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i5/i7 Clamshell project

PatrickRolfsen

PatrickRolfsen

macrumors regular
Original poster
Jun 23, 2007
158
2
San Francisco, CA
Hi all,

I just picked up a couple graphite G3 clamshells, one of which being just for parts that doesn't run. I also have a spare i7 MBA 11'' I wouldn't mind stuffing into the spare casing. Looks like theres a guy who's done this and charging around $3k on ebay for an example.

Anyone know of anyone else who's tried this that I could reference? Google hasn't exactly been super helpful, and while I'm confident in my skills with some direction, I'm not quite sure I could do this well from scratch.

Either way, I'm thinking of trudging forward, and if worst comes to worst I'll just put the MBA back together.
 
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Yeah I remember the conversion on another forum. Required soldering for the ports to work but nothing basic soldering skills couldn't handle. I think the iPad conversion looked more difficult to be honest.
 
Gav2k said:
Yeah I remember the conversion on another forum. Required soldering for the ports to work but nothing basic soldering skills couldn't handle. I think the iPad conversion looked more difficult to be honest.
Click to expand...

Oh yeah, totally not interested in the iPad thing, I want this to look bone stock and have modern internals :D
 
This is the guy who does those iBook mods, the eBay ad isn't selling pre-made ones, you pretty much get one build-to-order.
 
Haha, I considered this. Would you be able to reuse the original screen? and since there's no connection for a SATA CD drive on the MBA, how would that work? Would you just hook it up to a USB port internally?

I also can imagine some apps have a problem running at 800x640 if you are using the original screen.
 
CYB3RBYTE said:
Haha, I considered this. Would you be able to reuse the original screen? and since there's no connection for a SATA CD drive on the MBA, how would that work? Would you just hook it up to a USB port internally?

I also can imagine some apps have a problem running at 800x640 if you are using the original screen.
Click to expand...
You replace the screen with the airs extending the cable, the CD-ROM drive you convert to USB. The charging puc can either be modified to output the correct voltage or you can modify the end of a MacBook Air charger. It's all easily done with basic soldering skills hot glue and patience.
 
In the original i5 mod, the Siivel guy didn't use the CD drive, he just glued the door shut and dremelled an SD card slot into it.
 
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Gav2k said:
Yeah I remember the conversion on another forum. Required soldering for the ports to work but nothing basic soldering skills couldn't handle. I think the iPad conversion looked more difficult to be honest.
Click to expand...
For iPad conversion:
Is it feasible to merge an 9.7" ipad pro into the iClam?
 
chip1 said:
For iPad conversion:
Is it feasible to merge an 9.7" ipad pro into the iClam?
Click to expand...

I would say so... image.jpeg
 
Gav2k said:
I would say so...View attachment 625700
Click to expand...

I was sorely tempted to do this last year and bought a non-working iBook clamshell just for the project. iPad mod look a lot easier than the i5 mod! Here's the original blog post: http://www.applenoir.com/?p=1873

The i5 clamshell video linked in the above posts is great but the guy who completed the mod didn't go into detail about how he modded it, presumably since he's selling the service (macbook air into iBook shell).
 
PatrickRolfsen said:
Hi all,

I just picked up a couple graphite G3 clamshells, one of which being just for parts that doesn't run. I also have a spare i7 MBA 11'' I wouldn't mind stuffing into the spare casing. Looks like theres a guy who's done this and charging around $3k on ebay for an example.

Anyone know of anyone else who's tried this that I could reference? Google hasn't exactly been super helpful, and while I'm confident in my skills with some direction, I'm not quite sure I could do this well from scratch.

Either way, I'm thinking of trudging forward, and if worst comes to worst I'll just put the MBA back together.
Click to expand...


I was curious did you start on this project? what was the outcome? I'd always liked the clamshell so i acquired a couple of them and i acquired an original i5 macbook air. all i need is to order a hard drive for it.. but i am planning on doing the same project. lmk because once i recieve my extra parts i am planning attempting this project.
 
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