Well, I've been hinting about working on somewhat of an iMac hack, so here it is. It's nothing great, but it killed some time I reckon.
The specs:
Revision A iMac
G3 233
64mb ram
4gig with OS 8.1 installed (this will change soon)
90w ATX psu stripped of its metal.
Here's the first shot after getting the wiring situated with the power supply. I crossed my fingers and hoped nothing would fry, and to my suprise nothing did.
I used 4 #8 machine screws and several nuts/washers to mount the logic board to the case. I wish the power filter board wasn't stuck on the bottom, as it would've made this much easier but that's apple for ya. I used tin snips to modify the CPU card cage to allow the top case to fit without bending the board in an awkward position.
Here is a side shot showing the mounted logic board, ATX PSU, and the hard drive just sitting in it. I cut the little metal ring that held the 2 cables together for the drives, so if I ever need to put the CD drive in for updates or whatever I can. This just saves the extra cable taking up too much space.
I superglued the speakers to the lid and used hot glue to mount the fan. Eventually I'll add another fan and setup a duct to cool the CPU, but for now this will do. I left the extra wiring in case I want to hook up the audio board and/or mic at a later date.
Here is a near complete top shot. The only thing left to do at the time this was taken was to extend the video cable that goes from the logic board to the video board, and wire up the fan. Other than that it's pretty much done.
Last but not least a rear shot, showing my horrible glue job and the scratched up plexiglass. It isn't pretty but it does what its supposed to.
I still need to get the soft power working, but until I find the hex inverter I need I'll stick to pulling the plug (after using the shutdown command of course!). The front LED still needs to be hooked up as well as cutting a hole for the modem but since I'm on broadband I doubt I'll ever use it.
Really cool. You pulled it off better than it sounded like it would when you were talking to me on AIM.
I would recommend fleshing it out slightly - tell us in more detail about extending the video cable, for example - and posting it as an article in the hacks section here.
Matt
I extended the iMac video cable (from the mobo to the vga connector board) when I did my iMac in a IIsi by soldering all the wires onto a shielded vga extension lead. Took ages...
It looks like CubKid found a more elegant solution.
Nicely done, CubKid!
Thanks eeun. My extension consisted of an IDE cable, and I just used the wires from that (cut from the connectors of course) to make it longer. So far I haven't noticed any form of ghosting or wierd behavior so it'll stay like that I guess. I also failed to mention that if you look at the video board, and if you're iMac savvy (know the ins and outs of one somewhat) you'll notice that the IR and audio ports are no longer there. I used some side cutters to snip them off since they weren't needed. The audio cable connects directly to the logic board now and I've got it positioned just right to be able to hook up to it. I'll post a few pics of the cable soon, possibly later tonight.
How would I post it as an article? Don't the mods have to do that? Let me know and I'll go into more detail if need be.
Here's a shot of the video cable that I extended. It isn't pretty but it does the job.
Click the "Submit Article" link at the top of the page and follow the instructions!
Nice job anyway, it looks good!
TOM
i generally find that heat shrink, or wire wrap holds up alot better than electrical tape.
Nice hack tho!
Thanks, I used electric tape on it only because I used all of the heatshrink tubing I had left on the power supply. I should've bought more but that's ok, it works for now.