20" iMac G4 Intel NUC Ivy Bridge AiO Mod (Videos)

A video demonstration of my updated iMac G4 mod/hack (NUC/Ivy Bridge Mountain Lion Hackintosh)

 

Part 1:

Introduction and General Overview (YouTube Link)

Part 2:

Turning It On and Testing It Out (YouTube Link)

So that pretty much completes this mod.  I have thought about new HD 21.5" LCDs to the top of the arm in a custom LCD case that mimics the iMac G4, but I am not sure that would add very much.  This monitor falls just short of HD and I have not had any issues with it in terms of quality.  Though its something to consider for the future.  I find that larger monitors start to look "awkward" with the base.  Although placing the Cinema Display on the top of the monitor worked.  It wasn't until I went back to the original that I realized it was "off".  It didn't droop or tilt, but it didn't move as smoothly as the original.  The neck was obviously designed very specifically for the native monitor.  This includes not only the weight, but the thickness and shape as weight distribution changes as you tilt and swivel the neck.  Unfortunately, without the R&D budget of apple, its hard to design a new neck, but the old one works beautifully with the native LCD.

I would still like to make this into a touchscreen and perhaps add an iSight.  The awkward size and Mac compatibility issue make this difficult.  While I have a capacitive screen that works, its thick and heavy and would require dramatic hardware changes (LED lighting with custom thin diffuser) or physical changes (altering the LCD case and front bezel).  I am still hopeful that touch films will eventually be readily available, adding touch capability of any size with negligible cha ges in thickness.

Anyway, I'll worry about that later and enjoy this computer for a while.  I have tons of pics from this and previous mods, as well as the ability to fill in gaps with surplus materials.  As such, I'm thinking about putting together a "Moving Picture" Video Guide.  Sort of a compromise between a written and video guide.  I'll be able to explain from start to finish, step by step, how to do this with audio and annotated pics.  Let me know if this sounds at all interesting or useful to anyway.  Thanks for reading/watching.

20" iMac G4 NUC/AiO Ivy Bridge Mod: SUCCESS!

20" iMac G4 / NUC Ivy Bridge Mod

Updates:

I'm happy to report that all problems have been solved and the motherboard fit test was successful.  This is currently the method I would recommend for those that want a 20" Ivy Bridge Hackintosh version of this mod.  As I noted in my previous post, while I initially believed I would not go in the direction of the NUC board, its remarkably small size and simplicity made it by far the best candidate for this mod.

Original vs NUC/DVD - Front

In multiple previous posts I have explained the advantages of having the core elements (processor/motherboard) of the mod at the top of the dome where ventilation is best.  In my previous ECX mod, the board only fit with the optical drive because I did not use the native PSU.  Because I wanted to use the native PSU, I did not believe fitting the optical drive was possible, but with this board it looks like it is going to fit. (Although nothing is definite until this is completed).  This board fits into the slot left vacant by the 3.5" HDD (the mSATA is on the mobo itself).  It pretty much fits into the grooves in the drive chassis requiring no alternation.  For comparison, I have taken side by side photos of the original optical drive and HDD in the drive chassis next to the shorter new dvd optical drive and the NUC occupying that area.  The height is pretty much the same and there is amble room for the connectors to fit as well.

Original vs NUC/DVD - Top

Problem Solving:

With this fitting at the top of the dome, I should have even a little but more room for components than I did with my previous mod.  This is because, there are less port extenders needed and no SSD is required at the bottom of the dome.  It will still be tight, but I have some wiggle room to address the problems that I brought up in my previous post.  Taking them one at a time:

1) USB Ports: A 4 port USB Hub leaves me with only 1 spare USB port, but solves the problem.  The addition of another hub or a larger one is likely.  A USB port supplies the 5V to the PSU.

2) The Fan: The directional fan is connected to the heatsink and I did not want to remove it.  I also wanted to keep the case fan.  Apple's connectors and colors are completely backwards from industry standards (Black is 12V, Red is Ground and the fan out is a 3pin Male connector, not Female).  The fan is also somewhat loud and old, so I decided to replace it.  I bought a Antec 92mm fan that had a molex out (there is no case fan output on the board).  There is a sense pin that I won't be using.  Because I won't have software fan control, I got a model with a 3 speed setting.  I put it on medium to reduce noise and may extend the controller to the back ports or simply leave it on this setting.

