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Hardware

Separating the iMac 138

Posted by timothy from the parting-the-twain dept.
Emous Pratt writes: "There is a neat article up on iMacLinux.net which talks you through separating the monitor and computer parts of the iMac. It is very detailed, with lots of cool screenshots including this one of the completed machine, and this one showing the machine is still working. This is useful if you want to run Linux and not run the monitor, or if your monitor is broken." Update: 02/03 19:37 GMT by T : Note for the curious: this is about the old iMac (CRT equipped), not the new lampish G4 variety.
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Separating the iMac More

Separating the iMac

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  • Wall mount (Score:2, Funny)

    by grafikhugh ( 529618 )
    Now it would be great to have a tutorial on how to make the iMac Arm wall mountable.

  • Screenshot? (Score:2, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward
    You really have no idea what that word means, do you?

  • Revision A/B. (Score:5, Informative)

    by Mr_Icon ( 124425 ) on Sunday February 03, 2002 @01:26PM (#2946631) Homepage
    It should be noted, that the article is about older iMacs, not ones with pivoting LCD screens.

    • Re:Revision A/B. (Score:3, Funny)

      by reemul ( 1554 )
      Damn, I was hoping to see pics of an LCDectomy. Actually, what I'd really like to see is a mod of the new lamp-like iMacs with the arm being robotic and software controlled. Have the monitor follow you as you move around the room...

      -reemul
      • woah... that's a great idea. i bet it could be done with a webcam, some face recognition software... or maybe even voice recognition, so it would look at you when you called, and the right amount of robotic skill. i would so do it if i wasn't a robotics moron.
        • *Grin* that *would* be really cute. Even cuter if you could put some type of a motor structure underneath the base to have it hop around following you.

          Okay, so I'm totally dreaming by this point, but with a batter, and some kind of a motor that lets the thing pogo around, together with a webcam glued on and some *really good* recognition software, can't we have little mini-luxos just following us around? :-)

  • What's that smell? (Score:4, Funny)

    by ekrout ( 139379 ) on Sunday February 03, 2002 @01:28PM (#2946636) Journal
    The site is very detailed, with lots of cool screenshots including this one of the completed machine, and this one showing the machine is still working.

    But do they have pics of their server up in smoke after a mid-Sunday Slashdotting?

  • PC Cases (Score:2, Insightful)

    by 0123456789 ( 467085 )

    Given how successful the original iMac was, and that this one is probably going to be, how come the vast majority of PC cases are just plain dull? Beyond a different colour, or a small curve somewhere, they are all essentially identical. There's got to be a market for mass-produced decent looking PC cases.

    Shame you can't order an iMac with wintel innards....

    • Re:PC Cases (Score:2, Insightful)

      by ekrout ( 139379 )
      There's got to be a market for mass-produced decent looking PC cases.

      There is [colorcases.com]

      • Even there, most of them are simply a different colour to an ordinary case, and that's it. There's very little attempt to actually alter the shape of the case. For example, have the motherboard flat, with the drives above it, and the PSU above that, stick it in a pyramid case, et voila something that looks different. Okay, might look crap, but it's a start...

        Having said that, the dog, cat and penguin in the 0600 series looked cool. Cheers for the link.

      • Re:PC Cases (Score:4, Insightful)

        by maggard ( 5579 ) <michael@michaelmaggard.com> on Sunday February 03, 2002 @01:46PM (#2946711) Homepage Journal
        The question was:
        Given how successful the original iMac was, and that this one is probably going to be, how come the vast majority of PC cases are just plain dull? Beyond a different colour, or a small curve somewhere, they are all essentially identical. There's got to be a market for mass-produced decent looking PC cases.
        and you link to: http://www.colorcases.com/cases/cases.html [colorcases.com] ?

        Are you trying to prove the point that the vast majority on PC cases are just boxes tarted up?

