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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."
The problem is that when you sum up everything, you end up with something _more expensive_ than just buying it from Apple.
Oh and of course you also have to purchase MacOS.
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You can follow other people's progress here:
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http://arstechnica.infopop.net/OpenTopic/page?a=t
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Plant apple seed in ground.
Add water and fertilizer at regular intervals.
Remove weeds at regular intervals.
Eventually, you'll have an Apple.
RomSteady - I came, I saw, I tested. GamerTag: RomSteady / http://www.romsteady.net
It is a violation of the EULA for Mac OS to run it on any non-Apple-branded hardware. This goes for things like MOL too.
N4st0r, trixx0r h0bb1tz0rz! Th3y st0l3 0ur pr3c10uzz!
As a professional who relies on my Macintosh to generate income, the supposed "price premium" of Apple hardware over a build-it-yourself amounts to a half day's billing.
Add the time to build eating into billable hours, and it would come out as an expensive proposition.
There are lots of reasons to build a machine yourself- better control over the parts, getting a custom config that you can't easily buy, and saving money. I wager that most people's reason to buy a Mac- it works, out of the box, to make us money- is not really compatible with those ideals.
I do agree with one sentiment addressed in the story, and that's avoiding the outlandish prices Apple charges for standard parts such as RAM and hard disks. Most savvy Mac users buy base configs and then load up the RAM and HD's via cheaper, third party suppliers.
Marc Siry || interactive media professional, motorcycle enthusiast ||
Isn't the whole point of a mac the shinny case?
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+.
uh.. read the article. it's not 'building a g4 from scratch' so much as 'getting an apple mobo & other random g4 parts off ebay and mounting them in a pc case with some noisy fans', primarily because "it's impossible to use a Zip drive, CD-ROM, and DVD-ROM together in the same machine with any G4 that Apple has ever shipped".
this is a glorified case-mod project for a specific end use, not 'building a g4 from scratch'.
apple frequently dumps older systems at the education stores. about 5 monthes ago, stanford had G4/533/CD-RW/40GB + 17 inch LCD for 1249 (that is 350 added to the screen). other examples are 899 (same time) for iBook 600/DVD. all new machines.
I hate to have to be the one to break this news to you, but if you're buying a fiat, parts are all you're getting.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
Ouch, given that an Athlon XP 2000+ can be had for under $100, it sounds like you're still paying Apple prices.
"The question of whether a computer can think is no more interesting than that of whether a submarine can swim" -EWD
I was looking at this picture of the backside of the logic board with some interest, having never seen the insides of a modern Mac before. I couldn't help but notice that one of the chips on this board, the middle of the three largish square ICs, appears to be made by Intel (there is a very distinctive large, lowercase i to the left of some other illegible text, which is one of Intel's trademarks). Its impossible to tell what it is from the picture. Is it a PCI bridge? The ethernet controller? You would think Apple would not be keen on using Intel components whenever possible, but then I guess any corporation is going to put profit first. Does anyone know what it is?
"(Man) tries to live his own life as if he were telling a story. But you have to choose: live or tell." --Sartre
Now if he'd started from some non-Apple PPC motherboard, that would be more impressive.
Now, if they had used some generic PowerPC motherboard and got it to boot OS X, that would be news. This isn't.
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.
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Wow, this is so exciting... first a PC board in a Mac case, now a Mac board in a PC case.
How long before someone takes a G4 Mac, removes the logic board from it, puts it back, and put up detailed step-by-step photos on a Web site showing what he or she has accomplished?
"How to Do Nothing," kids activities, back in print!
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.
Step One: Buy 3 Used Buicks ....
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