Wide Input Pico PSU

While 12V are readily obtainable from the PSU, the problem is that the PSU is always on.  So, the fan will spin as soon as the computer is plugged in, no matter if the computer is on or not.  As the computer does not have any 12V out, I will have to use some kind of switch.  Luckily, the PSU comes natively with a "switch".  The PSU relies on the motherboard to downconvert 12V to 5V then feed 5V back to the PSU to turn on the 24V line that powers the monitor's backlight.  Although there are many other ways to do this, I went with an elegant solution using what I had available.  Keep in mind this is not the only peripheral that needs power.  The optical drive requires 12V and 5V in either a molex or SATA power connector.  Luckily, I had a very small 20 pin PICO power supply with a WIDE INPUT range up to 24V. (Not all PICO PSUs can accept 24V, may sure before you connect).  I spliced the PWR input to the Green wire of the PSU (24V) which connects to the Inverter Wires as well.  I connected the ground to a native PSU ground.  As this is a standard 20 pin ATX based PSU, it won't work without a motherboard unless you ground the On Pin.  I have it connected to a switch, but will likely just leave in a wire, allowing the PSU to turn on as soon as it receives 24V DC input from the native PSU.  This produces the necessary 12V and even a 5V and has both a Molex and SATA power cable out.  I connected the Molex to the Fan (you only need the 12V line and ground), and the SATA to the optical drive.  Now we the peripherals will only turn on when the motherboard itself is turned on.

PICO PSU powering the optical drive

The Bypassed Power Switch

3) Power Switch: I did not want to damage the board, so I simply threaded small wires between the onboard switch and its solder points.  I did this to the front right and back left corners.  This was then wired to the case switch at the bottom of the dome.  These can be easily removed in the future if this board is ever repurposed.  In addition this does not effect the functionality of the original switch in any way.

The case switch I use is from my previous mod. Modeling clay was used to secure a momentary switch directly behind the peg that protrudes from the back of the plastic power button on the back of the iMac dome.

4) Audio: I am sticking with the Turtle Bay USB Audio solution from my last mod.  This allows for a standard 3.5mm audio jack out and also supports a 3.5mm Microphone in.  I have it wired to the microphone in the LCD housing.

5) Bluetooth: I have not found anyone who has had success with any half height mini PCI-E that supports Wifi and Bluetooth with Mac OSX.  So, I am simply going to keep my very small USB bluetooth solution.

6) Optical Drive: I am using a DVD Burner that gets power via the PICO PSU discussed in #2.  The connection to the mobo is via a SATA to USB 2.0 adapter cable.

12V to 19V DC-DC Upconverter

7) Power: While the option of splicing the AC to the to the existing AC plug with the NUC's powerbrick is not a bad one, it is somewhat of a waste of the 180 watt PSU that already exists in the machine.  Not to mention that I'm already including a second PSU (which is really being used only as a downconverter here).  The NUC requires 19V at (at least) 3.7A and the PSU is only supplying 12V (can't use the 24V because its only on with 5V from the motherboard).  Luckily, 19V is the typical notebook operating voltage and therefore upconverters are available.  Though there is a much smaller selection than for more common voltages (24V, 12V, 5V etc).  Many different shapes an sizes are available.  I got one in a familiar shape on ebay from a Chinese manufacturer for $20.  Its relatively small ( I may remove part of the heat sink surrounding it) and is a 12V DC to 19V DC upconverter at 4A.  This is exactly what is required and works flawlessly.

The Upconverter connected to PSU and NUC

The Upconverter gets 12V and Ground in from the Native PSU and sends 19V out.  I had a broken Laptop AC power adapter that had a DC input that perfectly matched the power in plug on the NUC.  The positive is the inside peg and the negative is the outer part.  Using a multimeter I ensured which wire was which and connected this to the power supply via the up converter.

The Fit Test:

The Secured NUC Motherboard

On a side note, I used a rubber sleeve to cover the drive cage where the NUC will go.  After some guess and check, I determined the place where the  NUC and USB connectors seemed to fit the best. To test fit, I used twist ties that went through the screw holes in the grooves intended for the HD and then through the motherboard screw holes.  These will be replaced with plastic locking ties to secure the motherboard in place.
One thing to make sure of is that the wifi antennae which goes through the metal faraday cage (Wifi signal will be severely reduced if the antenna is within the cage) is connected to the wifi card before the board is secured.

Build Pics:

A Mess of Wires, But A Working Mod

Video and Audio Test

Motherboard View

About This Mac Screen

Remaining Issues:

Obviously, there is a lot of cable management to do.  This will get much simpler once connections are directly soldered (connectors removed and alligator wires eliminated).  As I technically have more room at the bottom of the dome than the previous mod (also had a DC converter and a PICO PSU to deal with), I do not believe this will be difficult to fit.  The wire management, however, may be more involved.

