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Ca$h68 · Jul 6, 2000, 01:22 AM

I know the imac NEEDs a pass through vid card in order to work, right? Right. Anyway, WHY? ANyone know? I was thinking. If I made a mezzanine to PCI connector, a voodoo3 (or 5), and hooked up a DIFFERENT monitor (like a 19"sony), wouldnt it work? or what? I dunno. I guess I just dont get WHY it needs a pass through..... cuz nobody makes them anymore.

Anyone care to figure this out, find out somehow, be an intern for the president, whatever and then get back to me?

Thanks

Ca$h

The Godfather · Jul 6, 2000, 04:12 PM

Dude, I am in the same project you are talking about.

I think YOU came up with the idea that iMac's could only accept pass-through videocards, while I always believed that plugging a normal video card would enable you to run a second monitor.

It would help a lot if you took macro pictures of your Gamewizard so I can figure out the Mezz-PCI wiring. This month I have been too busy to even order the Mezz connector (male, BTW) and the PCI connector, but if someone could back me up in the project by e.g. TAKING PICTURES, I would be willing to start the project and test it with a PCI card.

I don't think anybody has tried that yet, or we would have heard of it already. Let's not wait until some Japanese kid makes it first and then copy him.

Are you hacker enough today?

Ca$h68 · Jul 6, 2000, 06:34 PM

ok. You challenged me. Last one to get it working is a rotten egg!

'`'`'`'`'

(me order stuff TONIGHT. HEhehe)

Ca$h

Jul 6, 2000, 11:15 PM

Of course, if you can get it to run a second monitor, then couldn't you just attach it to the monitor cuurrently in the case (break out the soldering gun)?

Dammit

Jul 6, 2000, 11:18 PM

The only real question I have is whether there is enough space in there for a PCI card, and where you would hang it.....

Good luck, fellas!

Dammit

Ca$h68 · Jul 7, 2000, 12:31 AM

PCI card can hang out the side for tests. Heh.

Ca$h

kokosnootje · Jul 7, 2000, 10:15 AM

I'm realy interested in these mezz-PCI converters. I would like to try to make one myself. Does anybody know where to get the mezanine connector in Europe?

Please lets work together on this.

Normal PCI card's on iMac, can't wait.

The Godfather · Jul 9, 2000, 11:40 PM

Cash,

Are you NOT going to send pictures?

MacNZ · Jul 10, 2000, 12:03 AM

Um, I've been asking round some computer stores about PCI to Mezz connectors but they just stare at me blankly. I need to go to some specialised
place obviously, any help??

Ca$h68 · Jul 11, 2000, 01:02 AM

You gotta either:

A. Get the parts and make it yourself
B. Get the parts and have it made at a shop

Evinyatar · Jul 12, 2000, 06:01 AM

And all I want to know is if anyone has ever succeeded in soldering a mezzanine socket to a rev D motherboard. Anyone?

SpeedRacer · Jul 15, 2000, 12:53 AM

Originally posted by Evinyatar:
And all I want to know is if anyone has ever succeeded in soldering a mezzanine socket to a rev D motherboard. Anyone?

Soon. Very soon my friends.

Speed

SpeedRacer · Jul 15, 2000, 12:56 AM

Originally posted by kokosnootje:
I'm realy interested in these mezz-PCI converters. I would like to try to make one myself.

If anybody here could make one of these, do you have any idea how many of these you could sell?! A legitimate, industry-standard upgrade path for 1st gen iMacs... wow. I can't imagine that if this was possible some company would not have seen the profit potential in this already.

Speed

SpeedRacer · Jul 15, 2000, 12:57 AM

Sorry double post.

[This message has been edited by SpeedRacer (edited 07-15-2000).]

SpeedRacer · Jul 15, 2000, 12:58 AM

Originally posted by Evinyatar:
And all I want to know is if anyone has ever succeeded in soldering a mezzanine socket to a rev D motherboard. Anyone?

Soon. Very soon my friends.

Speed

Ruddigger · Jul 15, 2000, 01:39 AM

Originally posted by SpeedRacer:
If anybody here could make one of these, do you have any idea how many of these you could sell?! A legitimate, industry-standard upgrade path for 1st gen iMacs... wow. I can't imagine that if this was possible some company would not have seen the profit potential in this already.

Speed

I dunno, it doesn't seem like a very plausible product to me at all. Most upgrades don't void your warranty and have a chance of destroying your motherboard. And besides, it would be pretty hard to explain to the average Joe, just how to install the thing. That's why you don't see one advertised on NewerTech's homepage. However, that doesn't mean that Ca$h, or someone else, couldn't sell it themselves to tech heads like myself. Just my 2 cents.

------------------
-Ruddigger
------------------
Have you had your
gigaflop today?

seanyepez · Jul 18, 2000, 02:43 AM

Ca$h, though I often disagree with you, I now realize the potential in my iMac as a mobile gaming machine. I am going to create a mezzanine to PCI adapter, and affix a Voodoo5 5500 somewhere in the case, and set up appropriate cooling. This thing is going to run hot - very, very hot.

