iOS developer turns vintage iMac G4 into an M1 Mac

AppleInsider

An Apple enthusiast and iOS developer has shared a project that turned a vintage iMac G4 into a modern-day Mac equipped with an M1 chip.

Credit: Pendleton115

Colby Sheets on Tuesday shared a short clip to Twitter showing off the converted iMac G4. In the clip, the device is running macOS Big Sur and is equipped with an M1 chipset pulled from a Mac mini.

In celebration of Steve Job's life and his inspiration to many, I wanted to show a passion project I've been working on that I think Steve would be proud of. Something that wasn't possible 20 years ago but is now.

Hello, iMac G4 with an M1 chip. pic.twitter.com/q6zUpyFrwu

-- Colby Sheets (@ColbySheets)

October 5, 2021

"In celebration of Steve Job's life and his inspiration to many, I wanted to show a passion project I've been working on that I think Steve would be proud of," Sheets wrote.

Although details on the specific process that Sheets used to convert the Mac into a modern machine are scarce, the iOS developer said the project has been a "dream computer of mine since I was young and I'm very proud to bring it back to life 2 decades later."

In later replies, Sheets said the project was pieced together from different materials and combined with an M1 Mac.

The developer also shouted out vintage Mac collector Pendleton115. Sheets said Pendleton115's YouTube videos and walkthroughs "helped me a lot throughout this mod especially on troubleshooting some wiring issues."

"I promise to explain more about the mod soon, probably will post a video about the process and the steps soon," Sheets said.

AppleInsider has reached out to Sheets for more information about the project.

Read on AppleInsider

rob53

I kept the guts of my lampshade iMac and installing an M1 Mac mini would be fun. I'd have to find a high resolution display to replace the current one and make some alterations to the ports but it could still be a fun adventure. Calling it a iMac G4 is not what I'd call mine. I'd go for iMac Retro (need to work on the name).

I don't remember if my lampshade iMac's display still works. It's only a 15" TFT Active Matrix LCD display, 1024x768 display, so I'd have to figure out how to re-mount the display into the iMac display frame. 

I can see the box its in but no easy way to get to it to check which version I have. It's probably the first version since I also got the first iMac the first day it was offered but it's been gone for awhile. I can't keep everything I've purchased (even though family and friends say I do).

Well, I went ahead and grabbed it. Thought I had gutted it but only got rid of HDD and CD, the motherboard is still inside. Checked the serial number and I have the 800 MHz PowerPC 7445 (G4) version. All the cables coming out of the display arm are labeled. One cable says TMDS Cable (display signal?) while another says Inverter Cable (power?). I might actually try and see if I can get it to work. Of course I believe the display died so might simply take the housing apart and see whether I could add a new display.

wwinter86

Would love to see that done to a G3 too

shamino

I love it!

I wonder what model iMac he started with.  The early generation models only have a 1024x768 display, which is really uncomfortable for today's macOS.  But the last model supports 1680x1050.

According to one article I found, it appears that the built-in display is actually DVI, using a custom connector.  Which means it should be possible to replace the connector (or make an adapter) so it can connect to the M1's HDMI port.  I assume this is what he actually did.

What would be really cool (no idea if he's done it yet) would be to get the optical drive working.  If I remember correctly, it is a parallel ATA drive.  Lots of companies make adapters that will connect it to a USB port.  The only real potential problem seems like it will be making the adapter fit in the case.

TomPMRI

I still use my iMac G4 as a scanning station with an old Epson flatbread scanner that has significantly better scanner optics than what can be bought today. It is running Leopard, but is no longer connected to the outside world. I would love to convert it to an M1 system.

auxio

Probably would have been more straightforward to convert a G4 Cube, but looks like a fun project nonetheless.

entropys

The hard part would be the display.  Outstanding mod.

rob53

shamino said:

I love it!

I wonder what model iMac he started with.  The early generation models only have a 1024x768 display, which is really uncomfortable for today's macOS.  But the last model supports 1680x1050.

According to one article I found, it appears that the built-in display is actually DVI, using a custom connector.  Which means it should be possible to replace the connector (or make an adapter) so it can connect to the M1's HDMI port.  I assume this is what he actually did.

What would be really cool (no idea if he's done it yet) would be to get the optical drive working.  If I remember correctly, it is a parallel ATA drive.  Lots of companies make adapters that will connect it to a USB port.  The only real potential problem seems like it will be making the adapter fit in the case.

Here's a photo of both connectors on my 800GHz version. If using a different 15" display, none of these would be needed to connect to a Mac mini, I'd probably use the HDMI2 port for display, leaving two USB4/TB3 ports for everything else. I'd convert to a Bluetooth keyboard and mouse.





