Hello. After thoughts on attempting a shuttle hackintosh build and the lack of a good shuttle motherboard that met the requirements I was looking for I decided I wanted to just build it myself using specific components I select. Starting with the beautiful Apple G4 Cube as the case. Inspiration comes from two sources on the web of a P4 build and a VIA build of the cube. I will be going INTEL obviously.

Breakdown at first glance before concrete costs in place and changes may be possible of selected items:

Apple Cube body Estimated Cost: $90-170 PURCHASED. Final Cost: $109.99

AOpen i945GMt-FSA Core 2 Duo Mobile Mini-ITX Mainboard Estimated Cost: $288 +shipping

Intel Core 2 Duo T7200 Merom 2.0GHz 4M shared L2 Cache Socket M Processor Estimated Cost: $296 +shipping

120 GB 7200 RPM SATA Harddrive Estimated Cost: $80 +shipping

Single 2 gig stick of DDR2 667 RAM Estimated Cost: $50-80 +shipping

Possibly a replacement slot DVD burner Estimated Cost: $90 +shipping

Video card is on hold for a moment until I verify whether I will use the AOpen board Estimated Cost: ~ $60-120 range.

Apple White wireless keyboard and mouse Estimated Cost: $80 +shipping

Apple 17" LCD Display (rev. 2) (ADC) Estimated Cost: $99 +shipping

Various other supplies Estimated Cost: $120+

Current total Estimated Cost: ~$1193

Any recommendations on a place to purchase items for cost savings or suggestions on an alternative choice will be appreciated. Its pretty likely my current costs will change once I make final decisions on each item. I will be blogging about the build on a soon to be up website as well as updating this thread here. I look forward to this project. I love the cube. Its a thing of beauty and I look forward to modernizing its internals.

I am looking for recommendations on a motherboard mini-itx. I'm looking for compatibility and functionality. I'd like to achieve 4 gigs of RAM. Two SATA and a single IDE. I'm hoping for PCI-X. Support of Core 2 Duo processors. If anyone has recommendations please let me know.

Hi BrianH:

I custom-built my OSx86 PC about one year ago using specs from OSx86 Project's Hardware Wiki. Of course, my "cube" isn't as beautiful as the real Mac Cube but it has its own charms. I was attracted to the small, cube platform also.
MSI mPC 915

If you can't find or obtain the Cube Case, here's another case that you may find attractive:
Nexus Psile

Please post some pictures once you get this assembled (!) This sounds like a wonderful project.

--danyel

Well I've purchased the Apple Cube body. And updated the thread. Still not to sure how I feel about the AOpen Motherboard.

danyel- Thanks for the links. Those are some attractive cases.

@brianh....

do you are in progress with your cube modding?

seems to be very interesting ;-)


greetz... knobsi

Hey, i have this mini itx board : http://www.newegg.com/product/product.asp?...N82E16813153077
The specs look very promising for leopard.. the Lan even works out of the box (atleast it does for my main build.. and its the same lan) There is only PCI add on port, so only pci graphics. I have only tried once to install leopard on it with an ide dvd drive.. and that was a no go. But for inssurance and if you want a motherboard that you know works, i will install it for you and test everything to see if it works. My specs for the build that i have with it are in my sig.

I am most in favour of this one.

yea, you would have to install tiger on it though...

btw that motherboard i sent u a link to is the "core duo" socket.. so it supports yonah cores.. and merom but the meroms are a lot more expensive for it.


Here is a link to a few pictures http://s11.photobucket.com/albums/a198/mtotho/XboxPC/
Its nothing amazing.. Pretty good dual core pc .. equal to my dell e1705 laptop for $1k less. Play all my emulators on it.