Macintosh 2004 Author: Alexandre Petraglia, Gino Pellicano, and Jim Scouras

“On January 24 [1984], Apple Computer will introduce Macintosh. And you’ll see why 1984 won’t be like ‘1984’.”

This was the pronouncement at the end of Apple's commercial, which TV Guide magazine would later deem the greatest commercial of all time. Aired during the 1983 Super Bowl, the now famous Apple Macintosh “1984” commercial informed the world that the age of modern, home PC’s was coming. Get ready. Here comes the Mac.

Apple successfully launched the Macintosh 128K on it’s designated date of January 24th, 1984 (although somehow I don’t imagine there were lines out the door of the Apple store, stretching for blocks and blocks and blocks, as seen here). But nonetheless, what a magnificent computer it was. Equipped with an 8Mhz CPU made by Motorola, 128kb of onboard memory, a 3.5” floppy drive, two serial ports, and a gorgeous black and white monitor built into the unit, the Macintosh was the first affordable home computer to include a GUI (graphical user interface). And the price for all that power? $2,500.

So, one can only imagine my disgust when I happened to see one of these glorious creatures sitting on the curb by a neighbor’s house, patiently waiting to be lifted into the truck by our friendly, local sanitation workers, and then carried off to a dump where it would lay to rest in happy retirement for ages to come.

I could have reprimanded my neighbors, or I could have let the Mac be taken away. Why do things happen as they do? Perhaps fate intervened, as I’m quite certain I recall seeing a slight shiver in the corner of the Mac’s screen as I firmly grasped it’s conveniently located handle (and taking the keyboard and external drive that lay on the grass next to it). Could it have possibly known all that lay in store for it; my ambitious plans for granting it a new lease on life? Perhaps…

Whatever the case, the rescued computer resided on a shelf in my dungeon laboratory basement for six months. Finally, one fateful day in December, the Mac’s slumber was awoken yet again. It was time for the Mac to be reborn.

That’s right, for all those that have caught on to where I’m going with all this. I had plans as ambitious as the great Dr. Frankenstein. I was going to give a dead soul life once again. I was going to rebuild the first modern-day PC, with modern-day parts…20 years later.

Ladies and gentlemen, I proudly present my creation…Macintosh 2004.

Here she is, in all her glory. Oh, this is before the makeover, mind you. If you’re the inpatient type, you could scroll down to the end of this article and see what it looks like in all its final glory. But that’s not recommended, for it’s not always about the destination, but the journey as well, my friends.

To begin, here are some more “before” pictures.

The component list:
-AMD Athlon XP 2500+ Barton CPU
-MSI KM400 Socket A mATX Motherboard (Model KM4M-L)
-Kingston HyperX PC2700 512MB (2x256)
-Sapphire Radeon 9600 256MB
-Western Digital WD800JB 80GB Hard Drive
-Lite-On LDW-411S 4x DVD-RW Drive
-Sparkle 350W FSP350-60BT Powersupply
-Thermalright AX-7 Heatsink with AOC Aluminum 80mm Fan
-3 (1 red, 1 blue, 1 green) LazerLED’s

Sure, we could have gone with a VIA Epia Mini based system, saved some money, and would have had no worries about fitting all the components. But quite honestly, where would the fun in that have been? This had to be a decent gaming rig as well, not just something with which to type in Word and check emails.

Formal plans or blueprints beforehand? Little to non-existent, which would prove to be our biggest regret. We did, however, incorporate several predetermined “ideas”, for lack of a better term. The first of which was the window, which was mounted in place of the screen. This provided a nice view of the interior, and gave us the opportunity to show off the essence of the project, as depicted by the window appliqué. Although things didn’t quite work out exactly as planned, we nevertheless fit all the elements necessary to pay homage to the first PC onto the window.

Secondly, as you’ll see later on, it was no small task to accommodate all of the components inside this tiny case. We knew that the motherboard had to be mounted vertically on one side of the case. We had hoped that we would be able to mount it upside down (so that the rear connectors could be facing out back) on the left side, in order to preserve the signatures on the inside of the case, as seen below. As you may already know, all those who worked on the original 1984 Macintosh had their names etched into the rear interior of the case. While the motherboard was, in fact, mounted upside down on the left, the visibility of the signatures, sadly, was impossible to maintain.

Lastly, since the DVD drive was facing out the front of the case, where the floppy drive once resided, it would need to be stealthed, so as to provide as plain an appearance as possible.

