So earlier today was at a thrift store, saw a rather decent condition Indigo iMac (G3/450mhz), they wanted 20$ for it, the wife has always wanted one.
So I get it home and I power it up... wtf, the CRT is all bright pink/red, so I guess thats why it was so cheap (normally goes for 150-250 online in working condition). So I figured the VGA port on the back works fine, but I Didn't want the CRT in there sucking up power and glowing red, seems you can't just unplug the monitor, so I ended up ripping the entire cathode tube out, leaving the electronics inside of the imac so that it would least turn on (it won't turn on if you don't have the rear part of the electronics plugged into the board.)
So I got that all gutted out so I took appart an old Mac 17" LCD I had, as shown below:
But eh, one problem, even with the chasis removed it wouldn't fit into the front of the iMac... not good enough for the wife for me to just duct tape it to the front (I was seriously tempted to do so).
So, went out and got a dirt cheap 15$ 15" LCD which appeared crystal clear upon testing from some guy who does nothing but repair and sell LCDs (he had like 10 42" to 60" TVs in his garage.)
Got that installed, taping the control unit to the back of the LCD panel.
Tested it, and when satisfied I put together the rest of the imac again.
Pain in the ass I tell ya, now I Just need to get either a wifi adapter, or ethernet bridge (or possibly find an old ass airport card, which isn't likely to happen, but it has the attenna setup for one). It's running Panther 10.3.9, will probably replace the 1 stick of 128MB with a 256MB bringing it up to 512MB and try to get Tiger 10.4.11 on there.
But I'd rather buy a mac for less than 100$ than a PC for under that price (any used PC under 200$ is always worse in my experience).
So I get it home and I power it up... wtf, the CRT is all bright pink/red, so I guess thats why it was so cheap (normally goes for 150-250 online in working condition). So I figured the VGA port on the back works fine, but I Didn't want the CRT in there sucking up power and glowing red, seems you can't just unplug the monitor, so I ended up ripping the entire cathode tube out, leaving the electronics inside of the imac so that it would least turn on (it won't turn on if you don't have the rear part of the electronics plugged into the board.)
So I got that all gutted out so I took appart an old Mac 17" LCD I had, as shown below:
But eh, one problem, even with the chasis removed it wouldn't fit into the front of the iMac... not good enough for the wife for me to just duct tape it to the front (I was seriously tempted to do so).
So, went out and got a dirt cheap 15$ 15" LCD which appeared crystal clear upon testing from some guy who does nothing but repair and sell LCDs (he had like 10 42" to 60" TVs in his garage.)
Got that installed, taping the control unit to the back of the LCD panel.
Tested it, and when satisfied I put together the rest of the imac again.
Pain in the ass I tell ya, now I Just need to get either a wifi adapter, or ethernet bridge (or possibly find an old ass airport card, which isn't likely to happen, but it has the attenna setup for one). It's running Panther 10.3.9, will probably replace the 1 stick of 128MB with a 256MB bringing it up to 512MB and try to get Tiger 10.4.11 on there.
But I'd rather buy a mac for less than 100$ than a PC for under that price (any used PC under 200$ is always worse in my experience).
