Enter the Mac IIci

Macs were huge on our campus when I attended college in the early 90’s. I remember stopping by the computer store at our University Center, face at the window, staring at the (then) shiny new Macs on display. Even with the educational discounts back then, a new Mac would have set me back between $4000 to $6000: money I simply didn’t have as a poor college student. So while I drooled after the latest Macs through showrooms or magazines, buying one was never an option.

Truth be told, the Mac line didn’t really catch my eye until Apple released the Mac II series. Unlike conventional “toaster” shaped Macs like the SE or Plus, the Mac II line featured expansion slots. If need be, one could easily open up the machine to add new drives, memory or expansion cards. Plus, the Mac II line was notable for including color support out of the box. I remember using the Mac II to learn VersaCAD in my engineering drafting course. (I made a CAD model of the Star Trek NC-1709 Enterprise.)

While I used many Macs in college (the Plus, the Mac II, and the SE/30 were scattered throughout our campus), it was the Mac IIci model that really caught my fancy. Perhaps I felt that way because the IIci reminded me, in several ways, of my beloved Apple IIGS. Both machines shared the same clean, platinum lines coupled with easy-to-pop top. Both machines could make use of the same ADB keyboard and one-button mouse. Many of my college engineering professors had a Mac IIci on their desks and I remember being more than a little envious.

Fast forward 25 years. For the princely sum of $15 plus shipping, I now have my very own Mac IIci. Granted, the unit I have consists of only the case and drive bays, but that’s exactly what I wanted. The IIci case arrived home in solid shape, with a few minor marks on the side. The unit itself was dusty, but the drive bays and chassis were intact. If at all possible, I’d like to keep these drive bays as part of the new build.

Here’s what the inside of the IIci looks like with the drive bay removed.

While cleaning the inside of the case, I discovered signatures from the IIci’s design team.

I have no desire to run the classic Mac OS, so the lack of the original motherboard or processor doesn’t bother me. My grand vision is to take this Mac IIci, populate it with some PC hardware, and ultimately turn it into a Hackintosh running the latest flavor of OS X. I had so much fun building my own Hackintosh last year that I want to do it again this year.

It won’t be easy, but that’s the plan. The biggest challenge is to keep the case as is, without any cutting or modification to the case. I haven’t found any information on modding a IIci into a Hackintosh. In fact, in my searches, I’ve only run across one other person on the Internet who has modded a Mac IIci to convert it to a PC, but he ended up hacking the back of the case in the process. Another gentleman took an iMac logic board and placed it into the IIci, cutting a hole in front of the IIci case to accomodate a CD drive. I’d like to preserve the case and work around the constraints as best as I can.

As I see it, three big challenges in this build are:

1) mounting the new motherboard to the IIci’s chassis. The IIci’s base only has one screw hole in the center, so I need some ideas on how to properly secure the motherboard to the case.
2) finding a power supply that will fit flush towards the back of the unit, preferably using the existing ports on the back of the IIci, with easy access to the ON/OFF switch
3) plugging cables (DVI, etc.) through the IIci’s slots.

I’m leaning towards an ITX motherboard because it will give me more space for cabling and adding internal drives. I thought about taking my existing Hackintosh (aka MacBeast) and moving its components to the new case, but doing so will prevent me from using that machine for daily production work. So that option’s out. Building a IIci Hackintosh will be a long term project, in that I will be saving up to add components to the build as funds become available. Or, I could just throw a Raspberry Pi inside and call it a day. ;)

I will be blogging the build process, but the updates will be spread out over a few months. Your advice and feedback on this build are always welcomed.

-Krishna

Update: I think I may have found a suitable motherboard holder, made by a company called moddiy.com.

Update 2: Shortly after this article posted, I discovered a plethora of vintage Macworld magazines you can read online. It’s a terrific way to wax nostalgic for a bygone era in computing.

Krishna February 27, 2016 Apple, Hackintosh, Mac IIci, Retro