Chris Kim Posted October 10, 2005 Share Posted October 10, 2005 Ok, so I've run OSx86 in safe mode on my box, and I was thrilled that I might be able to have the ability to do video editing at a good speed without having to drop $2000+ on a PowerMac. My question now is, is it worth it to buy parts to build a PC that will run OSx86 now? I realize that OSx86 is currently in a developer only stage and is not ready to be released to average consumers yet. (Although I think it's damn near close). I made a parts list on newegg, and they are as follows: Intel Pentium 4 630 Prescott 800MHz FSB LGA 775 EM64T Processor Model BX80547PG3000F - Retail $176.50 ASRock 775Dual-915GL Socket T (LGA 775) Intel 915GL Micro ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail $61.50 pqi POWER Series 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 533 (PC2 4200) Unbuffered Dual Channel Kit System Memory Model MAB42GUOE-X2 - Retail $150.94 SAMSUNG SpinPoint P Series SP2014N 200GB 7200 RPM IDE Ultra ATA133 Hard Drive - OEM $83.99 NEC Black IDE DVD Burner Model ND-3540A - OEM $38.99 Total: 525.22 (shipped) It would be a dream system, and I'd like to assume that parts that are compatible now would still be compatible with a future (yet, hacked) version of OSx86. I'd like thoughts on that statement though. Here is my box right now: AMD Athlon64 3000+ 939pin (winchester, no sse3 ) Not exactly sure what the motherboard was, dont want to rip the box open... but CPU-Z reports: -Pheonix Technologies, LTD -nForce4-A939 -Gigabit lan -AC97 Audio (OSX doesnt play sound through it though ) 1gb Matched Pair Kingston PC3200 RAM 2x 80gb 7200rpm HD's, one running Windows Media Center Edition, the other OSx86 nVidia Geforce 6600 PCI-X Video Card Creative Audigy2 Sound card I want to keep a media center box running, and I was thinking of moving the media center stuff over to a 1ghz celeron machine I have, and then turning this box into a OSx86 only machine. Should I go and buy the parts for a new mac? Should I upgrade the box I have now? Is it too early? Is having a non-sse3 proc going to hold me back alot? I guess the installation DVD I have has the SSE2 patch on it, since I can run itunes 4.9 and such... I know it's a long post but I appreciate any feedback. Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/3373-is-it-worth-building-a-box-what-might-i-need/ Share on other sites More sharing options...
thrunner Posted October 10, 2005 Share Posted October 10, 2005 ASRock 775Dual-915GL Socket T (LGA 775) Intel 915GL Micro ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail SAMSUNG SpinPoint P Series SP2014N 200GB 7200 RPM IDE Ultra ATA133 Hard Drive - OEM Good Mobo but only one IDE so I would get a SATA drive for about the same price. Total: 525.22 (shipped) You can probably get a Celeron D 336 or 326 and less RAM and end up spending less by about $150 to $200. Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/3373-is-it-worth-building-a-box-what-might-i-need/#findComment-21432 Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris Kim Posted October 10, 2005 Author Share Posted October 10, 2005 You can probably get a Celeron D 336 or 326 and less RAM and end up spending less by about $150 to $200. Wouldn't the prescott penitum processor give me alot more performance? I think I will stick with 2gb ram because I do plan to do video editing and alot of multitasking... What about just spending some $$ to change up my current box? Would that be a better option? Also, is it worth building a box now? Thoughts on how compatible it would be in the future releases? Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/3373-is-it-worth-building-a-box-what-might-i-need/#findComment-21497 Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hagar Posted October 10, 2005 Share Posted October 10, 2005 Also, is it worth building a box now? Thoughts on how compatible it would be in the future releases? Probably not, for several reasons: 1: Do you really want to be doing production work on a patched development OS? 2: Although some people report success running Final Cut Pro on OSX86, it may not be reliable. 3: Whatever editing software you use, it will run in rosetta for the forseeable future, so you will be taking a performance hit, even if it runs reliably. Also you are stuck with intel integrated graphics, rather than having a powerful GPU to off-load on... hence... 4: You will want to build a machine for performance, rather than price.. I wouldn't be surprised if you end up having to spend almost as much as you would on a Mac to get the same performance, with none of the support... When the mactels are released, there wil most likely be native-compiled apps, stable OS, graphics card drivers & recourse to tech support.. If you don't want to wait, however, the machine you propose sounds like an interesting, if expensive, experiment. I admit I am a little fascinated by the idea of building machines more powerful than the dev. kit. If you go for it your results will be of interest, but I wouldn't rely on it as a solution. Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/3373-is-it-worth-building-a-box-what-might-i-need/#findComment-21501 Share on other sites More sharing options...
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