Day 1:
Armed with a Dremel, an unopened pack of cutting wheels, a shiny new Canon A80, and a case full of tools and supplies at our disposal, the project commenced on a brisk day in late December, in a backyard in a lovely suburb of Long Island, New York.

The freshly gutted Mac sat on a worktable, ready for its renovation.

The first job was to create the window. After some measuring the open space in the front bezel, preparing the Plexiglas, and lots of remeasurements, Alex took the Dremel and cut away.

Not the cleanest cut, but not to worry, for the edges of the window would be covered. After spending entirely too long to take the paper backing off the window, we drilled the holes in the plexi where it would attach to the inside, front of the case.

Then, the appliqué courtesy of The Shattered Web, was applied. And that’s where the problem arose. We had accidentally switched the dimensions when giving the design to the kind folks over at the Shattered Web. Therefore, it was impossible to do the layout I had hoped for, as shown earlier. With a little quick planning and rearranging, we were able to suitably position everything on the window. Here’s the reworked layout, as seen on the completed window:

We were extremely impressed with how nice the window turned out. A little scratched, but none the worse for wear. If you are ever in the market for a appliqué, for your PC, car, what have you, I highly recommend looking to The Shattered Web as resource.

Next, it was time to clean up the inside of the case, by removing any excess plastic pieces that would hinder the placement of the components later on.

Note the two plastic pieces at the bottom that remained. These were retained to hold the original metal frame in place. Thank goodness we didn’t remove those pieces, and did save the frame. Otherwise, things would have proven to be even more difficult.

Our final task of the day was to position all the components inside the Mac. Amazingly, after some maneuvering, we managed to get everything to fit, and called it a day.

Day 2:
And what a day it was. Working a solid eleven hours, we were able to finish the brunt of the project on this day.

The most time-consuming part of the entire project proved to be the DVD drive. Between removing the faceplate, cutting a new piece from the external drive, cutting the section out of the front bezel, sanding everything down, attaching the new faceplate, and then lining it all up perfectly, this part alone took well over four hours. Several pieces of wood gave the drive the height it needed, and we did make good use of a Popsicle stick lying about, which served to bridge the gap between the faceplate and the drive tray quite nicely.

The hard drive was mounted to the bottom of the frame, upside down. The DVD drive sat on the wood attached to the frame. The PSU sat on top of the DVD drive, and attached to the inside, right side of the case with some spare Velcro. The motherboard, too, was attached to the case by Velcro, although the majority of the weight was held by the metal frame. Sections of the rear of the case were cut out as well, to make room for the rear panel connectors and the PSU fan.

Everything was mounted once again in place inside the case. Quite amazingly, the computer started up with no problem (considering the beating all the components took getting in and out of the case over and over again). After a clean install of Windows, things were running along smoothly.

And so, Day 2 came to a close.

Day 3:
The third and final day. All that was left now was to mount the window in place, route the wires as neatly as possible, and position the lights. As usual, easier said then done.

A dab of glue was applied to each hole in the case for the window before the screws were inserted. After more than a little bit of maneuvering, all the wires were routed. And finally, after much debate as to how they should be positioned, the LED’s were all mounted in place.

We closed up the case, and gave it a whirl.

And now, the moment you’ve all been waiting for, the finished project.

By the numbers:
-Hours spent working on project: 22
-Dremel cutting wheels used: 7 (plus a sanding wheel that was mistakenly used as a cutting wheel…yeah)
-Fingers lost to said cutting wheels: 0
-Fingers burned by hot glue gun: 2
-Pieces of pizza consumed: 25
-Apple Trademarks violated: let’s not go there…

Well, we couldn’t be more pleased with the results. Macintosh 2004 was as great a success as one could have imagined. A perfect little project, if we do say so.

We thank you for interest, and wish you a happy, mod-filled 2004.

-Alex, Gino, Jim, and the entire Primotech Staff

Quotes that shall go down in history:
- “This thing is hot…literally”- Ginome in reference to the CPU temperature
- “Gino, there are a lot of verbs to describe you. Smart isn’t one of them”- Alex (not his finest moment)
- “Sheep!”- Scourssky
- “Uh…”- Chris, a bit confused
- “Airflow is so overated”- Alex, making note of the fact that the majority of the heatsink’s fan is blocked
- “Awesome”-Isaac (being modest, as usual)
- “We shall prevail”- Creepy guy with glasses on-screen in commercial

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