My first time....

[slaveofconvention]

... with a Mac!!! - Sheesh - dirty minds you all have!!!

I have had a project in mind for a LONG time now, to build a sensible spec Win7 PC inside an old iMac G3 - to that end, I've been keeping my eye out on ebay for someone selling one within sensible collection distance and last week, one appeared, all of 9 miles away....

Best thing about it - I won the auction, and got the system, in full working order (well kinda) for.... £5.... That's about $7.85 on the other side of the pond... not too bad. 400Mhz, 512MB Ram and 40GB Hard disk


http://www.thebestcasescenario.com/slaveofconvention/imagestore/imac/1.jpgThe iMac

http://www.thebestcasescenario.com/slaveofconvention/imagestore/imac/2.jpgLovely clean side

http://www.thebestcasescenario.com/slaveofconvention/imagestore/imac/3.jpgNasty scratch which I hope I'll be able to sand and polish out

http://www.thebestcasescenario.com/slaveofconvention/imagestore/imac/4.jpgFrom the top

The guy I bought it from told me that the previous owner had upgraded the hardware and installed Mac OSX on the machine but that it had never really been right.

I've never touched a mac but decided that I was the man for the job lol. I wiped the machine and installed a clean copy of Mac OSx 10.0 and it seemed to work, except that IE5 (installed) crashed constantly and I couldn't get Safari to install. I decided to check the Mac had the right firmware for OsX and it wouldn't display it so I had to do a complete wipe and reinstall of MacOS 9.1 just to see IF the firmware was right.

It was, which was actually pretty annoying as I'd spent nearly 2 hours finding this out lol. I then installed a copy of MacOS X 10.3 which is the newest version which supports the PowerPC processor and NOW it's working nicely....

I'll now turn it off and bury it in the corner of my workroom because this is an uber uber low priority for me.

One little bugbear though....

http://www.thebestcasescenario.com/slaveofconvention/imagestore/imac/5.jpgRegistration Screen

Apple REQUIRES registration, and the phone number field is also required. That annoyed the hell out of me. It should be MY choice what information I choose to share or not share. Shame on you Apple - I already had a pretty uninformed poor opinion of you - now I have a better informed and even poorer opinion....

If there's some way to skip the registration, it certainly isn't an obvious one...

I can't wait to press that power button and have Windows 7 come up - just because I like to have an occasional petty moment....

The other thing which has annoyed me is that I spent probably 6 hours on this machine, for NO other reason than because I could lol - I have zero intention of EVER using the machine AS a mac.... I just wanted it right before I mothballed it.... OCD moment maybe?!?

[TheGreatSatan]

So are you just experimenting. . . .? Is this in preparation for an iMac?

[Twigsoffury]

LCD panel would be fat inside that thing.

[mDust]

If there's some way to skip the registration, it certainly isn't an obvious one...Register it to Ronald McDonald and then give them the phone number to your abusive student loan collection department (or anyone else you hate). Works for me.:up:

To be completely honest, I've always thought those things looked out of place when not in a preschool classroom...

[Mark_Hardware]

I remember my first time...... :whistler:

[slaveofconvention]

I already have a 15" lcd sitting spare and it should fit with a little persuasion... micro atx board is about the same size as the panel so will fit behind it. Going to try to reuse all of the existing ports etc but all of that is a long way off lol

[BuzzKillington]

I remember those things from school. God I hated them! haha

[ownaginatious]

I think Mac OS 9 might be one of the worst things ever created in the history of man kind (aside from Windows ME of course).

I had a green one of those pieces of **** for about 7 years. Terrible slow piece of garbage. The thing that aggravated me the most was that stupid error screen that would show a picture of a bomb and say something like "lol, your computer screwed up", and only give me a button to restart... unable to click anything else.

I mean, if my only possible option at that point is to restart, and you won't tell me what's wrong... why don't you just restart automatically?

[slaveofconvention]

Well I'm thinking throwing in a decent spec PC and a copy of 7, along with a bit of illumination here and there... replace the slot CD with a slot load laptop drive....

The only real catch at the moment is going to be room for the PSU I think - that could be tight. It's also going to be a ***** to add a little cooling without seriously messing with the lines....

One solution might be to go Zotac/Ion - that'd free up room, reduce cooling requirements and allow for a much smaller PSU.... But it'd kinda ramp up the budget a fair bit...

[Oneslowz28]

So when can we expect photos of your newly formed iVagina? :p

[slaveofconvention]

When it has a huge throbbing Win7phallus attached, of course....

[FuzzyPlushroom]

Attached? Ooh, that's kinky.

So, you're basically planning to turn it into this (http://dansdata.com/lcdpc.htm), albeit more stylish and with fewer sharp edges? I'm definitely watching this one - wouldn't mind modding my G4 tower a bit. I remember Panther having the nerve to ask for my phone number, too... I don't remember what I put in.

[slaveofconvention]

I'm hoping, eventually, to have something which looks entirely stock, but really isnt lol....

Course there'll be different hardware visible through the sides, and the screen will be oddly flat, but other than that....

[Luke122]

Attached? Ooh, that's kinky.


Maybe he means "installed". ;)

[Twigsoffury]

Maybe he means "installed". ;)

hey baby hows about you let me insert tab a into slot b so we can make connection c?