WillyDavidK Posted August 3, 2006 Share Posted August 3, 2006 OK, I'm considering building a 'Mac', and wanted to run some hardware by you guys to see what y'all thought. Mobo: ASRock 775 915GL http://www.shopbot.com.au/p-15408-227065.html I heard about this mobo from one of the first tutorials I saw about osx86. It has the same north and south bridge as the developer boxes, a nearly identical graphics chipset (onboard) and the onboard audio is just 1 version higher than the onboard audio on the developer boxes. Processor: P4 3Ghz Prescott http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?...N82E16819116014 Totally open to debate, but considering the cheap price, I figured I might as well go with a 3ghz P4. I might need someone to verify it's SSE support, as I'm not entirely sure about it. Memory: 1gig gigaram 240-pin DDR2 400 PC3200 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?...N82E16820221116 Not real concerned about the memory, there's a gig of DDR2 400, which apparently is what the board uses (was not entirely easy to find out..). I might grab two considering the price. As for the rest, I'll prolly stick with my Sony DVD-RW/CD-RW drive and one of my Hard drives. I may get an IDE hard drive since both of mine are SATA as well. Oh, and if anyone is curious, this is the case I was looking at. I've wanted to use this to do a microATX build for a long time, but never got a chance. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?...N82E16811144109 All the items together are ~330 bucks, so there's definately room to expand. Just wanted to run these by you guys (mainly the mobo). Tell me what you think! Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/23410-considering-building-a-mac/ Share on other sites More sharing options...
WillyDavidK Posted August 5, 2006 Author Share Posted August 5, 2006 hey, I don't mean to be impatient, but if anyone can comment on at least the mobo, or make any suggestions (ie are there any on newegg that you would say would be better than the one I listed) I'd really like to know if this is worth investing in. Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/23410-considering-building-a-mac/#findComment-156171 Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rammjet Posted August 5, 2006 Share Posted August 5, 2006 Read the hardware compatibility lists in the wiki: http://wiki.osx86project.org/wiki/index.php/Main_Page Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/23410-considering-building-a-mac/#findComment-156173 Share on other sites More sharing options...
crazylikeastraw Posted August 5, 2006 Share Posted August 5, 2006 Memory: 1gig gigaram 240-pin DDR2 400 PC3200 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?...N82E16820221116Not real concerned about the memory, there's a gig of DDR2 400, which apparently is what the board uses (was not entirely easy to find out..). I might grab two considering the price. actually it was very easy to find out what kind of ram the board uses, it says right on the mobo page: Offer: Asrock 775 Dual 915GL Motherboard - Intel 915GL, 800MHz FSB, Dual 2xDDR400, ASRock A.G.I.8X, A.G.I. Ex, SATA, 10/100 LAN, USB2.0, 8Ch Audio, mATX but other than that, good system although i would go for 2gb of ram, but maybe that's just me Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/23410-considering-building-a-mac/#findComment-156189 Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jedisinclair Posted August 5, 2006 Share Posted August 5, 2006 double check the ram for that motherboard... does it take the 240-pin ram? Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/23410-considering-building-a-mac/#findComment-156275 Share on other sites More sharing options...
crazylikeastraw Posted August 5, 2006 Share Posted August 5, 2006 yes, the mobo takes 240-pin ddr2 400 Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/23410-considering-building-a-mac/#findComment-156340 Share on other sites More sharing options...
WillyDavidK Posted August 6, 2006 Author Share Posted August 6, 2006 double check the ram for that motherboard... does it take the 240-pin ram? This is what I meant about not being sure what the mobo took, but after a small bit of research I figured it out. Thanks guys, everything looks SUPER in the wiki compat list. Now to sell this oversize paperweight next to me (that I also built some time ago) EDIT: Hey, does anyone know where I can get those apple logo stickers? I want to slap one on top of the box when I'm done Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/23410-considering-building-a-mac/#findComment-157145 Share on other sites More sharing options...
crazylikeastraw Posted August 7, 2006 Share Posted August 7, 2006 hahaha, nice touch i know for sure some come with the video ipods, you could just ask your local apple store if they have any stickers as well Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/23410-considering-building-a-mac/#findComment-157235 Share on other sites More sharing options...
rkwok Posted August 7, 2006 Share Posted August 7, 2006 THe 775Dual915GL will only take DDR ram not DDR2. I can assure you of that, i have one sitting in front of me. Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/23410-considering-building-a-mac/#findComment-157253 Share on other sites More sharing options...
