At the beginning of this century, Apple had a very minority sales, but its computers were true pieces of art. Later, with the transition to Intel, Macs were standardized and began a continuous path that has lasted more than 10 years. After that stage, the arrival of Apple Silicon processors has brought us a new batch of really interesting computers, such as the MacBook Air without fans, a MacBook Pro that returns to its origins, an iMac that has colors like before or the new and almighty Mac Studio . However, as much as those from Cupertino work on the design, the iMac G4 will always be at the top of every maquero heart.
Do you have an iMac G4 in storage? Take note
Who has an iMac G4 has a treasure. Its PowerPC processor may not have been the eighth wonder of the world, but its design was so spectacular that it would be a worthy candidate for a museum. And, as is often the case with good designs, they age very well. The computer looks almost like the first day, but under its casing there is some really obsolete hardware that complicates the fact of giving a normal and daily use to the equipment.
The G4 travels 20 years into the future
With this in mind, user Connor Learmonth has done an operation with his iMac G4 similar to what is done with buildings in historic city centers: he has left the case, but has renovated everything inside. And now, his old iMac is powered by an ARM-based Apple M1 processor. Come on, it has skipped the entire Intel generation and has landed directly today. A leap of 20 years in which the computer has gone from having a 700 MHz PowerPC G4 processor to one of Apple’s new batch processors and multiplying its amount of RAM by 64 .
Connor has kept the computer screen and disk drive, just replaced the old original SuperDrive with a newer one, since the one that came stock with the G4 ran over IDE. However, he still maintains the same functionality that he had before the modification . Inside, the modder has removed the computer’s motherboard and placed a disassembled Mac Mini M1 in its place . It may seem incredible, but everything fits perfectly. The cables inside the iMac’s base may not have much order, but the case closes nicely, and if it weren’t for the fact that it’s running the latest version of macOS out there — the iMac G4 stayed on Leopard — you wouldn’t notice the change. at the visual level.
If you want to replicate the project, there is a tutorial
The funny thing about all this is that Connor Learmonth is not the first user to extend the life of his iMac G4 by inserting an M1 motherboard. The user himself has already mentioned in his video a MacRumors user named Dremel Junkie who has already done it previously and taught a very detailed guide on how to do the process. This means that in the next few days, we could see an even more exaggerated increase in the prices of second-hand iMac G4s in good condition, since surely more than one will be encouraged to do the project at home and give a second youth to the gorgeous iMac G4.