There will a paucity of ports.  A 3.5mm audio out, a few USBs, and not much else.  If I had to do it over, I probably would not have bothered spending the extra money on the Thunderbolt equipped version.  There are so few available peripherals and there are so overpriced that I can not even test this. Perhaps this is somewhat future proofing, but I would imagine there will be further upgrades to this board before thunderbolt actually takes off (if it ever does).  That said, I would not have bothered with an ethernet extender anyway.  I've learned with this that the more you do, the more that can go wrong.  I am more than happy to keep it simple.  I also have the option of adding a powered USB hub with the 12V lines in the PSU.  Unlike my previous mod which was very close to its power maximum, this should have room to spare.

Concluding Thoughts:

Untili I have it assembled and have worked with it for a while, I'm cautious about speaking too soon, but I am very optimistic about this project.  Although to Core i5 Sandy Bridge to a Core i3 Ivy Bridge may seem like a lateral move, this board is simply a better fit.  Its lower power, quieter, and everything onboard works.  The incorporation of the native PSU while keeping the optical drive makes this virtually indistinguishable from the original 20" iMac G4.

Hopefully will finish soon! Thanks for reading.

A Great Little Board

A Change of Heart

When I first ordered the Intel NUC, my purpose was to see if this form factor had promise for the future.  I also figured that this small board would be useful to test projects and perhaps even wind up as a little media center somewhere.  In truth, I did not expect to seriously consider this board for the iMac G4 project. After working with this board for a while, I have to admit, its pretty fantastic.  For one, the size is remarkable, especially when it is removed from the case. This makes even ECX boards look big.  Secondly, its dead simple, it uses EFI bios, requires only RAM, a half height WiFi mSATA, and a full size mSATA SSD.  The mSATA in particular makes the system even smaller.  There is no need for even a 2.5" drive and nearly all wires are eliminated in this fashion.

 

As opposed to the other boards, this board only contains a Core i3 processor and there is a paucity of USB ports (only 3), mSATAs (one half height, one full height), an HDMI connector, and either a Ethernet + extra HDMI or Thunderbolt. (Depending on which of the 2 models you choose).



A Look Inside

 Despite these negatives there are other advantages this board has.  The availability of 2 RAM slots for a max of 16GB.  Thunderbolt while (at this point) is expensive and has few compatible devices does leave open impressive possibilities including hubs, a second display, and even a pci express graphics card.  The size also leaves most of the base available as it fits between the native PSU right under the fan and allows you to keep the optical drive (though a USB connection would be needed as there are no regular SATA hookups).

The Software/A Mountain Lion Hackintosh

The only method I use is tonymac's retail Mountain Lion Unibeast/Multibeast install method.  While the other boards took a very long time to get right, this could not have been easier.  I did know in advance to change the graphics to 128MB and of course AHCI instead of IDE (for the SATA controller).  Except for these small changes, there is almost no way to go wrong.  I used the Easy Beast Install with the Mac Mini 6,1 definition.  Now the reason for this is that there isn't much to the board, while other motherboards are loaded with other chipsets for gigabit Ethernet, SATA controllers, Touchscreen controllers, other I/O controllers, and business related QM chipset features, this board is really only about the basics.  But, with hackintoshes, less is more.  Having to clear your CMOS after you mistakenly enable some feature is no fun.  Neither is having to reinstall the OS because you decide to try to get native audio to work one last try.  This makes it very time consuming when it comes time to upgrade your OS.

 

One note,  I have read HDMI audio does require a work around, but this obviously does not apply to this mod.  Without any other audio cable out, a USB audio card will be needed.  But, so far airplay seems to work flawlessly, and can make for a wireless alternative.  So, in short, if a modestly powerful Ivy Bridge Hackintosh is your goal for this mod, I would recommend these boards above the others.  Being the easiest to find and the most affordable also doesn't hurt.

 

About This Mac

 Some Technical Issues to Solve:

1) Ports: 3 USBs is simply not enough and for basic function more is needed.  Thunderbolt hubs are absurdly overpriced right now, but either a Thunderbolt to SATA and/or USB or a regular USB Hub will be needed.  One USB is needed for the 5V "backlight power on" signal.

