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The 21" Frankenstein iMac
webslacker writes "One of the strangest hardware hack jobs I've ever seen: Some guy named Don Hardy decides that he doesn't like the 15" monitor in his iMac and happens to have a 21" Nokia lying around. Does he A) find some clever way to solder a VGA-out from his iMac to his monitor, B) toss them both out, or C) take them both apart and merge them into one unit? "
Does this void my warranty?
Congratulations... you just invalidated your warranty... :)
They'd have to call it iBigMac...
I doubt that the mass media will pick up on this but this is what hacking is. Breaking or bending the rules - without hurting anyone - to get you want/need. Solving problems in an untypical way. (Look ma, no scripts!)
Now, what the hell was this guy doing with an iMac to start with? Better get one of those new G4s.
anyone else suspicious that they're is a Mac under the table?, I'm not saying he didn't do it. it's just it looks so much like a monitor with a keyboard in front. also he doesn't talk very much about it technically, more comically. most of the technical talk is about how hard it was to get the cd-rom in. the cd-rom being the only visible proof that anything was done to the monitor.
-Jon
this is my sig.
His new machine no longer has a transparent blue casing! Avert your eyes my Mac brethren, it is a snare set by Satan to tempt you to the beige side!
You call that an iMac? You are a tool of the PC imperialist dogs! Vive la France! No WTO! Anarchy!
-konstant
-konstant
Yes! We are all individuals! I'm not!
Monitors over 17 inchs tend to be very particular about anything being in their cases and the linearity of the display. That's why most of them have magnets glued in random place inside the case. Some guy sits and watches the picture while magnets are moved around the back (there was talk of an automated test jig seven years ago, but the one I was going to be involved with wasn't built and I haven't heard of any others). How much did this change that? Does the color get washed out when the CD spins up?
Then again an Imac owner is probably more concerned with the look of the machine then the quality or performance. "I don't want my desk cluttered." or "This matches the decor of my office." Hell none of them match the soldiering iron in mine.
Actually, he probably didn't void his warranty. Apple only has one-year warranties, and he said it was a first generation iMac. I assume he means the Bondi Blue ones. I don't know how Apple gets away with only offering one year when Gateway, Dell, Quantex, etc. all offer three-year warranties on their hardware. I've still got Pentium 166 machines under warranty. Gateway sends me 4 gig drives when their 2 gig drives fail, but I'm not complaining.
The flip side is that there's nothing lost by modifying your Apple hardware after one year. I had a beige G3 233, and I overclocked it to 300 the day before the warranty expired. Apple sticks a big VOID sticker across the jumpers, and also uses a big plastic block of jumpers, so you have to go find some of the right size if you want to modify the settings. When I saw that, it pissed me off so much, I had to overclock it.
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When in danger or in doubt, run in circles, scream and shout. --Robert A. Heinlein
I feel for the guy. On one job I had I ended up splicing a monitor cable extender from Radio Shack onto an old IBM PS/2 monitor because I didn't have any more parts to cannibalize from monitors that were lying around... The guts of monitors are not fun things to mess around with.
--Fesh
--Fesh
Kill -9 'em all, let root@localhost sort 'em out.
He must want to actually use a computer.
Cheers,
Justin
"My cat's breath smells like cat food." - The Tao of Ralph Wiggum.
I learned the basics of TCP network stuff on a mac SE a long time ago :) I wish my SE had a 21" monitor, and Mac's are not bad machines.... just severely overpriced. You just don't see many of them because of the WIntel man holding us down :)
Scirocco! It's not just a car its a way of life!
Wow, that's quite an error message! Over 200 words, and at no point did it give out any information about the actual problem.
And the sad thing is, that's the way things are going. Longer, more confusing error messages, with less information.
Without the CGI: http://www.macaddict.com/exclusive/9911/imac21.htm l
P.U.R.G.E Save my live !
It is *simple* to attach a larger moniter to a first generation iMac!
* Pull off the case back.
* Unscrew the built in monitor's cable. (Its a standard connector.)
* Connect your big monitor. You may need one of those Belkin MacVGA adaptors.
I have run an NEC Multisync XL on my iMac in exactly this fashion.
Also Griffin makes an adaptor that moves the connector off to the side panel so you can video mirror onto both displays.
