Introducing FrankenMac

[maxcelcat]

I am such a freakin' nerd, and I can prove it. Consider the picture below:

(Click it for a bigger version.)

That, folks, is a dual processor G4 Macintosh, hacked together from parts from Ebay and a Donor Mac, plus a heat sink from a PII processor! Not to mention a lump of copper between it and the processors... Might just go check that it's not getting too warm :-)

Tomorrow I might try and find a case for it.

Man, this took a while, I started acquiring parts for this back in... Shit, it must have been 2004. It only came together recently when my cousin gave me a Mac which was identical to the model I was trying to assemble!

Comments

[melissa-maples.livejournal.com]

That is the coolest thing I've seen all year.

Really?

[maxcelcat]

Given that the year is young, I'll believe you :-)

Obviously you haven't been around enough nerds - this is what most computer guts look like!

Re: Really?

[(Anonymous)]

Yeah, but the cool part is that 99.999% of all these projects involve peecees. People don't think of Macs as takey-apartey machines, but they totally can be! Be creative, people! Think different!

Re: Really?

[melissa-maples.livejournal.com]

Aaaaarghh you people who allow anonymous comments trick me every time.

Re: Really?

[maxcelcat]

True, most of these projects do involve PCs. And part of the reason is acquiring Mac parts is a pain in the arse!

I picked up a lot of these bits on Ebay, but I also had to scavenge some from another mac, not to mention fashioning a heatsink from a piece of copper and a heatsink from a PII... So, plenty of cred, but not much practicality!

[jeremy visser (from livejournal.com)]

I have a G4 eMac, with an in-built CRT -- I presume yours would have had an inbuilt CRT as well?

If so, how do you go about getting video? Do you rely on the external video connector? Does the Mac automatically use the external video connector if the internal display is missing?

Does the internal display use a proprietary connector, or is it possible to hotwire the internal monitor to an external VGA monitor instead without using the external port?

Or can you get the OpenFirmware prompts working on the external connector?

Emac

[maxcelcat]

Dude, I'm not sure. I got my parts from a stand-alone G4.

I'd be surprised if an eMac had a VGA connector of any kind - internal or external - Apple have a habit of making their hardware very very specific!

Re: Emac

[jeremy visser (from livejournal.com)]

Mine actually does have external VGA -- I've used it! Not only that, but it uses a mini proprietary connector to get the VGA socket, and in Linux, it shows up as "DVI", so I would suspect it's possible to do DVI with it if you have the right plug.

Re: Emac

[maxcelcat]

Weird. I wonder why they put an external plug on 'em? Still, I suppose you could use it to run two monitors (I'm guessing)...