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SILENT intelmac dream machine.

 

i am trying to help a friend build a mid-budget machine. the criterias i am given are:

 

- should have supported hardware as much as possible with hacking as little as possible.

 

have support for

- audio

- firewire

- fully supported gfx (res, qe/ci -->gma)

- usb

- cpu with sse3 (no emulation) and SILENT fan

- hardware update/upgrade (a motherboard that supports dual core intels)

- i guess it will use ddr2 ram

- silent PSU

 

already available.

harddrives sata/ata, dvd drive

 

if possible small formfactor but not a must!

 

try using http://www.stegcomputer.ch/shop.asp or ebay (or any shop shipping internationally) for finding the parts since we're not on the other side of the pond.

 

so what's needed (with my current candidates)

- motherboard

[http://www.stegcomputer.ch/details.asp?prodid=int-945gntlk]

- cpu (with silent fan, is the fan that comes with the cpu silent???)

[http://www.stegcomputer.ch/details.asp?prodid=int-PD-805]

- ram

[http://www.stegcomputer.ch/details.asp?prodid=ram-533-1024]

- psu (silent)

[http://www.stegcomputer.ch/details.asp?prodid=rap-pro-450]

- box (silent)

[http://www.stegcomputer.ch/details.asp?prodid=spi-sp2705b]

 

:censored2:

The real downside is that in six months or so, when Intel roles out the real next generation of CPU's (Woodcrest, Conroe and Merom), which are significantly faster in many ways, the stuff we have now will be completely obsolete. In short, it is a bad time to buy Intel hardware, even the new Yonah based Macs are somewhat undersirable for long term use because Yonah is just a short-term intermediate design chip. Merom is the really deal and I will probably wait for a MacBook Pro with that instead.

 

Are these new chips going to be 775 socket compatible?

You didn't look in the right newsgroup then. The 10.4/10.5 is posted. It's also in torrent form. Google it using "torrent" and "myzar".

The speed limit of the cpu is dependant on the chipset used. Don't know anything about the AMD boards, but genuine Intels (915G thru 955X) are basically a turn the key & go proposition. PCI card recognition is wholly dependant on whatever driver support already exists, whether Apple provided it, or as it comes from the card vendor (and that ain't gonna be much - for awhile anyways).

 

 

I found the 10.4.5 installed it then re-installed 10.4.3... ;)

The 10.4.5 myzar had what looked to be like some bugs, but then again, I am a reaaaaaal noob when it comes to figuring out how to patch, I'm very clueless.

 

Anyway, I am posting becuase I am also wondering about building a INTEL BOARD OSX setup instead of my AMD 64, but I do want something that will have the possibility to upgrade the GMA900 to a good Graphic card, especially since none of the GMA900 will run final cut pro.

 

So in essence, what is the cheap way to go (motherboard/case, DDR, etc) and very technical with windows, both hardware and software, regedit, system services, etc, but clueless with OSX but have the ability to upgrade the graphic card and also, these systems that have the GMA900 and CELERON how do they compare POWER wise compared to a Mini then a G5? Or rather what CPU would be compared to these mac machines power wise? My AMD works fast but no sound, and it see's my AGP as a PCI graphic card (FX5700) and if I try the RADEON 9800 pro, this card makes everything choppy. The goal is audio/graphic/video work.

 

Thanks

Seagate U Series X 20 ST320014A 20GB 5400 RPM IDE Ultra ATA100 Hard Drive - OEM

Model #: ST320014A

Item #: N82E16822148051

 

$30.00

 

WINTEC AMPO 256MB 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 533 (PC2 4200) Unbuffered System Memory Model 3AMD2533-256M1-R - Retail

Model #: 3AMD2533-256M1-R

Item #: N82E16820161635

 

$15.33

 

Foxconn 945G7MA-8KS2 Socket T (LGA 775) Intel 945G Micro ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail

Model #: 945G7MA-8KS2

Item #: N82E16813186074

 

$91.00

 

Intel Celeron D 331 Prescott 533MHz FSB LGA 775 64-Bit Processor w/ Execute Disable Bit Model BX80547RE2667CN - Retail

Model #: BX80547RE2667CN

Item #: N82E16819112206

 

$66.00

 

Subtotal: $217.32

Shipping to 95624: $29.87

$247.19

Tax 7.75%: $15.76

Total: $262.95

 

 

best i could do for a GMA950 based system was $247.19 w/o tax

 

==============

 

seems like for a 199 system, it'd have to be gma900 based.....

