NewWorld build #7: Graphite iMac DV SE/500.

[Schmoburger]

First post.... here goes... Ill do intros later. :lol:

A few days ago I procured a Summer 2000 model iMac DV SE from my younger brother, the 500mhz model with DVD and 30Gb drive in it, and in graphite... I have slotload iMacs coming out my ears of all descriptions, but this one being a DV SE/500 and more specifically Graphite in color makes it of interest to me and worth playing with. Most of my others are early DV's and low-end Summer 2001 500s that are in uninspiring Indigo.

I've built a few slotload iMacs in my days of playing with Macs... the most recent being a Snow 600 known as Frank II, built from the parts of no less than 5 different units and maxed at a gig of ram and fitted with a healthy 60Gb HDD, which satisfied my longheld desire for a shiney white iMac. I know iMacs are hardly a museum piece, but theyre nonetheless an important part of Apple's history, and represent a turning point for the company, and I enjoy building them, modifying them, and just looking at em.

Anyway, I've always wanted a Graphite as well, so I had no problems with taking this example off my broithers hands, which appparently spent most of its life in a high school store room. However after I inspected it tonight, I realised that in typical DET form, when it came time to dispose of old equipment, it would appear to have been roughly handled, quite possibly dropped, meaning the internal chassis plastic is demolished. Not just cracked due to it being brittle, but completely falling to pieces in chunks... when I removed the case plastics the thing fell apart. It is also missing the hard drive which i believe is my brothers doing, but oh well.

So, cutting to the chase, I'm going to rebuild it... At this stage I'll use the existing chassis with the CRT and PSU which to my knowledge were functioning, and set about replacing the smashed structural plastic with stuff from one of my junkers, slap it back together, test it, and if all checks out then itll be time to put it back together and spice things up with one of my spare 600 logic boards, which aside from the extra 100mhz of CPU speed, have 16MB of VRAM, instead of the 8Mb on the 500 board. The only trade-down is 256k L2 cache on the 600 as compared to 512k on the DV. And yes, 120Gb HDD, 1Gb RAM, and 10.4 sounds to be a plan...

Wish me luck with FrankenMac III guys. 8-o

 

[Trash80toHP_Mini]

Welcome aboard! Sounds like a very slick Snow build . . .

. . . but Graphite is about the only thing I could ever love about the iMac, VERY

 

[Schmoburger]

Thanks buddy! Yes the Snow is a very nice usable machine... also a nice part of the decore! If anything it does some things with a little more grace than my G4, even... AGP graphics on the the iMac vs PCI on the G4 no doubt has a bit to do with it, as well as the faster CPU. The more I think about it the more I am leaning towards re-boarding the Graphite with a 600 one, as the difference the doubled VRAM and bumped up CPU speed makes between a 500 and 600 imac is actually a lot greater than anybody would probably credit.

Also , love this site btw, as an aside!

 

[jruschme]

Funny you should mention Snow iMacs... my latest conquest was the Snow version of your Graphite which, like yours, has plastics coming out in chunks.

So how do you compare the 500mhz board in your Graphite with the 500mhz board from the 2001 Indigo? I have one of the Indigo boards and wondered if a swap was worth it.

 

[Schmoburger]

So as I understand it you are wanting to know how the summer 2000 iMac 500 with 16Mb VRAM compares with the previous variant with 8Mb?

I cant give an entirely educated answer one as I have only used the 500/8mb and 600/16mb boards... havent thus far come across one of the 500/16 variants as yet to make a comparison as they appear to be a fairly uncommon variant round these parts. The combination of 100mhz gain in speed and better video with more VRAM tho I can say with certainty makes for a very noticably better experience, particularly running Tiger, as I found out by running the same hard drive and system before and after the 500 indigo was rebuilt into the 600 snow. I can't say for certain how much of the gain can be attributed to CPU speed vs improved graphics controller, but I can only imagine that the better graphics would go some way to improving the fluidity of the UI, particularly in Tiger which as a whole seems quite a bit more graphics intensive.

