- Power supply - The first thing I would look for (maybe after price) is if it has an external power supply. This is important because external power supplies are going to be more compact than one's built into the monitor, They'll be enclosed so you don't have to worry about protecting it, and there's already a long cord that goes from the supply to the monitor.
- Screen quality - Although most cheap displays have very similar panel specs, it's still a good idea to compare the static (or normal) contrast, brightness, and color gamut if you can. Lot's of sites don't bother to include this information, but you can usually find it with a little bit of searching.
- Built in video cable - Although fewer monitors utilize these, if you can find a monitor with a VGA cable soldered directly to the board, that's one less bulky VGA connection that has to take up room inside the dome.
- Simple is good - Lots of monitors these days (especially the 20 inchers) are packed with stuff you aren't going to need for this project like built-in USB hubs, speakers, and multiple video inputs. If you can avoid these things, it might make your life a little easier. Although these things shouldn't affect the panel at all, they mean extra circuitry inside the case which may or may not be modular.
When shopping online, things like power supply and built in video cable can be hard to determine. I spent hours looking around the internet for stores that include pictures of the back of the monitor because nobody explicitly says what kind of power supply it uses.
In the end, I found a great deal on a Hanns HW173 17" widescreen monitor. It does not have an external power supply or built in video cable but it was $99 from staples.com with free shipping and when you look at the back you can see that the circuitry isn't spread out all over the place.Now All I need is a 17" iMac to put this thing in...
Hello Dave! It is the funniest thing that I found your blog, I happen to have a 15 inch iMac G4 that I was just contemplating beginning work on for a mac mini mod. I followed the thread on mac rumors for a while and today when I visited I noticed the link to your project. Good luck on this! I will be following and if I get around to working on my project I would definitely be interested in trading notes.
ReplyDeleteThank God! haha, I only know enough to know I'm in way over my head here. I'm here to share everything I do know but am also really looking forward to getting advice from you and others who are also working on or thinking about this project.
ReplyDeleteVery interesting blog; I love my iMac G4/800 17", and it'd be great to be able to boost it up to a more modern spec. However, I think it may be impossible to fit a fully-assembled Mac Mini inside. I've been upgrading parts in my 17" model today; the two portions of the dome are joined by 4 solid metal pillars, and the space between these only allows for a box of approximately 15cm x 13.5cm (whereas I think the Mini is actually 16.5cm x 16.5cm). There's also no way to use the iMac's built-in optical drive if doing this, since it is only 1-2cm above the bottom of the case. Maybe the case on the 20" model has more space, though?
ReplyDeleteBrilliant thanks for the info. So I'm not planning on putting in the Mini fully assembled. If you checkout iFixIt's teardown of the Mini, once you move the HD and optical drive off, the logic board itself is pretty thin (its made of laptop components). I'm planning on removing at least part of the mother board on the iMac to make more vertical room between the bottom of the CD drive and the bottom of the case. If you could take some pictures of the gap that's there and send them to me that would be super awesome!
ReplyDeleteThere's some good photo's on the iMac G4 take-apart at http://www.xlr8yourmac.com/systems/imac_g4/imacg4_takeapart.html which should give you an idea what you're dealing with! Using just the Mini's logic board sounds like a good plan, as you can then mount the hard drive in the 3.5" bay above the optical drive (you just need a 2.5" to 3.5" adapter kit).
ReplyDeleteKeep in mind the monitor casing of the 17" is only 3/4" thick that gives enough room for the lcd glass and nothing else.
ReplyDeleteAlso, the monitor you choose, like most monitors has the inverter and the power source on the same board. Once power passes through the inverter you can not lengthen the cables connecting the inverter to the backlight - the power will dissipate over distance and your screen will barely light up. That's why apple put a special inverter in the monitor housing. That inverter, however, doesn't seem to play nice with anything but the imac g4's logic board.
You may want to consider buying a dc lvds lcd controller with separate inverter and trying to get it to work with the existing inverter in the imac.