Build yr own iMac!

[Calum]

A lot of people are always mumping and moaning that Macs are not as customisable as "PCs" ("IBM compatibles", ix86s, whatever)but have a look at this fantastic site that Ravuya brought our attention to!  

quote:But Goshu Trading contains unique treasures. In the middle of the shop floor is a Mac SE 30. But thanks to a lot of money and the guts of a modern iMac, the SE 30 has been converted to run Mac OSX, which normally runs on hardware less than a couple of years old.
Stripped of its innards, the SE 30 has been upgraded with an iMac motherboard complete with a 233-MHz G3 processor, 288-MB of RAM, a 4-GB hard drive and a CD-ROM drive that sticks out the back, not the front. It also has ethernet, two USB ports, two serial ports, a built-in modem and a pair of audio jacks. It costs 168,000 Yen (about US$1,700) -- almost the price of a brand new flat-screen iMac.
The conversion was done by Goshu Trading, which converts old Macs into modern machines, about one a month. It's too labor-intensive to do any more, said the store's proprietor, Yang Lee, although there's the demand. A lot of the conversions are done at the customer's behest, Lee said.
"Many people have an old Mac that they want upgraded," Lee said. "They like the old Mac very much. They have the machine for 10 years. All of our customers are Apple fans."

these guys have no qualms about doing things to their mac that RAM and video card junkies have been doing to their PCs for years!
So come on people, what's to stop you from doing this, eh? i reckon it's just because macs cost so much that people aren't willing to give them a good going over, what does everybody else think?

[psyjax]

I agree with you. There was another article in the forum where an actual memeber built a G4 tower from part's he baught online.

I remember a while back reading an issue of MacAddict were this fellow built a tower out of wood  ang put the Mac inside. It looked real cool, think Victorian computer.

I saw this even cooler Mod were someone built a mac into the casing of an old timie radio. That was super cool! Cuz were the speaker was was actually the CD tray. It looked real neat overal.

The problem is, that the hardware itself is scarce or expensive. Getting ahold of the correct motherboard can be a pain less you know who Apples manufacturers was.

Perhapse someone could make a Mac out of standard PC part's. That would be interesting. It's not imposible concidering that back in the days of the clones PowerComputing used standard PC parts.

Interesting...

[ April 01, 2002: Message edited by: psyjax ]

[ravuya]

Mi amigo, you are sorely mistaken. UMAX used the PC parts, not PowerComputing. They (UMAX) used a Tanzania mobo.


Anyways, for my next project, I'm planning on getting a Power Mac motherboard, and building my own Mac around it. That should show those Windows toddlers who can build boxes.

[ April 08, 2002: Message edited by: Ravuya ]

[psyjax]

Go for it Ravuya    !

Sorry 'bout the mistake. but the point was that it was actually possible to do.