Linux box built out of an Apple Studio Display

by Darren Murph posted Nov 28th 2006 at 3:53PM

While the vast majority of recent Mac modifications have dealt with the headless Mac Mini, the Toolman decided to go a different route with his gutted 17-inch Apple Studio Display. As with most mods, he simply had too many enticing parts lying around without a proper home, and chose to combine them using whatever it took, resulting in a Mac-ish clone at worst, and a sweet all-in-one computer at best. After heavy modifications to front button PCBs, adding a mic for VoIP usage, rewiring everything numerous times, "butchering" an i2c bus, and using a heat gun to make the pesky plastic conform to his wishes, he still had to get the thing to boot up. After initial memtest errors and a few bouts with frustration, he finally loaded Ubuntu Linux successfully from the external optical drive. He also noted that the possibility remained open to one day affix a slot-loading drive, but left it out initially due to the inability to truly find an "elegant place" to install it. Regardless, this well-constructed mod most certainly didn't come easy, and for those who'd dare give something like this a go on their own, be sure to continue on for a look at the YouTube demonstration, and hit the read link for a bevy of photos.

[Via Digg]

Filed under: Desktops, Displays

Tags: apple, gutted, hack, lcd, linux, mini itx, MiniItx, mod, modification, mods, studio display, StudioDisplay, ubuntu

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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Neutral

v_dogg @ Nov 28th 2006 4:40PM

thats awesome i want one!

Neutral

Richard Flynn @ Nov 28th 2006 4:42PM

Looks really rather like the original iMac, only with a clear case!

Neutral

blackout @ Nov 28th 2006 5:19PM

that would have worked a lot better with a mac mini, but it's a very good mod. deserves a slap for putting anything other than mac on it though =p

Neutral

toolman @ Nov 28th 2006 8:06PM

Hehe I would have but mini ITXes wouldn't run OSX very easily... and its illegal?

Neutral

Chris @ Nov 28th 2006 9:55PM

guy needs to learn how to edit video....
nice mod though, and shinier than my mini-itx in a hp network scanjet 5 project http://www.instructables.com/id/EPT3VYMQUKEP287AM3/?ALLSTEPS

Neutral

mechanicalmarksy @ Nov 29th 2006 3:22AM

yeah he does! i tried to teach him... but he failed to learn. Maybe next time Toolbox you can does some snappy editing eh? Hehe, in all case, the video wasnt really supposed for public viewing. Thanks for checking it out!

Neutral

Gordy @ Nov 29th 2006 8:49AM

Hey, I have one of those displays...if anyone wants to make one, I'm sellin.

Neutral

Revenant @ Nov 30th 2006 12:17PM

Yeah, I'm looking to offload one myself.

Neutral

cb @ Nov 29th 2006 12:04PM

I think it looks great but the only reason I'd say it's a bad idea is because he threw an LCD panel (limited viewing angles) into a less mobile CRT housing. LCD's are great for the light weight and ease of posability -- an old Apple studio monitor is not.

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