Apple said it expects to switch the entire Mac product line over to its own silicon by the end of 2022. YouTuber Luke Miani didn’t want to wait that long for the company to update the iMac, however, so he decided to build one with an M1 chip himself.
Miani started with an iMac that he “completely fried” in 2018 and a new Mac mini. From there all he needed was a bevy of tools from iFixIt—which sponsored the video—and a converter that allowed the iMac to be used as an external monitor.
The resulting DIY Mac had some limitations. It suffered from poor wireless connectivity, lacked any ports, and could only be turned on by removing the display. Some of those issues could be worked around with more extensive mods, however.
Should most people attempt mods like this? Probably not. It would be easier to simply use the iMac as an external monitor, and for anyone who doesn’t have an iMac just lying around, buying an actual monitor would be even better still.
But it’s not hard to see the appeal of an iMac featuring Apple silicon. The M1-equipped MacBook Pro offers better performance than the latest iMac in a variety of benchmarks despite being much smaller and using significantly less power.
Bloomberg reported in January that Apple plans to release a redesigned iMac later this year. These new models would reportedly feature “a design similar to Apple’s Pro Display XDR monitor” with ”a flat back” instead of the curved one used today.
The report said the new iMac would feature Apple silicon, too, but didn’t specifically name the M1 chip. Perhaps the company will use the extra space in the iMac’s case for a chip that supports additional ports and offers even greater performance.
Or maybe it will just cram more of the so-called Fusion Drives—hybrid drives that offer a small amount of SSD-based storage to complement larger HDDs—even though it’s 2021. Miani’s video showed there will be plenty of space for them.
