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What is the Coolest Mac Hack/Mod you have ever seen?

68kMLA Peripherals 39 posts Jan 30, 2013 to Mar 15, 2013
I think another word for all this is Personalize :) Or Customize :)

For me its:

- Dougg3's Rom Simm / bbraun's Bootable Rom Image

- Color Classic ZIP Drive Hack

- Hard drive in a plus, and jt's SCSI PCB Mod

- Full 040 + Overclock Q605/LC475 @ 33mhz

- jt's Platform Quadra Feets

- 48mhz OC to a Quadra 840av

SOON SCSI TO IDE/SD CARD BOARD :-D !!!! viewtopic.php?f=29&t=19623

What are all your favorite Mac Mod/Hack's?

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What's that tiny Pro-looking critter at the top? :3

And I doubt anyone's done it, but I'd love to see someone gut a dead Clamshell and put something modern into it. iPads don't count. :p

That's not a Mini Pro......this is a Mini Pro:

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I also liked the Cube Pro too:

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As well as the QuadraMini:

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It's amazing what you can squeeze a mini into.

This too was a sweet hack: The Bang & Olufsen Mp3 Mac Mod

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That QuadraMini makes me swoon.

That QuadraMini makes me swoon.
haha yes he did a dam good job on that …..

Definitely this one. Such craftsmanship!

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Man, that's a damn sin.

Thanks ever so much for that link! I have been looking for something like that, and getting nowhere.

Check out the Mission tower on the guy's main page, and tell me that couldn't be adapted to house a bashed Quad G5. Just adapt the Mission case modestly, and slot it in! All wood and cheesegrater!

But I am also thinking about the possibility of an LC475 in a case like the one pictured.... Hmmm.

These remind me of some of the hypothetical Macs in the AppleDesign book.

The teak and maple beauty was a lot neater when I thought it was around 12" tall. Not so.

And that horrible compact mod? It says SE/30 but it's just an SE case.

Yep, MacMiniSize it, definitely.

Make the black standoff appear to be another floating element and have the slotloader eject through one of the two cracks in the front.

I always have wanted to do a wooden KBD hack. Ever get tired of cleaning off plastic cling crud? [:o)] ]'>

I was going to say this guy is almost good enough to be on the frogdesign team, but he doesn't need to be quite that visionary, he's one heck of a craftsman. Maybe he is good enough, not all their design work sees light of day.

Here is a iMac/Hack I threw together back in 2007.

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I reused the apple speakers, amplified them. Used the LED from the Audio Amplifier as the power on light.

Used a tough fiber/elastic string to allow flipping the mac open, and it would remain open like the hood of a car, or a cab-over semi :)

The 2 Sound out headphone jack holes, each hole has a button micro switch. one is Audio Amp on/of, one was Computer Power on/off.

Very cool, uni. Now that's likely to be what's in store for my 17" StudioDisplay . . . bad flyback = hack! ;)

Did you put the clear bezel back on that Blueberry, uniserver?

Oh wow Uniserver! That's amazing! Do you take requests? :p

And that horrible compact mod? It says SE/30 but it's just an SE case.
Pretty sure that guy wouldn't know an SE/30 from a socket wrench.

The teak and maple beauty
What I like about that dude's gallery is that if you start from the bottom and scroll up, you can see how he's progressed over several years from "hey, wouldn't it be cool to throw a Mini-ITX into an old cigar box?" to hand-crafted works of art.

I think this one from 2009 is my favourite:

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Oh wow Uniserver! That's amazing! Do you take requests? :p
heck yeah for the right price :)

Did you put the clear bezel back on that Blueberry, uniserver?
not on this one, that part was very damaged.

this one fell face first from a loading dock, one of the guys helping me load with butter finger dropped it.

It worked out good though because they threw in a box of 38 power cords for free because of it...

I still ended up with a great machine to play around with. Back in 2007 these were worth more each.

:lol: That's another case of "Trash almost doing a hack." Mine's in the same condition as mcd's CD SC, the guts are boxed up and I haven't had the heart to mod it yet, so the ATOM board is still almost homeless.