WillyDavidK Posted August 7, 2006 Author Share Posted August 7, 2006 So you're saying the mobo only takes 184-pin RAM, rather than 240? Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/23410-considering-building-a-mac/#findComment-157295 Share on other sites More sharing options...
madzie Posted August 7, 2006 Share Posted August 7, 2006 I built a 'Mac' 2 weeks ago when I moved into a friends flat and it's sitting in the living room running iTunes and casual Internet browsing, and it's been perfect in every department - Video, Sound, USB, SATA and DVD-RW. It's a conversation starter if you got any nerd friends round, the realisation that you can do this always gets priceless gawps! Just for reference, this is what I used: Gigabyte 8I865GME-775 Motherboard Intel Celeron 2.8GHZ Socket 775 340+ 1.5GB Kingston DDR400 Memory LG GSA-H10A DVD-RW 80GB Seagate SATA Hard Drive. ATI Radeon 9600SE (128MB) Native install of Mac OSX 10.4.6 x86 DVD. (JaS) If you need help with building or enquiries, I'll be happy to help. Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/23410-considering-building-a-mac/#findComment-157744 Share on other sites More sharing options...
rkwok Posted August 7, 2006 Share Posted August 7, 2006 here is the link to the homepage of the board: http://www.asrock.com/product/775Dual-915GL.htm Memory - Dual Channel DDR memory technology - Supports DDR400/333 - DIMM slots: 2 - Max. capacity: 2GB I hope this answer your question. Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/23410-considering-building-a-mac/#findComment-157831 Share on other sites More sharing options...
WillyDavidK Posted August 7, 2006 Author Share Posted August 7, 2006 well my question was just whether it takes 184-pin ram or 240-pin. I was fairly sure it was 240 until now o_0. Can you verify this? Oh and that's pretty awesome madzie, thanks for the offer! Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/23410-considering-building-a-mac/#findComment-157877 Share on other sites More sharing options...
rkwok Posted August 7, 2006 Share Posted August 7, 2006 DDR 400/333 is only DDR, if it's DDR2 the homepage would have said so. and also standard desktop DDR are 184 pin, DDR2 is 240 pin. so you should be able to tell from the homepage of 775Dual915GL. Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/23410-considering-building-a-mac/#findComment-158149 Share on other sites More sharing options...
scuba Posted August 8, 2006 Share Posted August 8, 2006 I'd recommend going for a 945 chipset board with onboard graphics if you can afford the minimal extra cost. The onboard GMA950 graphics is the same as the MacBooks and mini's and will therefore be officially supported for a few OS generations (Hoping that Leopard will be hacked in the future). Plus it supports the faster DDR2 RAM. I have the Intel 945GNTL (only has 10/100 LAN, the 945GNT has Gbit LAN and onboard Firewire I think) Everything installed natively just as if I was on a real Mac, the 1 issue I have is my audio output is switched at the back (ie Mic is Line Out, and Line out is Mic). This is only annoying if you plan to Dual Boot and the solution is to use the Headphone out and Mic In from the front of the case as these are not switched. I wrote an Installation guide detailing my experiences and posted it on these forums somewhere.... I run primarily in OS X.4.6, and occasionally boot back into XP using the Darwin Bootloader. My system is just as stable as my real (but aging) CRT iMac was with the advantage of being faster and capable of Dual Booting. Sleep is fully functional. Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/23410-considering-building-a-mac/#findComment-158351 Share on other sites More sharing options...
