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Offense:

Psystar = Stolen Identity
Power Computing = Speeding

Your License Please - Power Computing:

http://www.streamstudio.com/images/pcc_6lg.jpg

Low End Mac:

http://lowendmac.com/orchard/07/0220.html

Quit yer bitchin': Used Macs

http://www.macofalltrades.com/

Yikes!!
That's a bunch for an iBook. I don't work for any of the following companies but I do keep an eye on the used Mac marketplace. Ebay is not a buyers market btw.
As of this writing Smalldog has an 800MHz iBook for $899.
Macofalltrades usually has good deals on portables and desktop Macs.
MacResQ has good deals occasionally(sp?).
I would certainly put PowerMax at the bottom of the list pricewise. They want $729.00 for a G4 400 desktop!!
Macofalltrades wants $500 for a better equipped G4 450
Note: direct links subject to not work as both sites update stock quite regularly.

To keep this post somewhat on-topic, I want a Pegasos. They are supposed to support up to a PowerPC G4 MPC 7450. A G4 @ 1GHz is still a lot of computer.

Yikes!!
That's a bunch for an iBook. I don't work for any of the following companies but I do keep an eye on the used Mac marketplace. Ebay is not a buyers market btw.
As of this writing Smalldog has an 800MHz iBook for $899.
Macofalltrades usually has good deals on portables and desktop Macs.
MacResQ has good deals occasionally(sp?).
I would certainly put PowerMax at the bottom of the list pricewise. They want $729.00 for a G4 400 desktop!!
Macofalltrades wants $500 for a better equipped G4 450
Note: direct links subject to not work as both sites update stock quite regularly.

To keep this post somewhat on-topic, I want a Pegasos. They are supposed to support up to a PowerPC G4 MPC 7450. A G4 @ 1GHz is still a lot of computer.

The CoreCrib will only interest ./ build-your-own-PC types.

First off, anybody who uses a Mac uses it because they don't want the agg of PCs and all of the various config problems with hardware.

Anybody who "switched" sure as heck isn't going to suddenly decide they want to experiment by building a Mac. Heck, the whole reason they switched was to just use their damn computer!

I just don't see this ever going any further than the techno inclined... and only to those who really want to run OS X. And let's face it, a Mac capble of running OS X nicely can be had for 500 bucks now! Anybody who runs *nix is going to build a blow-em-away x86 box for the same price as the Core and not deal with the "finding compatible hardware problem". Besides that, at least for Linux, you basically have a choice between YDL, Mandrake (and Suse?)... you got four times the distros for x86!

I think this is a great idea, but for the price and maybe more importantly the warranty offered, I'd rather buy a used Mac from say Macofalltrades.com. I may not get a brand new machine, but I can get a system that is equal or better than the Core machine with a 30 day warranty (and an option of a one year warranty).

I hope it catches on though and I hope Apple maybe throws these guys a little help!

I've never bought from them myself but they seem well talked of on Mac sites.

Guide to Mac CPUsThis is Apple's own site for detailed specs on all their machines ever. I'm starting you off on the page for older machines to remind you that a well-configured 1996 Mac w/ a USB/Firewire card can run OSX just fine, thank you very much.

Mac of All TradesGetcher used macs here! Pretty visuals, delicious prices, detailed info. Selection could be better and there's no old stuff at all but I can deal with that. Have I bought from them yet? Nope. Am I likely to in the future? Yep.

MacResqThe best place I've found overall to pick up gear. Even the guys in that article figured that out.

Focus of Mac Hardware good workaday resource for doing mods. No cool toys. Considerable good data.

Missoula Mac User Group, Yeah, I know that you haven't heard of them; neither has anybody else outside of Montana AFAIK. Best place for overall newbie resources.

Powermax Cheesy setup, improving selection, good prices.

ResExcellence In the old days I would have suggested MacFixit, but these guys have taken their place. If you've been in the Mac world for a while you'll recognize them as the old-time source extraordinaire of ResEdit hacks.

Small Dog Shrinking selection, great quality, excellent service, annoying interface. Bottom line, these are the guys to turn to for premium service, support, and savvy. Been around quite a while and, hey, they enclose coupons for Ben and Jerry's.

applefritter. They've built Macs into everything from 1930's radios to LEGO people to ziplock bags. You can't buy anything there, but still much fun.

Think Secret Nice little rumor site. Some cool moments.

Of course, for those of us in the New York City area, there's always TekServe, an Apple and media gear mecca. You want to know what Lou Reed, Jam Master Jay, or Oliver Pratt are using? Ask them. You want toys? They got 'em. Ten cent cokes, vintage radios, serious testing gear, and a massive knowledge base. Hell, I once even applied for a job there when it would have meant giving up a far-better paying sysadmin gig. If they're good enough for Steve J., then they're worth a look.