        I believe the question is why aren't there more creative designs, ones that involve more then sticking swoopy curved bezels in old iMac colors on the basic PC box? Heck, Apple built their PC chassis with handles on the corners and a fold-out door with the motherboard and other components conveniently on it, not awkwardly mounted inside the frame.

        IBM had a clever desktop pod with CD ROMs in it, Intel has the ever-giddier future design collection, but aside from the spate of iMac-wannabe's the PC chassis selection seems to be pretty moribund, snap-on bezels aside.

        • Re:PC Cases (Score:1, Offtopic)

          by swb ( 14022 )
          Apple's tower design is OK, but I think that they could have done the external drive bays more conveniently. I think there's one too many screws or not enough room for getting at the power/audio/IDE connectors because of the PSU, or something.

          The big name PCs at work seem to be able to pop the drive without screws (the attached rails have them, natch, but don't have to be screwed in the case) and there's loads of room in the case behnd the drives for getting at cables.

          The mainboards are often obfuscated, but the DRAM slots aren't and that's all you normally tweak on a mainboard unless you're an overclocker and then you got it mounted on plywood...

          • Re:PC Cases (Score:3, Informative)

            by Alan Partridge ( 516639 )
            you haven't got an El Capitan Powermac, have you? The IDE connector is easily accesible as are the RAM slots, PCI slots and the Airport slot. Putting drives in is the funniest part. 1 screw is all it takes, pop out the little cages, screw the drives into the cage and pop it back in. Takes about 5 minutes to put a new drive in an El Capitan.
        • The PC-building company I work with has some interesting cases. The pretty ones are a bitch to work with, though (except for this pricey aluminum number).

          The main issue is that nobody bothers to come up with truly innovative looks for cases apart from Apple, Sony, and Hewlett-Packard (and HP's current Pavilion boxes aren't quite as nice as the iMacish ones they had a year or two ago at that). Compaq in particular has some of the most hideous in the business; the current Presario design is scraping the . I do like Gateway's and Dell's (server boxes only for Dell, though); they're a bit dull, but they're for the most part fairly clean and elegant designs.

          Hmmmm... just a thought -- has anyone ever done a feng shui analysis on a typical computer case, just to see what comes up? I don't buy into the make-or-break mysticism that its devotees have, but I do thing feng shui is one of the more interesting tools for cleaning up the aesthetics of a space.

          /Brian
    • Browse around here [hardocp.com] for a while. It might change your mind. I'm partial to the one with the flame job.

    • Re:PC Cases (Score:1, Insightful)

      by Anonymous Coward
      I've been a professional electronics technician for 20 years. I worked on everything from F-18 avionic systems, Honeywell mainframes, two-way radios. Let me tell you, from a technicians perspective, the PC case is the tops in industrial design. You won't find a better design when it comes to serviceability.

      Most electronic devices are a pain in the ass to work on because you need to disassemble tons of shit before you can get access to the electronic parts. Servicing a PC is a dream; its modular philosophy has made PCs cheaper and more reliable. Could you imagine how nice it would be if automobiles were as easy to service as a PC? Once upon a time they were (almost).

      • SGI and Apple cases are like PC cases, only easier to get into :) (iMac aside)
      • Ever opened up a Power Mac G4? It makes PC cases look like total crap. One latch on the side and the case swings open, with flat-out easy (literally) access to the mainboard, and open access to all the drives and power supply. Not to mention that the cables come secured to the sides of the case from the factory, so you don't have to work around them.

  • Humm... (Score:3, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday February 03, 2002 @01:32PM (#2946653)
    Humm... appears that the iMac from the story was hosting the page. Doh!

  • news for nerds? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by feldsteins ( 313201 ) <scott@@@scottfeldstein...net> on Sunday February 03, 2002 @01:34PM (#2946658) Homepage
    I wonder if knowing how to disconnect the display would be equally handy for someone not running linux.

