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| The Patriot iMac |
| Written by Harbourmaster | |||||
| Friday, 01 September 2006 | |||||
 My goal with this mod was to reuse as much of the existing iMac as possible while still ending up with something cool and different when I was finished. So without further ado I’ll get right into the building of the iMac Patriot.
To start the project the first thing I had to do was tear down the iMac and gut the IIci case to make sure that everything was going to fit. I have been repairing Macs since the late 90s, so tearing these two old timers down was easy for me! If you’re not comfortable with this you should search the internet for the appropriate Apple Service & Repair Guides which feature step by step instructions for taking apart your Mac. The next step was to take some careful measurements and see if I was actually going to be able to fit all of the components inside of the IIci case and make them work! My gut feeling was rewarded as I made my initial measurements and found that indeed everything would fit! I then set about preparing the various components to go into the case starting by removing the drive cage that holds the iMacs HD and optical drive. I did this by removing all the components from the cage and then grinding off the spot welds that hold the two parts of the cage together. 
Next it was time to clear out all of the extra plastic tabs and plastic pieces from inside the case. The plastic is pretty soft and you can use a pair if side-cutters to snip out most of the tabs. Then I used the Makita to grind everything down so that it was fairly smooth and made a small groove at the front of the case for the lip on the front of the motherboard cage to slide under. Next I marked the side of the case where the ports for the mobo were to go and using a drill with different size bits and some small hand files I made the appropriate openings in the case side. 
Now I turned my attention to the rear of the case. I had decided during my trial fitting that because of the small interior volume and the close proximity of the components that it would be wise to install a cooling fan on the backside of the Mac. In order to reuse the original CD drive and cable there was only one place that it could go as well, out the back, so I set to work with the drill, utility knife and files to rework the back of the case. All of the extra openings were then filled using Quick-Fiber epoxy fiberglass repair compound and sanded smooth. In a little bit of serendipity I found that by mounting the original iMac power supply board upside down I could use one of the original case holes for the plug! A portion of the metal mounting bracket from the IIci was modified to support the back corner of the PS. 
Now that the bottom half of the case was ready to go I mounted a small sheet metal plate to the inside of the case with some hot glue, this is were the CD drive will be mounted using some heavy duty two sided mounting tape. With the interior of the case about done I sprayed the inside with Krylon Dull Aluminum spray paint to help keep down the electrical emissions. In a similar fashion I modified the interior of the case top to hold the iMacs speakers and then sprayed it with the silver paint as well. 
The last thing to do inside the case before painting the outside was to fab up some mounting brackets for the hard drives and the front of the power supply. You can see one of the power supply brackets mounted to the side of the case in the picture on the left above. The second bracket is attached to the bottom side of the motherboard cage. Since I was planning to use this Mac as a server, I needed to be able to mount two hard drives. I scrounged up a dual drive tray from a G4 out of my spare parts bin and quickly came up with some simple brackets to mount it in what would become the bottom of the case. 
With the fab work done, it’s time for paint! The outside of the case was thoroughly scuffed with a scotchbrite pad and then wiped down with denatured alcohol per the instructions for the Krylon Fusion paint. All of the openings where then tapped up and the entire outside of the case was sprayed with three light coats of True Blue. While the case was drying, I also set about prepping the logicboard cage for paint. I decided at this point that it might be a good idea to open up some of the holes in the cage to improve airflow, so I broke out my trusty Uni-Bit and enlarged as many of the holes on the cage as possible. Once that was finished, I sprayed the cage with a coat of primer and then either some Red or Blue Krylon to help with the Patriotic theme I had decided on for the mod. 
Liquid Blue
While all of the paint was drying, I had two last modification details to handle. First was the Power/Sound board, second the power switch itself. The S&P board on the early tray loaders is much larger than it needs to be so the “useless” portion of the board was simply cut off with a hacksaw and then the S&P board was mounted on the cage and a little hotmelt glue was added to beef the mounting up. 
Above, you see the modified S&P board mounted to the logicboard cage. I wanted the power switch to be easily accessible and what better way to do that than to attach it to the IIci’s original switch! A little careful cutting and some more of that hot glue and viola! 
Time for Assembly! It’s time to start putting it all together! First up is mounting the lighted case feet and there controller. The feet were very easy to install. I simply marked the case and again took out my trusty Uni-Bit step drill. This is a really great tool for making perfectly round holes in sheet metal and other thin materials. Once the holes were drilled, the feet simply mount to the case with some two sided tape that comes with them. Then the LEDs are slipped into the feet from inside and the wires are routed to the controller. I modified one of the Nubus block off plates to hold the controls for the lights. 
Uni-Bit step drill used for mounting holes for feet
Modified Nubus cover for lighting controls
A quick trial fit of the logicboard allowed me to determine the best placement for the Sunbeam fan controller. By using this thermal fan controller, I was sure that most of the time the Patriot iMac would be virtually silent but when it was needed there would be plenty of cooling available! 
For simplicity sake, I decided not to use plastic wire loom cover but to either simply twist the wires together or wrap them in colored electrical tape. This worked out very well. Next to go into the box was the logicboard and drives. It now has a 333MHz processor installed along with 384MB of RAM and two WD 80GB drives, more than enough for server duty! The power switch is mounted into the front of the case with some two minute epoxy. A Mac-VGA monitor adapter, set to 800x600, is mounted so that the computer thinks that a monitor is attached. 
The power supply is next to go in. It fits in (just barely!) upside down and mounts to the three brackets that I made for support. Though not shown, a sheet of thick plastic was cut to fit on top of the PS circuit board to prevent accidental short circuits and to lessen the chance of accidentally being shocked when the lid is off. 
Almost done! Now it’s time to mount the speakers to the lid. Two minutes with the glue gun is all it takes and the box is ready to close. 
Last but not least is the finishing touch for our theme. I found an American flag at the dollar store that was an almost perfect fit for the lid/side of the case. The Flag lets my resuscitated iMac show it’s true colors while still allowing air to flow through the slots in the lid/side of the case! All I needed to put it on was some spray glue from my junk box and a razor blade to trim the edge! 
The iMac Patriot has been running for a little more than a year now as my home server without any trouble. I recently upgraded her two a pair of 120Gb hard drives and installed OS 10.3.9 and she continues to purr!
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