Oh, by the way, the last time that I posted this list I included Shreve. What did I say?
ShreveExpensive, distracting, but the best place to get weird low-end stuff like Mac Plus manuals and Daystar cards.
There. You all feeling better now?
Rustin

Mac of All Trades Getcher used macs here! Pretty visuals, delicious prices, detailed info. Selection could be better and there's no old stuff at all but I can deal with that. Have I bought from them yet? Nope. Am I likely to in the future? Yep.

MacResq The best place I've found overall to pick up gear. Even the guys in that article figured that out.

Powermax Cheesy setup, improving selection, good prices.

Shreve Expensive, distracting, but the best place to get weird low-end stuff like Mac Plus manuals and Daystar cards.

Small Dog Shrinking selection, great quality, excellent service, annoying interface. Bottom line, these are the guys to turn to for premium service, support, and savvy. Been around quite a while and, hey, they enclose coupons for Ben and Jerry's.

Guide to Mac CPUsThis is Apple's own site for detailed specs on all their machines ever. I'm starting you off on the page for older machines to remind you that a well-configured 1996 Mac w/ a USB/Firewire card can run OSX just fine, thank you very much.

Focus of Mac Hardware good workaday resource for doing mods. No cool toys. Considerable good data.

Missoula Mac User Group, Yeah, I know that you haven't heard of them; neither has anybody else outside of Montana AFAIK. Best place for overall newbie resources.

ResExcellence In the old days I would have suggested MacFixit, but these guys have taken their place. If you've been in the Mac world for a while you'll recognize them as the old-time source extraordinaire of ResEdit hacks.

Think Secret The only rumor site I like that I forgot to mention yesterday.

Okay, moving right along. CPUs. Those yahoos think that the only option is to start from scratch. Get a clue. The last pre-Jobs big boxes kicked almighty ass. Amelio may not have been a gifted businessman but he was a much better heavy gear guy. As far as I'm concerned your best bet for DIY is to buy an 8600. It'll be $230, tops. You get a great case, big power supply, floppy drive, cables, and so on. Probably also a Zip, for which I will pity you as that model of Zip just LOVED to come down with the Click o' Death. Even if you flat throw out all the electronics you're still way ahead of starting from a place like Tom's.
Next, processor speed. When will those yahoos figure it out? Before you get obsessed with latest and greatest ask yourself, "what exactly will I be DOING with this machine?" If you're running stuff like BBEdit (ah, my one true love!) or Photoshop for still work then any 400MHz box with fast drives and plenty of RAM will be, for all intents and purposes, instantanteous. Buying anything faster just means that you're acting like the small-donged dimwits who buy $20K stereos to get fidelity five times better then they can hear.
Drives. I'm always amazed at how terrified Windoze-damaged (let alone *nix) folks are at the thought of external drives. Get over it, already. On a Mac all that driver clash claptrap is a distant and not very credible folktale. Get a basic little 6 Gig internal and invest your money in external Firewire devices. You think this LAN party stuff is cool? On a Mac pretty much any well configured boot drive will boot any similar recent Mac. Stop carrying your entire box with you; stick to drives. Even better, get two or three smaller ones instead of one big one and, short of FBI seizures and vast fires, you become crash proof. Mac dies? Plug your drive (you did remember to back up your core data, right?) into another Mac and you're up and running again in minutes.
The future. If you're such an almighty techie that you just *need* to build a new cooler world every year or so, then remember, Mach kernel plus gigabit ethernet equals mongo shared resources. Even if you're too lazy to set up a formal Beowolf system, it's pretty damned easy to just keep adding machines and splitting the jobs between them. Instead of buying a whole new box, maybe you should just buy a second one and start spreading load to it.
OSes. Yup. No question, Jaguar is pretty spiffy. But almost every vendor site above (as well as eBay and co.) will sell you older legit disks and serial num.s for about fifty bucks. If you buy from a place like Small Dog you'll even be clearing out some of that famed Apple back inventory.
That's it. You want more? Then go to my site already (though best to wait a few weeks for my next redesign). Want more then that? Then pay me and I'll think about it.
Promising to not ever again use up time posting tutorials on /.,
Rustin

If it isn't part of Apple's current product line they would have a hard time acquiring their stock.

These guys seem to have a pretty constant inventory of older machines.

I'd love to be able to buy a G3 tower workstation or something similar from TerraSoft. Maybe even an XTerminal or something based on a 6100 in that pizza box case.

--saint