MacPC - The Next Evolutionary Step

OK, the Mac world will hate me, the PC world won't be fond of me - but I don't care.

This crazy stunt was designed to save CompactMacs from Maquariums and was in part inspired by Stuart Bell and his work building his Takky Power Colour Classic.

So here's the senario. You just aquired and old SE. You plug it in, switch it on and...

NADA!!
Intensive internal surgery is unsucessfull and the analogue board looks like a minor battle was fought on it.

So...

Don't reach for sheets of perspex and a silicone gun (to build a Macquarium)...

Build a MacPC...

Usual disclaimer... This is not a tutorial, it is a description of the steps I took to attempt to convert a Mac SE into a PC. I/We take no responsibility for any damage you do to yourself, your property, your data or anything else. If you continue to read on then it signifies that should you decide to undertake such a project, you do so under these conditions.

Motivation
The portibility of a Compact Mac with the Windows OS - (Don't get me wrong here. I use Linux and MacOS more than Windows however, it is the most widely used OS in the world on desktop machines.)

The Spec
Well, this was an experiment machine so the spec is fairly poor - although a huge inprovement on the innards of the SE! Pentium 90 MHz CPU, Generic SS7 Motherboard, 64MB RAM, 9" Monochrome Display, 8MB S3 Virge GX PCI Graphics Card, 1.6GB IDE HDD.

Project Diary
September 7th 2000 - Donor Mac SE arrives from Tim Hodgson no thanks to Parcel Farce. Begin by cracking 'er open and ripping out the insides to inspect the chassis. The chassis needs some work to accomodate the new board (see below). The old SCSI HDD and floppy are removed.
See changes to chassis
The new mainboard was offered up in order to work out how much of the chassis was to be cut away. There were some problems with getting the new board to fit.
See changes to mainboard

September 8th 2000 - The new mainboard is fitted for the first time.
See mainboard fitted

September 14th 2000 - I've been kinda busy at college the last week so I haven't had bags of time to make progress. I have started to think about video circuitry.

September 15th 2000 - I tried my wiring setup today with a standard PC and the SE logicboard and CRT. See how things went

September 27th 2000 - Fitted the PC floppy drive into case. Click here

That's as far as I've got so far. This is an ongoing project so check back for more updates.

Alex Harrington, Kristyan Osborne