eMac questions

[Olli73]

Hey people,

since i got my first hack running, i´ve given my venerable eMac to my girlfriend to use for writing papers, internet and watching DVDs. Now, even before i gave it away, something on the video-board started acting up and sometimes the screen goes black, but comes back once you give the BigE a nice pad on the head... Recently the intervals are getting shorter, so i think it´s really on the way out.
My question is:

I still got a GA-Q77M-D2H lying around. If i were to put that in, with an i3CPU, retaining the old DVD-drive and HDD, would i be able to run it using a PicoPSU? Do i need something more powerful? I would use on-board-graphics, so nothing fancy.

Thanks for Your input!!

Olli

 

[minihack]

You'd be fine.

I'd use the 160W pico and that would give it plenty of headroom.

I assume you won't be driving a display from your pico though.

 

[kiwisincebirth]

Correct me if I am wrong but isn't an eMac a CRT based machine. A bigger issue will be repurposing this for use in new MB. There is unlikely to be an internal VGA connector. Most mods of this type remove the CRT and replace with a stripped down LCD. Have you considered how you do this?

 

[Olli73]

@MiniHack- Thanks, Pico will be fine then.

@Kiwisincebirth- Yup, CRT-based... I plan to get rid of it and get the space needed for a mod. I know, it won´t be easy though. I would look for a used 17"LCD and fit that into the case, powering it with a separate power source. I bookmarked a few threads of people going down the same path. I think there was even one guy who managed to save the crt...

Scratch that, he just kept the logic-board and ditched the rest, quite the opposite of my plan :

http://www.lbodnar.dsl.pipex.com/eServer/


Which makes me think... maybe i should keep the logic-board for another mod?

 

[minihack]

Yeah, I did of course assume in my post that you were ditching the CRT!

There aren't really that many suitable LCDs anymore in 4:3 format so whatever you go for there will probably be pretty low res by modern standards.

 

[Olli73]

Yeah, i know... But since it will never be my main rig anymore anyway, i think i can live with a replacement that´s got about the same resolution as the crt. I doesn´t have to be state of the art. As long as it masters internet and movies and the like, it will be just fine.
Guess i like the form-factor and then there is the nostalgic fact that it was my first mac. I like old macs, that´s why i still have a Blue Dalmatian iMac and my Graphite ClamShell (which i´m writing on just now).
I looked around eBay and already saw some LCDs which might do the job, once i´ve some green left over...

Olli

 

[minihack]

I know what you mean about the nostalgia factor.

I bought a 15" Apple Studio Display recently and have converted it to an HDMI cable. It's okay, but resolution is something like 1024 x 768. Nice as a secondary display but it would irritate me constantly if I used it as a primary.

I've also just got an iPad display I stuck in a frame and got a converter for so I can use it on Display Port and that one is crazy in the other direction - 9 inch display with 2048 x 1536 res!!

 

[Olli73]

Haha, i don´t believe it!!! About three months ago i almost bought a 23" ACD, because i thought it would look nice with my G4. Resolution was about the same as my Samsung. I would have had to replace one of the backlights and mod the cable. But i had to spend money on other things... Still, i love those old ACDs.

 

[rehpotsirhc]

The optical drive would probably cheaper to replace vs buying an adapter. The HDD would probably be worth it as well because of the speed difference with newer drives, not to mention expensive adapters. An SSD of momentus xt would really take advantage of the SATA III speeds.

 

[Olli73]

Yes, i thought about that problem as well... I would definitely switch out the HDD. What i´ve found so far, the problem with the adapters is not the price (about 15-20€), but the fact that they seem to be very unreliable concerning optical drives. I wanted to at least salvage my Pioneer DVD-burner.