It is expected that Apple will launch a new iMac in the not-so-distant future which will be powered by its own custom-built, M1 chip. While the consumers await the release of the first Apple Silicon iMac, YouTuber Luka Miani took matters into his own hands and created the first-ever Apple Silicon iMac.
Miani initiated the process by ripping apart a decade-old 2011 27-inch iMac using iFixit teardown guides for the iMac. Miani managed to put the whole thing together, but the device had some limitations itself.
YouTuber uses M1 Mac mini parts to build “world’s first” Apple Silicon iMac
To convert the old Mac into Apple Silicon iMac, Miani had to gut the old iMac and remove all of the hardware that “wasn’t literally welded to the inside case.” Miani found and used a controller board inverter online to put in the iMac for display. The device is simple, it converts signals from DDi, HDMI, or display port inputs into the proprietary connector used by Apple in the display.
The first wrinkle was that when I powered it on initially, the Magic Mouse and keyboard would barely connect and the Wi-Fi was super slow. The reason for this is that the Mac mini, like most Macs, had three antenna connections, and one of those antennas is on the little metal bottom plate that we took off when we tore apart the Mac mini. So, it only had two out of three antennas and it was certainly suffering by the time it got put inside the metal enclosure of the iMac.
After arranging and mounting M1 Mac mini parts inside the iMac, the process was complete. Miani had built the “world’s first all-in-one” Apple Silicon iMac. To fix the problematic signals for WiFi and Bluetooth, Miani repurposed one of the metal antenna bands inside the original iMac chassis, providing full-speed WiFi and Bluetooth. The problem is that there are no ports since the M1 Mac mini is inside the iMac, which means there is no Thunderbolt or USB-C availability in the Apple Silicon iMac.
According to Miani, the setup is not recommended even though it seems simple enough to accomplish. He did state that turning the iMac into a display for the “M1 Mac mini was definitely worth it.” You can watch the whole video here.
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