    But then,what am I saying? Linux guys are all about disconnecting stuff. And besides who in their right mind would want to run Linux on a LCD display like the one on that iMac?

    "Slashdot: News for Nerds. Stuff that matters"? Hey I love slashdot, but let's face it. It's "Slashdot: We like Linux. Not much else."
    • I wonder if knowing how to disconnect the display would be equally handy for someone not running linux.

      But then,what am I saying? Linux guys are all about disconnecting stuff. And besides who in their right mind would want to run Linux on a LCD display like the one on that iMac?

      RTA. This is about removing the monitor from a broken iMac with a bad CRT so it can still be used as a server without having to send it in for service. As this was an older iMac which was not being used as a workstation, the monitor was, if anything, merely a waste of electricity to begin with. If this was simply about removing a monitor for the sake of removing the monitor, I'd be with you in saying so what.

      Also, I take offense with you saying that Linux guys are all about disconnecting stuff. Linux guys are about making things work the way they want them to. Sometimes that means taking something apart so you can put it back together so it works better and/or faster, sometimes it means creating modifications which may not be as aesthetically pleasing to the iMac's original market. Y'know, choice is always a good thing, it makes things better.

      • RTA. This is about removing the monitor from a broken iMac with a bad CRT so it can still be used as a server without having to send it in for service.

        I was actually referring to the comments of the guy who submitted. Read that and I think you'll see where I'm coming from.

        Also, I take offense with you saying that Linux guys are all about disconnecting stuff.

        Yep, OK. Sarcasm there. Guilty as charged. My goal here isn't to offend anyone, however. Rather, I am trying to draw attention to the all pervasive Linux-blinders that are so evident here in this community. It's almost as if it isn't Linux and doesn't run Linux...then it's either lame or simlply doesn't exist.

        I'm all for taking things apart, generally speaking. Again, my comment was about how the submitter seemed to think that taking this thing apart was a "Linux thing" and it didn't even occur to him that someone else might be interested.

        Bah, I've done my best to explain it. If you dont' get it, I don't know what else to say.
    • ...this is one of the older, CRT iMacs, not a new LCD imac. Linux users can't afford the newer stuff.

      Next time, though, read the fucking thing before commenting. (Heh, that'll be the day, on slashdot.)

      - A.P.
      • And this affects my point, how? (My point being that the submitter saw the instructions on how to disconnect the display as a beneift to Linux users specifically, almost as if nobody else would be interested.)

        And please don't reduce the discussion to personal insults. It's better if we keep the tone a little higher than that. But then, to quote you "that'll be the day, on slashdot."

    • I think your conclusion is a bit too strong. From the original:

      This is useful if you want to run Linux and not run the monitor, or if your monitor is broken.

      I do believe I see the word "or" in there. The post is not all about Linux. There's a specific mention of a way that knowing how to disconnect the display could be useful for non-Linux users. Presumably the reason for mentioning Linux first is that the post was submitted by a Linux user. There seem to be a lot of those around here.

      As for your general complaint, yes, there do seem to be more Linux-related stories on SlashDot than stories which focus (at least in a positive manner) on any other OS. (We'll ignore all the other topics like DVDs and Anime and so on). *BSD fans also complain about this sometimes :) What it boils down to is this: either more Linux-related stories get submitted, or more get selected. If the former, then the Linux bias could be due to more input coming from the Linux users. Or perhaps there are just more Linux users on SlashDot than any other group. Either way, it's hard to complain when the majority is getting majority representation. You want to see stories on other OSes? Submit them!

      If the latter, then you might have something to complain about. You know who to complain to :)
      • Your later point is well taken. There are a lot of Linux stories submitted and a lot of people int he slashdot commuinity like and use Linux. Perhaps I'll try to be johnny-on-the-spot with some other news.

