Apple Macintosh Pro - Apple Mac Mini modification.

What I did


I started this project July 2013 and it took about a month to finish. The main part was collecting parts to make it. It started with winning a Macintosh Classic on eBay that was broken for £45. I also won an Apple mac mini for £110. I had already thought about combining the two so I bought a cheap LCD monitor from China that measures 8 inches. I had to wait for all the parts to arrive, The Classic was the first to arrive followed by the Mac mini and some parts such as LED Fans and cables.
(Left image is the classic next to my restored SE)


The longest wait was for the TV to arrive, in the mean time I painted the case black to match the Pro peripherals. I know I may of spoiled the vintage charm but the case was scratched, stained horribly with rust and had numerous scuffs and dents. I sanded down the rough parts and rubbed off the rust and dirt which left it looking a bit oddly colored so I primed it and painted it black. I thought white would be a bad idea and I already had a black keyboard and mouse. I swapped the Apple logo onto my restored SE as it was in mint condition and took the tatty one from the SE which was faded and scratched from being in a school and badly mistreated and painted it white to keep with the old/new theme. The reason for this will made clear soon though I will say now I did this to go with the color scheme.

shortly after doing this I got the screen. So I mounted it right away to see how it looked. it looked really good. I mounted it on the back of the Classic's faceplate with four original motherboard screws and 8 washers. I used a small washer and a larger washer, this hugged the screen onto the faceplate. I have seen mods where it as been glued or taped on. I didn't like this idea as I am a perfectionist. I cut the from floppy disk groove a little more so a disk could fit through it as I plan to attach an external slim slot in disk drive. I was going to use the Mac mini's disk drive and mount it on the faceplate but I don't want to make anything too permanent, I want to be able to take the mac mini out if I ever have to. I don't have the material to make a frame inside so I stood it inside near the vent holes so it could keep ventilated. once I had it all together I gave it a test run.

 

 My Macintosh Pro test.

After I tested it and was happy with how it was going to go together I took it apart again even though I just wanted to use it as much as possible. I bought more paint and sanded (wet/dry) the faceplate where some marks had appeared. I wanted to make sure the new groove was smooth and looked like it belonged. I gave it a stronger coat of paint and also added a clear coat to protect it. While painting it I decided to make a stencil of Steve Jobs for the rear and paint the peripheral area white. and then added a white stripe to the front to keep in with the color pattern.

 My stencil.

 

I added two case fans to the vent at the back and the vent under the handle slot and makes the whole thing glow blue though the vent holes when its dark, it looks really great and also keeps the whole thing cool. to power it on I added a 4 point power extension, this allowed me to plug in the TV, the Mac mini and a USB power adapter. This allowed me to run the fans from the power rather than the USB of the computer, and also a powered USB hub.  I plan to wire this up to the original rear power kettle lead plug and power switch. I cut the switch out of the apple mac mini and extended the wire by soldering extra wire in and gluing it into one of the circular holes. I will add some USB points into the old SCSI ports.

Once I had it all back together I got the internet working on it through a USB Wifi adapter. I added some music and set it up on my desk and played around with it. I'm very attached to it and will have it set up as my secondary Computer, maybe for playing music. I use a mac book pro for most of what I do.



I will add some system information and some other specs and resource links

Things I'd change for a MK2.

Better screen - Listed as having a VGA port but didn't have a VGA port though oddly it came with a cable for one and was pictured with one. China huh? also its very hard to read small text.

Better Mac mini I would like a newer mac mini inside it so I can upgrade it to 2gb of ram. the mini I use now is limited to 1 gb

Original colour - I would need a better condition shell for this. maybe an SE which would be easier.


Things still to finish.

Add a DVD drive

Tidy the cables inside and tie everything up. At the moment I am still taking things out and re arranging the insides I need the above before sorting this out.

better interior speakers - the speakers inside the TV are way too small.

I need to fix a third fan inside and add some more blue case lights for my own taste.

 Think different