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Build a Macintosh From Scratch
An anonymous reader writes "MacOpz has posted a great step-by-step tutorial on building your own G4-based Macintosh from scratch. This article includes where to get parts, what modifications must be performed, and tons of photographs. A must-read for anyone that wants a Mac but doesn't want to pay Apple prices."
You can follow other people's progress here:
p c&s=50009562&f=8300945231&m=4820959925
http://arstechnica.infopop.net/OpenTopic/page?a=t
--- I do not moderate.
OS X is a chance for the clones to come back: This German vendor is selling OS X compatible Umax clones with G4 CPUs for EUR 729+.
Actually the base OS, darwin is . So it isnt "completely closed source".
Does anyone have any information on building a PC from scratch?
TomsHardware.com recently ran an article (with pictures) on how to build a PC yourself. It's really quite simple though. I have an abnormal fear of tools yet I've been building my own computers for 10 years. If you can install your own video card, you can build a computer.
Yeah, I just opened my G4/466 and checked it out (nice how we mac users can do this with one hand and keep typing with the other). It is the PCI chip. Apple isn't in competition with Intel, and there is more than one part on this motherboard made by Intel ...
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The last thing Apple wants to do is encourage and enable people to "experiment" with OSX on non-Apple hardware. You've noticed, I suspect, that Apple has never marketed an x86 version of any of its operating systems That's because Apple is hardware company, not a software vendor. Sure, they write their own OS, but it is precisely the tight integration of that proprietary OS with proprietary hardware that maintains the "uniquesness" of the Mac. Whether or not that uniqueness is worth the price is a matter of opinion, but the approach does ensure that only company that builds Macs is Apple.
-- Slashdot: When Public Access TV Says "No"
If you really want to try out OSX, you could just go to ebay and buy a Mac 8500, or something like that, then buy some extra ram and a faster processor card. I managed to get all of this for less than $100.
Then just buy OSX and use XPostFacto, which allows you to run OSX on unsupported macs. Now you have a Mac that allows you to fiddle with OSX for under $150.
Man oh man.
In the old days
OK, children, gather round for today's bowl of clue.
First of all, if you're gonna talk Apple mods, then start at applefritter. They've built Macs into everything from 1930's radios to LEGO people to ziplock bags.
Next, (I can't believe that I'm doing this twice in one day!), let's get the vendors and refs out of the way:
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
Data is the lever, rigor the fulcrum, brains the force that drives it all.
It is a BIG problem that the older Macs run a 50, 45 or even a 40 mhz bus. That just doesn't carry the day for me anymore. I speak from experience because I'm running an ancient PowerCurve at 350mhz G3 with a 50 mhz (overclocked) bus. When I went from a 266mhz to a 350, I hardly noticed the difference. These machines are starved for data. My girlfriend bought a 466mhz G4 running a 133mhz bus and that makes all the difference in the world. Her machine spanks another friend's 450 G4 running a 100mhz bus.
I agree with you about not bothering doing it from scratch. Just get a G4 running with a 133mhz bus and a G4 7410 CPU and you're set for a couple of years.
Overall, the high price of used Apple parts and complete equipment tells us there is a much larger market demand that Apple's stupid, thumbhead, prima-dona, ignorant, ego-puffed leaders aren't able to supply. I believe they could easily take their market share up to 15% if they could get their manufacturing act together.
"Only in their dreams can men truly be free 'twas always thus, and always thus will be."
--Tom Schulman