How I upgraded a Macintosh Classic to an iMac G3
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This is an extended version of a video I posted last year. This video actually precedes that one and goes into more depth about the process. By my hazy reckoning, I believe this was the fourth one I made? Below is the video I first uploaded.
I’ve recovered lots of footage that I thought was lost and will be posting more videos soon.
You may be asking « Why not just put a new, or newer, Mac Mini in the cases? » Well, I wanted something that could boot from the last Classic Mac OS version, which would be 9.2.2. I’ve never been fond of emulators, they leave a lot to be desired, and the « tweaked » OS 9 that has been put out there to run on G4 Mac Minis, has been a big let down so far, at least for me.
The logic-board (motherboard) in the tray loading iMacs G3s, is the last one that is small enough to fit into the compact Mac cases. With the new placement of the original cooling fan, and the replacement of the hard drive and CRT, the processor temp is up to thirty degrees cooler (F).
the fan now sits only 6-7mm above the processor. Even when touching the outside of the cases there is a very noticeable difference, the iMac Classic is almost cool to the touch. The only drawback is that the machine is louder (by ten decibels) than the old iMac, where the fan was located in the middle of the machine and surrounded by several layers of plastic and metal. I’m still satisfied with the trade-off because of the greatly enhanced cooling.
The old 24x CD drive was replaced with a New Old Stock (NOS) Apple DVD/CDR Combo Drive. The original 6gb ATA drive was replaced with a 64gb solid state CF card and adapter. The CF card requires much less power, and does not get hot like the old ATA drive does.
The CRT and its associated circuitry, was replaced with a 8.4″ LCD and driver board running at 640×480 (with remote control), resulting in tremendous heat reduction, lower power consumption, and weight savings.
The LCD is mounted using a 3mm acrylic sheet, with a custom, and extremely durable, urethane resin cast bezel interface. The old 180w iMac power supply, which is becoming infamous for its failure rate, was replaced with a new, much lighter, and higher rated 300w ATX supply.
I retained the original Harman Kardon speakers, did a really nice looking mod to the right side of the rear case, and was able to retain the stereo capabilities of the original iMac.
Here is a link to the Brad Sturges upgrade that shows the video pinouts
http://colourclassicfaq.com/mobo/imacc.html
Here is a link with information about the iMac logic-board power pinouts, and the soft-power circuit.
http://oldcomputer.info/apple/iMac233/index.htm
Overall, I am very happy with the way this project came out.
Thank you for stopping by:)
Billy
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