Dog is my co-pilot.
Personally, I think this is cool. Now all he has to do is build a second 17" monitor onto the side, and he's got a stereoscopic display. :)
(Mind you, the magnetic fields must wreck havoc with the computer's internals!)
It's a small world and it smells funny; I'd buy another if it wasn't for the money; Take back what I paid (SoM)
Because ther is NO FAN in new iMac and said Confucius before No Fan No Noise...
Yeah, and if you leave one of them new iMac's on all day, the rear vents get hot enough to fry an egg! I nearly burned myself touching them in a CompUSA display. Leaving out the fan was a bad idea, IMHO. With the monitor, hard drive, and video card all packed into such a tight space, overheating is going to be a serious problem.
dragonhawk@iname.microsoft.com
I do not like Microsoft. Remove them from my email address.
-A.P.
--
"One World, one Web, one Program" - Microsoft promotional ad
"Remember when the U.S. had a drug problem, and then we declared a War On Drugs, and now you can't buy drugs anymore?"
Here is a mirror: http://metalab.unc.edu/TH/bigmac/imac2 1.html. It is only partial since it was reconstructed from my browser's cache. I hope it helps out.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
... A Mac-in-the-box, with the current gen's iMac bits in a stereo-style component that can be plugged into your TV or computer monitor and your stereo rig (with a cordless keyboard/mouse and/or cordless keyboard with integrated trackpoint).. I guess that's what Pippin was.
I wonder if I coudl do this by buying iMac replacement bits and putting them together.. I wonder...
Your Working Boy,
The FCC breaks down his door, cuffs him in his bathrobe, scares the crap outta his wife and cat, and then marches away with the 21inch iMac?
I mean, it's not FCC certified for interference, now is it?
The incessant sniping about how expensive Macs are gets REALLY OLD, kiddies. Trust me, we know all about it. I've been tracking the prices of Macs and PCs since many of you were in grade school, and let me tell you, it ain't true that Macs are a ripoff.
:-)
I've done several side-by-side comparisons over the years. Price out a Mac and an equally equipped PC of comparable performance*. Yes, the Mac still costs more. How much more? $100 to $200. That's right. I'll say it again to make sure it's not a mistake. $100 to $200 more to buy a Mac vs. a comparably equipped PC.
*By performance, I mean the computer's ability to compute, not the MHz its oscillator runs at.
This has been true at nearly every point in time for at least the past 5 years, maybe 10.
Now... is your time worth anything to you? If that PC costs you 1 work day of support more than the Mac over the lifetime of the machine... bye bye savings! And trust me, it will. Been there, done that, got the Tee-shirt, three times over.
I reboot Windows NT as often as I reboot MacOS. If Linux is your game... I've got a Linux partition on both my Mac and my PC, so there!
Case in point #1: A budget AMD PC. Starts at $670. Sounds pretty cheap. Now add stuff until it equals a $999 iMac 350. Total price: $954. And the iMac is the faster machine, significantly. I'm not making this up, this is a real quote from iDot.com.
Case in point #2: A high-end G3/450. Price: $1800 from Outpost.com. Price of a comparable** 600 MHz Intel PC from iDot: $1774.
**Remember what I said about performance.
Doggone, Macs are a better deal than I thought! The Mac premium has fallen to under $50. I'd better run out and buy one before Apple comes to their senses.
But their management is dumber than your average company. I sell computers at the campus store here, and there's only ONE reason why I tend to push people heavily towards PCs - Macs ar 1.5 times as much as an equivalent PC or more. (Even you yourself admit to them being overpriced.) Apple is just way too greedy, and they're too stupid to realize that their greed is pushing people to PCs. Apple could do REALLY well if they'd only stop shooting themselves in the foot.
You're ignoring the fact that every Mac ever built will outperform every PC ever built if you compare a set of similar numbers (ie. same #Mhz, same #RAM). The MAC hardware is just beautiful, it's the OS that sucks monkey balls. My personal pet peeve is that the menu bar is permanently docked at the top of the screen and doesn't stay attached to the application that owns it. That's one of many pet peeves really...
Kintanon
Check out JoshJitsu.info for Brazilian Ji
A better place for iMac news is www.dailyimac.com
and soon www.dailymac.com will have Mac news. They tend to update pretty quickly and are a nice looking site...
