My laptop has been having problems not charging and the top row of the keyboard stopped working. In my pursuit of a replacement I realized how ridiculously cheap Intel iMacs have become.

And then I realized that you can gut them and convert them into an insanely good computer monitor after the internals die.

I was looking for a dead one but somehow managed to get my hands on a working 5k 2017 iMac for $150. God the display is glorious.

For the time being Im just going to use the existing internals since they’re still functioning.

I installed Fedora on an external drive and everything seems to be functional. I managed to get fractional scaling functioning. However the output only goes up to 4k. And while thats still really nice, the extra resolution does make an obvious difference when sitting ~1 foot away.

Has anyone been able to get 5k working?

  • the_wise_wolf@feddit.org
    3·
    2 months ago

    It depends on the displayport version. DP 1.2 only supports 4k. DP 1.4 supports more. So if it’s an older display that only supports DP 1.2, you have to use the two screens hack. I never tried that, though.

      • Kazumara
        5·
        2 months ago

        In laptops the internal screen is usually attached over embedded Displayport (eDP) could be the same here. “native” doesn’t really say much.

      • the_wise_wolf@feddit.org
        3·
        2 months ago

        Not sure what these internal connections are, but Displayport is both a plug and a protocol. You can use the protocol over thunderbolt and maybe other connections as well.