One Man's iTrash

January 23, 2007 9:24 AM

Due to a break in at work, some exceptionally stupid criminals, and an unusually responsive police department, I'm now in possession of a knackered high spec iMac G5 that has been dropped and no longer boots. I there anything I can do with the rest of it?

We've got a replacement new one from the insurance company, so we're not bothered about having another iMac, but having salvaged the obvious bits (RAM, hard disk) from the dead one and myself having claimed the carcass, is there anything I can do with the panel (which *looks* in good condition - though didn't power up when the Mac was turned on) and the built in iSight (which has a mini FireWire connection, but wasn't detected by Skype Video Preview or EvoCam when connected to other, working Macs.

Additionally, is there anything cool I can do with the (slightly scuffed, but still whole) case? Instructions for a new age Macquarium, anyone?

posted by armoured-ant to Computers & Internet (11 answers total)

Too thin for an aquarium. Think ant farm. Oddly enough, I am also in possession of a diskless, RAMless iMac and would welcome non-insect based suggestions.
posted by sonofslim at 9:37 AM on January 23, 2007

The old CRT iMacs, at least, could be converted to standard monitors. I don't know if that's true of the new LCD ones, though.
posted by box at 9:49 AM on January 23, 2007

Response by poster: I was thinking Neons for the fish. Nice and small.
posted by armoured-ant at 9:51 AM on January 23, 2007

Are you sure it is busted and it isn't just that the chip came out of the socket in the fall? I've dropped computers before which would then not boot and it was just that the chip was loose or that a screw was making a short on the board... just a thought.
posted by lucasks at 9:55 AM on January 23, 2007

Response by poster: When yanking the Ken lock to bits, the guy managed to dent the underside of the thing so hard that the housing for the RAM was smashed, along with the slot itself. Impressive, really, though the way the Kensington lock failed is worrying.

Shame he covered it in his own blood and paint, after coming in through the window he smashed with a paint can.
posted by armoured-ant at 10:08 AM on January 23, 2007

covered it in his own blood and paint

Sell it to an art museum?
posted by nebulawindphone at 11:59 AM on January 23, 2007

think of the iMac as a really big laptop - the panel attaches to the computer in the same way it does in a laptop. the "I wanna use my laptop screen as a monitor" question comes up every so often and the answer is always no - the electronics to make the screen work are different from what you'd find in a normal monitor. (though, AFAIK, the internal connector is LVDS, so you might be able to hack something up.. I'd be very surprised if it worked, though.) you could make it into a really big picture frame. or fill it with cork and have a self-standing cork board (or slate, for that matter.. chalkboard).

did you try to connect the cam via FireWire? you might've fried it.. it's USB.
posted by mrg at 12:48 PM on January 23, 2007 [1 favorite]

Sell it on eBay. I recovered about 75% of the cost of my dropped iPod.
posted by Frank Grimes at 4:42 PM on January 23, 2007

Make your own Wacom Cintiq?
posted by maxwelton at 7:00 PM on January 23, 2007

Man, the dude must have rearranged his site, every link to his how-to is borked. Here's the real link.
posted by maxwelton at 7:02 PM on January 23, 2007

Response by poster: That link is ace - gives me an idea of what gubbins I need to make teh display work.
posted by armoured-ant at 1:32 PM on January 24, 2007