iMac G4 to M1 conversion progress

[Fininpirina]

How different is the benchmark from the standard m1 mac mini?
I've always liked the design of the imac g4, so I'm thinking about doing this. So, I'm very interested in whether the imac g4 has enough performance to be used powerfully.
If you do not mind, please teach me.
(I'm Japanese and I'm not good at English, so I use google translate.
Because I use it all the time, I am having problems with my ability to write easy-to-translate sentences rather than my English ability. )

 

[connor55]

It runs exactly as fast as a Mac mini with 16gb and 1tb storage. This mod will not affect the speed of the m1 at all. i can run some benchmarks and show the results here if you’d like. Let me know which benchmarks you’d like to see.

 

[Fininpirina]

It runs exactly as fast as a Mac mini with 16gb and 1tb storage. This mod will not affect the speed of the m1 at all. i can run some benchmarks and show the results here if you’d like. Let me know which benchmarks you’d like to see.

Thank you for your reply. I want to know the scores of Geekbench and cinebench.

 

[connor55]

here you go, should be exactly the same as a Mac mini, since thats what it is.

 

[jav6454]

I have to highly commend you for an outstanding job at making a G4 Mac take on an M1. Superb!

 

[Fininpirina]

here you go, should be exactly the same as a Mac mini, since thats what it is. View attachment 2004400 View attachment 2004401

Thank you for your reply. I was relieved that there seemed to be no problem. I don't know if I can do it as well as you, but I'll make it during my vacation. I'm looking forward to my friends being surprised (о´∀`о)
Thank you for taking the time for me.

 

[connor55]

I have to highly commend you for an outstanding job at making a G4 Mac take on an M1. Superb!

Thanks!

Thank you for your reply. I was relieved that there seemed to be no problem. I don't know if I can do it as well as you, but I'll make it during my vacation. I'm looking forward to my friends being surprised (о´∀`о)
Thank you for taking the time for me.

Yep, there doesn’t seem to be any performance loss vs a regular Mac mini. The fan doesn’t even ramp up unless I’m gaming for hours nonstop.

 

[Pedro147]

Thanks!

Yep, there doesn’t seem to be any performance loss vs a regular Mac mini. The fan doesn’t even ramp up unless I’m gaming for hours nonstop.

Just wanted to say what a fantastic job you did on this. Yes these old iMac G4's are very stylish

 

[connor55]

Thanks man, I'm still enjoying this thing everyday

 

[opeter]

You should have waited for the M2 Mac mini. Just kidding. Nice work!

 

[mitchellobrion]

Im a little late to this party but I’m planning to do the M1 in iMac g4 mod & really enjoyed this post. I wanted to ask if there’s any risk when handling the power supply unit? I’ve heard they store power and don’t want to hurry self. Anything I should watch out for?

 

[connor55]

Im a little late to this party but I’m planning to do the M1 in iMac g4 mod & really enjoyed this post. I wanted to ask if there’s any risk when handling the power supply unit? I’ve heard they store power and don’t want to hurry self. Anything I should watch out for?

thanks, hope it helps your build! There is certainly a risk, so I always handled the power supplies with thick rubber gloves, and made sure to disconnect it from the wall when not being used. You might be able to discharge the capacitors if you try to start it up while it’s unplugged as well, I’m not sure if the system tries to use the stored electricity in that case, but it doesn’t hurt to do that anyway. Good luck!

 

[Pedro147]

Im a little late to this party but I’m planning to do the M1 in iMac g4 mod & really enjoyed this post. I wanted to ask if there’s any risk when handling the power supply unit? I’ve heard they store power and don’t want to hurry self. Anything I should watch out for?

Yes, as the OP so rightfully says above, it’s the caps in the power supply that can hold a charge for quite a while even after the computer has been turned off and disconnected from the mains supply. Best to read through some of these links to get an understanding of the risks and how to mitigate them.

 

[crawfordifland]

@connor55 having a a bit of a hard time understanding how you routed the original G4 power cable to the Mac Mini PSU to provide power to everything with one "unified" cable. Is the attached graphic essentially how you did it?

 

[connor55]

@connor55 having a a bit of a hard time understanding how you routed the original G4 power cable to the Mac Mini PSU to provide power to everything with one "unified" cable. Is the attached graphic essentially how you did it?

You got it, that exactly it! Thanks for the image

 

[crawfordifland]

@connor55 brilliant, thanks so much!

And then the normal instructions for the native G4 PSU (from DremelJunkie here, etc) still apply? ie take the yellow/black wires from the G4 PSU, downconvert one of them from 12v > 5v, leave the other 12v the same, and then power the display & inverter from those?

 

[MaloE221]

I'm attempting the same thing with an M2 mini but have hit a small snag. I've been following the same DremelJunkie guide and am around 95% done. My only issue comes with the Yellow, Orange, and Purple wires from the gray LCD Cable. When I feed them the 5V from the buck convertor instead of a normal reaction it just 'drains' the power. I checked with a multimeter and my grounds are all good. Would it be an issue inside the panel? I feel it's a very simple problem but I'm more worried on having fried something haha. Any ideas would be appreciated.

 

[crawfordifland]

I'm attempting the same thing with an M2 mini but have hit a small snag. I've been following the same DremelJunkie guide and am around 95% done. My only issue comes with the Yellow, Orange, and Purple wires from the gray LCD Cable. When I feed them the 5V from the buck convertor instead of a normal reaction it just 'drains' the power. I checked with a multimeter and my grounds are all good. Would it be an issue inside the panel? I feel it's a very simple problem but I'm more worried on having fried something haha. Any ideas would be appreciated.