I've been thinking about this lately. If I ever actually finished a hack, the mystique of the process would be lost forever, which is far less important than having the fun be over with at the end, of course. I hate the letdown at the end of a great book, the end of a hack would be a lot worse. I have a tremendous amount of respect for anyone who finishes what they start, but I spent so much time doing projects on a deadline IRL that I can't be bothered. Figuring out how to pull something off and proving the concept is the siren call of the hack, finishing it would be a far distant second. The hunt for a new home for the Plastic Fish and the ATOMic NetTop is far more alluring than establishing a permanent residence could ever be.

I've been wondering if the QuadraMini and the rest of those gorgeous hacks still have Minis inside or if Mr. Hanabusa moves a couple of them around like a shell game to keep costs down and rotate his collection of display cases he's crafted for his main machine.

I'm right there with Bunsen on doing a scroll up the main page to see the evolution of craftsmanship and art over time on Jeffrey Stephenson's site.

My favorite is probably the PSU-PC, re-packaging into found objects is more alluring to me than custom re-creations like the PolyTankMini, while the homage approach to classic design examples falls somewhere in between.

Different strokes . . .

Oh wow Uniserver! That's amazing! Do you take requests? :p
heck yeah for the right price :)
BRB, selling both kidneys. I'll have mine in Grape. :p

Play nicely, BB! :lol:

:lol: That's another case of "Trash almost doing a hack." Mine's in the same condition as mcd's CD SC, the guts are boxed up and I haven't had the heart to mod it yet, so the ATOM board is still almost homeless.
Come on, man. Mine is functional as a CD drive. The original (dead) Sony drive was removed and replaced with a Toshiba caddy-loader. The only "hacked" parts are on the Toshiba drive which needed some cutting and filing of it's metal housing to fit into the CDSC case and it's got jumper wires soldered to the front button, activity light etc. So it looks and works like stock but any modifications to the original housing are fully reversible if I ever get a functional Sony drive again.

Come on, man. Mine is functional as a CD drive.
That was meant to be complimentary . . . I'm not even finished with my editing period . . .

. . . mine is still waiting for a DVD drive. :-/

edit: GAAHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I hate page rollover continuity breaks! ::)

8-)
;D
I am thinking of RasperryPi inside an broken down G4 Mac Mini running an Minivmac.. 8-)

..or inside of a Apple Disk ][ drive with USB optical drive (there's an perfect hole, why not fill it).

:lol:

}:) rasperrypi's sold out (again) at local electronics shop, just when i'd have had some extra time for this.

Yesterday, while looking for something else in an antiques/ bric-a-brac shop, I saw a bacelite radio from probably the late 1940s for sale at $45. This was a bit steep given the condition, so I did not buy. However, it sure would make a very nice case for something like an LC475 logic board. The effect would be reminiscent of some of those designs from Jeffrey Stephenson.

The thing that especially interested me was that the radio brand was written in chrome italic lettering across the front: Motorola. 8-o

I'm still thinking about going back for it, doing the hack, and adding 040.

1. Sp: "Bakelite"

2. $45 is a bargain for those things in any condition

3. Motorola

4. DO IT.

Give it a NIC and some speakers and set it up as an audio player.

Thanks for that posting that link and the second round of inspiration! Your's could very well be the coolest ever, can't think of any better offhand. ;)

I quite like the HiFi Plus myself: http://www.arawak.com.au/hifiplus/hifiplus.html

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Impressive. I am currently looking for a set of speakers for myself actually.

Not bad. However, the tweeter behind the floppy slot might be a bad idea. I would instead choose another driver, maybe a fullrange speaker, either a very cheap Tangband or something like a Mission koax.

Anyways, here is my vote for the best hack:

http://www.kiwidee.com/kiwidee/cs_e.html

An iMac with a coffee maker inside. With milk frother option. |)

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trash80 you said something about a IIsi and bankA ram replacement, I think that needs its own thread.

Do you already have a configuration of ram chips figured out? Has this been done before?

That post here was a goof, it was in a PM I was sending to Bunsen, I thought I deleted it before the cat got out of the bag.

Nope, AFAIK it's never been done before. I haven't gotten any farther than what's already explained in the SuperIIsiHack™ thread. When the second IIsi MoBo arrives, it goes under the soldering iron for an experimental, incredibly fugly, RFI antenna kinda transplant. The empty IIsi case is slated for an end run around the IIsi/Rocket software issues.

If I ever actually finished a hack (never finishing maintains the mystique surrounding them :lol: ) that one might actually be worth mentioning in here.

mp.ls