Have a dead 21" iMac G5 want to put a hackintosh inside

[thecha]

I was given a dead 21" iMac G5... Apparently the MB is dead...

I want to try gutting out the dead bits and putting in PC bits and then hackintoshing it...

My goal is to try to reuse the LCD, power supply, and optical drive... Don't know if it will be possible but would be cool...

I thought I would start by finding a MB that would work but I must admit I'm not sure what exactly I'm looking at when I look at the compatibility list.

Basically I'd like a small (mini itx) board with onboard video that works... Can anyone share a link to a specific board with onboard video that works well?


I'm aware that I might have some trouble getting the LCD working because it's typically powered with a weird proprietary connection which carries the DVI and power... But I'll figure that out later..

So any thoughts on the right MB for this situation?

 

[MrWarhawk]

Alright I hope I can Help . I was just about to skip this article for the amount of price you would have to pay. but I remembered!!! Im not sure if this would be compatible, with OSX, actually probably not. but Worth a Shot.

Me being the reader I am, stumbled upon AMDs new technolgy, its all in one die, and its itx size, APU its called. Umm, Links will be at the bottom, as for a INTEL side, Im gonna go and assume that nvidia is look brighter on the GPU side of things, Zotac has a H55 Solution, so all you need is lets say a 250? or a GPU, It does have a Integrated GPU, but it comes with the processor. Anyways, those are two Solutions that popped in my head. Theres others out there, but the ZOTAC looks the most promising, I read an article the other night, about some doing a build usign that mobo.

http://www.zotacusa.com/zotac-h55itx-a-e-lga-1156-mini-itx-wifi-intel-motherboard.html
http://tech2.in.com/india/news/motherboards/msi-unveils-first-motherboard-with-amds-apu/188852/0

Any How I hope This Helps.
MrWarhawk

 

[cowfodder]

More than size I think heat and power consumption are going to be your big issues. Depending on what kind of performance you want out of this an ion board might be the way to go. Something passive cooled like this http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131653. Then all you need to do is get the display working. There are methods out there for installing on netbooks that would work for this kind of setup.

 

[MrWarhawk]

@Cowfodder

I Completely Agree, but the reason i recommended the H55 Board, is the ION platform is REALLY really Underpowered, and hes going to get little performance,but I understand power is an issue here,Im pretty sure though, If he puts in a PICO PSU, he'll be fine...there cheap, and tiny. Just some friendly suggestions though..

 

[cowfodder]

@Cowfodder

I Completely Agree, but the reason i recommended the H55 Board, is the ION platform is REALLY really Underpowered, and hes going to get little performance,but I understand power is an issue here,Im pretty sure though, If he puts in a PICO PSU, he'll be fine...there cheap, and tiny. Just some friendly suggestions though..

I need to not post at 12:30 am. The h55 zotac is a beast. If the included wifi card doesn't work one could always grab an Apple airport card to pop in there. It shouldn't draw too much more power than the atom either. I also looked at the teardown instructions for the g5 imac, and it looks like there was an active cpu cooler packed in there to begin with.

 

[manderso]

I was given a dead 21" iMac G5... Apparently the MB is dead...

I want to try gutting out the dead bits and putting in PC bits and then hackintoshing it...

My goal is to try to reuse the LCD, power supply, and optical drive... Don't know if it will be possible but would be cool...

I thought I would start by finding a MB that would work but I must admit I'm not sure what exactly I'm looking at when I look at the compatibility list.

Basically I'd like a small (mini itx) board with onboard video that works... Can anyone share a link to a specific board with onboard video that works well?


I'm aware that I might have some trouble getting the LCD working because it's typically powered with a weird proprietary connection which carries the DVI and power... But I'll figure that out later..

So any thoughts on the right MB for this situation?

Have you made any progress on this front? I have an Intel Imac with a bad graphics card (which means a bad $500 logic board), and am thinking about using it as a hackintosh case. It doesn't look likely, but I'm silly and tenacious.

 

[grafixidea]

Headache, just sell your dead iMac on ebay and build powerful desktop hackintosh.

Issues you will face:
- Size of components.
- Heat.
- Power.
- Compatibility issues.
- Non on-board GPU support.

and it's up to you.