Purple, orange, and yellow - I assume you're using the 1/1.25Ghz neck?

 

[MaloE221]

Purple, orange, and yellow - I assume you're using the 1/1.25Ghz neck?

Yep. I've double and triple checked haha. I hope this video helps better explain the problem better then my words

 

[Spanky Deluxe]

Just stumbled across this now and I love it! I always loved the G4 iMac. It's such a gorgeous design. I did something similar to you but with a G3 iMac a couple of years ago. It was a much simpler project to yours though as there's so much space inside there once you remove the CRT. It's got an Intel Mac Mini in it at the moment but I might plop an Apple Silicon Mini in there at some point. It was never going to be my main machine but it was always something I'd wanted to do since I picked up the iMac at a car boot sale about ten years ago. It mostly sits on my desk looking pretty but I have started using it fairly regularly as a blu-ray ripper as it's the only computer in my house now that has an optical drive.

My one regret with the actual hardware of the machine is I wish the display was better but the options for 15" 4:3 lcd displays were basically slim to none. My hopes are that at some point, Apple will release a 15" iPad and I can eventually source the panel from one of those and put that in instead. There are a lot of things I'd change with my construction though but I didn't have a 3d printer at the time and besides which, I didn't have the time to create custom 3d parts. A lot of the internal stuff is held together my this plastic that comes in granules and becomes mouldable under boiling water and then sets super hard when it cools. It was so good at getting things done but I'd love to have another go with more time on my hands (if that ever happens) and some nicely modelled 3d parts.

 

[macduke]

This is really cool, but my biggest annoyance would be using old non-retina screen technology with poor color reproduction. Would be neat if the display could be upgraded as well.

 

[Spanky Deluxe]

This is really cool, but my biggest annoyance would be using old non-retina screen technology with poor color reproduction. Would be neat if the display could be upgraded as well.

It is doable. The hard part is finding a suitable replacement panel which is made trickier as 16:10 panels are relatively rare these days. There are modern laptops with 2560x1600 17" displays e.g. this LG gram. That would be *almost* retina (about 1.75x the original display). That's kind of what I do with my iMac G3 mod - ran the 1600x1200 panel at about 1.5x scaling so that it was effectively semi-retina. Panels for previous generation LG grams look to be available for about £100 on eBay so one of those plus a generic LCD controller board should do the trick. Plus a lot of jiggery pokery with cable management, of course. But it's likely possible.

 

[MaloE221]

This is really cool, but my biggest annoyance would be using old non-retina screen technology with poor color reproduction. Would be neat if the display could be upgraded as well.

While not an amazing panel, https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07SSBHDLF/ref=ox_sc_saved_image_1?smid=A1D3XK588INFI6&psc=1 is 17", 16:10, and with a 1920x1200p on a 17" it should be high res enough for the eyes. I can't speak for the color quality though, but this is my fallback option if I can't get my panel working.

 

[AlwaysAmara]

An update on the project: M1 Mac mini with 16gb memory and 1TB storage has arrived! A few road blocks to deal with from the M1 Mac mini though. Having trouble with the backlight being woken up after sleep or a shut down. the HDMI to DVI adaptor needs to be plugged back into the Mac mini every time, or the backlight won't turn back on. didn't have this issue when testing off my MacBook Pro, so a little annoyed with this issue. Anyone have any ideas for fixing this?

Here are some other things I am working on right now:

View attachment 1942469
Planning out the final ports. from Left to Right I plan to install: HDMI, 3 USB A, 2 USB C, AC power, Headphone Jack, Ethernet, and SD Card slot in the last slot. Ill have to do a bit of cutting to make the port bezel into a slot shape, but shouldn't be too hard.

View attachment 1942470
View attachment 1942473
getting this rear panel off was a huge struggle, I needed a heat gun set to 400C in order to soften the glue enough to pull off. im surprised the plastic didn't melt.. the inner painted layer had some scratches in it somehow, and I need to spray pain the inside to get the white to appear even from the outside again.
View attachment 1942475
Previously there was an inner scratch above the apple logo where the inner paint was missing somehow. now it looks evenly white.
View attachment 1942472
The white bezel was also yellowed a bit, I wanted to separate the clear part off the white in order to restore it back to white, but it looks like the 2 pieces are somehow permanently fused together.
View attachment 1942474
even with the heat gun set pretty high, the bond did not seem to weaken at all. in fact the inner plastic started to melt a bit.. I guess im stuck with a yellow bezel, unless anyone has any other ideas for getting these apart??

View attachment 1942476

Decided to start sanding and polishing the bezel anyway, at least I could try to make the plastic clearer and smoother.
View attachment 1942477
here's the current set up for now. I cant put the Mac mini internals into the iMac until I resolve this HDMI issue.

I heard that USB C to dvi might do the trick, so ive ordered a few adaptors to try and test that out. Worst case scenario ill relocate the inverter On/Off wire(red 3.3v) to another source that turns on and off with the computer, or just control it manually with a switch off of the 3.3v constant from the iMac PSU.

View attachment 1942478
this thing is snappier than a G4 iMac could ever hope to be. on restarts, the computer is already back to the login screen by the time I plug the HDMI connector back into the mini.

Would you ever consider making one of these again for sale? What if someone provided the components? This is the best mod I’ve ever seen!

 

[joeventura]

For those who aspire to connect an HDMI source to the G4 screen I am having some TMDS to HDMI breakout boards made in the coming weeks so you can just plug the very unique video cable right into the board and wire it up as you like (may be different pins to connect depending on whether you have a 15"/17" or 20" G4 stand by for more updates in the coming weeks.