Kintanon
Check out JoshJitsu.info for Brazilian Ji
You're ignoring the fact that every Mac ever built will outperform every PC ever built if you compare a set of similar numbers (ie. same #Mhz, same #RAM).
Comparing different architectures "at the same clock" is patently useless. The reason is that different architectures do different amounts of work per clock cycle, depending on things like the number of pipelines, RISC vs CISC, etc.
The only way to accurately compare system performance (after you eliminate systems that don't do what you want, of course) is by using price-performance ratios. How much bang do you get for your buck?
Given the fact that I can get a damn good PC for less then $300, but have to shell out $1000+ for a Mac, I think I know what I would pick. (Plus, there are too many Windows-only games, so for me personally, I would go PC so I can still boot into Windows to play games.)
My personal pet peeve is that the menu bar is permanently docked at the top of the screen and doesn't stay attached to the application that owns it.
There are advantages to that method: For one, you don't waste screen real estate duplicating the menu bar in every window. For another, it means you always know where to find the menu, no matter where a window is. I'm not saying one is better then the other, just that Apple's method is not without merit.
dragonhawk@iname.microsoft.com
I do not like Microsoft. Remove them from my email address.
You just said that you can't measure performance accurately. Therefore, the only real way to go is price/performance.
How, though, do you get price/performance if you can't accurately measure performance?
Given the fact that I can get a damn good PC for less then $300, but have to shell out $1000+ for a Mac, I think I know what I would pick. (Plus, there are too many Windows-only games, so for me personally, I would go PC so I can still boot into Windows to play games.)
A "damn good" PC for $300? Don't make me laugh. Yes, you can get a PC for that much. But a damn good one? Mediocre, perhaps. But not damn good by any means.
And I can get my hands on an iMac for about half the price you quoted.
I agree with you wholeheartedly on the menubar issue, though. People forget that the principal interface of any GUI app is its menubar, and the average person can only work in one app at a time (note: that person's computer can run many apps once, but I'd like to see anyone here type up a term paper while playing Quake at the exact same time). The computer itself has no use for menubars, so displaying more than one at a time is pointless (the user can only use the obe belonging to the active app, and the computer doesn't need them anyway). That leaves the question of where to put it, and the top of the screen is a logical place.
The mouse is actually quite nice, IMHO. It's well balanced and works great--not as a full-hand mouse, but as one used mostly with your fingers. (And no, it doesn't turn around on you.) Besides, don't knock it till you've tried it...
The keyboards though? Ugh... nasty.
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Am I the only one who thinks Microsoft is a misnomer? Perhaps Macrosoft would be a better fit?
Let's not forget that the current PowerBook models have been out since the summer at the same price, so this is a bad time to buy a PowerBook. If you compare the current prices to the prices of PC laptops during the summer, it was vastly favorable to the Mac.
When the new models come out (presumably some time soon), the price/performance ratio will be much better, and that will be a smarter time to buy a PowerBook.
Mac prices don't change as quickly as PC prices, so it's generally better to buy Macs when they first come out.
I think Imagine Media, the parent company, runs the server, not MacAddict magazine itself. So they can run whatever server they want. Personally, I think they have good taste :-).
D
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You just said that you can't measure performance. Therefore, the only real way to go is price/performance.
;-)
No, I said that comparing performance "at the same clock" is invalid. Instead, you need to use real-world benchmarks and divide the results by price. That gives you a price-performance ratio, which you can then use for comparison. Read more carefully, please.
A "damn good" PC for $300?
Yes. Around 400 or 500 MHz, 32 to 64 MB of RAM, 4 GB HDD. No monitor, though. Make it $400, then.
Hell, there are companies who will give you a good PC for free, provided you sign up for Internet service with them. That gives you a price-performance ratio so good, it cannot be calculated.
And I can get my hands on an iMac for about half the price you quoted.
I don't get it. You flame my cheap PC prices, but then go on to boast how an iMac does not have to cost list. Just as you can get iMacs for less then list price, you can get very nice Intel-based PCs for less then the $1200 Dell wants to sell you one at.
dragonhawk@iname.microsoft.com
I do not like Microsoft. Remove them from my email address.
