So, I got an older g5 iMac for free from my brother-in-law because it was acting up on him. When I first got it, it worked fine for me! But after a few months, it would just start shutting down randomly…and eventually it wouldn’t turn on at all.

I took it to the Apple Store and they told me it was the power-supply. Well, Apple doesn’t sell the power-supply for those old units anymore and that I would have to look on eBay. So I did and they are like $100. Well…since I’m cheap and I still had my working PC, I didn’t want to drop that for this computer.

I started looking around and I found this site (http://supercollidercomputers.wordpress.com/2010/04/16/diy-imac-g5-power-supply-atx-external/) which gave a tutorial of how to wire an ATX into the older iMacs. While it doesn’t look pretty, it does the job! So I gave it a shot.

I took a power-supply from an old Dell Optiplex I had…followed the tutorial and it worked! Well…by “worked” I mean it powered on but with no screen. =( This is common I guess with the 20″ models…which is what I have. So I had to go on eBay and get an external monitor adapter for $6 (that I can drop on this!) and VOILA! Hooked up my KVM switch and now I can swap back and forth from my mac to my dell with ease!

If you have the time and don’t mind potentially frying your mac, it’s worth a shot!