zerhacke Posted November 10, 2008 Share Posted November 10, 2008 http://www.geeks.com/details.asp?invtid=D5S-4R&cpc=SCH Buy this if you want a cheap OSX86 computer. It's less than 90 dollars not including shipping. I have three of them running Jas 10.4.8 right now. It WILL NOT run Leopard as far as I can tell and I've been doing Hackintoshes for some time now. If you don't mind running Tiger, this is the machine for you and your tight budget. You will have to search this forum for AppleIntel8555x zipped kext as ethernet is not supported out of the box. The network drivers are fairly shoddy, so if you're streaming MP3 or DIVX from another computer you may want to get a larger PATA hard drive to store the music and movies directly on your own hard drive. Also, sound is enabled by default but it is a little wonky. Play with the midi control applet in the Utilities directory of your Applications menu. There is no real way to tell which settings work until you try them and find the right one, because even though I bought three of these none used the same settings. Other than that, if anyone has any questions on these machines I will be glad to answer them. Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/135708-geekscom-sub-100-dollar-osx86-computer/ Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hagar Posted November 10, 2008 Share Posted November 10, 2008 I have a tower from the same series with a somewhat better spec (3ghz p4, 2gb ram) running 10.4.11 as my ghetto htpc.. I pulled it out of a dumpster (actually I got 2 & built 1 out of them) apart from the fan occasionally kicking into hairdryer mode & staying there until reboot, it's fairly adequate. (I never got the builtin AC97 to work) I'd say these machines are absolutely bottom-edge marginal for running os x, and the ad doesn't specify what gfx card they have (I added a pci fx5200 to mine), so I'd say scour your neighbourhood and all your family, friends & aquaintances for old, spare PC's before spending any money on this. I once ran tiger on a 1.7 celeron with 256mb ram and VESA graphics.. it scored what I believe to be the all-time second-lowest x-bench score of 17. Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/135708-geekscom-sub-100-dollar-osx86-computer/#findComment-961541 Share on other sites More sharing options...
zerhacke Posted November 12, 2008 Author Share Posted November 12, 2008 The GPU on these machines are an nVidia Vanta 16MB. You MUST use VESA, as there are no Vanta kexts that I have been able to find. Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/135708-geekscom-sub-100-dollar-osx86-computer/#findComment-963481 Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hagar Posted November 12, 2008 Share Posted November 12, 2008 The GPU on these machines are an nVidia Vanta 16MB. You MUST use VESA, as there are no Vanta kexts that I have been able to find. I'd say that disqualifies these machines as suitable at any price. Every component is marginal: weak cpu, unsupported gfx, insufficient RAM, iffy sound & network. The fact is that the way replacement cycles are going, you should be able to pick up p4/sse3 generation equipment at salvage these days, and with a few decent bits thrown in, these are stable & capable of doing good work for many years to come. With this machine, once you factor in more ram, better cpu, supported gfx, nic & sound (provided you can find suitable bits free/cheap), you'd probably be better off starting with something else. Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/135708-geekscom-sub-100-dollar-osx86-computer/#findComment-963511 Share on other sites More sharing options...
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