Slashdot Mirror
Mac mini to PC Hack
DiZASTiX writes "Kevin Rose, the ever so popular host of G4/TechTV's The Screen Savers, has managed to fit a PC inside the Mac mini. 'I've seen a ton of articles around the web lately comparing the Mac mini to the near full size desktop PC. What they fail to compare is the amount of computing power per square inch you get with the Mini. So, I decided to take it upon myself to create the fastest PC possible with the size constraints of the Mini's small form factor.' The article covers most everything he did and includes pictures."
Well, fun would be in hiding a McIntosh motherboard inside an nonymous PC case. Now, *that* would puzzle the standard user. "Hey, how may I lower-right-side-button double-click with this mouse?" ;-)
Pumbaa! I don't wonder; I know.
Seems like Slashdot has the Mac mini-news-o-matic up and running at full speed. Not that I blame them, it's so hip it can barely see over it's pelvis...
There are some people in this world who should be removed in order to spare us their crushing banality.
power per square inch you get with the mini
That's what I keep trying to tell her. But it's all about size, size, size...
So he takes everything inside the case that makes a Mac a Mac, guts it, and puts in everything that Apple hopes people are leaving behind for the Mac.
I have to admit, it has a kind of black symmetry to it.
The coolest voice ever.
Look everyone! I've figured out how to put my Ford engine, stereo, and electrical system into my Porche! Read all the details at www.whywouldiwanttodothis.com
"He uses statistics as a drunken man uses lampposts...for support rather than illumination." - Andrew Lang
not to mention he rested his HD on top of the modified heat sink. i'm waiting for the update on this article which demonstrates video footage of accessing a folder, watching the hard drive spin up, then burst into flames.
Wow. Now all he has to do is cram a SPARC inside the PC inside the Mac Mini and he'll have Electronic Turducken.
--
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- Rob Wilco
well... he hacked off about 3/4" of his heat sink.
the result of this experiment is clear: Mac: 1, PC: 0.
Nonsense. Give Dell or HP a little time and motivation, and I'm sure they could pull it off. Hell, maybe IBM has a patent rotting in a drawer somewhere to help this kind of thing.
The result of this experiment is more like:
Lame tinkerers with way too much time: 0
Everyone else: 1
The coolest voice ever.
Ah, I see you've played Linky-URLy before!
Not to mention the people who complain about people who complain about people....
Oh those guys are the worst!
Kevin's first slashdotting... Sara must be so proud!
Do you think this will void his Apple warranty?
"how hard was an actual non-mangled clickable link?"
It's not very hard at all. All you've got to do is post the URL, and some URL nazi will come along and do it for you. It's all automatic!
"Derp de derp."
90% of the budget for the design of the Mac Mini was spent funding caffeine for the designers to drink while playing hours and hours of Tetris. How else do you think they got it all in there?
There's also disadvantages to RISC; binaries tend to be bigger (x86 has variable sized instructions) and that uses up some of the larger cache that RISC chips tend to have.
Also PowerPC processors are big-endian, so they need more space to store things. Motorola tried to compensate for this by adding L2 cash - a special kind of rebate when you buy the processor. They also introduced out-of-order execution which means that even when the processor is broken it still works.