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Thin Mini-ITX Platform Enables DIY iMacs
crookedvulture writes "Shipments of all-in-one PCs are growing exponentially faster than those for typical desktops. Unfortunately, highly integrated systems like the iMac have traditionally made it difficult to replace or upgrade parts. And forget about assembling an all-in-one for yourself. Now, however, Intel has developed a Thin Mini-ITX platform that allows system builders and end users to put together all-in-one systems with standard parts. This hands-on look at Thin Mini-ITX pieces together an ersatz iMac using off-the-shelf components, and the process is pretty easy. While the end result isn't quite as slick as one of Apple's creations, parts can be swapped out with ease, and the configuration can be tailored to suit one's needs."
You're advocating violating the OS X EULA!
Heresy!!!
highly integrated systems like the iMac have traditionally made it difficult to replace or upgrade parts
Yeah! I can just about park my car inside my Coolermaster Centurion, thank you.
are growing exponentially faster than
you keep using that expression... it does not mean what you think it does
factor 966971: 966971
Its just a PC running OSX against the terms of use. Nothing wrong with that, but its not a "Macintosh" anymore then a kit car is a Ferrari.
"Have you ever thought about just turning off the TV, sitting down with your kids, and hitting them?"
This is kinda like a kit-car Lamborghini set that people like to put together. Now you too can have a lamborghini, with a chevy V8 on a chevy frame!
-- This space for lease, low setup fee, inquire within!
They aren't talking about building Hackintoshes here, just DIY PC-in-a-monitor.
i don't have an imac but i've ready that apple uses very high quality displays for them and that dell sells a similar monitor for $800 or so
sure you can build something cheaper, but you aren't saving anything if you cheapen out on the monitor
Let's hope that some of the major retail PC makers pick up on this, and start making their own.
I love Apple, but I'd also love to see some competition out there for them in areas like this, to ensure that they always have a good reason to be keeping one step ahead. ;-D
Dan Aris
Fun. Free. Online. RPG. BattleMaster.
This could be WAY bigger than just making iMac clones. Combine that with the new video hardware coming onto the market that permits greater than 1080p resolution displays, and that this new form factor could be made dirt cheap, this could usher in the era of interactive wallscreen devices.
I always figured it would be great to have some cheap tablets mounted into walls for various applications, for example, being able to quickly check the weather report before heading out the door. But something like this would be even cooler.
Nice to see Apple losing their prime advantage: looks.
Now we just have to wait until Intel comes with DIY phones.
If Pandora's box is destined to be opened, *I* want to be the one to open it.
WTF does this have to do with iMacs?
[sarcasm] Breaking news: Intel sued by Apple for patent infringement. Apple has sued CPU manufacturer Intel claiming infringement of their patent on the design of small, compact, all-in-one devices that can run OSX. Apple filed the lawsuit in a federal court located in western Texas. They are asking for an injunction against Intel as well as an award of $5,000 for each device sold by Intel. Apple has claimed that the only reason people buy something other than an Apple device is because they can and therefore every sale of these devices by Intel represents a lost sale for Apple. [/sarcasm]
They do seem to cap the upper limit at a VERY low level. You can't just skyrocket it then post offensive stuff with the padding, lol. I don't know if it's variable or not but this new account (lol) seems to have a lot more padding against hater mod-downs than my old one.
Weird, i made 3 posts that became -1 (troll) in within the past week and my karma's still excellent. Maybe your cumulative karma was just barely in the excellent range and the one troll was enough to knock you down?
Slashdot works in mysterious ways...
That desktop in the article is some hideous looking shit. What crap OEM plastered that fisher-price shit all over Windows?
I went on a tear a few months ago and got something like 30 -1 flamebait/troll posts in a day and my karma went to terrible. Got 3 +5s a couple of days later and was back to good then got a couple of small upmods and was back to excellent. I've had a good past few days so this is probably a good time for me to let a couple of people have it. :)
The soylentnews experiment has been a dismal failure.
it's rounded rectangles!
