Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
iMac G3 revival
- Thread starter Arkious
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; CPU iPhone OS 5_0_1 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/534.46 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.1 Mobile/9A405 Safari/7534.48.3)
Get yourself a tray loader, nd a mac mini and we will work it out! 🙂 ive got my eyes on a mini now, mid 2007. But gonna use the DVD drive that's fitted to the iMac and then swap the hard drive for a SATA, max out the RAM and then the mini without the hard drive and drive will be very small, so will link the I/R board of the G3 to it, Bluetooth will have to be located somewhere but then this opens up so many opourtunitys... I think if done properly this will be fantastic! I don't know what to do about the speakers... I bought a set of small logitechs that I'm gonna try hacking up and fitting so that absolutly everything on the iMac works. The mezzanine slot on the iMac allows for extra connections, the SD won't be used at all but I will relocate everything else ^.^
Macman45 said:
Get yourself a tray loader, nd a mac mini and we will work it out! 🙂 ive got my eyes on a mini now, mid 2007. But gonna use the DVD drive that's fitted to the iMac and then swap the hard drive for a SATA, max out the RAM and then the mini without the hard drive and drive will be very small, so will link the I/R board of the G3 to it, Bluetooth will have to be located somewhere but then this opens up so many opourtunitys... I think if done properly this will be fantastic! I don't know what to do about the speakers... I bought a set of small logitechs that I'm gonna try hacking up and fitting so that absolutly everything on the iMac works. The mezzanine slot on the iMac allows for extra connections, the SD won't be used at all but I will relocate everything else ^.^
yeah haha, start with the iMac, u need to find the one you want to 'revive'
i like the slot loaders but they aren't as easy to do a mac mini mod too, the tray loaders have a removable module.
MAC MAN JW
macrumors 6502
I seen a post that someone put a mac mini inside a imac g3 tray load and still used the crt monitor inside the imac and said how to do it. but i can not find the post i seen🙁 i found it googleing one day. the post i seen was over a year ago but i never bookmarked it🙁 If i find it again i will post the link to it🙂
That is exactly my plan and if you can find that, that would be fantastic! if i find it in the process i will let you know 🙂
666sheep
macrumors 68040
Not exactly what you looking for, but you may find some useful info there:
http://www.steveferrisworld.com/Zotac_Powered_Grape_iMac_revD/
Thankyou very much 🙂 as soon as i get the mac mini, i expect this to only get better!
ABSOLUTLY FANTASTIC! its more for things like the monitor pin out and power on methods i need, they are the most difficult things.
Thanks very very much 🙂!
well i now have one of the 2 mac minis i purchased working, however the one thats working is in as new condition and i dont want to mutalate it. so my aim is to get the 2nd one working and mutilate that one haha.
not bad, 2 mac 2.0Ghz C2D Mac Minis for £95 :-D
thinking of getting a WD Raptor Hard Drive for it 'just because i can' haha
not bad, 2 mac 2.0Ghz C2D Mac Minis for £95 :-D
thinking of getting a WD Raptor Hard Drive for it 'just because i can' haha
LeoTheLion89
macrumors 6502
i have two questions one does this DVD Drive ACTUALLY boot discs? does it ACTUALLY play DVDs without a DVD Decoder Board and what is the demensions of the fan added to the CPU?
yes it plays DVDs but tbh... terribly. and as for booting, it seems to be... temperamental. i had no idea if it was going to work or not. but it does load and play the DVDs as video and as application dvds
the size of the fan is a standard north bridge cooler size (very small)
okay, 1st mac mini i bought was dead so sold it and got my money back,
bought another that was dead and managed to fix it, but it was in so good condition that i decided to sell it on again as i couldnt destroy somthing that was as new after i fixed it lol.
so im open to ideas on how to 'upgrade' this iMac, i now have the cable working although it needs a good fiddle to get it working properly lol
bought another that was dead and managed to fix it, but it was in so good condition that i decided to sell it on again as i couldnt destroy somthing that was as new after i fixed it lol.
so im open to ideas on how to 'upgrade' this iMac, i now have the cable working although it needs a good fiddle to get it working properly lol
MAC MAN JW
macrumors 6502
I don't know if this will work as i never owned a Mac mini but what i was thinking is you could buy a working mac mini logic board and put it inside the iMac or just wait for a beat up mac mini to come along🙂. I just got 5 of these iMacs in a lot and on 1 the Flyback transformer has all ready went. you did the right thing by replacing the Flyback in yours it will last you meny more years to come😀 I am still thinking of replacing the Flyback in my 1st original iMac but i can not get over my fear of the CRT imploding or something like that i might just buy the flyback just to have it🙂. Keep us updated on your Progress!😀
that was my plan with the mac mini but there is a few... issues
i need to locate the power brick within the iMac somewhere which could cause futher heat issues. The board that connects the hard drive & optical drive to the Mac Mini logic board has a SATA DATA & power connector like a laptop (this is an easy fix), but the optical drive uses a ATAPI Male connector so that the optical drive fits straight onto it. This is an issue as you can not get an extension lead for this (for less than £50 which is ridiculous tbh).