After reading one of the referenced links, I'm assuming I would need a legitimate monitor and connection that supports HDCP so videos will play properly. 

mattinoz

shamino said:

I love it!

I wonder what model iMac he started with.  The early generation models only have a 1024x768 display, which is really uncomfortable for today's macOS.  But the last model supports 1680x1050.

According to one article I found, it appears that the built-in display is actually DVI, using a custom connector.  Which means it should be possible to replace the connector (or make an adapter) so it can connect to the M1's HDMI port.  I assume this is what he actually did.

What would be really cool (no idea if he's done it yet) would be to get the optical drive working.  If I remember correctly, it is a parallel ATA drive.  Lots of companies make adapters that will connect it to a USB port.  The only real potential problem seems like it will be making the adapter fit in the case.

Remember there is a 3.5inch Drive sitting above to the optical. The MacBoorAir M1 and maybe the iMac24 Board would fit in there, doesn't look like the MacBook Pro would. 
Both of those have all the ports on sub boards so could be cabled down in to the space used for the old G4 motherboard to fudge together a USB-c "hub" and Power supply to make all the old ports work or convert them to newer versions.

Problem is still monitor support, sure could treat it as an external but I think both those boards would still want an internal connected to the socket which seems to carry the webcam as well on both.

Yes I've been looking at my Old 17inch G4 iMac for a while now as a retro-redux. Just need a contact at a repair shop to get me a machine someone has been careless with. 
Was initially thinking just turning it in to USBc hub and screen but projects gets big and bolder each time. 

darkvader

shamino said:

I love it!

I wonder what model iMac he started with.  The early generation models only have a 1024x768 display, which is really uncomfortable for today's macOS.  But the last model supports 1680x1050.

According to one article I found, it appears that the built-in display is actually DVI, using a custom connector.  Which means it should be possible to replace the connector (or make an adapter) so it can connect to the M1's HDMI port.  I assume this is what he actually did.

What would be really cool (no idea if he's done it yet) would be to get the optical drive working.  If I remember correctly, it is a parallel ATA drive.  Lots of companies make adapters that will connect it to a USB port.  The only real potential problem seems like it will be making the adapter fit in the case.

It's a PATA drive, but it's a completely standard desktop drive, you could easily replace it with a SATA drive if you wanted.  Might as well put in a Blu-ray drive if you're going to do that.

darkvader

I've actually considered doing something similar in the past, but I've only got one G4 iMac, and I'd rather keep it stock, it's great for old PPC games.

The G4 iMac is absolutely the best iMac design Apple ever did, it's sad that it's nothing but a boring slab now.

baconstang

My first Mac was a 17" iMac.    With the drawer optical drive, it was the only iMac I had that would play 3" CDs.

Loved that package!  It went to my girl friend at the time after replacing the 80GB HDD with a 500GB HDD and fresh install of Tiger.

Replaced it with a 24" iMac.  Obviously better machine, but a boring package by comparison.

bloggerblog

This is nothing new, I’ve seen a step by step conversion video a few months back, Having said that, it wasn’t easy 

shamino

rob53 said:

After reading one of the referenced links, I'm assuming I would need a legitimate monitor and connection that supports HDCP so videos will play properly. 

Ow.  I forgot about HDCP.  It's unlikely that the internal panel has support, so you'd be OK putting your desktop on that display, but copy protected content might not play via Apple's software.  (Maybe VLC would work?)

mattinoz said:

Remember there is a 3.5inch Drive sitting above to the optical. The MacBoorAir M1 and maybe the iMac24 Board would fit in there, doesn't look like the MacBook Pro would. 
Both of those have all the ports on sub boards so could be cabled down in to the space used for the old G4 motherboard to fudge together a USB-c "hub" and Power supply to make all the old ports work or convert them to newer versions.

Problem is still monitor support, sure could treat it as an external but I think both those boards would still want an internal connected to the socket which seems to carry the webcam as well on both.

The space used by the hard drive could obviously be used for an ATA-USB adapter, but I think you'd need an ATA extension cable of some kind.  Most of the adapters i've seen have a pretty large plastic box that connects directly to the drive that that definitely wouldn't fit.

Trying to put a laptop or iMac M1 board in there may be more difficult.  And as you point out, it's unlikely that the internal display could be driven from those boards' internal display connector.  That's a good reason to start from a Mac mini board (as described in the article) - so you can tap its HDMI connector and still have a Thunderbolt connector for an external display.

If you're willing and able to swap the iMac's display panel then i suppose you could, in theory, use a laptop's display panel with a laptop motherboard.  But I don't know if the display would physically fit in the mounting, since the iMac's display has a different aspect from modern laptop panels.  That would, I suspect, be really difficult to do in a way that looks good afterward.