Korma: Good
The idea looked good... until I saw that you can't install a graphics card. That's the one thing that these all-in-ones lack - decient graphics. Considering there are laptops with gtx 680, I don't see why we can have them in an all-in-one
They aren't talking about building hackintoshes here, just building PCs into the monitor, i.e. the form factor of an iMac.
Don't pester him. He's had a hard day.
Karma is overrated.
"Made in imitation; artificial, especially of an inferior quality."
you seems to be laughing quite a bit today. Enjoying yourself?
There have been several all-in-ones made by various PC manufacturers. My friend had an HP with a touchscreen that he hung on the wall in the kitchen.
None of them have really been successful. They tend to either cost as much as an iMac or be compromised in some way. Intel releasing a new form factor isn't going to do much to change anything, except to let individuals and mom and pop shops build them.
Maybe the issue is that you care about meaningless virtual points?
Karma is overrated.
It's not if it stops you from taking part in discussions. If you get too many downvotes (deserved or not) you end up with a posting cap per 24 hour period.
Those flamebait/troll posts probably had something to do with an irrational Obama obsession.
I dunno. Perhaps people that use PCs are just used to having cheaper devices that provide more features while being more maintainable and more upgradeable.
Embed your PC into your monitor so that you can reuse neither?
Only seems to make sense to form over function types and people that live in overpriced studio apartments.
A Pirate and a Puritan look the same on a balance sheet.
Actually it was a two day offtopic war with apk over host files. You'd have had to have been there.
The soylentnews experiment has been a dismal failure.
Please stop feeding Apple's "we invented everything!" hubris. This is just a computer attached to a monitor, which is an obvious combination that has been around since there have been computers small enough to attach to monitors.
No, "ersatz" doesn't cut it. it's not an "inferior mac", it's not a mac *at all*. It can't run mac software, it doesn't run the mac OS.
On any rational scale of "mac-ness", it's a zero.
Now, if you had a jumble of components, didn't LOOK like a mac at all, but it ran the OS and the apps reliably... now you'd be somewhere up that scale, and probably around a seven or eight out of ten -- or even higher if you're not worried about the looks.
This is the same mental blind spot people get when they try to price compare a mac -- any mac -- with a pc or linux boxen. Without the OS, there's nothing to compare. If the hardware was exactly equal AND the price was exactly equal AND the looks were exactly equal... you're not going to have even *remotely* the same experience.
And that's what makes one machine better than another: the experience.
HP had a deskstand that would take some of their small-form-factor PCs like the dc7900 and an HP LCD and make an all-in-one PC with the SFF case mounted behind the display. I don't think it was available ready-built.
Not going to lie, I thought they were going to review a thinclient...kind of seems like a better idea, with the space constraints.
PS: I don't reply to ACs.
osx is just as bad as windows 8
I think it was an older model TouchSmart:
http://www.hp.com/united-states/campaigns/touchsmart/index.html
Or people who value desk space.
There are lots of arguments for all in one computers. People rarely upgrade their machines, almost never maintain them themselves, and usually replace the monitor at the same time as the computer. Just because you don't see the point doesn't mean that everyone who does use them is a rich hipster.
How can we run MacOS X in a virtual machine?
We already have ChromeOS in a virtual machine. What about MacOS X?
It looks more like a giant iPad on a stand, it doesn't look like an iMac. The article is about hardware and not building a Hackintosh, so please read the article before posting. It Looks like what it is, a cheap housing for a small format motherboard, and it sounds OK to me. I would like to have seen a complete price breakdown too. No optical drive? interesting trend?
There was an unknown error in the submission.
Yes I remember when you did that.
Acer made a shockingly similar one several years ago but with an Atom chip (so no overheating problems, lol) and it was slow, the touchscreen was sluggish, and overall it sucked lol.
Why would it need a touchscreen?
The only major uses I've ever seen for a touchscreen all-in-one like an iMac are for a kiosk machine of some sort, or a POS system (fancy cash register).
For normal use, as various people (including, I believe, Steve Jobs) have noted, it's just too darn hard on the arms.
Dan Aris
Fun. Free. Online. RPG. BattleMaster.
That's the thing, I was excellent for about two straight years.
Nope.