maxcelcat: (Tram In Snow)
maxcelcat ([personal profile] maxcelcat) wrote2009-01-25 02:13 am
Entry tags:

Introducing FrankenMac

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!

[identity profile] jeremy visser (from livejournal.com) 2009-02-03 09:40 am (UTC)(link)
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?

Re: Emac

[identity profile] jeremy visser (from livejournal.com) 2009-02-04 09:26 am (UTC)(link)
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.