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mrdale's roundhouse iMac G4 + Intel NUC

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mrdale's roundhouse iMac G4 + Intel NUC

78730d1388801132-ersterhernds-nucimac-g4-screen-shot-2014-01-03-6.00.17-pm.png


that's the goal anyway...​

NUC Components

Intel NUC Kit (Core i3 3217U 1.8GHz HD Graphics 4000 DC3217BY)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16856102001

Mushkin mSATA 120GB (Internal Solid State Drive)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820226362

G.SKILL Ripjaws 8GB Ram (SO-DIMM DDR3 1600)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231704

Dell 1702 Wifi/Bluetooth card
http://www.amazon.com/Atheros-Ar5b195-Wireless-Bluetooth-Adapter/dp/B0090YCQ4U

Display Components
12v-24v Upconverter
(to supply 24V DC to the Display Backlight)
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00BWL3940/

MOLEX DVI connector
(to accept the pins from the iMac's display cables)
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B005T8PFW6/

HDMI/DVI Adapter
(to convert to the mobos HDMI)
http://www.amazon.com/Importer520-Plated-Female-DVI-D-Adapter/dp/B0035B4LJM

Sound Components
USB Sound Adapter
mobo only supports sound through USB. This will drive the external headphone connectors
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B007PFZEKY/

Mini Audio Amplifier
Used to amplify apple's proprietary speaker connector for the ball speakers
http://www.amazon.com/High-Power-2-Channel-Audio-Digital-Amplifier/dp/B00CPGSQ9E

300 second sound recording/playback module
Used to create a startup chime
http://www.ebay.com/itm/300-second-USB-sound-voice-recording-module-w-motion-sensor-and-enclosure-/261010876566


Integration Components
Antec 19V 90W DC Adapter
(90W vs the stock 65W PSU. Needed for the 20" iMac model due to increased power requrements
http://www.amazon.com/Antec-SNP90-Notebook-Power-Adapter/dp/B003IPC4WG/

Wide Input PicoPSU
Needed to drive the upconverter for the display and supply power to internal peripherals
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004KNKRGA/

Mac OS X 10.9 Mavericks - Apple Store (U.S.)
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001AMHWP8/
Mac OS X 10.9 Mavericks - Apple Store (U.S.)

Custom Circuits
  1. starter kit (08M2) »


  2. Touch Sensor Circuit
  3. Fan Control Circuit
  4. Sleep, PicoPSU & Chime Circuit
    Already Owned
    Apple iMac G4 20"
    Apple iMac G4 20"

    I/O Magic slim USB DVD writer (IDVD8P)
    http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827145012

    7 port powered USB hub
    Garishly Ugly 7 port powered hub

Comments

This build will be my first real case mod and relies heavily on the work of others. Installing Mavericks on an Intel NUC is the easy part, disassembling, reconfiguring and marrying the tiny NUC board to the original apple hardware is going to be extremely difficult.

This post is in draft status for now. I'll post the actual mod information in a thread in The Workshop> Case Mod > iMac Mods forum section.

Mavericks Install
That's the easy part. I followed this guide »

Hardware
The hard, hard part. Impossible without studying the work of these guys:

Connection Summary
There are a ton of custom connections to be made on the inside of the rice bowl to make apple hardware talk to the intel NUC. Because it took a long time for me to understand these, I'm going to document these.

  1. AC Power Plug to...
  2. AC filter on iMac G4 Mobo to...
  3. Antek Power Brick (mounted according to Erster's plan) outputs to two 19V connections
    • PicoPSU (mounted according to Erster's plan)
      • Start/Com to NUC Mobo Header +5V (via transistor, resistor)
      • +12v/Com to fan
      • +12v/Com to 24v upconverter (mounted under optical drive)
        • Monitor Inverter
      • Anything else that requires +12V on the mobo
      • +5v/Com to power my optical drive
      • +5v/Com to power my USB hub
    • NUC Motherboard (mounted in 3.5" bay)
      • soldered connections from NUC to iMac power switch
      • USB to 7 port USB hub (mounted under optical drive)
        • 4 x USB to rear panel
        • 1 x USB to sound
        • 1 x USB to DVD
        • 1 x USB spare
      • 2 x mobo USB spare
      • HDMI to Monitor via DVI [not for the weak of heart] (mounted according to Erster's plan)
      • drive activity LEDs from header?
      • lightning port to gigabit ethernet

Making it fit
It's tight, really tight.

Mobo: Luckily the Intel Mobo is really small (3.5"x3.5" x 1.5ish), so it can fit nicely in the 3.5" drive bay, which is where I'll be putting it. Other mods I've mentioned put it elsewhere, like in the base, which has some advantages.

