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Build Your Own Mac With CoreCrib Kit

Posted by pudge on from the i-want-a-laptop-version dept.

Mark Dobie writes "I just put up a quick review of the CoreCrib kit I purchased. It is an inexpensive solution to building your own Mac." See our previous Core coverage.

14 of 358 comments (clear)

  1. Please explain... by gricholson75 · · Score: 5, Interesting

    the popularity of these systems. I can get a emac 800Mgz/256MB/40GB for $849, and it comes with a monitor and better graphics, and the operating system. If I was going to build a linux system, you get better bang for the buck from x86 hardware. I don't understand. FP?

    1. Re:Please explain... by eXtro · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Don't compare these to an eMac, compare them to a G4 tower. For $849 you get a tower including PCI slots and and AGP port. If you're looking for a Macintosh that you can throw a couple of PCI cards (maybe a couple of SCSI adapters, whatever) but can't justify the price of a new Apple G4 system then maybe this is for you. For instance a dual 1.25 GHz Apple G4 tower costs $1999 with 256 MB RAM and an 80 GB hard drive. The site just stopped responding so I can't determine the price but presumably a dual 1.2 GHz their would be less than 2 grand.

      --

      Chris Kuivenhoven is a thief, beware

    2. Re:Please explain... by GlassHeart · · Score: 2, Interesting
      The price of the dual 1.2 GHz kit is $1349, you could throw in 256 meg of ram and an 80 gig hard drive in for around 120 bucks, probably less.

      $120 sounds about right. That makes it $1470. Let's toss in some other essentials:

      • keyboard and mouse - a decent pair might cost $50.
      • MacOS X - $130
      • Combo DVD/CDRW drive - $60
      • Radeon 9000 Pro (64 MB) - $76
      which brings us to $1786. Compared to the $1999 Apple box, the savings are just over 10%, ignoring all the non-downloadable software that the Mac comes with.

      The $1000 model provides more RAM and hard disk space (and of course expandability) than the comparatively-priced eMac, but doesn't have a keyboard, mouse, monitor, or OS, uses a less powerful graphics card and has no combo drive. These will cost at least another $300 or $400 to even out. The prices are not competitive at all for somebody who wants an eMac.

      Essentially, this isn't really a way to build a very cheap Mac. The target market must be those with a very tight budget and require a lot of expansion potential, or those who want a PPC but not MacOS X.

      Another tragic thing is that they didn't seem to learn anything from Apple's superior case design. It's hard to get to the motherboard, and there are cables all over the place. Hell, the handles on the G4 case are worth money to me.

      Still, choice is good.

  2. Re:DIY Mac.. by bytes2bu · · Score: 2, Interesting

    The mac is suppose to be for those people who don't want to (or can't) build their own computer. Everywhere you look you see this distinction being made that macs are for people who get work done with the computer instead of working on their computer. This just seems a bit out in left field for the whole mac "idea". But then, that's just my opinion.

  3. Re:Waiting for PPC 970 by ciroknight · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I completely agree. The problem in Mac-land right now is that while they have superior software (in just about every thing I can imagine), the hardware is so far behind.... This has been stated so many times but never hit home as true until Paladium started becoming a worrisome thing for me. Personally, I'de love to move to a Mac, but it's just out of the question to pay that much for hardware that I'm locked into for a long time. They have came a long way with standardization and upgradibility, but it's still relitivly crappy compared to the intel compat. market. I either see Apple drastically reorganizing their business as a software only company and releasing their software and periferals on all hardware, or them finally making the transition to more complete PC compatibility. I'de love to just take my AGP card (Radeon 8500 Pro) and my 3 maxtor harddrives out of my computer and plug them into a Mac when/if I get one, but I know right now this is practically an impossibility. I only hope someone out there is listening..........

    --
    "Victory means exit strategy, and it's important for the President to explain to us what the exit strategy is." G.W.Bush
  4. Yup, I got one and built it by MyDixieWrecked · · Score: 2, Interesting
    Took some pictures too. More coming tonight...

    http://www.sadistech.com/newbox/

    --



    ...spike
    Ewwwwww, coconut...
  5. Re:But the question is who would want to? by w3weasel · · Score: 2, Interesting
    Do you think "I'm bored, I should troll?". I think almost everyone who understands OSS knows where Apple stands, and most even understand why. Apple does support OSS, and no one is claiming that OS X is OSS. If howver you wish to run Apple's OSS project on your x86, there's nothing stopping you.
    as for:
    You're much better off putting the same money into a Windows machine
    Pass that pipe my way dude!
    As for me, I own four Macs and one PC. My newest mac is 3 years old, and the oldest is 5. All the macs just keep chugging away, and while more speed would be swell, Its nice to not have to replace 30% of the machine every 6-8 months, as has been my experience with all PC's.
    What you're really paying for with an Apple is their support
    Unlike Dell or HP??? Them are some rock solid components you find inside those branded PC's huh?
    their backwards-compatible-with-BSD operating system
    and you're saying that the backwards-compatible-with-DOS operating system is a better option?
    and the pleasure of doing business with a company like Apple
    Well, yes, that's worth a few extra bucks :)
    --

    Just as irrigation is the lifeblood of the Southwest, lifeblood is the soup of cannibals. -- Jack Handy

  6. Mac users, the thinnest-skinned people on Earth by corebreech · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I mean, really, look at some of these responses.

