jb111s

Been after a 27" cinema display to complete my hackintosh setup. Come very close to buying one, but always been put off by the price & the fact I'd also have to spend £100 on another converter to allow dual link dvi to be converted to mdp.

In the end I ended up buying one of the Korean models which have the same LED panel (Achieva Shimian 27). Been really pleased with this monitor for the last 6 months but the thing just looks cheap and nasty on my desk & completely out of place with all my nice shiny apple stuff.

After a bit of browsing on ebay for cinema displays I found a broken one for sale as parts. LCD and front glass was smashed so sold as parts only for £150.

Did a bit of googling to see what the insides of the Shimian were like & whether it would be possible to put inside a cinema display chassis. Whilst the Apple cinema display consists of 2 large logic boards, speakers, subwoofer etc, the cheapy korean's only have 1 small circuit board that does everything & a very tiny power board.

Went for it & gutted all the insides from the ACD & put my panel in without problem. Couldn't quite fit both the Shimian's board in, but came close. The problem was the DVI cable was a bit too thick & the internal leads from the circuit board to the panel were a bit too short

Came up with a compromise & have the circuit board outside of the chassis & have ordered a project box that I'm going to fit this into & attach to the rear of the monitor. Not dangerous as such a low voltage (shimian has an external power brick).

Doesn't bother me as the back isn't visible, but very pleased to now have a proper cinema display to match the rest of my hackintosh.

Got a new glass panel on order from ebay & then she'll be complete! Looks a bit scruffy at the back but this will be tidied up once project box attached to the back.