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Custom M1 iMac

D

Deccr

macrumors member
Original poster
Nov 29, 2020
56
39
Luke Miani went the whole way and turned a 2011 27 iMac into not only a display but a full M1 iMac mini - by tearing down and installing the M1 mini inside the iMac enclosure:

9to5mac.com

YouTuber creates 'world's first' Apple Silicon iMac using M1 Mac mini parts [Video] - 9to5Mac

While we wait on Apple to release the first Apple Silicon-powered iMac sometime this year, YouTuber Luke Miani has taken...
9to5mac.com 9to5mac.com

Even if you don’t install a M1 mini inside the iMac enclosure, it goes to show you can turn old iMacs into nice external monitors. Nice work!
 
ArPe said:
geh I don’t like Luke’s channel or his shirts.
Click to expand...
I’m sure he appreciates the constructive criticism.

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The big downside to what he did there is that he hasn’t wired up the power button. To really go the full hog with this, one would have to wire up the logic board inside the iMac enclosure to work with the iMac power button, as well as drill holes for the proper ports in the enclosure and wire that up; Which probably is possible, but requires a lot more to pull off, so not necessarily as feasible or likely to happen as an experiment
 
I agree, connecting up the power button would be an improvement.

With regards to ports, alternatively just plugin a Thunderbolt dock and keep that external?
 
I thought it would have been a nice touch to keep the dvd writer and wire it up with a usb to Sata adapter! Plus he could have put a couple of extensions for wires out the back and set the Mac to boot automatically on a power failure. I give him a B+ for effort and it was a cool video.
 
I was thinking of this as well for my channel.

Ultimately decided the value provided doesn’t make it worth it to cut down the flexibility of being able to connect any screen

Workarounds:
- A new thunderbolt 4 hub could be used to provide external thunderbolt ports (small cutouts)
- Extend the rest of the ports to the native iMac ports (like on “no cut” Powermac g5 mods)
- Solder the iMac power button to Mac mini connectors (difficult)

Blockers:
- Doesn’t appear the 5K iMac panel to Thunderbolt 3 driver board was ever released.
- This means it would require dual DisplayPort for 5K and the M1s natively run less screens. Messy to mix native and DisplayLink DisplayPort to achieve 5K
- No eGPU support. Could have otherwise tried an internal eGPU as a cool experiment.

Cool Features:
- Could have tried other “internal” thunderbolt 3 accessories like upgraded storage - but why make it internal when it’s flexible internally

Optional Other Idea:
Sacrifice an M1 MacBook Pro and use its battery and thinner motherboard internally. Connect all ports via extenders to adapters to thunderbolt 4 hub. Provides built in UPS into an iMac
 
I thought you can now get a 5K driver board which supports a single USB-C/DisplayPort connection to drive the 5K iMac LCD panel?
 
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Deccr said:
I thought you can now get a 5K driver board which supports a single USB-C/DisplayPort connection to drive the 5K iMac LCD panel?
Click to expand...
Didn’t find one but it’s possible I didn’t look well enough
 
ruslan120 said:
Didn’t find one but it’s possible I didn’t look well enough
Click to expand...

It exists, and it might be relevant to this setup if you were retrofitting a 5K iMac to house the internals of an m1 mini. While I like your idea of extending the ports to the existing cutouts in the iMac chassis, I think running a Thunderbolt cable out to a TB4 dock.
For people who's have an iMac 5K already, I could actually see this as a viable option if they don't want to pay the $1500+ for the future m1 iMac.

You might also be interested in seeing the build I did with an old Thunderbolt Display, which I'm probably going to end up connecting to an m1 mini or mini pro in the future. By keeping the exiting motherboard, I've kept the OG I/O working (while also adding a TB port to the back using a TB4 as you've described).

forums.macrumors.com

5K Apple Thunderbolt display build

In summer 2020 I saw this DIY video and wanted to do something similar, but I had some reservations about the way that it has been done with an iMac chassis. Obviously, these types of displays look fantastic, but as a self-avowed Apple devotee, I just couldn’t stomach the idea of just having a...
forums.macrumors.com forums.macrumors.com
 
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I thought it was a fun video/idea. Luke’s iMac was dead so it made sense to do what he did rather than just use Target Display Mode. That said, Target Display Mode can be a pain too, having to wait for the iMac to start, interfering with the host Mac audio etc. So having the M1 Mac internal is “better” in some ways.

I think he should have solved the power button issue though - even if it was housing a non-standard power button outside the iMac. The port issue, he could have just had cables going out the power supply hole so no biggie there imho.

I just wish Apple would let us buy M1X/M2 iMacs alredy!
 
I think this is greatness! I probably spent $350 to repair a DOA 2009 27" iMac 11,2 with a new logic board, SSD, RAM, GPU and BT 4.2 module. Plus countless hours hacking it to run BigSur. For ~$600 + display adapter, I'd would have preferred to buy a base mini (on sale) and have something more stable and future-proof.
 
Kinda a wasted opportunity, just seems like it was done for clicks. Super drawn out and kinda half assed. Can't have been that hard to wire up the USB ports with extenders and the SD reader etc
 
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