YouTuber builds 'first' Apple Silicon iMac using old iMac & M1 Mac mini
By disemboweling a M1 Mac mini and jamming everything inside an old iMac, a YouTube content creator cobbled together what he calls the world's first Apple Silicon iMac -- with major caveats.
A 2011 iMac with Apple Silicon inside
Apple is set to release a new line of desktops running its custom Apple Silicon but not for a few months. So, YouTuber Luke Miani took a motherboard from a Mac mini and shoved it into a 2011 iMac.
Miani notes that the Mac mini motherboard is so small that it can fit snugly within the iMac chassis without any modifications. Using an HDMI display adapter from the Mac mini motherboard to the custom Apple iMac display connector was the vast majority of work on the project.
Essentially, the Mac mini is running unmodified within the chassis of the iMac and using it as a display with the help of that adapter circuitry. This, however, comes with several limitations.
The Mac mini is held in via one screw inside the iMac
First, the 2011 iMac has a very low resolution by today's standards. Its pre-Retina 27-inch 2560 by 1440 display is not an ideal way to use macOS. Second, the "computer" portion of this setup is the Mac mini, inside the iMac chassis. With the current build, all the ports -- and power button -- are inside the chassis and completely inaccessible from the outside without taking the screen off.
Finally, the Bluetooth and Wifi radios were optimized by a three-antenna array used in the Mac mini, but one of those antenna was built into the Mac mini chassis. He overcame this limitation by connecting the extra antenna to the iMac's antenna wiring harness.
While the project was mostly successful, Miani says the setup isn't recommended despite it being simple to accomplish. He does, however, say that turning the iMac into a display for the Mac mini is worth it if you happen to have one laying around.
Apple is expected to release a 24-inch iMac with an M-series processor sometime in 2021. It is rumored to have multiple color options similar to the iPad Air 4.
A 2011 iMac with Apple Silicon inside
Apple is set to release a new line of desktops running its custom Apple Silicon but not for a few months. So, YouTuber Luke Miani took a motherboard from a Mac mini and shoved it into a 2011 iMac.
Miani notes that the Mac mini motherboard is so small that it can fit snugly within the iMac chassis without any modifications. Using an HDMI display adapter from the Mac mini motherboard to the custom Apple iMac display connector was the vast majority of work on the project.
Essentially, the Mac mini is running unmodified within the chassis of the iMac and using it as a display with the help of that adapter circuitry. This, however, comes with several limitations.
The Mac mini is held in via one screw inside the iMac
First, the 2011 iMac has a very low resolution by today's standards. Its pre-Retina 27-inch 2560 by 1440 display is not an ideal way to use macOS. Second, the "computer" portion of this setup is the Mac mini, inside the iMac chassis. With the current build, all the ports -- and power button -- are inside the chassis and completely inaccessible from the outside without taking the screen off.
Finally, the Bluetooth and Wifi radios were optimized by a three-antenna array used in the Mac mini, but one of those antenna was built into the Mac mini chassis. He overcame this limitation by connecting the extra antenna to the iMac's antenna wiring harness.
While the project was mostly successful, Miani says the setup isn't recommended despite it being simple to accomplish. He does, however, say that turning the iMac into a display for the Mac mini is worth it if you happen to have one laying around.
Apple is expected to release a 24-inch iMac with an M-series processor sometime in 2021. It is rumored to have multiple color options similar to the iPad Air 4.
Comments
Gotta love YouTube and the constant creator anxiety to develop content even when it's not practical or meaningful.
would that get around the dodgy Radeon GPU in this model iMac though, the main reason this model would die?
at least it would be easy to open up in comparison to more modern iMacs.
Disagreed on ego. Obviously, claims on ego prove that person (who claims that) has problems with creativity and experimentation that may be useful to draw some independent conclusions. One has to learn that instead of being critical only. It has its values... just like porting Linux on M1 that was achieved recently and helped judging Apple M1 creations and their qualities.
Seems pretty dumb to me.
I agree with the commenter that simply using Target Monitor mode on that old iMac would have made more sense and be less gimmicky for Luke.
My only concern with this video, which is not normal for Luke, is it came out as an infomercial for iFixit. He usually isn't so blatant. As for everyone saying to use target disk mode, Luke started it that way but the idea was to show what the new iMac could be not simply using an old iMac as a monitor. The computer had to be inside the iMac, not outside, which he ended up doing with a bunch of tape and a few screws to hold it together. The amazing thing is it actually worked, with several caveats. When Apple releases the first M-series iMac I bet the insides will look very similar to what Luke built.
As for keeping my late 2015 27" iMac, I bought an M1 MBA and since I'm retired I'll probably buy a simple external display for home use and use the MBA for travel. My old iMac will be going to a grandkid for schooling. I'm telling my family to wait for the M-series iMacs before they purchase anything because my MBA is already faster than almost everything any of them have.
Will try the converter board trick at some point on my dead 2008 iMac 24 inch that's still boxed in & being stored in the cellar for years now. (couldn't part with it, even if it doesn't turn on any more.)
just gotta get the time to have it looked at, if it's unfixable, but the screen is still gut, I will follow his suggestion and mod it to a hdmi converter board to only use the screen