2) Fan:  there is a directional fan, but due to the faraday cage, I would still like to add the case fan in some manner.  This may involve replacing the existing fan and situating it directly underneath the iMac's case fan, splicing the fan wire to power it.  Or, running both, using the PSU to drive the fan (though a manual control knob may then make sense).

3) Power switch: This is hard soldered to the board.  A bypass will need to be wired up and I am fairly sure this can be done in an easy to reverse way.

4) Audio: A USB audio solution is needed.  This is not a difficult thing to find, but I am considering an airplay or Bluetooth based solution.

5) Bluetooth: I have been unable to find a Wifi/Bluetooth combo half height card that will work so far, so I will have to go with a Bluetooth dongle.

6) The Optical Drive: Using this solution means using USB to SATA to connect to a drive, but it will still need to be powered.  May require 12V to 5V downconverter.

7) Power: Worst case Scenario would involve connecting AC to the small power brick that comes with the NUC, but this seems like a waste.  Unfortunately as this board needs 19V, either an upconverter or downconverter will be needed to go from either 12V or 24V.

Concluding Thoughts

Although I'm not certain, I am actually leaning towards this board,  If this was an i5, putting it on par with my previous system (with more RAM and better graphics) this would be a slamdunk.  Each EPIC or ECX board requires different connectors, drivers etc. As Intel is likely to continually upgrade this form factor, getting this right may "future proof" future designs.  I am likely to build this out and see what the final project looks like and how it functions.

 

I will certainly post detailed instructions and may do a video guide if there is enough interest.  Thanks again for reading!

 



SUCCESS - TWO OUT OF THREE (RUNNING OSX 10.8) AINT' BAD

The hardware part of this mod has already been completed, for the most part.  The next step is software and finding a build that will run Mountain Lion without much compromise, is the goal.  Out of the 4 boards I am working with, I have had tremendous success with one, partial success with another, hit a dead end with a 3rd, and the 4th is somewhat of a backburner side project (upgrading my previous sandy bridge mod to core i7 Quad and Mountain Lion).

 

Lets start with Success: THE EPI-QM77

THE BUILD

This is the EPIC board, it is slightly larger than the ECX board, but fits easily within the dome.  As always this is a purchased retail copy of Mountain Lion using the brilliant tonymac's Unibeast/Multibeast install method (Thank you again tonymac).  Changing the SATA from IDE to AHCI was the only change I had to make in the bios, otherwise it installed natively.  Interestingly, I had trouble getting the USB to function from a USB 3.0 port, but when I plugged it into the apple keyboard's USB via the USB 3.0 it worked fine.

An Ivy Bridge "MacBook Pro" in an iMac G4 shell

I am still tweaking the multibeast settings somewhat, but will report them with final recommendations shortly.  As you can see, this build eschews the optical drive for the native PSU.  Although this is cleaner as there is no power brick, I have mixed feelings about loosing the aesthetics of the drive.  Its getting harder to justify what is really a cosmetic feature at this point.  I am still trying to devise a use for this and to somehow incorporate a usb powered motor to open and close the door revealing a hot plug or extra ports.

I will have to see what might be needed from a cooling perspective, but I may need to upgrade to a larger heatsink, but can not be sure until the computer is fully assembled.

This is likely the build I will keep as this board has everything I need, Core i7 Quad Ivy Bridge with HD4000 graphics, Enough USB 3.0 slots and 2 SATA 6.0 ports.  Even a quality 7.1 Realtek Audio Chip is included.

 

The "Looks Promising" Board: THE INTEL DC3217BY

Rear ports

On tonymac's forums I have seen successful hackintosh builds using the sister model which has ethernet and two monitor support.  This is the "higher end" model because of the inclusion of a thunderbolt port.  With the help of mikeboss' tip to set the graphics to 128mb, this board was able to post.  I did not go further as a mSATA is required and I did not have one large enough until now.  I have installed this Crucial 128GB mSATA, as well as a broadcom half height wifi card.  As this board is nearly identical, I suspect I will have similar success.  The question will be the thunderbolt, which I am hopeful will work natively.

With RAM, Wifi, and mSATA installed

I doubt this board will end up in this build permanently, but its an important proof of concept.  I believe that this tiny form factor has potential and Intel is currently pushing it for hobbyists.  Hopefully they will continue to improve and expand this line.  However, this first generation is underpowered with a core i3 vs the other boards.  Also it has few ports.  While the thunderbolt is intriguing and the idea of having all the ports in the back connect to one thunderbolt internally (ethernet, extra display, usb's etc) similar to apple's cinema display, thunderbolt accessories are currently way overpriced.  This board, as its the most compact, is the most versatile and is likely to have many uses in other projects.  That said, nothing is certain, and I will see this through.