        Regarding your first point, I must say I don't agree. Clearly the fellow who submitted this saw two cases in which one might wish to disconnect the monitor:

        1. You wish to run Linux and not use the built-in monitor

        2. The monitor is broken.

        So, yes, the poster does see a circumstance in which a non-Linux user might wish to do this thing: when it's broken.

        I don't want to nit-pick this any further. Actually I feel ridiculous going into it this far already. But I think my point stands: the submitter exhibits a common trait around here - "Linux-vision."

        This doesn't make him evil. It doesn't mean he hates other OSs. It just means he or she has a tendendcy to look at the world through Linux-colored glasses. This can be annoying to people who actually use those other OSs, especially when the condition is being exhibited daily by thousands of submitters and posters in this community. It was out of this frustration that my admittedly sarcastic post arose.
        • Nobody will read this because this thread is so old, but I can't think where else to mention it so here goes. Above it was suggested that Slashdot runs so many Linux stories because that's what gets submitted and that if I wanted to see something else someone would have to submit somthing else. I said I would try to be Johnny on the Spot with some other news.

          Well I made good on it. I submitted an interesting bit on how Apple just bought Nothing Real [nothingreal.com], the makers of video compositing software titles Shake and Tremor. These currently run on Linux and Irix and not much else I suppose. Big time hollywood effects products. Interesting move, I thought.

          The verdict on my submission? R E J E C T E D. Don't cal us, we'll call you, thanks for applying, REJECTED.
  • Was that the fastest slashdotting or what? Anyway, I came accross the PDF file for the new iMac, it's very detailed and it explains how to dismantle it without breaking anything...

    Here's the url. [geocities.com]

  • Text of the article.. (Score:5, Informative)

    by epsalon ( 518482 ) <slash@alon.wox.org> on Sunday February 03, 2002 @01:56PM (#2946760) Homepage Journal
    iMac Revision A/B rehousing guide

    This guide provides information on how to rehouse your Revision A or B iMac into some other type of casing. This guide SHOULD also work for Revision C and D iMacs. This guide comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRENTY and we DO NOT RECOMMEND that you follow it unless you know EXACTLY what you are doing, or (like me) you had NO OTHER CHOICE. :)

    Tools
    You'll need a non-magnetic philips screwdriver, snips or pylers, and a sheet (or something to protect the screen while you have the iMac face down on the table).

    Background
    Revision A and B iMacs came out in 1998/99, making them about 2 or 3 years old at this time. Many of the revision A iMacs were plagued with monitor problems. I originally had a Rev.A iMac, however after 2 weeks, the monitor started to turn green, and the local retailer exchanged it for a Rev.B iMac, since the store no longer had Rev.A iMacs. This evening, I noticed my Rev.B iMac was powered down and cold, when I attempted to power it back up, nothing happened. I tried plugging in a different power cord which had no effect. So I moved the iMac out of the rack, and placed it on the workbench and tried to power it up again, this time I held the power button, and the iMac chimed and started to power up, then there was a big flash, some smoke and the iMac was dead. Luckily I happened to be looking at the iMac when the flash occured, and it looked like it came from the HT transformer on the iMac. This was somewhat good news, as it meant the monitor part of the iMac was probably fried.

    Solution
    Since I wasn't about to shell out to have the iMac repaired, I figured the next best thing was to try to fix it myself. Since this iMac is used as a server, the monitor really wasn't needed anyway. So I decided that the best thing to do would be to remove the logic board, drives and power supply, and see if I could get the unit to power up by itself. This meant of course, taking the entire thing apart.

    Pass the screwdriver..
    Taking the iMac apart wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. First, you need to remove the screws that keep the system board in place underneath the iMac, the system board has a handle you can pull it out by, remember to unplug all the connectors from the system board first. Once removed, place this to one side, you will need it later.