    On /. of all places we see people crying "Why would you want to do this?". Or, "What's wrong with the eMac?"

    This is only the first (or one of the first) homebuilt Macs. If enough people jump on the bandwagon prices will eventually drop. As it is now, the price is competitive with a brand new eMac, the comparable version of which was only introduced days ago.

    I want to see PowerPC chips on PriceWatch. I want to see different people competing to do motherboards that will run these chips. I want to see more and different case designs. Competition is good. Choice is good. Apple doesn't want us to have either of these things.

    And then, there's the thrill of building your own PC. I'm a former Mac person who is now running on my first homebuilt -- which dual-boots XP and Linux -- and the level of satisfaction I have with this machine surpasses anything I've ever owned from Apple (save, perhaps my Pismo PowerBook.)

    This can only be a good thing. And if Apple were smart, they'd put the resources in place up front to help them deal with the complexity of supporting what is sure to be the thousand different configurations or more of Macs that are yet to come. Turn your back on these people and you risk making the same mistake that Microsoft made and that is driving so many people to Linux.

    --
    Is this truly the only Earth I can live on?
    1. Re:Mac users, the thinnest-skinned people on Earth by weston · · Score: 2, Interesting

      I mean, really, look at some of these responses.
      On /. of all places we see people crying "Why would you want to do this?". Or, "What's wrong with the eMac?"

      It's not so much a "thin skin" thing as a reflection of the fact that slashdot isn't a homogenous group. Some people are going to want to do it because they can. Some people are going to want to do it to reach a new level of hardware customization. Some people are going to want to do it to have the level of configurability/performance that they could get out of a G4 tower at a cheaper price.

      Some people are going to primarily concerned with price. Those people should by an eMac. Some of those people have noted this on slashdot. It's not so much a matter of thin skin as the fact that their focus and accompanying heuristics for evaluating the value of a machine make it so they don't see the other points.

      --
      Tweet, tweet.
  7. Re:Of Subject, I know by jonfelder · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Much like a spell checker, you seem to be good at correcting spelling but you cannot handle correctly spelled words used incorrectly.

    I believe the subject of your post should say 'Off' not 'Of'.

  8. Re:DIY Mac.. by DrXym · · Score: 2, Interesting
    Well that depends. I guess if you have some outdated Mac hardware lying around, you have a choice - ditch it all or upgrade it somehow. If upgrading turns out to be feasible via cards or a new box, why not do it? And if the cheapest way happens to be some clone kit, it sounds a reasonable option assuming it has the proprietary ports such as the monitor connection and works out of the box with OS X.


    Now obviously if it's approaching the cost of a real mac, it isn't worth it, but if it were 2/3 the price, I'd take the hit in terms of looks and styling for the saving. It's not like I parade my G4 around - it sits under the desk for it's life. I couldn't care any less if there were some generic pizza / tower case there instead.

  9. Re:Hmmm. by valkraider · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I have always wondered though, is there really a shortage in things to build? Why not just buy the eMac, and then build a robot that is controlled via 802.11 wireless? Some things were meant to be "built" and some things were meant to be "used".

  10. Slashdot Headlines from the Future by ink · · Score: 3, Interesting
    Apple: CoreCrib Kit Website Taken Down
    Posted by smudge on Fri 09, 14:17
    from the apple-lawyers-strike-again dept

    Mark Dobie writes "I just put up a quick protest page against Apple's lawyers who demanded that the CoreCrib kit website be taken down. It's too bad that a company that makes such good products has such a fear of open hardware. [ed: see this story for more information.]

    --
    The wheel is turning, but the hamster is dead.
  11. Re:Hmmm...... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

    Buy the box and motherboard and throw in all of your drives and PCI cards from your other macs.

    I am looking at turning a beige G3 into a G4 tower. This mod gets me a case and mobo. I then add G4/800-DP1200, and throw in ram. I would start with a G4/800/2mb cache/512mb, so basic cost is less than $800 for a loaded G4/800 tower.

    I can reuse my DVD-R, CD-RW, old 24X CD-ROM,and zip drives, plus I can add two IDE drives on the IDE chain, and throw my PCI IDE card and add two more 100B drives (video stuff). Then I also have space for a second video card.

    Apple doesn't make a tower that does that!

    This is what PC users love, flexibility to build towers that hold too much and get really hot inside ; )