 

NOT AT ALL: The Gene HM-76

I had high hopes for this ECX board, but I am currently having issues with the DVI display.  I am unsure if this is a failure of the board or its ability to communicate with my DVI/TMDS mod.  There are a few things I still want to try. 

 

WAITING IN THE WINGS: THE KEEX-6100

As Lion ran so well on it, I doubt Mountain Lion will be a problem, but I will test this as well as the core i7 processor.

OTHER OPTIONS:

A New QM-77 Ivy Bridge Board:

Quanmax will be releasing the Ivy Bridge KEEX-7100 and 7101 which contain embedded Core i5 and Core i7 mobile processors respectively.  ALthough I have a fondness for Quanmax and its KEEX boards have served me well, this board is not yet available and this is somewhat late in the game.  As I frequently change processors and tinker, I try to avoid embedded systems if possible (no other option with Intel NUC, but price is actually reasonable for a processor included system), but it remains a viable alternative.  

The Old Mac Mini:

I have been looking at ebay and the white polycarbonate Core 2 Duo systems are falling in price.  While the new boards are too big, the older style will work, but price to performance has been a limitation.  Although underpowered, there is a huge advantage in a native OS X machine and the final iterations (2.5+ Ghz) are still capable machines.  I will have to see if I can obtain one at a reasonable price.

Thanks for reading, will keep updating as I go.

Ivy Bridge Upgrades via Small Form Factor Boards

The Current SFF (Small Form Factor) Market and Trends:

As I mentioned in a previous post, I had suspended work on my iMac G4 20" upgrade until Small Form Factor Ivy Bridge Boards become available.  I have become somewhat of a small form factor enthusiast as a result of these projects and am excited by the accessibility of what previously were industrial only form factors as well as new specifically targeted enthusiast boards such as the Raspberry Pi, Android Compatible ARM boards, and Intel's NUC line.  I am pleased to report that I am in possession of one SFF Ivy Bridge Board and have another two ordered and en route.

As the size and power consumption of powerful processors and boards continue to decrease these mods will only continue to get easier, more diverse, more powerful, and less expensive.  The one "nuisance" of the recent computing era (at least for these projects) has been an unbalanced focus on shrinking things primarily by thickness.  The ultrabook and tablet markets have caused a "flattening" of components without as significant a change in the other dimensions.  Take the Mac Mini for example, the overall volume decreased as a result of a dramatic reduction in height, but this was in spite of an actual increase in the footprint (length x width).

Old on top, New on bottom
Courtesy of CNET

SFF Computing and iMac G4 Mods

A Tight Squeeze

As far as the iMac G4 mod (and many other mods/projects) are concerned this can actually complicate things.  For those not familiar with my approach to the iMac G4 is Mobos smaller = better.

To sum up, the original iMac was convection cooled were physical contact via heat pipes carried heat to the top of the dome where a fan blew out. Thus the very poorly ventilated case was designed to be cooled with room temperature air coming in through slits at the bottom of the dome and hot air being blown out through the top of the dome.  Any air cooled motherboard/cpu (by far the hottest and most important component) benefits from being as close to the top as possible because it decreases the distance the heated air has to travel before it reaches the case fan and ventilation and decreases the heat of the overall dome and the heat the components above the mono/cpu are subjected to.  Also, probably most important, placement at the bottom of the dome will unavoidably result in poor, obstructed ventilation.  Any other component, especially wiring, will have to go above the CPU and mobo.  As the dome tapers to the fan at its apex and the faraday (metal inside) cage makes most of the periphery of the dome difficult to use for components.  If all you want is a motherboard and cpu, it can be done with a large heatsink to the top of the dome and a low thermal output processor, but no other components could be added and wiring would still be difficult.

Using a small form factor board allowed me to use a Core i processor at the top of the dome and allowed the rest of the dome to be used for a pico PSU, a full 5.25" optical drive, and a 2.5" solid state HDD.  As the widest point base still barely fits a mini itx (and port blocking is a problem), so options have been limited.  I am fairly certain the the mac mini will eventually shrink in all directions and that it will be suitable for a G4 mod.  In addition, I am hopeful, new form factors of computing will emerge and we will see other alternatives to the ultrathin rectangles that dominate today.  But for now, this is what I am working with:

Current Ivy Bridge SFF Options:

I will be reviewing each of the options based on features, cost to performance ratio, size and workability with the iMac G4 mod, and "hackintoshability".  Therefore, expect this post to be a work in progress with periodic updates.  Again, I am focusing on high performance x86 architecture, but this is by no means a slight to alternatives such as low-power Nano/Pico x86 boards or increasingly popular ARM devices, this is simply a matter of personal preference.

