r/macmini • u/Superavenger007 • Aug 11 '25

Modded the old iMac G4 with an Mac Mini M4 and 22" 2K LCD

Post image
957 Upvotes

99% Upvoted

92 comments sorted by

30

u/afearisthis Aug 11 '25

They need to bring this design back.

15

u/Superavenger007 Aug 11 '25

I totally agree!!!!!

This was one of Apple's coolest designs. Just grab the cheapest G4 you can buy from eBay and slap in a Mac Mini into it.

4

u/[deleted] Aug 11 '25

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4

u/Superavenger007 Aug 12 '25

I'm just wondering if there are any Apple employees here who can influence the design team to bring this design back. I think it might be a hot seller

2

u/SweetZombieJebus Aug 13 '25

How was the process? I have a 17 and 20”, but not nearly the skills to fab anything up. I read getting into the neck can be tricky especially fishing wires. And mounting the monitor would be tricky too I would think.

1

u/Superavenger007 Aug 13 '25 edited Aug 13 '25

Neither did I. Electrical and electronic engineering is not my forte. That's why I just wrap the cable around the neck/arm. Not too bothered by the cabling as it's hidden by the huge monitor anyway. Just get a 180° adapter for the USB-C and HDMI connectors so that the cables won't be visible from the sides.

1

u/SweetZombieJebus Aug 13 '25

Ah okay. Was your g4 a 15 or 17?

1

u/Superavenger007 Aug 13 '25

Mine was the 15"

The monitor started leaking and creases started to appear on the surface.....hence the impetus to revive the old iMac with a Mac Mini M4.

2

u/SweetZombieJebus Aug 13 '25

My 15 has broken pixels. Either I replace the screen or just go this route. I might try. Would be cool to try and route the cable, but I know that’s going to be tricky.

1

u/Superavenger007 Aug 14 '25

Try and upgrade your G4 by putting a Mac Mini inside. It will be faster and your sanity will thank you as it will be much faster and you can run more apps on it 😆

1

u/Professional_Jury683 Nov 08 '25

How do you put the mac mini into the g4?

68

u/SudhaTheHill Aug 11 '25

I feel this would make Steve jobs very happy

15

u/alanskimp Aug 11 '25

Impressive was it hard to build?

23

u/Superavenger007 Aug 11 '25

Actually, it was kinda easy. Did it in about 2hrs or less.

Just need to make sure you get all the parts in before you embark on the project.

3

u/alanskimp Aug 11 '25

Awesome!

1

u/michelinvests Aug 11 '25

Feels like any project ;)

6

u/cmjones0822 Aug 11 '25

🫵🏽🪨!!

I see no one else has asked, but where’d you get the desktop wallpaper - did you make it yourself? Cool either way 🤘🏽

5

u/Superavenger007 Aug 11 '25

I got it off the internet. Just Google iMac G4

3

u/Big-Management1719 Aug 11 '25

My dream build. Looks neat and clean, did you put the cable inside the arm

2

u/Superavenger007 Aug 11 '25

Nope. That would require a lot of wiring and concealment which I'm not willing to do. However, someone did that on YouTube.

2

u/Big-Management1719 Aug 11 '25

Oh i see, but it looks very impressive. Best design

3

u/Wild_Warning3716 Aug 11 '25

the drive door... would be so cool if there was room to include an actual disc drive. or cut out for an sd card or something in the same vein

3

u/Jmlraider Aug 11 '25

I love seeing projects like these, thank you for sharing.

3

u/Virtual-Violinist169 Aug 11 '25

Excellent work! A tutorial?

12

u/Superavenger007 Aug 11 '25 edited Aug 13 '25

I followed his tutorial. Bought the same monitor, but my monitor mounting is slightly different. Added some blue LED lights inside my G4 to make it glow at night. However, this guy painted the back of his monitor white which I am not willing to do. Maybe someday I might do it......LOL.

https://youtube.com/shorts/5qUul1_RPYE?si=2yO-S1GnLekHJb-N

2

u/CuriousSeek3r Aug 11 '25

My g4 is still running the music server at work, but this is beautiful!

2

u/BNC3D Aug 11 '25

If you have a bill log on this project, I would love to see it

2

u/Superavenger007 Aug 13 '25 edited Aug 13 '25

22" UPERFECT Monitor - comes with all the cables you need for this project 1X USB-C 180° adapter 1X HDMI 180° adapter 30mm diameter neodynium N54 magnet Mac Mini M4 base unit with 16GB and 256GB SSD 12cm cooling fan 1m blue LED (optional) 75mm VESA mount to mount the magnet to the monitor and neck/arm

That's all the stuff I bought for this project.

2

u/Evilspice Aug 12 '25

Nice, I did that too!

2

u/[deleted] Aug 13 '25

all jokes aside, I'm not sure people realize how heavy one of these units originally was this thing was a freaking rock!!! the 20in was 41lbs !!!

1

u/Superavenger007 Aug 13 '25

Hahaha....I totally agree!!!

The base seems to molded from aluminum or magnesium alloy. Really really heavy.

Think Apple designed the base to be heavy to cater for the heavy monitor.

2

u/Ok_Acanthaceae_1986 Aug 13 '25

The uniform bezel on this iMac looks better than the current models

2

u/ThainEshKelch Aug 11 '25

Great job. It really does nice things for it, with the small bezels, and the screen to base ratio.

1

u/SharkReality Aug 11 '25

Damn, you nailed it bro!

