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sloppyc
09-29-2009, 07:01 PM
Just got a freebie. It's got to be in the 300 - 450 MHz range, so I'm not sure how useful it will be on its own... but the big CRT inside takes up a lot of room that could be put to better use.

Suggestions?
ShadowHunter
09-29-2009, 07:42 PM
Why not make it into a uATX (mostly) self-contained PC?

LCD in place of the CRT, possibly upgrade the speakers, WC it (I doubt that it would get sufficient airflow to sustain a multi-core CPU), and throw in some LED's to show off the shell color.
slaveofconvention
09-29-2009, 08:11 PM
LOL - I just lost one I was bidding on ebay for - I have a 15" LCD sitting here spare and was planning an ION PC in the iMac case - then I was gonna post it on every mac forum I could find and see how many times I got flamed :P
sloppyc
09-30-2009, 12:10 AM
Haha! I was thinking about scavenging for an old 15" LCD... haven't done any measurements to determine what kind of room I'd have for the actual PC components yet.

Come to think of it, I may have access to more. Maybe I can put some up for sale, or work out some deal somewhere for trades. Hmm...
slaveofconvention
09-30-2009, 01:17 AM
Shipping to me in the UK would kill any chance of a deal so don't look at my wallet - it'll only run away screaming into the kind embrace of my lady wife :P She does a pretty good job of looking after it heh
sloppyc
09-30-2009, 01:15 PM
Haha. Yeah, shipping would be the problem with those.
rithunder916
09-30-2009, 01:46 PM
I did it with a itx socket 478 board. it came out pretty well, till some theif stole it. I bet he was surprised....haha
nevermind1534
09-30-2009, 11:52 PM
Shipping to me in the UK would kill any chance of a deal so don't look at my wallet - it'll only run away screaming into the kind embrace of my lady wife :P She does a pretty good job of looking after it heh

Shipping would probably run about $10-$20, maybe a little more.
slaveofconvention
10-01-2009, 04:33 AM
What? To get a full CRT based iMac from the US to the UK?
FuzzyPlushroom
10-01-2009, 06:39 PM
What? To get a full CRT based iMac from the US to the UK?

They're fairly light when they're gutted (screen and hardware pulled out). $20 doesn't seem that far out of the question. I have to ship a heavy box to Scotland soon; will keep you posted if you like.
nevermind1534
10-01-2009, 06:47 PM
What? To get a full CRT based iMac from the US to the UK?

If the CRT is still in it, it would cost more. The gutted mac very well could only cost $20 to ship (First class).
slaveofconvention
10-01-2009, 08:15 PM
Never thought about that - all I'd really want is the shell and maybe the speaker system
nevermind1534
10-01-2009, 08:22 PM
Never thought about that - all I'd really want is the shell and maybe the speaker system

With that, it might be $25-$30.

If you have an idea of what it might weigh, you could look up how much it will cost to ship at http://postcalc.usps.com
sloppyc
10-02-2009, 11:06 AM
They're fairly light when they're gutted (screen and hardware pulled out). $20 doesn't seem that far out of the question. I have to ship a heavy box to Scotland soon; will keep you posted if you like.

Pun intended?:think:
sloppyc
10-17-2009, 11:58 PM
I'm trying to find finished mods online, and they seem to be few and far between. As it stands I only see a couple of problems off the bat:

1) Getting the LCD to fit (bezel's curved a bit to accommodate the CRT).

2) Getting the power button to switch on the LCD and the PC (shouldn't be too hard?).

3) Slot-loading CD-ROM. It has a funny 50-pin connector, so re-using it doesn't look plausible... then the space occupied by the drive... USB ports?
slaveofconvention
10-18-2009, 06:15 AM
From what I read when I was considering doing something similar, it's a "standard" atapi drive so you may be able to get/make a cable converter to get it to work
sloppyc
10-22-2009, 01:43 PM
Hmm. I think I found something:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=180419594452
I am pretty sure it's an IDE drive on the inside, as you say, just a funny adapter.

The LCD appears to be the main obstacle. I want to do it on the cheap (have all the other hardware ready: a small P4 board, GeForce 4 (or maybe 5), wireless card, etc.

One more thing - does there exist a power cord splitter for the type of cord that fits into ATX power supplies? It would be nice to get this thing to work using only one power cord.
slaveofconvention
10-22-2009, 02:14 PM
I wasn't aware it was a laptop drive in the iMac - if that's the case, then yup, that'll be what you need. As for the power cable, you have two options I can think of. The first is your idea - yes you can get a Y power cable where it splits but the only time I've seen them, the split tends to be a lot closer to the wall end than the PC end so you'll still end up with two cables most of the way. The other option, depending on your confidence with power wiring, is to make your own internal adapter - you can buy the 3 pin sockets from all over the place, then inside wire up the connectors on the socket to two cut off cables - course this'll take up space inside, but it'll be tidier.
sloppyc
10-22-2009, 05:55 PM
I think it is.. the drive is connected by a similar adapter - small black connector on the device itself to a 50-pin IDE/SCSI ribbon cable. 40 of the pins are regular IDE as 10 of them are terminated while the rest continue to the hard drive that has a standard Molex power connector.

Well, there is a lot of room inside. I was planning on routing wires in the bottom portion of the machine anyway, and keeping the motherboard and LCD as the only visible objects in the top, transparent portion.
slaveofconvention
10-22-2009, 05:58 PM
Dammit I want to do one of these lol - I'm going ebaying *grin*

Probably end up with a blue one - they're the most common - really wish I'd pushed a little harder on the Red one I missed out on
sloppyc
10-22-2009, 06:18 PM
Just double-checked... the connector on Apple's adapter has the exact same connector as the one in the eBay link above. So it looks like it should be easy to use the slot-load CD-ROM in a PC with that adapter.

Haha, sweet. I don't know when I'll get my LCD, that's all that's holding me up at the moment, really.

Mine's the "Indigo" one... it looks blue to me. My colour of choice as well.
slaveofconvention
10-24-2009, 09:53 AM
My next potential victim.... muhahahah

http://www.thebestcasescenario.com/slaveofconvention/imagestore/greenimac.jpg
sloppyc
10-24-2009, 02:59 PM
Nice! I need to figure out how I'll get the curved face to fit on a flat LCD>
slaveofconvention
10-24-2009, 04:42 PM
I have two ideas in mind for that - neither is ideal but both will work, kinda

The first is screw the curve, fit a flat screen as best I can and try to fill the gaps.

Second is a sheet of clear thin perspex, lay it on the removed glass tube and try heating it to get it to follow the curve, the have that as an overlay over the screen. I already have a perfectly functional 15" lcd with speakers so should be a fairly easy swap (I hope)
aintnothang
10-24-2009, 08:55 PM
I used to use those in the 5th grade.
sloppyc
10-24-2009, 11:28 PM
I have two ideas in mind for that - neither is ideal but both will work, kinda

The first is screw the curve, fit a flat screen as best I can and try to fill the gaps.

Second is a sheet of clear thin perspex, lay it on the removed glass tube and try heating it to get it to follow the curve, the have that as an overlay over the screen. I already have a perfectly functional 15" lcd with speakers so should be a fairly easy swap (I hope)

Exactly the two ideas I'd had. I think I prefer the second. I suppose I could take the old picture tube and place the softened plexiglass on it to get a precise curve. I don't care if I can see a gap between the LCD and the plastic shell; the whole thing's transparent to display the innards, anyway.