I love the design of the iMac and were wondering if it could be converted into a gaming machine. I have found myself a used iMac 27" from Late 2013 and I am trying to understand if it would be possible to upgrade more or less everything apart from the chasis. In other words, I would like to do the following:
- Change the display to a 27" 240hz display taken from a gaming screen such as HP Omen.
- Given that the Apple/PC display ports are not compatible I would need to most/all other hardware
- So basically I would have a gamin PC in a iMac body
Apart from being a stupid financial project do anyone have a view on if this is possible at all?
Thanks for sharing.
Gaming laptop parts may fit.
If you take a notebook base, you will have a mobile GPU (at best MXM, worast if it soldered directly onto the motherboard), which is difficult to upgrade in the long run.
A desktop base with PCIE x16 slot is a lot more versatile and gives your project a future.
So what you need to think about:
- Replacing the screen could be a problem since the physical size may not fit well. Mounting the new screen would be a challenge.
- There are LVDS adapter boards for many iMacs. These convert the existing screen to a HDMI screen. This could then be used to connect to your custom PC HDMI port.
- For gaming PC, a desktop GPU would be best suited. You need to check whether that fits into your selected housing. If not, look at the older models as what Nguyen said.
- If you got for mobile graphics, your system will not be very upgradeable, which would make this a waste of effort and money.
- If you decide to go for desktop GPU, you will need a lot more power than what the iMac provides.
- You can have an external power source, this would be relatively easy but would look ugly.
- You can have an additional internal power source, but this would have to fit into your selected housing. So probably a second supply of the same imac. The 2013 model has 300W power, so 2 of them should be sufficient.
- In order to get the heat out, particularly from the GPU, you will have to cut a whole lot of gaps into the back of the housing. You need to bring this to a metal works company with CNC, because if you do this by yourself, it will look ugly and you may even spoil the housing completely.
- Last challenge is to make ports available externally.
- In order to fit a motherboard, your choice is likely going to be a mini ITX with 17x17cm size. They usually have a single PCIE x16 slot. So you will have to move the USB 3 connections and others to external. Some options I can imagine:
1. Select the motherboard carefully, so that it provides an option with a USB3 header. That would be best, but I do not know whether such exist.
2. Use a PCIE splitter, and mount an external USB3 card so that the ports of that card are accessible. Issue I see is that the splitter may affect the performance of the GPU, or that those USB3 ports are not bootable (which you may want).
3. Use a USB3 hub and mount it so that the ports of the hub are accessible. There are USB3 hubs with built-in Gigabit Ethernet so that you have a copper network port accessible, too.
4. Maybe the mini ITX board comes with Thunderbolt (40 Gbps), which could allow you to connect an external desktop GPU (eGPU). This may solve several of your problems.
While it is nice to have that all built-in, the compactness is also a huge disadvantage as you can see from above T&Cs.
An alternative is a micro PC based on a DAN A4 housing (now also available in many flavors from various China sellers under the name A4 enclosure). This would allow you to use standard components, have a desktop CPU, no issue with getting rid of the heat, have modularity, and use any screen you like. Also, any of these components could be replaced with ease.