Choice 0: Quanmaxx KEEX-6100 ECX board

KEEX-6100 with large heatsink

I am listing this as "Choice 0" because it is based on Sandy Bridge Architecture, but it has been overwhelming successful particularly as a hackintosh running OSX Lion.  It is available from Quanmaxx's USA store and is even available in a wide temperature variant.  Here it is seen with an extra large heatsink I adapted when I upgraded this to a Core-i7 Quad.

Choice 1: Avalue's EPI-QM-77

Front View

Though this EPIC board is slightly larger, this board is"thinner" as a result of more room for ports on the edges, thus no need for the stacked ports seen on the ECX boards.  It remains a small form factor that easily fits the iMac G4 chassis.  It is available from Global American and I have it in my possession and just started working with it.

Back View

In terms of size, here are pictures of this board in the middle with a Core i Mini-itx on its left and the Quanmaxx (with regular heatsink) on the right.  The first picture shows overall dimensions,while the second shows thickness/height.

From Left to Right: Mini itx, EPIC, ECX

From Left to Right: Mini itx, EPIC, ECX

Choice 2: Aaeon's GENE-HM76 ECX

Also available as a more expensive QM77 (has extra corporate features, most apple mobile Ivy bridge processors are HM77 (very similar to HM76).

Courtesy of Aaeon

This is a true ECX board and identical in size to the Quanmaxx ECX.  I have purchased this board from NextWarehouse and it is en route.

Choice 3: Intel NUC: DC321BY QS77

Courtesy of Newegg

Although it only contains a Core i3, this is the one I am most excited about.  This is because of reasons outlined in my previous post.  This is the smallest Core i board that intel believes is possible.  This board is targeted at the mainstream and this model includes thunderbolt connectivity.  This comes with a "chassis" and is likely to see upgraded models at regular intervals in the future.  It is widely available from vendors including Newegg.  It has been ordered and I will continue to update as I learn more.

The KEEX-6100 ROARS!

Nearly Complete

Just a quick update on the Sandy Bridge ECX Board: KEEX - 6100:

Using the Unibeast Method developed by the amazing tonymac, installing Mac OS 10.7.2 is quite easy once you make a few modifications to the bios.

If you have any interest in hackintoshes then there is no better place than Tonymacx86

For this board make sure you:

1) Enable AHCI as per tonymac's instructions

2) Disable the Onboard Audio (it causes a kernel panic every time and drove me crazy until I realized what was causing it).  Even if this can not be fixed, it is not a big loss as the onboard audio is no better than USB audio would be

3) Set either the display port or HDMI (which ever you use) to Display option 1.  If you leave the LVDS as the primary and secondary disabled (default) there is a weird quirk where the image disappears after boot and only returns if you unplug and replug the monitor.

4) I am getting assistance in trying to solve this problem, but for now S3 sleep does not work.  Change BIOS power settings to allow for only S1 sleep, which works fine.

View of iMac G4 and Keex-6100

iMac G4 with TMDS to DVI, DC-DC upconversion

Lion (10.7.2) on the iMac G4's native LCD

The KEEX-6100 identified as a Mac Book Pro

As the KEEX-6100 uses a mobile chipset it was identified as the new MacBook Pro.  The chipset, processor, onboard intel graphics are all supported natively by Lion.

Gigabit Ethernet/LAN Works with simple kext addition.  The PCI-Express Broadcom Wifi Card works great.  Whats more is that you can hook this card up to the native Wifi Antenna (located outside the faraday cage, but inside the plastic dome), this gives a very strong signal.  Preliminary fit testing shows everything fits.  Only wake from S3 remains (wake from S1 sleep works fine as noted above).

I have put a card in the CF slot, which is only recognized when the computer's SATA settings are IDE and not AHCI.  Though this is as easy to change in the bios as boot priority, it is a little cumbersome.  I have put Windows 8 Developer Preview on the CF Drive and will see if dual booting is a possibility.

Over at tonymac x86 forum, a very knowledgable modder, offered to help with sleep and has himself gotten the onboard audio chipset to work (on a different board).  So, onboard audio ay in fact be an option. I am giving some thought to internalizing the internal board of the griffin powerwave adapter.  I have only the area between the bottom of the dome and the optical drive, but the board seems thin based on the size of the case.  I am going to hold off finalizing the rear ports until I choose which audio option to go with.

