Turning an iMac G4 into an exterior monitor with the DockLite G4 mod

It’s been 20 years since Apple discontinued the iMac G4, a singular laptop with a cool half-globe base and a flatscreen LCD on a flowery hinge and adjustable arm. In its unaltered state, it’s a nice-to-look-at, nostalgic relic that’s unusable in fashionable contexts. I coveted it and by no means obtained to personal one on the time, however because of Juicy Crumb’s DockLite G4, I’m utilizing this traditional iMac day by day as an exterior monitor.

The DockLite G4 is a drop-in alternative motherboard for the iMac G4’s board that options an HDMI port, together with three USB-A and a single USB-C port, and three.5mm ports for audio. Most significantly, it makes use of the iMac’s present mounting holes and inside connectors for energy and video, so all you want is a few screwdrivers and a prying software — no soldering required.

It took about half-hour for me to open my eBay-acquired 17-inch 1.25GHz iMac G4, take away the motherboard, put within the DockLite, and shut it again up, and instantly, I might plug in no matter I wished, from a MacBook Air to my Anbernic GBA SP knockoff. (Juicy Crumb even has a useful video information.) It was a lot simpler than some various DIY strategies.

Listed here are a couple of photos I took of the set up course of:

With the DockLite put in, my iMac now works precisely like an exterior show. It sleeps when my laptop does (though it’s important to faucet the iMac’s energy button to show off the backlight) and I can management the brightness in software program or utilizing {hardware} buttons within the again.

There are stuff you lose within the course of, like entry to the iMac’s optical drive. And you’ll’t run it as a standalone laptop until you go the additional mile and change extra of its internals with one thing like a Mac Mini. On the plus facet, the set up is reversible — you may at all times put the unique motherboard again in.

The DockLite G4 doesn’t come low cost, at $260. The value owes to the “time, effort, and cash to get even a comparatively easy product such because the DockLite out to market,” Juicy Crumb CEO and co-founder Timothy de Denaro informed me in an electronic mail. The DockLite G4 “is a comparatively low quantity product,” he added, and “each unit is manually examined on my own earlier than being shipped” to clients.

That appears honest, and it additionally doesn’t change the truth that I spent some huge cash and energy simply to make use of a low-res show with unhealthy viewing angles. Then once more, I didn’t purchase the DockLite G4 as a result of I love the standard of my iMac G4’s 21-year-old LCD. I did it as a result of this laptop seems to be sick on my desk, and I wished to have the ability to use it day by day.