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microangelito · 08:05 AM

Hi,

I have recently acquired an imac G3 DV tangerine and am looking to put a G4 board in it as I have a quicksilver logic board laying around and with a 1ghz G4 would make a great upgrade. I'm quite familiar with the internals of computers, soldering, etc. The one thing is I want to keep the CRT as I don't really want to spend a lot of money or risk ruining the case when mounting the LCD.

So has anyone done something like this? (I've seen the iPC etc but they all replace the CRT with an LCD.)
If anyone with experience with these machines can help it would be much appreciated.

DON'T COMMENT IF YOU WANT TO SAY IT'S STUPID OR IT CAN'T BE DONE!!! UNLESS YOU HAVE A GOOD AMOUNT OF EXPERIENCE WITH THESE MACS AND CAN EXPLAIN WHY!

Thanks.

Hope you can help!

ibook_steve · Feb 27, 2009, 05:50 PM

I've moved this to the mods forum.

I'm not sure how you could fit the MLB from a tower into a G3 iMac and hook up a CRT to it.

Steve

shifuimam · Feb 27, 2009, 08:24 PM

Don't the G3 and G4 PowerMacs use roughly ATX-size boards? If that's the case, it's highly unlikely the board will physically fit in the case, especially with the CRT in there.

You'd be better off dropping in a micro ATX board and Hackintoshing it. It's also unlikely you'll be able to keep the CRT - hooking it up to the board will be next to impossible, whereas making an LCD work is going to be much easier because of how LCDs are designed.

Good luck!

goMac · Feb 27, 2009, 10:00 PM

Originally Posted by microangelito

DON'T COMMENT IF YOU WANT TO SAY IT'S STUPID OR IT CAN'T BE DONE!!!

Whelp, you're going to have an empty thread on your hands then...

microangelito · Feb 28, 2009, 07:30 AM

I just measured my quicksilver board against an old mATX socket 478 board that I have and it is only 3cm taller and 2.5cm wider so I don't see how such a small difference could make a difference as a full ATX board is much bigger (I know, my main PC uses one).

Also about the hackintosh idea I would like it to be a proper mac and also I still run a lot of old OS 9 apps and all the G4 powermacs except the 1.42ghz firewire 800 could so this would pretty much be perfect if it would fit.

Plus I don't nessasarly have to keep the original CRT as I can pick up a good 15inch for under £10 or about $15 in the US which I could hack apart and use instead. If anyone has experience working with CRTs it would be much appreciated if you could tell me what kind of insulation I would need to protect the logic board.

Thanks.

P.S. If it is possible and with you guys help and advice I will do it in maybe a month or twos time and post lots of pics and how I did it and also post it on MacMod.com

microangelito · Mar 1, 2009, 03:54 PM

Today I have checked out quite a few pics and looked at the take apart manual for these imacs and due to space and the near impossibility of converting the CRT to run with the qucksilver logic board have realized that I'm probably going to have to use an LCD. Although when I take delivery of the machine I will take another look for real although it's probably not possible.

So could you people please recommend a good 15" LCD with good color representation, sharpness and also if there is any ghosting as I would like it to have as little ghosting as possible as I want to play games and watch TV and films on it and ghosting would just ruin it. Please don't say get a low response time LCD. Please recommend on personal experience.

Thanks.

Hope you can help me complete the project.

reader50 · Mar 1, 2009, 05:34 PM

The iMac DV lists as a 4:3 ratio 15" CRT, but visible size is 13.8" ... you'd want a 14" LCD or expect to cut the display opening bigger. The 15" LCDs listed on newegg all have sucky specs, particularly on viewing angle. If you did plan to cut the case, I'd consider if a 17" could be made to fit. The prices tend to be a little lower than a 15".

14" = will fit, gives a small screen, not sure where to get one.
15" = risk of ugly install.
17" = high risk of ugly install, more space & resolution.

microangelito · Mar 1, 2009, 08:35 PM

A 15" will fit as all the other mods I've seen use a 15" LCD that is why I asked for that.

Here is a list of LCD conversions and full conversion mods for these machines:

http://www.macmod.com/internal-mods/imac/113-ipc (Uses a 15" Samsung 151v LCD and is my favourite mod due to it's neatness).

http://www.macmod.com/internal-mods/...-eyemac-g3-lcd (Uses a 15" Microtek LCD).

http://www.macmod.com/internal-mods/...-the-evil-imac (Uses a MAG LT 565 15” LCD screen).

So if they all used 15" displays without cutting out a new display opening, then it must be possible! So please do give your 15" LCD recommendations.

Thanks.