Payton Place

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A little while ago I was given an iBook with a faulty screen (as in not working at all).
Having a hard time just throwing it away, I was looking for a way to put it to use even though it was a fairly old 500mhz G3 ibook.
Things being as they were, I thought the only thing to do was using it as a server even if it would mean quite a makeover – hence the fun.

First of all we need to take the iBook apart to remove screen, optical drive and battery. All of these aren’t necessary since we are building a server. “But what about restoring of OSX – don’t we need the hard-drive for that?” Actually, you don’t, since you can do it just as well in target mode from another hard-drive. Another thing we need to keep in mind is that we really want to keep the footprint of the iBook as small as possible.

Before taking an iBook apart I strongly recommend visiting ifixit’s guide on how to disassemble an iBook so that nothing unintentionally gets broken.

I take absolutely no responsibility for any destroyed iBook. Making this is your own responsibility !!!

Carefully remove the Power circuit board without breaking the cables for it. The next thing to do is cutting the alu-frame as shown with the red markings (see picture below). Be very careful!!! The frame breaks easily.

Remove the modem-port. This is done easily just by gently pulling of the wires from the logic-board and thereafter the modem port itself. Now we have room for the power-plug.

The next step is to remove the power-plug from the power circuit board and afterwards solder 5 extension wires between the two. These should be about 20cm in length. This is done because there isn’t room for the power circuit board, when the incasing is fully assembled. Mount the power-plug with some tape with glue on both sides.

The last thing we need to do before assembly is to take off the old power button and replace it with a new one that would be easier to build in. It is easily soldered on the same wires as the old one. Drill a small hole (that fits the diameter of the new power button) into the alu-frame and mount it. The result should look as the picture above.
Cut the lower case so it fits the footprint of the alu-frame and mount it.

Use some tape with glue on both sides to hold the Power circuit board on to the lower case and some duck-tape for the power-cords. The end result should look as the picture above.

Cut the upper case so it fits the footprint of the alu-frame and the lower case. Cut a hole for the power switch in the corner, mount the upper case and use some tape to hold the wires in place on the upper case. The result should look as below.

Backview

The next step is to pimp the server up a bit, so it doesn’t just look like half an iBook.
I went to my nearest second-hand book pusher and found a hardback that fitted my chopped iBook in thickness and footprint. I brought it home and gutted it, leaving only the cover for my project. To hold the iBook together with the cardboard-back use two angled pieces of plastic (about 15cm long) and glue each of them at the inside of the cardboard-back so that they’ll work as a rest for the iBook to stand on (as shown on the image below).

First I thought about wrapping the book using the remaining Leopard plush I had from my OSX Leopard ready hard-drive project but it didn’t seem right since OSX Leopard won’t run on a G3 processor. Besides, a plush leopard HDD is pimp, but to make a server as well, would make me look as if I was playing for the wrong team…
So eventually I decided to use a matted black plastic film to wrap it in and decorate it with one of my many Apple stickers from the countless Apple products I’ve bought and some letter stickers from my local bookstore.
What remains is a way to ensure that the half iBook doesn’t end up on the floor when handling the server… For that I’d simply use velcro-tape at the bottom of the half iBook and the rest-plates, making it quite simple to disassemble the server, but also holding the half iBook in place when handled.

Some thoughts about the project.:
I did have some concern that there would be a heat problem after the modding, but this wasn’t the case, since I’ve had it running for some time now with no problems at all.

I didn’t have the time for finding a solution for building in Airport. That will have to come later. Meanwhile there’s a lot of info about the subject if you google it.

Oh god! Oh why even build it when a Mac mini has just about the same volume and isn’t all that expensive? Well. First of all, I already had the iBook so making the project costed me a fraction of the price of a new Mac mini. Second: A Mac mini wouldn’t fit so neatly on my bookshelf. Third: Because I’m able to do so and love the challenge.

Read this article in Jive thanks to gizoogle.com
Or some other language with translate.google.com

I guess I’m one of the lucky ones who have several 2,5″ HDD laying around without a box – thereby rendering them somewhat useless. I went down to the local computer pusher to buy a suitable case (with both Firewire & USB2 of course).

I found a case that met my demands – however it was rather hideous, and being a Mac-guy and all, I knew something had to change… So what to do? Paint it? Hmm nope… Painting plastic and aluminum usually leaves a result worse than what I started with…

So I thought “Hey… Let’s wrap it to go with the new OSX”.

Tadaaaa! A furry OSX Leopard ready portable harddrive.

A special thanks to Jason at O’Grady’s Powerpage For good advice…

EDIT:
Here is what you need: 50×50cm of Leopard patterned (furry) plush (5$ – any decent girlfriend should be able to drag you to her nearest fabric-pusher), some fabric glue suitable for both cloth and aluminum (5$) and of course a suitable HDD-cabinet – preferably one that is made like a tube with end-pieces (around 65$). Then it’s just play n’ pray and you’ve got yourself an external harddrive to go with Leopard.