It would be interesting if we could find a dirt cheap dell config that would run it. I know sometimes dell just has a good deal that we can reproduce by buying it all seperatly.

 

dell dimension b110 is 329 before 50 dollar mailin rebate (price w/o monitor)

Or just buy a used box off ebay, you can get desktops for dirt cheap, people rarely bid on mid to low end desktops unless they are buying it for scraps or for their grandmother(ppl tend to think any used box with XP is going to be unusable. [not far off]). Either way, you'll get a steal.

I used the following:

 

Intel BOXD915GLVGL Socket T (LGA 775) Intel 915GL Micro ATX Intel Motherboard - OEM -49.99

 

CASE FOXCONN|3GTW001-W-HP350 RT - 34.99

 

Intel Celeron D 336 Prescott 533MHz FSB LGA 775 64-Bit Processor w/ Execute Disable Bit Model BX80547RE2800CN - 70.50

 

1GB Ram - $55

 

NEC DL DVD burner - 39.99

 

Total $250 for a sweet machine that runs 10.4.5 perfectly no issues whatsoever.

I used the following:

 

Intel BOXD915GLVGL Socket T (LGA 775) Intel 915GL Micro ATX Intel Motherboard - OEM -49.99

 

CASE FOXCONN|3GTW001-W-HP350 RT - 34.99

 

Intel Celeron D 336 Prescott 533MHz FSB LGA 775 64-Bit Processor w/ Execute Disable Bit Model BX80547RE2800CN - 70.50

 

1GB Ram - $55

 

NEC DL DVD burner - 39.99

 

Total $250 for a sweet machine that runs 10.4.5 perfectly no issues whatsoever.

 

I have almost EXACTLY the same setup, sans case. Have you done any xbench tests? I'm getting really bad performance with this setup, and unable to play quicktime videos (they're like a slideshow the framerate is so bad). But, I do have CoreGraphics support because the widgets 'plop'. So I suspect the CPU.

  • 1 month later...

My current desktop build cost the following amounts:

 

Intel D945GCZ - $31.00

Celeron D 331 - $45.00

1GB DDR2 - $40.00

80GB IDE HD - $30.00

DVD R/RW 16x - $35.00

 

That's $181.00 right there for everything except sound and network working out of the box. Both issues were resolved however with some patching of kext files.

 

Performance seems to be quite good. Was playing World of Warcraft on it for a few hours yesterday at 1600x1200 and all was well.

  • 3 weeks later...

Dear Schwen:

 

I bought an MSI 915 Barebone system because I wanted something in "Micro" case that would fully support OSx86. I am running OSx86 10.4.5 and fully support Graphics, Sound and Networking. All I had to add was Netgear WG311T (PCI). OSx86 recognized as an Airport Card automatically!

 

The GMA 900 Chipset fully supports Quartz Extreme and Core Image as well as higher resolutions.

 

I had an old IDE 100GB Hard Drive I put in. I have three (3) partitions for Windows XP Pro SP1, Mac OSx86 10.4.5 and Puppy OS (Linux). All in all, I'm very happy with the system.

 

--Danyell =)

  • 2 weeks later...
  • 3 weeks later...

Well, I just picked up $74 motherboard/cpu combo. The board is a biostar P4M800 with the VIA chipset. Came with 3.06gz celery. Not sure if you could add a case, video, hd, and memory for an extra $125 but probably for not much more. Everything is up and running except USB on the board, and as soon a I can get someone to send the IOUSBFamily.kext from 10.4.3 - I'll have that working too.

  • 2 months later...
http://biznes.pclab.pl/zdjecia/artykuly/pi...msi-mpc-915.jpg

 

MSI MPC 915 Barebone - not really cheap, but a VERY nice one. in my opinion a worthy "standard" x86 Box for OS X!

 

[edit] and by the way fully supported - sound,lan,gma900,usb,cardreader,sata all work.[/edit]

 

 

I got an "open box" mPC from NewEgg for $150. Everything works perfectly with a cheap 3.06GHz Celeron, 1GB DDR and a Radeon 9200 flashed PCI card. I'm looking around to see how to fully use a X600 Pro PCI-e that I have laying around. Time will tell.

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