Mike Peterson
An Apple enthusiast and iOS developer has shared a project that turned a vintage iMac G4 into a modern-day Mac equipped with an M1 chip.
Colby Sheets on Tuesday shared a short clip to Twitter showing off the converted iMac G4. In the clip, the device is running macOS Big Sur and is equipped with an M1 chipset pulled from a Mac mini.
In celebration of Steve Job's life and his inspiration to many, I wanted to show a passion project I've been working on that I think Steve would be proud of. Something that wasn't possible 20 years ago but is now.
— Colby Sheets (@ColbySheets) October 5, 2021
Hello, iMac G4 with an M1 chip. pic.twitter.com/q6zUpyFrwu
"In celebration of Steve Job's life and his inspiration to many, I wanted to show a passion project I've been working on that I think Steve would be proud of," Sheets wrote.
Although details on the specific process that Sheets used to convert the Mac into a modern machine are scarce, the iOS developer said the project has been a "dream computer of mine since I was young and I'm very proud to bring it back to life 2 decades later."
In later replies, Sheets said the project was pieced together from different materials and combined with an M1 Mac.
The developer also shouted out vintage Mac collector Pendleton115. Sheets said Pendleton115's YouTube videos and walkthroughs "helped me a lot throughout this mod especially on troubleshooting some wiring issues."
"I promise to explain more about the mod soon, probably will post a video about the process and the steps soon," Sheets said.
AppleInsider has reached out to Sheets for more information about the project.
Andrew Orr
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Christine McKee
AppleInsider Staff
13 Comments
I kept the guts of my lampshade iMac and installing an M1 Mac mini would be fun. I'd have to find a high resolution display to replace the current one and make some alterations to the ports but it could still be a fun adventure. Calling it a iMac G4 is not what I'd call mine. I'd go for iMac Retro (need to work on the name).
I don't remember if my lampshade iMac's display still works. It's only a 15" TFT Active Matrix LCD display, 1024x768 display, so I'd have to figure out how to re-mount the display into the iMac display frame.
I can see the box its in but no easy way to get to it to check which version I have. It's probably the first version since I also got the first iMac the first day it was offered but it's been gone for awhile. I can't keep everything I've purchased (even though family and friends say I do).
Well, I went ahead and grabbed it. Thought I had gutted it but only got rid of HDD and CD, the motherboard is still inside. Checked the serial number and I have the 800 MHz PowerPC 7445 (G4) version. All the cables coming out of the display arm are labeled. One cable says TMDS Cable (display signal?) while another says Inverter Cable (power?). I might actually try and see if I can get it to work. Of course I believe the display died so might simply take the housing apart and see whether I could add a new display.
Would love to see that done to a G3 too
I still use my iMac G4 as a scanning station with an old Epson flatbread scanner that has significantly better scanner optics than what can be bought today. It is running Leopard, but is no longer connected to the outside world. I would love to convert it to an M1 system.
Probably would have been more straightforward to convert a G4 Cube, but looks like a fun project nonetheless.
