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MSI Wind - Best solution for osx86 on a sub-notebook?


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Hey everyone.

 

Well it is completed, I have built up my new hackintosh light from an Intel Box945gclf 1.6ghz Atom based motherboard, inside an apex MI-100 mini-itx case. I'm using 2 gig ram, a 320 gig sata hd, a pioneer 111d ide optical drive and a linksys wmp54gs for wireless.

 

Total cost for the case, psu, motherboard and processor was 136.00 after taxes and shipping cdn. I had the extra parts laying around.

 

Video is onboard GMA 950, performance is great, definately up in the realm of a high end mac mini. Installed using Kalyway 10.5.2, up to date but I havn't installed .3 yet.

 

I have plenty of build pictures I will up as soon as I get them off my camera.

Audio is ALC662, works in / out just no volume control (thats ok, because my speakers have it)

 

Playback of 720p and 1080p mkv, not so much, even 720p with vlc stops and skips, xvid/divx no issues and can play hd qt4/mp4 without any stuttering. I'm going to tune the machine a bit and see if I can get the extra horsepower out.

 

If there is anything specific people would like me to test, let me know, so far everything is working except I have to boot with a disk in the drive.

 

Running the latest Chameleon, all installed software is working as it should.

 

More to come, needless to say I'm VERY pleased with this build.

 

Hi!

 

I am a 20 year veteran of the PC world and I want to dabble in the Mac realm. Would that be a fairly inexpensive way to get started? Will I get a good experience with this? What kind of DVD writer would be a good match for this?

 

Thanks a lot for posting your experience with this. I hope I (and others) will benefit from it!

 

SUBnet192

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Hi!

 

I am a 20 year veteran of the PC world and I want to dabble in the Mac realm. Would that be a fairly inexpensive way to get started? Will I get a good experience with this? What kind of DVD writer would be a good match for this?

 

Thanks a lot for posting your experience with this. I hope I (and others) will benefit from it!

 

SUBnet192

 

 

I haven't used OSX on non-apple hardware yet, but it looks like the wind could work out well as a low cost ultraportable mac. That said, if it's your first real experience with OSX, just keep in mind that the the OS wasn't designed to run on this hardware, and for anything more than email, web browsing, and word processing, the hardware is rather inadequate...i.e., don't expect to be cutting footage in Final Cut Pro with it--or even iMovie for that matter.

 

The Wind is targeted at people looking for a portable secondary machine, and business/education users who require portability and primarily use their PC's for email/web/document creation.

 

If you want the full Mac experience, I'd recommend getting at least a Mac Mini, or using the equivalent hardware in an OSX86 system

 

Good luck!

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If your going to go with an Atom based mac you might as well get a Wind instead of a desktop version. Might as well have the option of mobility, and you can always hook it up to an external monitor.

 

My point wasn't to get a desktop instead of a laptop, it was to have realistic expectations of what you're getting with an OSX86 Wind, and to understand that unless you're running OSX on hardware equivalent to or better than the mac mini, you may not get the full experience of OSX.

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If i were going to dabble in OSX, I'd buy an older mac mini or used macbook on ebay. Too many things can go wrong with OSX86 if you dont have the right hardware...

 

on another note, the wind looks like it is going to work fairly well out of the box. I wonder if the webcam will work in ichat?

 

I believe they ship on friday the 27th, so I should get mine within a few days of then. Pretty excited!

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Someone else will have to :) I sold that boxhah

hey can we get a little more info on the Atom Desktop? like Does sleep work? etc... also could you run geekbench/and or xbench and attach the results?
Realistically, the system ran better than a g4 mini, maybe not quite as fast as the core2duo mini 1.83ghz.. probably right in the range of the 1.6ghz core solo one. It is very useable, the little beast was working flawlessly - will be awesome as a portable, can't wait to get mine although I havn't found a retailer in canada that is carrying them yet.\
My point wasn't to get a desktop instead of a laptop, it was to have realistic expectations of what you're getting with an OSX86 Wind, and to understand that unless you're running OSX on hardware equivalent to or better than the mac mini, you may not get the full experience of OSX.
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So i got new for you all.

First upgraded my medion e1210 to 2gb Ram then Split drive into pc xppro Mac os and Linux.

Webcam works microphone works external USB dongle works external USB to expresscard54 works With vodafone umts card slot for memory card 4gb works. More later...

 

KPBC

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So i got new for you all.

First upgraded my medion e1210 to 2gb Ram then Split drive into pc xppro Mac os and Linux.

Webcam works microphone works external USB dongle works external USB to expresscard54 works With vodafone umts card slot for memory card 4gb works. More later...

 

KPBC

 

Does the headphone port work in OS X?

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Hey, for those in the UK still waiting for one (The date is now the 31st July), and not willing to pay £350, PCWorld, Currys and Dixons are selling the Advent 4211, which is just a rebranded model, with a price of only £280!

 

However, you do have to put up with an ADVENT logo on it, along with the silver + black colour scheme

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  • 2 weeks later...

It is depending on whether or not we can bug Taruga about the audio - he might be able to fix the headphone jack and mic in - if he cant we'll probably release it as it is, I have a couple people testing this build on the UK version, the Advent 4211, and if they say its good - its out :)

 

in the ' usual places '

 

:wacko:

 

 

Impressive!

Is Stella's custom build being released at the usual places or is it still in "beta"/testing mode???

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