I have an imac G4 "lamp" with a 20" flat screen that I really love and don't want to part with. I think it's the most beautiful desktop system Apple has put out to date. But it's starting to show it's limitations. I have an enormous itunes library and when itunes is open my system bogs down to a crawl. Is it possible to internally modify my machine into an intel core2 duo and add around 4gig of RAM while I'm at it? I asked the folks at Daystar, who offer an imac upgrade ( http://daystartechnology.com/Apple_Mac_P...iMac_FP_PS.html ) but they say no way, never. They won't say if it is technically impossible or if they have some corporate/political reason they can't do it. It seems to me that since a mac mini is smaller than the base of my computer that it should be possible but I've never tried anything like this before. I have a feeling there are a lot of G4 imac owners out there who would love this too. I've searched the internet high and low but can't find any discussion of this type of mod. Ideas? Thanks.
you could def get a mac mini in there. I don't think you would really have any problems. Its just a matter of gutting the imac and the mini and putting the parts into it where they fit. The only issue will be the LCD. I don't know how that connects to the board on the imac... If you can get the pin-outs though, you could just rewire it.
This is def do-able, and not really that hard...
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"Fix it 'til it Breaks."
Jacob - EiC & Director of Technology Mac Pro Quad 2.66 - 4GB RAM 160 GB SATA RAID 1 - 650 GB Storage Quad 19" Widescreen LCDs Accessorized to the Hilt
It would be serious surgery ... By 'not really that hard' Jacob means nothing terribly technical with the exception of the LCD. I imagine that the LCD is attached similar to a laptop, so it would probably not be easy to do, if you look up using a working screen from a busted laptop on another computer, you'll find tons of results that basically say it is prohibitively expensive to do.
To make it a bit easier on yourself, you could buy a 20" monitor and a mac mini, completely gut both of those and finagle them into the iMac case. But at that point, you may as well buy a busted iMac off eBay, and re-install OSX on your other one to set up as a kids machine or something ...
20" monitors really aren't even that expensive these days, so it might be a worthy option. Plus you can sell the 20" panel from your iMac and make back some of the cash. This is a very interesting idea though, it would be cool to move those iMacs to C2D or CD. And it's future proof! Just replace the mini inside with a better one, and BAM system upgrade. ;D
A good idea, but be careful with the neck if you swap out the LCD. The LCD cables run through the neck. First of all, you need a special tool to undo the neck. I believe you used to be able to buy them but they are not common. We had ours made though. Now the important warning: Undoing the neck is potentially dangerous, there is a spring in it under incredibly high tension. These things literally explode when they take a hefty whack in transit. It took two of us to put one back together, and I weigh over 200lbs on my own.
Maybe.. it might be a better idea for your iMac (and you) if you leave the internal cable alone and just run it on the outside... >.< or perhaps wire the new monitor onto the old cable.
If you used the old LVDS to transport the signal from the panel to the panel controller, and then soldered the panel controller onto the output from the Mini.. it could work if there were enough available wires in the existing LVDS...Sorry, I wasn't specific enough about what I meant.
That way you wouldn't have to open the neck and won't worry about screwing up the panel while attempting to make it compatible with the existing setup. Only problem is that doing it could be a real headache.
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