WillyDavidK Posted August 8, 2006 Author Share Posted August 8, 2006 hm, I'll look into that. I actually ran into the conroe thread over in the tutorials forum so I may go for that ASUS board and spring for conroe and a 975X chipset, but I'll have to do some more research on it later. Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/23410-considering-building-a-mac/#findComment-158513 Share on other sites More sharing options...
SuperCed Posted August 30, 2006 Share Posted August 30, 2006 I built a 'Mac' 2 weeks ago when I moved into a friends flat and it's sitting in the living room running iTunes and casual Internet browsing, and it's been perfect in every department - Video, Sound, USB, SATA and DVD-RW. It's a conversation starter if you got any nerd friends round, the realisation that you can do this always gets priceless gawps! Just for reference, this is what I used: Gigabyte 8I865GME-775 Motherboard Intel Celeron 2.8GHZ Socket 775 340+ 1.5GB Kingston DDR400 Memory LG GSA-H10A DVD-RW 80GB Seagate SATA Hard Drive. ATI Radeon 9600SE (128MB) Native install of Mac OSX 10.4.6 x86 DVD. (JaS) If you need help with building or enquiries, I'll be happy to help. I just bought the same motherboard as you to install MacOS X (10.4.6 or 10.4.7). I have Jas on a DVD. Is that ok with all with this motherboard? Are there some tricks I must know before. I just have the integrated graphic card, is that ok? Is that ok with sound, network, video? Thank you! Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/23410-considering-building-a-mac/#findComment-177904 Share on other sites More sharing options...
SenVa Posted August 30, 2006 Share Posted August 30, 2006 Processor: P4 3Ghz Prescott http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?...N82E16819116014Totally open to debate, but considering the cheap price, I figured I might as well go with a 3ghz P4. I might need someone to verify it's SSE support, as I'm not entirely sure about it. If you are still wondering about the SSE support... It is a prescott... it would be the first CPU type to have sse3... so it is fully supported in that respect. Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/23410-considering-building-a-mac/#findComment-178010 Share on other sites More sharing options...
ventress Posted August 30, 2006 Share Posted August 30, 2006 from my experience D945 boards also have issues with CeleronD's so get a P4, which is what I am having to do. Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/23410-considering-building-a-mac/#findComment-178064 Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flash21 Posted August 30, 2006 Share Posted August 30, 2006 Oh, and if anyone is curious, this is the case I was looking at. I've wanted to use this to do a microATX build for a long time, but never got a chance. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?...N82E16811144109 --- For some odd reason it won't let me quote that. I have the Chenming version of that case, It's good, make sure you follow the instructions when installing... as once you put the HD's in, you can't put any more 5.25 bay components in... It has excellent cooling (comes stock with a 120mm fan positioned right beside the CPU. go for round cables though. I ended up having to change cases however because a PCI EXPRESS CARD WILL NOT FIT! The case supports full size power supplys. (and Unlike the Chenming version... it looks like that one doesn't come with a POS PSU) Best of luck. -Flash --System: Amelia-- A8N32-SLI Deluxe | A64X2 4400 @ 2.7 (Stock) | 4gb (single side) Crucial 400mhz (dual chan) | Lite-On 16x DVD RW (DL / 5xRAM / LS) | 2x WD Sata2 160gb | 2x Asus En7600gs Silent PciEX16 512mb (SLI 16/16) | Enermax Gold 550w SLI-Cert | Acrylic Clear Case (not branded) (XP Pro/Vista RC1) --System: Amaya-- A8N-VM CSM (bios: 901) | AMD 3200+ @ 2.4 (Stock) | 1gb Crucial 400mhz (dual chan) | Lite-On 16x DVD RW (DL) | WD Sata 160gb | WD Sata2 160gb | Asus En7600gs Silent PciEX16 512mb | Kworld Pci Tuner. | VIO 450w | Cheap Black Case (not branded) | (XP Pro/Vista RC1/OSX.4.6) Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/23410-considering-building-a-mac/#findComment-178150 Share on other sites More sharing options...
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