Raspberry Pi enables world’s smallest iMac
This project goes a step further than most custom-made Raspberry Pi cases: YouTuber Michael Pick hacked a Raspberry Pi 4 and stuffed it inside this Apple lookalike to create the world’s smallest ‘iMac’.

Michael designed and 3D printed this miniature ‘iMac’ with what he calls a “gently modified” Raspberry Pi 4 at the heart. Everything you see is hand-painted and -finished to achieve an authentic, sleek Apple look.

Even after all that power tool sparking, this miniature device is capable of playing Minecraft at 1000 frames per second. Michael was set on making the finished project as thin as possible, so he had to slice off a couple of his Raspberry Pi’s USB ports and the Ethernet socket to make everything fit inside the tiny, custom-made case. This hacked setup leaves you with Bluetooth and wireless internet connections, which, as Michael explains in the build video, “if you’re a Mac user, that’s all you’re ever going to need.”
This teeny yet impactful project has even been featured on forbes.com, and that’s where we learned how the tightly packed tech manages to work in such a restricted space:
“A wireless dongle is plugged into one of the remaining USB ports to ensure it’s capable of connecting to a wireless keyboard and mouse, and a low-profile ribbon cable is used to connect the display to the Raspberry Pi. Careful crimping of cables and adapters ensures the mini iMac can be powered from a USB-C extension cable that feeds in under the screen, while the device also includes a single USB 2 port.”
Barry Collins | forbes.com

The maker also told forbes.com that this build was inspired by an iRaspbian software article from tech writer Barry Collins. iRaspbian puts a Mac-like interface — including Dock, Launcher and even the default macOS wallpaper — on top of a Linux distro. We guess Michael just wanted the case to match the content, hey?

Check out Michael’s YouTube channel for more inexplicably cool builds, such as a one billion volt Thor hammer.
22 comments
Misel
It’s time for a Pi 4A so people don’t have to cut their existing Pis.
The image alone hurts my soul.
lee
yes a pi 4A would be great
manuti
Yessss!!! And with 1GB or maybe 2GB of RAM!!
Pleeeeease!!!
James Carroll
Yes! A smaller version of the Pi4 would be great.
Michael A Michalski
Seems a bit crude. I’d go the distance and desolder ALL of those ports and solder some headers into the board so I could have those ports available.
Giles
Surely this should be called a PiMac?
Brian
I was thinking it should be called the “Apple Pi”
Frank Reijn
Nice job, however I sure hope the “Gentle modification
picture” is a joke ? The sparks you see is hot iron flying in the air. Iron is a conducting material on PCB’s. Its now a “how to destroy my Pi” picture :-(
Joseph Alway
Doubtful, that’s quite likely what he did. Hacked off a bit of the Pi, so he could make it fit. All things considered a Raspberry Pi is pretty cheap and taking a Dremel to it is an acceptable risk.
Kebablog
Looks like a bit of port removal – it’s more Mac than you think!! Looks great, by the way. I’d love one.
James Carroll
I made a 27″ iMac. I stuck my Pi4 on the back of my monitor with a 1TB USB3 SSD loaded with Twister OS. I’m too old to squint at tiny screens anymore.
Nick
Oh, dear… please try to make a Pi 4 A sometime soon. Watching the “modification” is pretty painful. Cool result, though.
Yukon
I once build an iMac with spaguetti and sparkles.
Arya
Nice Project. Can somebody tell my which OS it used? To me it looked a lot like Twister OS.
popo
how did you make the keyboard
Arya
He did not make it. He Bought it. You Can find a lot of this things on Amazon or Flipkart.
Nicholas Mutsaerts
I would definitely purchase a Raspberry Pi 4A if it would become available. Ideally with one normal size HDMI and 2 – 4 GB RAM.
Rudi
Why the hack didn’t he just unsolder the USB and Ethernet ports ???
Raspberry Pi Staff Ashley Whittaker — post author
Fewer sparks = less fun
phoenixbyrd
This was made using Twister OS for all those wondering what OS was used.
rpn
http://www.twisteros,com
Michael Pick
Hello everyone! I’m glad you liked this last build!
I just finished up another build (World’s Smallest MacBook Pro). If the below link doesn’t work you can find it on YouTube by searching for “The Casual Engineer” to pull-up my YouTube channel. It’s the most recent video.
The video: https://youtu.be/ynMTYhy2L8I
Some cool features:
– MagSafe power adapter. (Something that was awesome about the older macs)
– Glowing Apple logo on the back of the screen
– Raspberry Pi 4 specs! ?
I hope you like it!
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