The 5K screen is too expensive, the young man decided to make his own for only 1/3

If you want to buy a 5K (5120 x 2880 pixels) display from Apple, you’ll have to pay more than $ 2,000. An equivalent product from LG also costs $ 1,299. These are all not small amounts compared to the needs of the majority of users. But faced with those expensive options, software engineer Phillip Caudell decided to make himself a 5K monitor at a more affordable price.

The 5K screen was so expensive that Caudell decided to make one for himself with old stuff on the internet

He started by buying an old iMac case for about $ 30 and then looking to buy the back panel on eBay for about $ 500. ” It’s by far the most expensive component, but it’s exactly the same version as the panel in the iMac 5K .” Then he bought another control board from the Aliexpress site for about 200 USD and put them together. The only downside of this product is that he has to use 2 monitors to get 5K resolution.

Paired with the current iMac, Caudell got a low-cost DIY 5K monitor

This high resolution display gives him more room for work. He is currently the founder of The Not So Big Company, a small software company that builds email client software and has to work daily with Apple’s Xcode.

” Anyone who works with Xcode will tell you that having to open all the boxes, the preview screens and the debug screens give you no space to do other things. So I want something. can view Xcode in full screen, and at the same time with other emulators running beside it . ” Caudell said.

Enjoy the results

Not only that, his app uses retina images – images with high pixel density – and high-resolution screens to help him work more efficiently. ” I want the app preview screen to be retina as well, besides, I also get annoyed if I put a non-retina display next to the retina one .” Caudell added. ” Every choice I see is either too expensive, or looks ugly next to my iMac .”

According to Caudell, it’s also very easy to pair two screens together. ” To be honest, the longest part of this approach is getting the necessary parts and figuring out what works on my special iMac .” He said. ” The assembly process actually only takes about an hour, of which the longest part is getting rid of the glue on the old screen. From the decision” I want an iMac “to actually have one like me want, it will take about a few weeks . ”

Refer to Motherboard