey works great! No dropped frames and the picture quality is fantastic. With a little glue and some love this project should be complete in no time.

Thanks to everyone over at Mulva's board that helped out and answered my questions.

Special thanks to Andy-the G5 killer for inspiring this mod. You rule. Sorry that you didn't get a chance to arm yourself before the maccies descended. Hang in there.

Once I've worked out all of the kinks I plan on writing up a detailed tutorial for this process. I'll go in to much greater detail and post pictures of the entire process.

Comments? Maccie w/PMS? I really care.

Update: Remove the crap from my email address if you don't want it to bounce.

Update: 2/8/04

I'm getting quite a few hits from some really cool places. Such as:

jimmy franks recording company
Heise
Apple
imacguru (I can't even read this shit. It's in Chinese or something. RAWK! Commie fans! RATM rulez!!!)

Apparently I'm very popular with quite a few folks who do menial shit work for famous/really important people. Who knows... maybe one of these people forwarded a link to my site to their dickhead boss and lost their job for wasting someone's famous time. Ballz out, baby.

Update: 2/5/04

Glad to know so many of you think I'm such a shitty friend. Like I'm going to feel bad because my buddy is a moron. He should have reached his clumsy ass fingers back there himself if he wanted to keep his xbox.

Most emails I'm getting now are about my lousy taste in music. If you want to talk about a real lousy taste I suggest you stick your tongue in my butt. I'm told it's somewhat reminiscent of an Arby's Big Montana sandwich.

And sorry to all the folks emailing me about the g5 parts. I sold them to some authorized mac place here in town for $300. Better luck next mod.

Update: 2/2/04

Damn. Thanks to the guys over at the computer pub for letting me know who was beating the shit out of my server.

Fuck... let me recompress these images.

Update: 1/28/04

Lots of people have been sending me pretty shitty emails. Plenty of folks seemed pissed at the idea of doing this to a mac. But it seems most of the angry emails were over my choice of mp3s. Let me rephrase that. The fact that my music is compressed as mp3s vs the "superior" AAC format.

GoBots were not cooler than Transformers. Parents that didn't love their children gave them GoBots. This is a fact.

And just because I listen to Blondie doesn't mean I'm gay. Assholes.

Update: 5/12/05

The guys at TILT are now proud owners of the infamous X-Box/G5. They specialize in graphic design, web development, playing games and spending money on useless crap. If you're in Baton Rouge go tease them.