My iMac, with a G4 upgrade and a Voodoo5, will own most G4 machines on the block. I'm thinking of upgrading my machine with half a gigabyte of RAM, as well. Heck, while I'm at it, I will pop in an 80-gigabyte hard disk drive. Then, all I have to do is paint my system Graphite and get appropriate input devices and voila, a truely awesome G4 iMac.

The next thing I have to work on is the bus speed, as the only thing that will limit me then would be the (slow) 66-megahertz bus.

Ca$h68 · Jul 19, 2000, 01:02 AM

Um. I must disgress first. Here's why. You will NEVER get very good FPS in comparison to a G4 tower. Or a G3 tower for that matter. They have faster busses for one thing, but here's the real kicker. Halt yer plans on the voodoo5 and stuff. If you WERE to create a mezz-PCI adaptor:

A: The voodoo5 was not designed to fit inside the iMac... I doubt it would fit.... the gamewizard was DESIGNED to fit, so you would have to mount the card EXTERNALLY in a protected case... the long ribbon cable required might throw things off, I'm not sure.

B. It would no longer be a mobile gaming machine. See, you'd have the externally mounted video card, and you'd have ot have another monitor. Why? Well, the ATI chip onboard uses the current iMac monitor, so unless you somehow developed a switchable mechanism to switch the iMac monitor from running on ATI (real iMac guts) and a voodoo5, it would require a second monitor. This is all in theory though. But for now, I'd hunt for a voodoo2 gamewizard.

Ca$h

Jul 19, 2000, 08:37 AM

Cash, how about a monitor cable between that externally mounted card and the cable that comes straight from the built-in monitor in the iMac case? You would need to chip some of that beautiful plastic away, but that is somewhat unimportant at this point.

So instead of having the video coming out of the motherboard, it comes straight from that V5, I guess.

Flipper

Ca$h68 · Jul 19, 2000, 08:32 PM

No. That wouldnt work. That built in monitor port is part of the mobo, and it uses ATI Rage graphics. That will only MIRROR stuff... basically you can hook it up to another monitor (your current iMac screen will be blank, but I assume you could get a Y cable deal and make them both work)... The only thing I could think of, was if you didnt use the internal monitor output AT ALL. Like, the video from the externally mounted PCI card when back into the case and hooked up to the monitor. I'm not sure if that would work or not.... but either way, I'm much less enthused to try because apple released that AWESOME Cube Gaming machine.....

Anyone wanna buy my iMac?

Ca$h

Jul 20, 2000, 10:14 AM

Thanks Ca$h, for putting my words in the right order! What I meant to say, like Ca$h just did, was to COMPLETELY forego the built-in video output, and reroute the whole thing through the external V5, then kook up a VGA cable between the V5 and the iMac's monitor.
But that Y adapter is starting to make sense: can you say 15" CINEMA DISPLAY?

Flipper

Jul 20, 2000, 10:15 AM

Sorry about that, forget the cinema display, all that excitement made me forget about that DVI connection and stuff...

Flipper

MacNZ · Jul 21, 2000, 06:58 AM

I'm sorry, I can't afford the cube! Looks like I might switch to console games full time unless some of this stuff works out soon. All of this new mac stuff is soo cool but too hard on the wallet. If i can hack that iMac then its a different story!

SpeedRacer · Aug 1, 2000, 01:16 AM

Become an Apple Student developer for $99 and pick up your new Cube for $1400, 15" Cinema for $799. Oh and of course you get all those nifty ADC mailings and OSX developer releases too...

Speed

Doug Brown · Aug 30, 2000, 08:20 PM

Originally posted by Ca$h68:
No. That wouldnt work. That built in monitor port is part of the mobo, and it uses ATI Rage graphics. That will only MIRROR stuff... basically you can hook it up to another monitor (your current iMac screen will be blank, but I assume you could get a Y cable deal and make them both work)... The only thing I could think of, was if you didnt use the internal monitor output AT ALL. Like, the video from the externally mounted PCI card when back into the case and hooked up to the monitor. I'm not sure if that would work or not.... but either way, I'm much less enthused to try because apple released that AWESOME Cube Gaming machine..... Anyone wanna buy my iMac?

Ca$h

I know this reply is really really late...

Have you looked at this page?
http://www.theimac.com/drive_steps.shtml

See step 3. It appears the iMac's internal monitor uses a standard DB-15 port. So couldn't you just use a standard VGA-to-DB-15 adapter and hook the monitor cable to the voodoo instead of the imac's internal port?

Ca$h68 · Aug 31, 2000, 01:54 PM

yeah. You can. That isnt the problem. The mezz is the tricky part. That part has been done before.

Ca$h

Doug Brown · Sep 1, 2000, 01:33 PM

Oh, ok...

Doug