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MDD Pwr Supply & ADC Radeon 9000 in a SawtoothReturn to News Page

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MDD Pwr Supply & ADC Radeon 9000 in a Sawtooth
By Hussein Holland
Posted: 10/14/2005


Hi Mike,
I used some of your posted guides to install an MDD G4 power supply in a Sawtooth, so that I could run an Apple Studio Display using the ADC port on the 64MB Radeon 9000 that I moved from my MDD G4. (There's DVI to ADC adapters w/external ADC monitor power supply but they're not cheap.)

I found the Apple ADC connector schematic, and used a multi-meter to confirm the +/- connections on the Graphics card. (If you could find a mating connector (and it would clear the motherboard) it would be nice to use that vs wires soldered directly to the graphics card. That would allow easy Video card upgrades in the future, although now even Apple no longer makes ADC displays and many 2x AGP (Sawtooth) compatible cards don't have ADC anyway. I don't know any source of a mating connector offhand though.-Mike)

Radeon ADC pwr connection

I used the MDD connector illustration from Mods to Mirror Drive Door Power Supply for DA/QS Towers", and followed that guide for installing the power supply, except that I drilled four holes to allow the use of the locating tangs to secure the power supply. I then riveted the supply to the roof panel, through the tab used for securing the PS in an MDD.

MDD PS in Sawtooth

I used the Sawtooth connector schematic to reposition the wiring/connectors in the MDD connector. The pins are a bear if you don't know where the locking tabs are - they are located on the sides, rather than top/bottom (the photo Jan shows makes it appear the tabs are top/bottom).

Connector pin pix

A tiny screwdriver will depress them if pushed in all the way.

I had to cut and splice for the Sawtooth case fan, pigtailing the ground I used for the ADC connection. There are three extra 12v yellow wires, so I just spliced one of those as the fan power. I solder and heat shrink wrap to ensure a good connection.

I soldered wires with male connector directly onto the ADC power/ground connections on the Radeon card, using part of a generic 4-pin "Y" cable (Belkin F2N503, for example), with the female soldered to the power supply's (white) 24v power&ground so that I could unplug the card from the power supply.

I knocked out the rear fan grille so that power cable could be inserted into the recessed connector.

Cutout pix

Photo of card/display in use/Apple System Profiler.

ASP info

-Hussein Holland


Related Articles:
For other System/Pwr Supply/Case Conversions, Mods, etc. see the Systems page (organized by mac model/series).
For Graphics card and Video related articles/reviews, see the Video articles page
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