    There are several pairs of screws along the back of the case, you need to remove these, the hardest one to remove is the one near the door (one that is used to route the cables). Once you have removed all of these, the rear plastic casing comes out. This is the piece that has the speaker covers attached to it. Once it is off, you will see two screws in the front of the iMac (either side of the hole where the CDrom drive goes), you need to remove these, and the front facia (piece of plastic with the iMac part written on it) comes off. The next bit is a little tricky, you are left with this generic grey plastic cover on the front of the iMac, at the very top of the monitor where the grey plastic meets the coloured plastic, there are two capped screws. You will need to remove the caps, then remove the screws. Once you have completed this, the coloured plastic can be removed, exposing the tube.WARNING: BE CAREFUL WHEN HANDLING THE TUBE AND SHIELDING, EVEN WHEN OFF, THE TUBE ELECTRONICS CAN HAVE A NASTY RESIDUAL CHARGE IN ITS CAPACITORS!!!USE EXTREME CAUTION TO AVOID ELECTRIC SHOCK!!

    The next thing you will need to do is remove the shielding that protects the monitor. There are about 8 or 10 screws you will need to remove. You can see a picture of the removed shielding here . Now you should be able to see the electron-gun, and two logic boards on either side of the monitor. Make sure you do not put pressure on the electron gun itself, it is very easy to break it, and since it is made of glass, you could injure yourself or have a nice mess to clean up if you break it. If you are facing the screen, the board of the left is for the monitor, and the board on the right is the power supply. We want to remove the power supply board so we can use it to power the system board we removed earlier. If you click here you can see a picture of the monitor section with the power supply board removed. It takes 3 screws to remove the power supply, two on the side and one on the top. There are two connectors you need to unplug in order to remove the power supply board. The first is a 2 pin brown connector that leads to the monitor board, the other is a block connector with lots of strands of grey thin wire that also go to the monitor board. You need to be very careful with the connector block as it can easily be damaged. You should be able to remove the power supply board now.

    Now we have the system board and power supply board, but there is a catch. We need the logic board that is screwed into the front of the iMac's casing so we can switch on the power supply. You can see a picture of the removed board here . The board is pretty small, and you need to remove the entire front casing before you can get it out. This means you must remove the 4 shielded screws around the tube (monitor) as well as the 4 additional screws on either side of the monitor. Once you do this the screen and remaining boards are pretty loose, so be careful not to scratch your screen. The board has two connectors, we are just interested in the long one, the short connector seems to pull power from the monitor board to drive the led. If you really want the LED, you could probably pull power from somewhere to drive it.

    We are almost done, we still need the connector to connect the power button to the system board. You will need to snip the tie-wraps that are pinning the wiring that goes to the microphone along the side of the monitor, there are two tie-wraps, and you will need to remove the tape from the wiring for the right speaker. You will also need to disconnect the microphone, and speakers if you have not already done so. The speakers come out pretty easily with a single screw, as does the Infrared box. You should now be able to pull the cable out. The cable should have the connectors to link the system board to the powerbutton, as well as 2 speaker connectors and the microphone connector.

    Thats it, now all we need to do is reconnect the parts we want to use. You'll need to connect the power supply board to the system board, the power button board to the system board, plug in your keyboard, ethernet and plug the power into the power supply board. The power supply board was grounded off the metal shielding we removed, so you may want to find a means of grounding the power supply board. Then power it up, and see if you can telnet/ssh into your Linux system (assuming you had Linux running on it before). If something goes wrong, you will need to either type blind, or get a monitor. The iMac Rev.A and B units have an Apple RGB (db15) connector. You should be able to pickup a RGBVGA adapter or pickup an Apple RGB monitor. You might be able to pickup an Apple RGB monitor from PowerMax or eBay.