The rest is easier, but i was thinking of an ITX board or even a Raspberry Pi tbh!
MaxHeap
macrumors member
Thanks to this thread I finally bought a new flyback for a tray loader that has been sitting in my basement broken for the last three years. It really was an easy fix. The hardest part was desoldering the old flyback, which really didn't take that long once I got the hang of it. I used a different eBay auction and got a pretty good price. Now just what to do with the thing. 🙂
http://www.ebay.com/itm/NEW-APPLE-i...869?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item53ec2d665d
http://www.ebay.com/itm/NEW-APPLE-i...869?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item53ec2d665d
Thats great! :-D im glad it was of use for you!
Yes i struggled unsoldering it but once it was off and the new one was on, resoldering was a doddle.
Im in the same boat at the moment... i did realise that using mobile websites is so much better on the G3 haha
Well the time has come to finally source non-apple parts to make this iMac a Hackintosh. Unforunatly there is no other way to do this properly so this is my option...
I have ordered a Zotac ION N330, this is a 1.6GHz Dual Core Intel Atom processor with nVIDIA 9400M graphics. It is also capable of holding 4GB DDR2 800. I managed to pick one up for £55 inc delivery (didnt sell so emailed and offered the seller).
http://www.ebay.com/itm/16078410404...X:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1423.l2649#ht_1866wt_1165
The only thing i am not very happy with is the fact i will loose the mac boot tone... in my opinion, a mac simply wouldnt be a mac without it! so im not cutting any corners and here is the solution i have come up with.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/30068294026...X:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1497.l2649#ht_4337wt_1163
I plan to use that sound recorder to recorder my iMac 27" boot as its a clearer sound quality than the original iMac, i will start the record from the second i turn on the iMac which means i get the little gap before u actually hear it. I will hook this up in series with the power button of the G3 so that when pressed it starts both the computer and playing of the chip. The chip will also be attached to the G3s internal speakers. One thing i do not know is how powerful the speakers will be being attached to both the motherboard or the chip. They are quite powerful being attached to the G3 Logicboard but i dont know if that has an amp built onto it. So i may need to fit an amp in there too.
I will update with pictures, videos and anything else as they happen.
I have ordered a Zotac ION N330, this is a 1.6GHz Dual Core Intel Atom processor with nVIDIA 9400M graphics. It is also capable of holding 4GB DDR2 800. I managed to pick one up for £55 inc delivery (didnt sell so emailed and offered the seller).
http://www.ebay.com/itm/16078410404...X:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1423.l2649#ht_1866wt_1165
The only thing i am not very happy with is the fact i will loose the mac boot tone... in my opinion, a mac simply wouldnt be a mac without it! so im not cutting any corners and here is the solution i have come up with.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/30068294026...X:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1497.l2649#ht_4337wt_1163
I plan to use that sound recorder to recorder my iMac 27" boot as its a clearer sound quality than the original iMac, i will start the record from the second i turn on the iMac which means i get the little gap before u actually hear it. I will hook this up in series with the power button of the G3 so that when pressed it starts both the computer and playing of the chip. The chip will also be attached to the G3s internal speakers. One thing i do not know is how powerful the speakers will be being attached to both the motherboard or the chip. They are quite powerful being attached to the G3 Logicboard but i dont know if that has an amp built onto it. So i may need to fit an amp in there too.
I will update with pictures, videos and anything else as they happen.
Ultimately... The way it is it's useless, so it's either going to sit there gathering dust or I can put it back to use. Yes I over clocked it, yes I upped the ram and even installed a dvd rom, and everything else but it can't even use safari properly.
Basically, the reason I have chosen this motherboard is because it's the closest resemblance of a 2009 mac mini, but with the added benefit of not having to fit the power brick within. This 'upgrade' will also allow the transition from Tiger to Lion and even Mountain Lion upon release. I toyed with the idea of using a current generation mac mini but the board is simply too big. I will however be using the original I/O header so that the computer is as 'original' looking as possible.
If the original hardware actually supported OpenGL I would have been happy enough to work with it, but it means absolutly nothing works at OS X level.
Basically, the reason I have chosen this motherboard is because it's the closest resemblance of a 2009 mac mini, but with the added benefit of not having to fit the power brick within. This 'upgrade' will also allow the transition from Tiger to Lion and even Mountain Lion upon release. I toyed with the idea of using a current generation mac mini but the board is simply too big. I will however be using the original I/O header so that the computer is as 'original' looking as possible.
If the original hardware actually supported OpenGL I would have been happy enough to work with it, but it means absolutly nothing works at OS X level.
🙂 my 1st setup will be running it barebones with the iMac CRT, once i know that OS X will run etc the way i want it, then i will being fitting. Im quite exited though 😛
from its original specs of
iMac G3 233MHz
32MB RAM
4GB HDD
8MB ATI RAGE PRO
to
iMac G3 333MHz overclocked to 400MHz
256MB RAM
20GB HDD
8MB ATI RAGE PRO GPU
to
iMac G3 1.6GHz (Intel Atom)
4GB RAM
180GB HDD
256MB nVIDIA ION GPU
YUMEEEEEEE!!!