Long ago when the Mac/Lisa GUI was under development they considered the idea of having menu bars in each window.
They rejected it for two reasons:
1. It was harder to move to the menu bar, b/c you had to think about it slightly more than you did when you just went up.
2. It behaved stupidly when the window was very narrow (exactly like Windows handles this)
Additionally, they had also screwed around with round windows, and things like that, but they ended up looking bad. Finding the photos of these things is _hard_. MacWeek ran some in a special 10th anniversary (of the Mac, not MacWeek) issue in 1994. Anyone got scans online?
-- This and all my posts are in the public domain. I am a lawyer. I am not your lawyer, and this is not legal advice.
I've come to the conclusion that a technology has become passé when they start making it with transparent plastic... First it was casette tapes, then floppies, now Macs! :)
/. readers)- it's targeted to the consumer.
It's not that the technology has become passé necessarily (though that's possible), it's that the technology has now become ubiquitous to a point where the item worries about the fashion statement as much as the device inside the fashion. Think about it. The iMac isn't a computer for everyone (geeks like we
The average Joe-type consumer doesn't care that AMD has a 750 MHz Athlon, though we do. They don't even care if it runs Windows, though they're susceptible to the herd mentality. Computers (in general) have gotten simple enough, fast enough, and cheap enough that they all blur together in many a mind and the distinguishing selling characteristic becomes "How cool is it? The iMac is a decent computer for the price - not a great one. But it oozes Cool to the consumer.
In my home, I have a few PC's and they're all beige powerhouses I built myself. Two run Linux and one runs Win98 (games, games, games). But when someone comes to my house and needs to use a computer, they're drawn to my wife's iMac. I bought an iBook to replace my trusty old PowerBook 3400 (overclocked to 270MHz, in case anybody wants to buy it?), and people stop to stare at it and touch it when I pull it out of the briefcase.
When technology is all the same to people, design becomes the differentiator. Consumer products companies have known that for years - the computer industry is just catching on. Right now most of the Wintel boxes trying to play in this space are iMac knock-offs, which plays into Apple's hands. When the Wintel shops start to do interesting and different things with their designs, the sales will reflect it.
Right now Apple is winning the consumer war - their model outsells any other individual model of Wintel system (and the iBook is doing the same against laptops) at retail, and the Wintel vendors are changing their design models to imitate. Right down their alley.
- -Josh Turiel
-- Josh Turiel
"2. Do not eat iPod Shuffle."
I completely agree. I actually find it odd that Apple doesn't lower their prices more often. I guess the Mac market is inherently more inelastic, since a lot of Mac users will remain Mac users.
Still, it seems to me that it'd make sense to lower prices to attract non-Mac users. But hey, the company is making lots of money, and I'm sure Fred Anderson understands the economics of the situation far better than I. =)
don't know the person, maybe a search engine could help with that. However i'm not sure if it applies to overclocking which has the potential for you to ruin hardware sold to you by the company, and they're probably not responsible for that.
I'm guessing the majority of you haven't actually messed with an iMac, then.
The front parts (speakers, CD-ROM), are flush with the front plastic, so it might be possible to do it with them again in this task, assuming that the curvature is similar.
(and the CD isn't put in _that_ well...look at the enlarged picture of it closed, and you'll see it's not that straight of a cut that he made)
The rear ports on a normal iMac, for those that haven't looked, are behind a curved plastic privacy panel. They're not meant to be flush mounted.
(I'm not saying that it definately _is_ real, hell, they could even be doctored photos, I'm just saying that the previous reasons for it not being real, if anything, show that it's more likely to be legit.)
Oh...and as to 'hacking up' the back-- as he doesn't have the capability to flush mount the rear ports, it makes perfect sense that he'd have to cut away some extra so that he could easy grasp at connections.
Build it, and they will come^Hplain.
Erm....when I had dealings with a computer store (I worked in Academic Computing in college, and the computer store was a devision of our department), we could get an 'Apple Extended Warranty'. From my recollection, you could even get it 11 months after you bought your hardware, so long as it wasn't out of warranty (much as you can with automobile warrenties)
I think it was somewhere in the range of 1-2% of the total price...can't remember exactly, as I never bought one.
Build it, and they will come^Hplain.