    Picture Gallery

    * Empty iMac Shell Casing
    * Casing with front facia removed
    * iMac Tube
    * Electron Gun w/PSU removed
    * iMac IR unit, and screws
    * iMac power button board
    * iMac speakers removed
    * Power Supply Unit
    * Working iMac
    * iMac connectors
    * iMac Case Parts
    * iMac is on-line

    Next...
    Now that we have successfully brought the iMac back to life, we can't leave it hanging around on the desk. We will bring you the next installment, as soon as we find something to put the iMac in. For now, it has been rehoused in the plastic shell casing without the tube from the monitor. We need to address cooling issues, especially with the fan being in the monitor half of the casing.
    Author: John Buswell
    Version: 1.00
    Last Update: 2002-02-03 02:19:15
    • What you describe is the Green Light Of Death. A common flaw in the first generation of iMacs. One that has claimed a hell of a lot of machines.

      Including mine.

      I wish Apple would *do* soemthing about it, but they don't seem to care.

      Needless to say, after my iMac died and Apple didn't want to fix it, I dumped the Mac for good. If it were some simple, random hardware failure, I would just deal with it. But this was a design flaw, plain and simple. It's their responsibility to fix it, not ask for $300 to repair the damage they are responsible for.
  • A number of years ago, a friend of mine had his Atari STe [atari.org] mounted
    in a PC case, complete with a PC keyboard and everything. Now that takes some dremel work!

    Just the keyboard was a lot of work, since the Atari was built into the machine,
    and the PC one needed a custom interface..

    Oh, memories..

  • Racking iMacs (Score:4, Informative)

    by victim ( 30647 ) on Sunday February 03, 2002 @02:07PM (#2946805)
    Once you have released the computer from its fruity prison, you can then give it a proper rectangular computer case with the iRack [marathoncomputer.com]
    1U rack mount box. Sadly, it only handles rev A through D, so you will get topped out at 333MHz, still for many network applications thats way too much CPU anyway.

    I'm still hoping Apple will make G3/G4 computers in a form factor similar to briq [terrasoftsolutions.com]. Something I can cram in 3 or 4 to the U. As long as I'm dreaming, no video hardware, just Quartz over ethernet and a discovery protocol that lets me connect by MAC address from my management station.
    • Lets see here...

      I can go to Grand Vitesse Systems' online store [gvstore.com] and buy a 2U, dual 1Ghz mac with a gig of ram and all the other apple goodness (gigE, superdrive et al) for around $3500.

      For compairson, we next go to dell [dell.com] and price out a similar 2U server using wintel, namely the PowerEdge 2550. Put in dual 1.4Ghz Intel pent III (G4's will eat this for breakfast), 1GB of ram, Red Hat 7.2 pre-installed, and basic everything else what do we get? $4,871!!! Granted this comes with an 18GB SCSI 10K drive vs. the mac's 80GB and 40GB ATA hard drives, but I think you can get a SCSI controller and a 18GB HD for less than $1300.

      Face it, since OS X macs have been better than anything that runs on Intel for any application.

      --InfinityEdge

      Remove the obvious spam catcher to e-mail

  • I just looked at the time on the article... (Score:3, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday February 03, 2002 @02:17PM (#2946838)
    ...which says 12:17.
    I then looked at my computer's clock, which said "12:11".
    holy shit, I thought, slashdotted six minutes before even being posted to slashdot.

    Not that anyone cares. <AC.>

  • Something similar has been done (Score:3, Informative)

    by Calle Ballz ( 238584 ) on Sunday February 03, 2002 @02:23PM (#2946863) Homepage
    in this [slashdot.org] article. Appropriately titled "Rack an iMac".

  • Mirror (Score:4, Informative)

    by doctomoe ( 538769 ) on Sunday February 03, 2002 @02:31PM (#2946895)
    Well, looks like the TuxPPC servers can't cope with the traffic, so here's a mirror.

    http://w3.one.net/~johnb/imaclinux/ [one.net]

  • Grumph... (Score:4, Interesting)

    by zulux ( 112259 ) on Sunday February 03, 2002 @02:43PM (#2946929) Homepage Journal
    I wish Apple would have an option to sell the IMac 2 without the 15" LCD monitor - it would be sorta a rounded Mac Cube. You could hook up Apple 22" cinema display (a bargan for a 22" LCD display) and have an almost silent XWindows terminal that looks preyy cool on your desk.

