iMac motherboard to gaming pc?

[NikB]

Hi everyone. 
 

I have an older iMac that I was given. The specs are at the bottom of this post. The screen is cracked due to some mishandling from the prior owner but the iMac runs well. That was until I attempted to remove the screen and the screen cracked more leaving it unusable. This gave me the idea. Could I convert the insides of the iMac into a mod/custom pc?  From my research, all of the parts in the Mac are relatively standard, but am wondering if anyone is aware of reasons why it wouldn’t work. Normally I would order the replacement screen but the cheapest I could find is 900 dollars! I’m thinking to make this a reality I would need a new case that fits the iMac motherboard or maybe a new motherboard. What do you all think?  I think the specs are still decent too

 

 

    
27-inch iMac              
    
Configuration

•    NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780M 4GB GDDR5
•    3.5GHz Quad-core Intel Core i7, Turbo Boost up to 3.9GHz
•    16GB 1600MHz DDR3 SDRAM - 2X8GB
•    3TB Serial ATA Drive @ 7200 rpm
•    Magic Trackpad
•    BATTERY CHARGER 065-C1J9 NO APPLE BATTERY CHARGER
•    PAGES 065-C13D NONE
•    NUMBERS 065-C13F NONE
•    KEYNOTE 065-C13G NONE
•    Apple Keyboard with Numeric Keypad (English) & User's Guide
•    Accessory Kit

[Zando_]

6 minutes ago, NikB said:

all of the parts in the Mac are relatively standard, but am wondering if anyone is aware of reasons why it wouldn’t work.

iMac motherboards are completely custom, as well as the PSU (which is exposed so you shouldn't be using it outside of the iMac case it was built to go in in the first place. Also that GPU is a mobile one that's soldered to the board, although the CPU should be standard socketed (non-standard cooler mount though IIRC, Apple uses a custom cooling solution due to the iMac form factor). 

If it has display outs on the back, maaaybe you could build a custom chassis that's more compact than the original and just use it with a external monitor? Probably not worth the effort tho tbh. 

[curiousmind34]

imo just get a replacement display and fix the imac as is, no advantage of turning it into a tower type pc

[jaslion]

As said just get a replacement screen. They aren't expensive and at worst you sell it on and get a nice bit of profit as this is one of the highest end imacs of the time and those sell for a lot and quickly.

 

As a gaming pc this thing is weak. Don't let the 780m fool you. Current gen integrated graphics are better than it.

[NikB]

5 minutes ago, jaslion said:

As said just get a replacement screen. They aren't expensive and at worst you sell it on and get a nice bit of profit as this is one of the highest end imacs of the time and those sell for a lot and quickly.

 

As a gaming pc this thing is weak. Don't let the 780m fool you. Current gen integrated graphics are better than it.

Where would you recommend selling it? The $900 screen replacement is a good chunk of money, so I’m curious what sort of profit would be possible if I were to do it. Any idea on a fair price for this one?

[Zando_]

2 minutes ago, NikB said:

Where would you recommend selling it? The $900 screen replacement is a good chunk of money, so I’m curious what sort of profit would be possible if I were to do it. Any idea on a fair price for this one?

What model iMac is it? 

[NikB]

12 minutes ago, Zando Bob said:

What model iMac is it? 

 

[jaslion]

23 minutes ago, NikB said:

Where would you recommend selling it? The $900 screen replacement is a good chunk of money, so I’m curious what sort of profit would be possible if I were to do it. Any idea on a fair price for this one?

A used screen is like 200$ tops.

[Zando_]

12 minutes ago, NikB said:

-snip-

Oooooh it's an iMac 5K, that makes sense. 

4 minutes ago, jaslion said:

A used screen is like 200$ tops.

^^^ You'll defo want to hunt a used panel. They're 5K and high quality panels on top of that, plus I doubt these specific ones are made much anymore, if at all, so they'd be quite expensive new. 

[NikB]

5 minutes ago, jaslion said:

A used screen is like 200$ tops.

If you find one send it to me! I’ve looked for 6 months and the cheapest I’ve found was $850

[jaslion]

1 minute ago, NikB said:

If you find one send it to me! I’ve looked for 6 months and the cheapest I’ve found was $850

Didn't realize it was the 5k

Either way those still sell for a lot even with a broken screen so legit just sell it and buy yourself a gaming laptop or something. I kid you not these will go for 700$ easily according to ebay sold without a screen even.

[caincha]

The CPU is socketed but you won't find a better one for this model. And the 2013 model is not 5k, it is 4k - the 5k display came with the 2015 model onwards and the display cables are different.

It is not worth it to buy a new display - as you already know they are very expensive.

It is cheaper to buy another iMac on eBay - say a 2012 with lowest specs - and use that screen on yours then sell the broken one for parts on eBay. At the end of the day when factoring the money you recover from selling the broken iMac your final cost should be less than half what you would pay for a brand new display.

 

I know for a fact it is cheaper to buy a used iMac than buying a brand new display as I went through similar problem: had a 2015 27" and broke the screen when upgrading the CPU and soldering an IR receiver on the board (past 2012 they don't have IR anymore and I like to watch movies on mine). 

Then I did exactly as I described above

 

Then once you open it up to replace the display you can also install an SSD but I am not sure if this model has SATA or M.2 for the second drive. Check this on iFixit.

And you could 'join' both drivers later on and make it a Fusion Drive if you like the comfort of having just 'one' drive instead of one.

 

Quote

 

Create Fusion Drive

Open Terminal and type:

-sudo diskutil list

-diskutil coreStorage create Macintosh /dev/disk1 /dev/disk2

-the UUID is the unique identifier you want to copy

-diskutil coreStorage createVolume 50B457C3-ADC6-4EDC-9ABA-FD8C6EEDE69A jhfs+ "Macintosh" 100%

 

 

As for gaming depends on the game. You can install Windows via Bootcamp but I installed straight from the USB then installed the Bootcamp drivers later on.

I played Ace Combat 7 with no issues but I'd argue newer AAA games would not play on highest settings though…