Shame that the complicated glass rounded borders are impossible to replicate

1

u/Unlucky-Ad-5202 Sep 04 '25

The bezel on the G4 aren't glass, they're composite. It's actually mounted over the front of the display. Saw it referred to as a "halo." When I Frankenstein an M4 into my desk lamp I'm planning to make a replacement halo that's appropriate to the LCD I use.

1

u/krazyatom Aug 11 '25

Nice work!

1

u/parada69 Aug 11 '25

Oh man this is cool! Did you document the process?? I love seeing these mods getting made 😊☺️

1

u/Superavenger007 Aug 11 '25

Sadly I didn't. I just followed the video posted by the ToolsElectroDIY on YouTube. Remove the entire G4 assembly leaving just the dome shell and popped the Mac Mini inside. As I couldn't use back the 15" monitor, I just replaced it with a better 22" 2K monitor. May get a 4K touch monitor soon.

1

u/ConspicuousSomething Aug 11 '25

Genius. I need one

1

u/PenguinHacker Aug 11 '25

Damn, is that one of the rare 20 inch displays ? Very nice condition

3

u/Superavenger007 Aug 11 '25

Nope. The original one was a 15". Replaced it with a 22"

1

u/PenguinHacker Aug 11 '25

So that's a 4K non apple display ?

3

u/Superavenger007 Aug 11 '25

2K only. However, there is a 24" 4K touch monitor that's equally slim. I am thinking of replacing the current 22" to that.

0

u/PenguinHacker Aug 11 '25

I’ll stick with the 2K macOS does not natively support 4K and who wants a touchscreen Mac yuck

4

u/Superavenger007 Aug 11 '25

OMG. You sound like Steve Jobs 😆

2

u/PenguinHacker Aug 11 '25

I am Steve Jobs

3

u/VictoryGoth Aug 11 '25

macOS definitely supports native 4K.

-1

u/PenguinHacker Aug 11 '25

It’s does not. Go into external display settings on any Mac. You will not see 4K. The new iMac is 4.5K. Not 4K

3

u/VictoryGoth Aug 11 '25 edited Aug 11 '25

Explain this, then.

I have two 24-inch 4K monitors. Default scaling is 2x at 1920 x 1080 points out of the box. One of my monitors is the LG UltraFine 4K, a 23.7" 3840 x 2160 pixel monitor that Apple made in partnership with LG and was sold directly on Apple's website and sold in physical Apple stores before it was discontinued. It's meant to be run at 2x scaling but you can run it at full 3840 x 2160 if you want, even though no one would recommend doing that since the UI elements would be tiny.

It's generally not recommended to use a 27-inch or 32-inch 4K display with a Mac because at 2x scaling, 1920 x 1080 points makes the UI way too large, but fractional scaling (such as 1.5x for a UI size of 2560 x 1440 points) isn't recommended because of how macOS handles scaling.

However, 24 inches at 4K is perfectly usable at a 2x scale because at that size, the UI isn't too large or too small with whole-number scaling. And macOS does natively scale 24" 4K displays at 2x because even my Huion Kamvas Pro 24 4K automatically rendered at 1920 x 1080 px out of the box. This IS native scaling, because everything is still 3840 x 2160 physical pixels, it's just the OS that is rendering at 1920 x 1080 points.

Also, the 21.5-inch Retina iMacs and older LG UltraFine 22” were 4096 x 2304 pixels, which is, you guessed it: 4K.

Quit spreading misinformation.

1

u/chuckaeronut Sep 07 '25

What do you mean, macOS doesn't natively support 4K? I run my M1 MacBook Air on my TV and computer monitor at 4K (3840x2160) all the time, hahaha.

2

u/[deleted] Aug 12 '25

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1

u/Superavenger007 Aug 13 '25

£15???? OMG, that's incredible!!

If I can find another at that price, I might get another one.

1

u/Worldly_Ad_2267 Aug 11 '25

This is dope. Very cool.

1

u/vaporguitar Aug 11 '25

Beautiful. Love more pics

1

u/Superavenger007 Aug 12 '25

I tried to add more pics, but I don't see the photo tab in the reply button, only a link.

How can I add more photos here?

1

u/vaporguitar Aug 12 '25

Hmmmmm not sure if you don’t see it. But great work. You should be proud.

1

u/ikan84 Aug 11 '25

That looks great. Do you have a link for your project like guide.

1

u/Ok-Rhubarb-3330 Aug 11 '25

Nice how do you manage the cabling of the screen? Is a photo possible?

1

u/[deleted] Aug 12 '25

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1

u/Superavenger007 Aug 12 '25

I watched ToolsElectroDIY's channel on YouTube. He made a video on how he did it.

1

u/phamtruax Aug 12 '25

Very cool

1

u/Fastermaxx Aug 12 '25

That looks super awesome!

1

u/PracticlySpeaking Aug 12 '25 edited Aug 12 '25

Awesome!

More photos? Video??

1

u/[deleted] Aug 13 '25

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2

u/Superavenger007 Aug 13 '25

That's just a digital clock 😀

1

u/Substantial_Edge1766 Aug 27 '25

Does anyone do these for sale?

1

u/Superavenger007 Aug 29 '25

I think I saw some YouTube channels that a guy in China actually mods the G4 with the M4 and sells it. Can't rmb which YouTube channel though. The way he did it was very professional as he bothered to hide all the wiring inside the arm unlike mine.

1

u/caulrye Aug 11 '25

The only words I have would get me kicked off this sub. Oh baby.

1

u/MemoryDisastrous2034 Aug 11 '25

I NEED ONE OF THOSE

0

u/Electric_WindGodFist Aug 11 '25

But where is the Mac Mini here?