The Future Is Here - KEEX 6100

This just arrived.  For those that don't follow my blog, this the Quanmax KEEX-6100.  It is an ECX board, an Intel created standard.  It is the exact size of a 3.5" drive.  While it may not look like much, after much research and personal experience with Quanmax boards, I believe this is the BEST size-to-power ratio motherboard that is commercially available.  This is not an atom board, does not use a ULV chip, or a 600mhz VIA processor.  This is a Socket G2 - Sandy Bridge Core i3/i5/i7 motherboard.  It does use a the mobile version (traditionally used in notebooks), but that is the only compromise you will have to make.  This is the same processor found in the new mac mini the (i5 or i7).


Board features:
Compact Flash Slot (Bootable)
SATA x 2
Mini PCIe
LVDS x2 (with backlight power)
VGA, HDMI, Display Port

But the real advantage is size.  In comparison to a 5.25" optical drive - this is miniscule.  This board will fit easily at the top of the dome in essentially otherwise unusable space.  This helps with heat issues.  In addition, this allows you to have the entire rest of the dome to use in any way you see fit.

I am not sure which design I am personally going to integrate this into, but I will discuss hooking up to an ECX board in my tutorial - which I assure you I have been working on.

ECX vs Mini-itx

For those interested in starting soon and utilizing this board.  By far the easiest way to obtain this board is from a company called Sliger.  They are a Quanmax distributor and were extremely helpful.  They can provide not only the board but DC power recommendations, accessory cables (some of which are required).  Not only do they have this board but all the other Quanmax ECX boards.  Everything from atoms to core 2 duos to amds to the sandy bridge 6100.  One of the owner's emailed me back within an hour after I sent an inquiry and answered all my questions.  I highly recommend Sliger if you are going to go the ECX route.

Website: http://www.sliger.com
Email: sales@sliger.com

Stay tuned - I promise you the 17" tutorial is on the way with the 20" to follow.

The Future Is Bright

I have considered many options as to where to go with this new design.  This 20" design is identical to the original iMac.  Using the same LCD, monitor casing, and containing all components except for the power bricks within the base.  Some things I have considered doing with this:

1) Adding a touchscreen - this may or may not be possible.  I believe if I use the apple cinema displays native LCD and remove the grey housing - this may give me the few extra mm I need to fit the touchscreen within the monitor housing.  I would also need to fit 5 extra wires with in the neck, this may be tough, but I believe some of the LCD wires I'm currently using may not be needed.  If I could re-purpose
 even 2 or 3 of these, this may be enough.

2) Passive cooling - Although there is only 1 small fan, it is audible.  I may see what temperatures are like with only the heatsink or a larger passive heatsink on top of this one to make this pc silent.

3) Snow Leopard to Lion (10.7) - At this point it seems that not only would I want to make this hackintoshable with snow leopard but I'd want to do so - so that I'd be able to upgrade to Lion.  I have thought about just putting snow leopard on but without graphics hardware acceleration it feels like it somewhat defeats the purpose of upgrading the machine.  As I have previously described there are two problems with this board in terms of hackintoshability
     
 A) The Compact Flash Card - a nice feature of this board is its ability to use compact flash as its primary hard drive.  However, Snow Leopard does not seem able to recognize it.  Thus, I would need a very small solid state option.  While I was at first reluctant - I found a very good deal on a 1.8" SSD and I am amazed at just how small they are.  I'm not sure if the picture does it justice.  Even with the mini SATA plug, the thing is tiny and near flat.  I am not worried about this fitting anymore.  In addition, I can always keep the Compact Flash card to allow a nice easy dual booting option to Windows or Linux if I choose.



B) The On-Board Intel GMA4500HD - There appears to have been little progress on this front and although resolution can be forced - I don't find having marginally functional graphics a viable alternative.  This board does have a PCI-Ex4 slot so looking through my own stock I have a few options. To the right you can see a few video card options.  On top is a PCIEx1 Ion graphics card.  I could hook this up using the PCIEx1 riser cable seen attached.  Or below this is a silent ASUS 5340 this is a x16 card but I could use a x4 to x16 adapter and some combination of a x16riser or x4 riser (pictured) to connect to the ECX board.  So which is better a 5340 @ x4 or an Ion @ x1.  I'd probably have to try both to see.  This may also require a power supply with more wattage, but more importantly the extra room for the card would likely mean I would need to sacrifice the blu ray drive.  I do not believe this can fit any other way.