    The 22" Apple display has got to be some sort of loss leader for Apple - most competetors charge about $4000 for the same spec monitor.
    • I've looked at a large number of available large monitors at different times. I made the mistake of buying the cinema display when it was more expensive (no, not when it was 5k). I quite agree that for the quality and money in a large monitor that the 22" cinema display is the best buy out there. I can't conceive of Apple, with the niche marketing plan it developed after Jobs' return, with four distinct products, ever making the iMac2 available with much flexibility, such as different monitors. After the failure of the Cube I also can't see them launching a fifth product, i.e., the iMac2 sans monitor. There's an "easy" way to get the 22" cinema display and that's to buy the G4 Tower. People who want the big monitor often tend to be the types that want the expansion capabilities and increased power of the Tower as well. I know that I do. I don't mind using a TiBook from time to time with my 2nd monitor, a 17" Apple CRT, but for desktop use I want more than the iMac2 can afford, like high speed SCSI drives and other options via PCI cards. Interesting article. Guess they think they can assemble it correctly again and not be caught doing so as Apple is *extremely* picky about their warranty. Like it or not, that's the way it is.
    • The 22" Apple display has got to be some sort of loss leader for Apple - most competetors charge about $4000 for the same spec monitor.

      I've also often thought that the Cinema Display is one of the best price/value products Apple has ever produced. It deserves much more promotion than they give it, IMHO. But then, maybe they couldn't support the demand...

      I don't think it's a loss leader, though. (For one thing, that's definitely not Steve Jobs' style of business.)

      I think it probably has something to do with Apple's large investment a few years back in one of only a handful of companies that actually produce LCD screens. I can't remember for sure, but I think it might have been Samsung? Anyway, terms of the deal included priority access for Apple to LCD screens and I suspect (but don't know) that they would also get a price break.

      I know I want one!

  • Useful? (Score:1, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward
    > if your [built-in] monitor is broken

    The iMac has a VGA output on it as well as its internal display. You can also boot it with the T key held down and it will mimic a FireWire drive, so you can plug it into another machine and get data off it. These are more useful to people with broken internal monitors than disassembling the machine.

    It's a display with a computer in it, a computer that includes both hardware and software making a seamless whole. The only use for disassembling it is to enjoy the experience, just like wiping the hard disk and installing Linux on an iMac.
  • http://w3.one.net/~johnb/imaclinux/ has the same pictures one a fast server (at least at the moment it's fast.) Just thought I would share that with those trying to see the large photos.

  • Apple already provides this info. (Score:1, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Apple has "take-apart" guides for all of their models, that show each and every component, including screws, and where and how they fit where they do and how to disassemble them.

    The CRT iMac one was also made into a set of posters by a third-party, I believe. It's a very cool set of documents, with the distinctive egg-shaped shell coming apart fully exploded right down to the screws.

    The LCD iMac take-apart guide was also posted recently, showing the full guts. Quite ingenious.
  • complete.jpg [clara.net]
    imac-1.jpg [clara.net]
  • At some point last year, my gf's iMac monitor died completely, so this process was very necessary.

    The thing is now suspended by zip ties in my old full tower, with two hard drives and the cdrom drive strapped to the side. The 19" ViewSonic looks real pretty on it too... Too bad the old RevC doesn't have the 3d to do much gaming. *pout*

    Ah, who needs a sig?
  • It seems necessary to inform those who have not seen the real world for a few years that "photograph" and "screenshot" actually are not synonyms.
  • Not to nitpick, but either this [imaclinux.net] isn't a screenshot but just a photo, or we did slip into the Matrix without me noticing.
  • Trust the geeks to find something that looks bad and make it look worse.

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8 Catfish = 1 Octo-puss

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