If you have the board available to you tho, by all means I'd recommend doing the upgrade, as there is little to lose, and it's a reasonably straightforward swap once you know what you are looking at. One thing I must stress however iis that you check the placement of the heatsink before reboarding any slotload iMac with a later or earlier revision board, as there were changes to the chassis midway through production to accomodate a revised CPU location on the logic board. As far as I can so far tell, the 350/400/450 models all shared the same heatsink and logic board configuration, with a raised sink moulded integrally into the chassis where the CPU sits with the board in situ. the 500/600 and presumabley 700 models however have a solid metal block on the chassis for a heatsink that is in an entirely different location corresponding with a revised logic board, meaning that if you interchange boards/chassis between early and late revision machines, even though the board will screw straight in, the CPU will burn up due to absolutely zero heat transferrence off the chip... SOmething people tend to forget about iMacs is that they are convection cooled, and the entire metal chassis forms a heatsink away from the CPU.

As I said, best I can tell their are only two revisions and they are clear cut with no cross over between processor speeds, but its best to check and make doubley sure, even dummy fit the board to check for contact, before powering up.

And yes the internal bezels become brittle due to the heat they are subject to and are prone to cracking particularly if the machines are dropped or treated roughly later in life. This graphite of mine is so badly cracked internally that I cant actually put it back together properly until I replace the inside bezel... as soon as i removed the case plastics the inside literally disintegrated all over the floor. I'm going to use the bezel off an early DV I have here that wont power up to replace it, as the early ones from me experience seem to be made from a different plastic compound that is far more durable than the later ones and doesnt become anywhere near as flakey and brittle.

 

[mcdermd]

I've doctored an internal bezel or two with some smaller cracks by letting some super glue sit on them for a few to get the plastic nice and soft. Then I mix the slurry over and into the crack before letting it cure. After it's hardened, I go over it with fine sandpaper and polish it out.

 

[Schmoburger]

Thats actually not a terrible idea.... i used to do that with styrene plastic model planes if small parts broke. I also used superglue to fix stress cracks in the shell of my Pismo and they have held up fine for years. That said this particular example is beyond repair... the bezel is in at least 50 pieces all over my floor! :lol:

 

[mcdermd]

Yeah, there's not a lot to be done about that. I've been there myself.

 

[Schmoburger]

AFter spending 3 days in the engine bay of a car doing some custom shaving and smoothing, I'm now knuckling down back into the Graphite again... I started dismantling as mentioned before the other night.

Here it is as it sits now... I threw the case back on to keep things from falling in it... as you can see, the inside bezel is an unsalvagable mess...

And heres the donor Indigo iMac that I'm about to start taking apart... formerly a DV 400 I used as a jukebox until a housemate i suspect spilled alcohol in it. Ah well... no huge loss.

 

[Schmoburger]

8 screws later and the Graphite now looks like this...

Now to start disassembling the Indigo donor... luckily for me the logic board, speakers and drive carrier were already removed so its just a case of taking off case plastics with minimal fuss

 

[Schmoburger]

Whilst I had the two bezels detached, I thought I'd take a picture of them together to illustrate the difference between the early and late model items...

The complete bezel is from the donor machine, a very early iMac DV (yellow power button) that was running almost permanantlly its entire life in a school computer lab, the broken one being from the later iMac DV SE that hardly saw any use. They appear to be two entirely different plastic compounds... the later one being far more brittle and prone to breakage and fatigue and subject to very noticable deterioration. When taking the screw caps out of the late bezel, it is quite common for them to crumble or snap, and its also enevitable that the clips for the removable bottom tray will snap when it is removed after some use. The earlier one however, is a far more durable and flexible plastic that seems to deteriorate very little if at all with age, doesnt yellow over time, and most importantly, resists breakage during removal of case plastics or as a result of less than couth handling, or even just general movement.

 

[Schmoburger]

Replacement bezel now in place. Ive included a couple of photos of the screws that need to be removed to take the bezel off as well. Whilst it seems straightforward, be prepared for these screws to give you some headaches...

Top CRT/bezel screws... The bezel screw is in line with the ounded notch in the plastic, the CRT one is the big washered one at the top. Sorry about the crap iPhone 3gs camera...

And here's the bottom screws... Again, apologies for the bad picture...

And now it's time to put the case plastics back on then take it for a test drive to see if it powers up and boot into OF to suss out the firmware revision before I put a drive in it.