4) Modern hardware and upgradability - When I began this blog several years ago, my goal was to update the iMac G4 not just as a proof of concept but so I myself could use the iMac G4 again.  I am currently getting a lot of use out of the Apple Cinema Display/iMac Hybrid mod.  The reason is for one it has a touchscreen, which is fun to use, but mostly because it is hooked up to a mac mini.  The mac mini has snow leopard which is I prefer to use.  Also I know that new mac minis are on the horizon and I'll be able soon to hook this machine up a new (hopefully) Sandy Bridge mac mini running OS10.7.  So I began wondering if there was really much use in pursuing this as an all in one.  Perhaps I should just put a DVI or display port on the back and use it with an external mini. (The new Mini's designs make it impossible to fit the motherboards into the G4's enclosure).  An Intel Core 2 Duo (mobile processor) is certainly not as "modern" as it was when I began this project.  But then I saw this:

Courtesy of Quanmax Inc.

I have spoken to a Quanmax representative who indicated these will be available at the end of July.  There is no reason this board should not be hackintoshable and this is likely to be the same specs of the next generation mini (though nothing is guaranteed).  I was worried about the future of the ECX board and was not sure if I would see anything other than Atom/Fusion or other low power chipsets.  I am delighted that quanmax seems to be pushing forward with the latest technology.  However, this board is likely to be quite expensive even without the processor and if it comes down to this or a next generation mac mini - I would favor the mini.

Personally, the all-in-one was a proof-of-concept for me.  I have never minded having the small footprint mini external.  This makes upgrading a snap and increases the usability of the iMac for me (I can also connect it to my macbook for more screen real estate).  What I am probably going to do is switch the bases of my last two 20" mods.  Thus, making the touchscreen/apple cinema display mod the all-in-one and the native appearing mod hook up to the external mini.  I will also likely put the bluray into the native mod that connects to the external mini.  This will allow me to add the hard drive and graphics card to make the apple cinema display/touchscreen a hackintosh/windows dual boot (the touchscreen will likely be more useful with windows).  The reason really comes down to the fact that while I think hackintoshes are good for enthusiasts - I personally don't feel secure in using them as a primary computer.  I also hope that the addition of multitouch gestures in Lion makes up for the loss of the touchscreen.  While a nice addition, the touchscreen does detract from the overall quality of the image and leaves the monitor covered in fingerprints.  I have also been working on a conversion of a broken iMac G5 to a display only.  My goal would be to have a native appearing iMac G4 and G5 as dual monitors hooked up a new mini running Lion as an homage to my favorite computer designs of all time.  So lets go apple - lets see some hardware refreshes soon.

Hackintosh Blues

Now that the large hardware assembly was completed I was able to move onto the small hardware components and software.  As I have said before I myself don't love hackintoshes, but I did want to give it a shot with this computer to make it as close to the original as possible.

Courtesy of Logic Supply

I was worried about using a compact flash as my primary hdd and  it turned out to be justified as no matter what bootloader I used or how I formated the partition, I could not get the snow leopard DVD to recognize the drive.  The KEEX motherboard does have 2 sata ports, but only one sata power connector which is an a single connector tied to the first sata port.  However, with a SSD power use would be minimal so splitting the sata power should not be a problem.  Although it is a tight fit in the dome, I am able to fit probably a 2.5" ssd, but to play it safe I was looking into 1.8" drives.  However, before I payed for the drive I wanted to make sure there would  not be any problems with the hackintosh build but very quickly I learned that the onboard graphics is likely to be a major problem.

As you can see the board uses GMA 4500MHD graphics (Intel GM45 chipset).  I believe this is intels equivalent to the ion 2 platform.  Now with significant hacks it appears people have been able to force resolution in snow leopard to get above the default resolution, but there are still major problems and to my knowledge no one has been able to enable Quartz Extreme/Core Image with this chipset.  So, I could either 1) Buy the SSD  and install snow leopard the best that I can.  2) Use the PCI-express x 4 with an ion graphics card (this will likely requiring removing the hard drive as it is unlikely to fit as is.  3) Hold off for now - formally install windows or linux and wait to see if a solution presents itself.  As I've already spent FAR too much money on this mod, I've decided to hold off and work with Windows or Linux for now.

But, please if anyone has any knowledge about either the issue of booting snow leopard from a compact flash drive or the Intel GMA4500HD graphics problem help would be appreciated.  Thanks.