Antec Power brick: Because I'm putting the mobo up there, I can't put the antek PSU right above the DVD drive as Ersterhernd does. see his arrangement here »

I will instead mount the PSU brick to the bottom of the slim DVD drive (dimensions shown by the brown paper on the right in the image below).

Upconverter: Luckily my upconverter to drive the backlight on the monitor is tiny enough so that I can mount it under my slim DVD drive (left rear metal jobby in the photo below).

PicoPSU:This is nice and tiny as well, it'll power my usb hub, DVD drive, 24v upconverter and be connected to the mobo's power switch. (I'll use Ersterhernd's positioning, to the rear of the drive cage).

Powered USB hub: There's a lot of stuff that uses USB in this build. I opted to gut an old, butt-ugly 7 port USB hub (with all kinds of colored blinking lights to run most everything. Because it's a tight fit, I'm probably only going to use four of the 7 ports (blue board on the left in the image below).

78698d1388786221-ersterhernds-nucimac-g4-photo-2.jpg
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Looks good. :thumbup:

Will you use an internal audio amp like I did it? I'm very satisfied with this solution. The Apple speakers can be connected "as they are".

Good luck!

MacTester
 
Looks good. :thumbup:
Will you use an internal audio amp like I did it?
MacTester

Looking... oh, that's smart! Just ordered 2.

In general, I'd love to adopt all of your custom bits, like the led controller, fan controller, brightness toggle, etc, but they're way beyond my level of competence.

-Dale
 
Glad to see your post, a good write-up so far, will be following your progress with interest. With two of these builds progressing makes some interesting reading.

Are you sure you need USB Hub (The ugly one). The MB has 6 USB ports (2 on header), which should be enough for your DVD, Sound, while still leaving 4 ports for the rear IO. The advantage of this is that you will get significantly faster throughput. Everything you connect to the HUB will share a single USB2 port.

High throughput devices (e.g. HDD's, DVD, etc) should have there own dedicated USB port. Keyboards, Mice, Bluetooth, sound cards can be run through a hub with no issue. Ensure you have a couple of USB 3 ports for the Rear IO specifically for external HDD's which are now mostly USB3.
 
Are you sure you need USB Hub (The ugly one)...

Kiwi's right. Only do it, if it's necessary.

I've used this USB 2.0 Hub

It has two USB ports on the "MOBO-Side". This allows to divide the traffic to two USB channels.

On another note: Are you sure, that your slim DVD drive will be able to push the drive door open?

MacTester
 
On another note: Are you sure, that your slim DVD drive will be able to push the drive door open?

MacTester


I had the same thought. Does a USB drive exist with a motorized tray? I know the one I have is just a spring-loaded eject.


Ersterhernd
 
Are you sure you need USB Hub (The ugly one). The MB has 6 USB ports (2 on header), which should be enough for your DVD, Sound, while still leaving 4 ports for the rear IO. The advantage of this is that you will get significantly faster throughput. Everything you connect to the HUB will share a single USB2 port.

My exact model (DC3217BY) has 3 USB connectors, and no USB headers. I am planning to use all three of them and 4 on the Hub.

  1. 4 iMac Connectors (maybe 2 from the NUC mobo + 2 from the hub)
  2. 1 for sound
  3. 1 for USB

Ensure you have a couple of USB 3 ports for the Rear IO specifically for external HDD's which are now mostly USB3.

My model has no USB 3.

On another note: Are you sure, that your slim DVD drive will be able to push the drive door open?

Nope, spring loaded, no motor. I guess we'll have to see if it works.

Thanks Guys. I'm just waiting on a few more parts, including the antec...
 
Hi MrDale, your build looks great so far. Just a hint that I discovered with my iMac projects; you'll likely be removing and installing the base quite frequently. I put a small dab of never-cease compound into each of the four bolt holes in the faraday cage. Lithium grease would work too. This vastly improves the ease of which the bolts thread in and out, and reduces the chance of stripping the threads.

Just make sure you wash your fingers with soap each time before handling the white iMac.


Cheers!
 
The Antec PSU came and I'm delighted to say that it's smaller than I expected...

  • with the right kind of right angle connectors I could probably use all the USB ports.
  • I could probably mount the PicoPSU (pins down) directly behind the usb DVD drive if I cut a notch out of the USB Hub's board.
  • I could probably mount the custom cucuits to the bottom of the USB Hub
Everything nice and tidy.
 

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Great work! Can't wait see some more pics! I think I need an old G4 :D
Those projects are waking my interests in doing this, too! :)
 
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