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Build Your Own Mac
DaytonCIM writes "TechTV has a great article by Kevin Rose on how to build your own Mac: 'When it comes to PCs, geeks usually make a decision between buying a prebuilt computer or building one, component by component. This isn't true when it comes to Macintoshes. You're stuck with whatever Apple has to offer, with only a few measly dollars differentiating the products from retailer to retailer.' It will be broadcast on The Screen Savers today."
I think this was the link
I know a lot of MAC enthusiasts here will start commenting that "See you can build a mac just like you can a pc!" and I myself don't wish to start a flame war here but Building a MAC is no where near the ease of building a PC.
For a PC you need 2 main things the parts and 1 Screwdriver.
Building a MAC on the otherhand requires the parts, a Screwdriver, a Wire cutter, Dremel and cutting discs, 4" nylon wire ties, Electrical tape, Die, tap, and drill - (see the macoptz link on the article if you don't believe me)
The reason for this is because Apple - although they sell parts separately DOES NOT SELL THE MAC CASES BY THEMSELVES - so in order to make your powersuply and mac board work with a pc case requires all the time and effort of making a custom mod of your pc box. IMHO a very time consuming process unless you do that sort of thing on a regular basis and have all your stuff readily at hand.
I'm totally in favor of people trying this - just be forwarned that this is not a simple buy the parts slap the pieces together turn it on project - it's time consuming and requires a lot more tools and skill than needed for pc building.
Ave Molech Setting
...just don't try to install GNU-Darwin on it. ;D
BTW, Mac OS X 10.2.3 was just released via Software Update. Check my journal for more info.
I watched C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhauser gate.
The link for the motherboard in the story points to a refurbished motherboard which also costs $200!
I have built systems for the last ten years not because of the geek factor, but because most premanufactured systems are crap, and the ones that aren't cost way too much money.
given that I think most are looking for quality, who would put a refurbished motherboard in their system, let a lone a $200 one.
I don't read or respond to AC posts
On the contrary, there are more Commercially published games for MacOS than Linux. The amount of free t-EnOpen Source games for MacOS is the opposite.
Bottom line is I built a 1U Macintosh for under 650$.
"Have you ever thought about just turning off the TV, sitting down with your kids, and hitting them?"
the rumors have long said IBM can outclock Moto's chips, but are not allowed to sell them because they are held back because of contractual agreements.
It really is just a rumor. Not only can IBM make chips that clock faster than motorola's chips, they do make them and they do sell them, so whatever contract you may have heard of wasn't or is no longer true.
Also, I believe that the current iBooks use IBM G3s. The 750CXe I think.
So what? That doesn't change the fact that a part (ie not a standalone system) of a Mac is at least as expensive as a pretty damn fast PC.
Applefritter has a pretty good section on these. Here's the direct link: http://www.applefritter.com/macclones/index.html
Note to moderators: I feel +5, Informative is only fair :)
Bored with karma, be a fan/freak
Gigabit ethernet is useless for 99% of Mac users
Huh? Say that next time we use a $12 cable to copy gigs of stuff from my Power Mac to my friend's PowerBook G4 at over 30 MB/s.
I write in my journal
Speaking from a PC-centric POV, and having attended lots of LAN parties. Because it's a pain in the nuts hooking up all the cable and lugging everything with you.
Not to mention the fact that, for the most part, external components:
Chas - The one, the only.
THANK GOD!!!
Of course, when you're talking about power supplies that's another story. As long as you NEVER shut them off they may run forever, but a couple power cycles on an old power supply and it may never start again (usually after a loud bang-pop noise). We had many FDDI concentrators that were under ten years old that you knew if you lost power you needed to replace the power supply on them when power was restored. It was just a given. Course, maybe they were just crap. :-)
That's what linoleum is for.
To tell the truth, I don't really remember. I spent a lot of money on buying 512MB RAM, a SCSI card, video card, chassis, etc. I guess altogether, it was probably around $300 for a 266 MHz G3. I was planning on taking it a lot higher, of course, but the low end G3 CPU let me test the components and make sure everything was working. And it was only $20 shipped. However, Apple then announced the 1 GHz PowerMac, and my 266 MHz CPU seemed very, very puny indeed. Well, suffice to say, I stopped investing money in that computer and decided to save up for something a little more powerful.
[/smartass]
Sorry, referring to a Macintosh as a 'MAC' is one of my pet peeves.
microsoft is not a hardware company. they make software which is closed, proprietary and holds a monopoly position. apple makes both hardware (mostly closed, although in many places standards-compliant) and software (much closed, but much open).
Apple wouldn't have had to create a "switch" campaign if they hadn't reversed their decision to license out their OS.
why not? they still would have a different hardware architecture (whether it was made by umax or apple) and a different os.
As I recall, Power Computing at one point sold more Mac-OS running computers than Apple did!
which is why the macsimilies were cancelled. apple is primarily a hardware company and uses the hardware profits to subsidize the r&d costs of the os. if hardware profits are cut, the os suffers, thus decreasing the attractiveness of the entire platform and further eating marketshare.
Their market share keeps declining, even as the quality and innovation of their products is on the upswing. How strange.
this statement could be interpreted as meaning that market share and quality/innovation of product are somehow causally related. if this were true we'd have been watching betamax tapes and driving bmw's for the last ten years. don't trust me... trust derrick from o'reilley.
It's eerily similar to watching socialist command economies flounder and fall, while free-market ones thrive and give consumers more choices at better prices.
no... it's earily familiar to watching monarchies flounder and fail while revolutionaries thrive. my analogy is no better or worse than yours. both are unsubstantiated and ubsubstantiatable and serve to do little other than inflame.
2 1337 4 u!