DIY project brings the Apple M1 SoC to an old Apple iMac

Apple is expected to overhaul the iMac later this year, with a redesign and a shift to its in-house SoCs supposedly due for the all-in-one machine. While we may be a few months away from the release of new iMacs, YouTuber Luke Miani has taken it upon himself to realise an Apple Silicon-based iMac before Apple releases one.

Using an old 27-inch iMac, Miani replaced its internals with the guts of an M1-based Mac mini and an adapter kit to convert the iMac's proprietary display connection to something that the Mac mini could use. If you are interested in undertaking the project, then you can find the adapter kit on eBay. The kit costs US$79 at the time of writing.

The result is a more powerful iMac that also consumes less power. However, it is not without its pitfalls. Arguably, the greatest one is the device's ports, which Miani left as is. As he points out in the video below, he has to lift the screen each time he wants to power on the device, making its ports inaccessible, more or less.

More elegant solutions should not be too difficult to achieve either, such as fitting a USB hub to the iMac's back. Additionally, you could enable Wake on LAN or for the machine to automatically start up after a power failure, which would mitigate the power button problem.

Purchase the Apple Mac mini M1 on Amazon