Mac/PC Hybrid

Hi all.

I am a student at college, and me and a group of friends have decided to do a quite prospective project.

We have decided to combine the cool design and aesthetics of the iMac, with the performance and compatibility of a PC. :doctor:

The plan is to get hold of an Apple iMac, remove most of the parts, leaving the CRT monitor, and anything else essential to hold the shell together.
We will then add a small PC motherboard and parts and attempt to combine the two. If this works, we will install either Windows or Linux on to the system, and away we go... :ninja:

As with all college project, this requires research. We want to know how you get on with your iMacs, and what you think is good about the design.

We would also like to know what you think to the project, and any technical assistance will also be greatly appreciated.

We will keep you up to date with the project, and we hope it works.

I just want to know why?

Is this an old iMac or new?

Sounds like a troll

It will probably be a second hand iMac tagged as spares or repairs on Ebay, or a reconditioned one we can get for about £150.

Well you may have the design & aesthetics but you'll be missing OS X, which makes the machine stable and fun to use...

Don't make the poor mac craptastic!

I dont see the hybrid here?!
you want to put PC guts in mac case. thats not hybrid.
hybrid means when its compatable with both systems functionaly.
where the h**** is your superviser

good luck though

*sigh* Don't let the Mac fanboys make you change your mind about doing this project. They know nothing, they are biased. You can probably get an old iMac for $100 - $400 USD. I don't really know where, try eBay or PowerMax. If you can afford that, sell the parts on eBay or to a Mac zealot you know, and keep the case.

Absolute Zero.. why are you here? You really don't seem to like it much.

Ok, I apologise, I was joking...not being fanboyish...

Anyway, sounds like a cool idea, if you want to you can also make WinXP look like OS X...

I think aquifier is one utility for windows to do that.
You'll be able to add a kick-ass processor to the pretty iMac and still have the looks of OS X (if you want to that is)...


Absolutezero:

We have decided to combine the cool design and aesthetics of the iMac, with the performance and compatibility of a PC.

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Sorry to rant at you like this man... but Macs are compatible with almost all of the software that PCs are, as well as some other stuff, like Word, which always comes out for Macs first. Also, Macs in tests often cream PCs with three times the megahertz rating. Video editors and web designers and artists use Macs because, quite simply, they're faster than any Windows PC you can get.

Cool project, but you're doing it for the wrong reason.

The plan is to get hold of an Apple iMac, remove most of the parts, leaving the CRT monitor, and anything else essential to hold the shell together.
We will then add a small PC motherboard and parts and attempt to combine the two. If this works, we will install either Windows or Linux on to the system, and away we go...

Click to expand...

Cool, sounds like a great idea man! It should work pretty well. Good luck!

As with all college project, this requires research. We want to know how you get on with your iMacs, and what you think is good about the design.

Click to expand...

Just so you know, you're doing a project on a 3-4 year old Mac. Most of us have newer Macs (For example, I have a 1.33GHz PowerBook). But I'll try to help you out, as I've seen the model and I've used them a bit.

First, a bit of history for you. The iMac was what first started Apple on its creative designs. Before the iMac, Macs were your typical beige computer, and they really didn't have anything different or special about them. Then the iMac came out, and Apple has never produced a boring-looking comp since (and its OS has greatly improved as well!)

Now why I think the iMac originally did well. I think Apple engineers had three brilliant ideas.

1. Create an all-in-one system. This was a great idea because a lot of PC users didn't like wasting desk space/floor space with two separate bits, and it was rather unconvenient to have two pieces rather than one.

2. Make the iMac simple to use/setup. The iMac setup instruction booklet was the shortest computer setup booklet ever, I believe it was 6 pages. You simply plugged in the keyboard and the mouse and the power, and turned on the comp. The OS was also really simple to use and it was a lot more stable than the Windows version that was out at the time.

3. It was beautiful. The idea of having a transparent, color case that didn't have any sharp edges was brilliant. It created a wonderfully shaped computer. The fact that the keyboard and mouse also matched the computer was also an aesthetic thing that attracted a lot of people.


So, there you go. Put that in your essay or something

Oh, and good luck with the 'operation'!
m1k

Murlyn said:

Absolute Zero.. why are you here? You really don't seem to like it much.

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I'm here because I thought I had freedom.

But I guess I don't.

And m1k, if he's going to be putting a PC in it and removing all the other parts, does it really matter how crappy the specs are? He is going to be replacing them, after all...

rmanders said:

Hi all.
We have decided to combine the cool design and aesthetics of the iMac, with the performance and compatibility of a PC. :doctor:

Click to expand...

performance and compatibility of a pc? unless youre calling almost hourly crashes and system reinstalls and virus ridden a performance, and are mentioning the compatibility of windows to all those viruses, its not gonna be mac like at all, so why waste your time, your basically making a pc that wants to be a mac, but is
running on a crippled os, and cant get up to save its own life. :mac:

And m1k, if he's going to be putting a PC in it and removing all the other parts, does it really matter how crappy the specs are? He is going to be replacing them, after all...

Click to expand...

Well, he wanted some answers about why we like our iMacs, what we think is good about them, etc. But most of us don't have iMacs, because they're old, most of us have newer Macs.

m1k said:

Well, he wanted some answers about why we like our iMacs, what we think is good about them, etc. But most of us don't have iMacs, because they're old, most of us have newer Macs.

Click to expand...

I have one, and its the biggest pain in my life. Crashes every 2 seconds, and wont run OS X.
But I see what your saying.