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[WIP] 2006 20" iMac Intel case mod.

Joined
Jun 13, 2017
Messages
3,213
Motherboard
Gigabyte A520i AC
CPU
Ryzen 7 4700G
Graphics
Radeon Vega 8
Mac
  1. MacBook Air
  2. Mac Pro
Classic Mac
  1. eMac
  2. iMac
Mobile Phone
  1. iOS
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It's just an idea at the moment!, earlier I purchased a 3D printer specifically for modding purposes. It's 1st task will be to print a rear IO for the 2009 Mac mini, I have a lot of learning to do. My BluEye / Dell 7010 / Mac mini6,2 is a plucky Hackintosh, the motherboard, i7-3770, CPU Fan cooler and PSU were all purchased separately. I already owned the RAM, hard drive and cables, but I never owned a case for it. I was given a Dell Ispirion One 2020 last year, unfortunately BIOS doesn't have any ACHI, so it's not Hackintoshable. What it does have is a 20" display, and this made me think of the Apple iMac G5 Desktop 20 in M9845LL/A 2.0 GHz PowerPC G5.
 
Congrats on your purchase! With the 4.7 x 4.7 x 4.7 build size, you may have some difficulties ahead in printing a 20" iMac. Maybe puzzle shaped pieces and snap them together? Or design something without a smooth finish so you don't notice the seams (like this non-apple Borg cube). When I did the frame for my Classic II, I printed it in 4 pieces (one quadrant at a time) and glued them together.
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Congrats on your purchase! With the 4.7 x 4.7 x 4.7 build size, you may have some difficulties ahead in printing a 20" iMac. Maybe puzzle shaped pieces and snap them together?.

Ha!, Yes, it was after the purchase that I thought about the build size!. And puzzle pieces is probably the way forward with this project. If I leave the panel inside the 2020 case and remove the motherboard etc, then replace it with the 7010 motherboard. the rear panel would have to be deeper to allow for the vertical Ram.
 
I bought a 20" iMac case for $1.90, shipping was $31. The back is a little damaged and the screen doesn't work, but the fans do, so thats great news!. I have a 20" panel that works from the Dell AIO which I'm planning to use.

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It appears my $2 2006 20" iMac was incorrectly listed, the display does work!. I installed a fresh HDD and connected the video cable to the display and powered on. I got the flashing folder icon with a question mark, my Power Mac G5 disks don't work, so I'm trying Diskwarrior, Very slow!. I should figure out what I can install on it. I'll update with a screen shot if anything should happen.
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Inside the iMac behind the flat panel, theres a lot of space to utilize, the hard drive is mine. I still haven't managed to get anything to install, I tried El Capitane and Mavericks, either it's extremely slow or it's not working. I'm able to see the boot manager but nothing seems to happen after that.

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I'm able to see the boot manager but nothing seems to happen after that.
What is the CPU in it ? Any way you can tell ? I'd guess it has an Intel Core 2 Duo. Apple had abandoned G5s by late 2016. Note that you have to install a minimum of 2GB of ram for Lion to install.
 
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I can't really tell, this is as far as I have got, I'm either impatient or it doesn't want to know. These are the specs from Apples support site, I have the 20" version. It came with 2GB installed already, this thing is an absolute bargain at $2.

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I can't really tell, this is as far as I have got, I'm either impatient or it doesn't want to know.
Under the icon it says OS X Mavericks and not Lion. Mavericks is too new to work on an iMac from 2006.
 
I'm either impatient or it doesn't want to know. These are the specs from Apples support site, I have the 20" version.
No 2006 iMac had a PPC G5 chip in it. The seller may have mis-represented what you got. Any way you can find an actual serial number on the iMac to check it online ?

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