Let's kick this thing off: What to do with a Ruby iMac?

My parents gave me the Ruby iMac DV that I bought brand new when I was in high school. In time, I upgraded it to 512+ MB of RAM and Jaguar. Now it sits in my basement.

Any ideas on what to do with it? It's in perfect shape and works exactly like it should. I already have a Mini as my media server, it's not really fast enough to be an internet station. Maybe a rec-area jukebox? Rip the guts out and install a mini-itx motherboard, Core i7, and 15" Dell LCD?

Something else?

Fish tank? Not as awesome as the classic mac tanks though.

GPS for one of your bikes? It would be like fairing.

Had a couple Classic fish tanks. Pretty sure Mom and Dad tossed those years ago.

Dug around and found the thread from 2002 where I posted pics of my Classic MacQuarium, but whatever domain I used to host the images is long gone.

http://forums.macnn.com/73/hardware-...my-macquarium/

Depending on how the internals are doing, put OS 9 on it and use it as a machine to play old games, mess around with old Mac apps, and play music. You won't do a whole lot of browsing though - Classilla is still pretty unstable with more than a couple tabs open. It should be fine for MP3s, though.

If you're more into the design of the case than the internals, I'd say gut it and turn it into a modern machine with a small board. Put several hard drives in it and turn it into a server for backing up your stuff, or if you're interested in learning more geeky stuff (web dev, server admin, etc.), put Linux on it and go to town.

Also, make it the cutest PSX ever by running Connectix Virtual Game Station on it. :)

http://macintoshcollection.files.wor...5945.jpg?w=487

http://macintoshcollection.files.wor...5855.jpg?w=487

good idea angel. i also use my g3 in 9 for a couple of accounting programs but i don't think anyone is going to hold their breath for those. my g3 is also the only computer i have hooked up to a printer and i use appleworks to print letters. (only about 6 per year) now i've got to investigate some playstation 1 games.

One advice; do not convert it into a fish tank or something like that. Original iMacs are/will be collector´s items by now/in a few years...

in addition, your ruby imac was made when cd was king and there are a ton of specialty encyclopedia cd-rom titles out there that go for a fraction of the cost when they were new.

Yeah, and how many of those still have the Berlin Wall? :D

Incidentally, we played Sim Cinema last night on my new IIci. It was pretty awesome to see who the expensive actors/actresses and directors were in the early 90s.

Will Smith was on the cheap end; Jim Carey was at the very top. The actress list actually included Helen Hunt, and James Cameron was as expensive as Steven Spielberg.