 

[Schmoburger]

First the top cover goes back into place, despite all indications to the contrary, with the screws shown below in case anybody wanted to know. Two down each side, two at the top covered by a plastic cap, and one in the rear behind the back of the CRT with a plastic spacer permanently attached.

And then after that, the front outer bezel clips into place and a pair of screews at the bottom hold it in place and get hidden by more plastic caps.

Then on goes the bottom tray... self-explanatory that one... and it's a complete non-smashed iMac again...

Now for the moment of truth... RAM it up, grab a keyboard and a powercord, and see if the gamble paid off and if I got it all right... :lol:

 

[Schmoburger]

After a dodgy start caused by a shonky stick of RAM, chicken dinner is SERVED!!

Now that I know it powers up, time to get onto the winner and put in the 600 logic board... altho I am almost tempted to do some testing to get a comparison of performance between the two systems with the only variables being CPU speed, L2 cache, and onboard video controller speed and VRAM. hmmmmm....

 

[Schmoburger]

Welll.... got it booted into 9.1 off my iMac test drive, ran the 4.1.9 firmware update so it is X-able, but I'm not quite out of the woods it seems.

The second time i booted it, the display came up with the raster rotated at an odd angle, which i wasnt able to adjust out with the iMac screen control panel, and it is also periodically clicking , leading me to think there is something suss going on on the analogue board. No big issue, as I believe I have a servicable late indigo i can reshell, just a bit of a disappointment is all.

 

[Schmoburger]

Quick update, done a bit of research, looks like in the process of being dropped, the yoke may just have shifted on the CRT or the CRT has otherwise been thrown outta whack. The raster is basically geometrically correct, just tilted, so I shall have a go at adjusting the orientation of the yoke and see how it looks. The clicking appears to have stopped.

 

[Schmoburger]

Frankenmac III is now fully functioning... simple (and ever so careful so as not to die) adjustment of the deflection yoke more or less cured the display misallignment, with only a couple of minor H,V and R adjustments from the control panel needed to get it squared up and centered where I wanted it. Next time i have the plastics off i will probably make a couple more yoke adjustments and see if i cant get it squared right up without any adjustment from the control panel needed at all.

So here it is currently still running the OS9 test drive.... no more twisted picture.

Now that it works properly, next job will be to order a full compliment of RAM for it and throw in a nice big hard drive to load up OSX onto... thus far I'm undecided as to whether it will be running Panther or Tiger. Also have to make a decision as to whether I keep it partly original with the 500mhz logic board, or take it up a notch and stick in the 600 board.

 

[TheIanMan85]

Nice work! I really appreciate the care you've taken in your restoration. Without some preservation there won't be any left down the road.

My two best G3 iMacs still have a place on my desk; a Snow and Graphite, both of are 600 MHz. They serve little purpose in their current roles, but at they're just too neat to let collect dust on the basement shelves.

Anyway, keep up the awesome work!

 

[Schmoburger]

Nice work! I really appreciate the care you've taken in your restoration. Without some preservation there won't be any left down the road.
My two best G3 iMacs still have a place on my desk; a Snow and Graphite, both of are 600 MHz. They serve little purpose in their current roles, but at they're just too neat to let collect dust on the basement shelves.

Anyway, keep up the awesome work!

That's exactly my thoughts mate... I see these things getting thrown in dumpsters by the dozens, well at least I used to. It looks like these days, most of them have already ended up as landfill or been melted down to make cheap Taiwanese iPod docks and car batteries.

At the end of the day tho, they are still an important part of Apple's history... having been the machine that made Apple an actual viable competitor in the mum-dad personal computer market via some out of this world styling, innovative yet simplistic technical design, and some great marketing. They were obsolete nearly 10 years ago now, but theyre still handy little machines, and they look great... you can put an iMac anywhere and it's as much a stylish looking part of the decore as it is a computer. I use a very basic one simply as a jukebox in my loungeroom because it takes up very little space, requires one cord and a mouse to run, and it looks good... it still gets peoples attention just like they did 15 years ago.

Always wanted the Graphite and Snow since they were new so they were the first I went out of my way to restore, now that Ive got them however, as well as an Indigo, a Blueberry is next on the cards, and then some of the more unusual colours such as Sage, Ruby, Tangerine and Strawberry. Wouldnt mind a Blue Dalmation 700 either .