How to build an Apple Mac Computer for free

For some reason I was given two old G3 iMacs in the space of a year.  I really loved the look and
design of these so kept onto them but the old Mac OS 9 wasn’t really much use to me other than to
use as a jukebox so I thought I’d try pimp one out with some cool upgrades but my main goal was to
pay nothing for a modern spec Apple Mac.

Parts I found on my travels and needed for my Mac:

• iMac G3 faulty or working

• 15 inch LCD monitor with a faulty back light

• A power inverter from a cold cathode case light to fix the LCD monitor

• 80gb ide or sata hard drive any size will do (the best you can blag/find)

• IDE DVD writer drive (it needs to be a DVD Rom at least to install the Mac OS)

• Audio amplifier i got mine from some pc speakers

• Smallest motherboard you can find with CPU and heat sink and suitable ram I used a Pentium 4 and 512mb ram

• Power switches and side USB panel off an old pc tower

• Case fans as many as you wish as it will get hot if used a lot

• Most important a small power supply to save space can be found in really small towers like dells

Tools needed/ Used to build the Apple Mac

I used only a few tools as I couldn’t be bothered going to my garage as that’s for cars and motorbike
work and it was cold.

• Screw driver basic Philips type for ripping the guts out of the Apple iMac

• Cable cutters – used for cutting bits of plastic Mac casing haha

• Soldering iron – used to melt plastic casing or maybe solder some wires such as original iMac speaker wires

• Glue gun – to stick things back together

• Tape – to insulate parts of the mother board as it’s a squeeze

How I built the Apple Mac and upgraded everything

With a bit of cutting, grinding and a bit of glitter glue from my glue gun this scary looking but very functional DVD writer draw was made.

The mother board has enough room to breath after all the old school apple junk was pulled out, Remember be careful! pulling the old tube screen out of the casing apparently they can hold an electrical charge and give you a shock although I’m still alive maybe I was lucky.

Birds eye view of the computer guts inside the iMac. Yes it does get very hot!

Windows on a iMac? time to install Mac OS X on an x86

There’s quite a few tutorials on the net of how to do this now, but I’ve still not had time to install it on this quirky mac. But I know the following from a previous project: IT runs much better than Windows

I’ll be adding more info over the next few weeks so keep checking back!!

I guess it’s because I’m an IT support, laptop and pc repair guy plus a website designer based in Hull