iMac parts to PC possible?

[Laytonoid]

Hello everyone!

My Grandparents have an iMac which has some decent parts in it. This is the baseline 2011 iMac. Is it possible to transfer parts from the iMac and make a PC out of any or all of the iMac?

 

[jetfighter545]

No. Most of the parts are customised, but a CPU or GPU might be salvageable if it was a good iMac. Apple isn't too supportive when it comes to changing parts.

 

[Solandri]

The iMacs use a mix of laptop and desktop parts, so many of the components will not be transferable to a desktop PC. You may be able to salvage the CPU as it's usually a desktop CPU. The RAM is usually laptop RAM. And the HDD is usually a desktop 3.5" HDD. The video card is usually a laptop card soldered to the motherboard.

Look for your iMac here to get a complete list of parts.
http://www.everymac.com/systems/apple/imac/index-imac.html

 

[Calculagator]

First, a working iMac is worth way more than you could get for the parts. You can still sell even an older imac for a pretty good price. If you would prefer a non-imac, sell the thing and build a new machine. If it's in good condition, it should be worth at least $400.

If you are intent on scrapping the thing, you can reuse the CPU: it's probably an i5 2400s. You will need an LGA 1155 (sandy bridge) motherboard.
You can reuse the RAM-iMacs us SODIMMs, so you could use the RAM in a laptop or small form factor PC that uses SODIMMs.
You can reuse the hard drive-it's just a standard disk.
You could remove the GPU, but it would only be useable in another iMac.