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mad jew said:
Put a golf ball in the hole and then you can practice your driving too.

Man thats what cam to my mind too. Definitly great minds.
 
Eidorian said:
It's a Mini-VGA to standard VGA.

no no, i mean the one coming out the original broken display that plugged into the imacs video card through the arm. the reason being i think it would be a cool mod to buy a broken imac g4 and remove the display to mount on its cool arm on a desks corner or something.

i miss these imacs, i think the current ones are ugly in comparison. i was holding hope that the intel imacs, producing less heat, would be put back into the coolest apple design ever.
 
chaos86 said:
no no, i mean the one coming out the original broken display that plugged into the imacs video card through the arm. the reason being i think it would be a cool mod to buy a broken imac g4 and remove the display to mount on its cool arm on a desks corner or something.

i miss these imacs, i think the current ones are ugly in comparison. i was holding hope that the intel imacs, producing less heat, would be put back into the coolest apple design ever.
There's a 15" LCD on the floor. I think it's VGA as well.
 
Stick an iSight on that hole. I think that'd look pretty cool then, though I don't know if I'd want a Mac I just mutilated to be watching me.
 
livingfortoday said:
... though I don't know if I'd want a Mac I just mutilated to be watching me.

man its like finding a blind man and replacing his eyes with bionics, like jordi from star trek.
 
livingfortoday said:
Stick an iSight on that hole. I think that'd look pretty cool then, though I don't know if I'd want a Mac I just mutilated to be watching me.

I was thinking it would be cool to mount an iSight on the end of the old display arm... waaaay adjustable iSight. :)
 
Very cool. Although anyone attempting this should note that the airport antenna is in the display if i'm not mistaken.
 
Its as nice of a mod as that G4 will get. I think a nice piece of chrome would look splendid on the top. I also have to ask, like the others, where the display cables from the original got tucked. Did you have any trouble getting in the dome? I've a 15" Rev A and I'm considering a hd replacement and internal RAM upgrade. Hope that beauty continues to serve you for a few more years, although in modified form.
 
the_wallcrawler said:
Any ideas on what to do the cover the hole at the top? It doesn't look too bad as is, but it would be cool to complete the sphere.

imactop.jpg
Well, if you have a dead iPod lying around .. that looks about the size of a click wheel....
 
To answer some of the questions:

No I wasn't just bored. The display died. A new inverter did not fix the problem, nor was it a backlight problem. The fix would have been expensive so I bought the G5. I had plans of doing something sooner or later with the G4 and finally got around to doing it.

Getting it apart was actually much easier than expected. I found some Apple repair documents online that was pretty much step by step on how to completely disassemble the Mac (which you have to do).

To the person who asked about HD replacement - I'm not sure how tough that would be. The HD and the optical disc are tied together and mounted together inside the case. For my mod I did not have to take them apart. I know it can be done though.

RE: monitor cables. The cables were pretty clearly marked inside the case. There is a series of 4 separate cables coming out of the arm, through the case, and finally into the motherboard. I simply cut them off at the motherboard and then removed them from the case altogether. At first I did not and they looked ugly sticking out from the top of the case. They were also rubbing on the fan and making more noise than it should. Once I removed them, the iMac is DEAD quiet.

RE: airport antenna. I've heard that it was in the display but I totally forgot about that as I was decapitating. The iMac is getting good Airport signal now, though its probably only 15-20 ft away from the base station.
 
the_wallcrawler said:
Any ideas on what to do the cover the hole at the top? It doesn't look too bad as is, but it would be cool to complete the sphere.

I wouldn't attempt to cover the holes, they are for ventilation. You don't want more problems do you?

By the way, sweet mod!
 
the_wallcrawler said:
Any ideas on what to do the cover the hole at the top? It doesn't look too bad as is, but it would be cool to complete the sphere.

Maybe you can buy a shell off eBay and have it cut to match.
 
Install a white or blue light in the top of it. That would make the room interesting in low-light.
 
p0intblank said:
This may be harsh, but it's also very awesome in my opinion. Your Mac now looks very... out of this world. ;)

Buy/steal/salvage some white perspex cut a circle out of it and pop it in the top. That will make it look like an intentional Apple design.

:D
 
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