Build Your Own Mac for $199

I bought those parts. THey come on thurs... will report on success or not.

Can someone suggest supported PCI-to-FireWire controllers (for mactel on ASRock P4Dual-915GL) ?

thanks

frank

p.s.

According to newegg the mobo seem an ATX mobo:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?...N82E16813157075

But it's a Micro ATX:

http://www.asrock.com/product/product_P4Dual-915GL.htm

I am very close to buying all of these parts, but before I do, does anyone have that exact configuration and have it running flawlessly? Any help?

Okay, i bought mobo to, but with an exception in CPU, which in my case is: Intel Pentium 4E 3200 MHz 1 MB cache. Everything will arive tomorrow. I will post my results ASAP .

People commonly don't understand this. They will never be able to prevent installation of the OS on non-Apple hardware just by conditions of sale. This is not because EULAs are not enforceable - they often are, depending on what they say. It is not because of copyright - this only stops illegal copying.

It is because conditions of sale which restrain post sale use are unenforceable, whether they are in a EULA or in any other sort of contract. The reason is, it is anti-competitive. So, MS cannot stop you running Office under Wine, regardless of what the EULA says. They also cannot stop you moving your Windows installation from one machine to another, similarly. GM cannot stop you using after market tires, stereos and so on. Gilette cannot make you use its blades in its razors, or stop other people making blades for its razors.

Apple can stop you making illegal copies of X, and they can make it technically impossible to run X on non-Apple hardware. But they cannot stop you, simply by conditions of sale, from running a purchased copy of X on the hardware of your choice. Nor can they stop people making hardware and advertising it as 'X ready'.

This suggests that one of two things will happen. First, they may release X to run on generic hardware. This will be a true revolution for them. I doubt they have the guts. They would have to get the costs out and compete. Second, they may implement draconian measures like product activation and DRM to stop this. This is the most likely way. As a friend of mine said: no management team ever changes a failing strategy voluntarily. I don't think these guys will. But, we will see....

Sound and networking working with this?

The list:

Case $9.95: http://www.buypcdirect.com/product.asp?pf_id=cas-ge-lp600

Motherboard $52.99: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?...N82E16813157075

Processor $60.77: http://www.ewiz.com/detail.php?name=CELE-315BX&src=fr

512 RAM $38.00: http://store.yahoo.com/pcmemory-stores/25pc26stoemf.html

20 Gigabyte HD $25.95: http://www.etech4sale.com/hardware/partinfo-id-1852.html

DVD Drive $12.00: http://www.compuvest.com/Description.jsp?iid=107882

 

Total: $199.66

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Well, what you can see here is the new new Mac Mini. Just cur some pci slots, make an µATX mainboard, one DIMM for DDR, and here it is.

Perhaps, Apple will take a slithtly newer chipset. The graphic card is perfect for OSX. It has everything needed: QE, Core-Graphics/Image/Video (2D and 3D acceleration)

Of course, some TCPA chip will be on the mainboard, 40GB harddrive as standard, perhaps some 2,5" 5400rpm, 8MB drive, 512MB RAM, perhaps DDR2, because in one year that one will be cheaper than DDR 1, with Combo drive as standard, perhaps airport builtin and bluetouth for the higher models

What will we pay for it ? 499€ for it

So let´s see what apple will present us in about one year.

Kin

I'm sure Leopard will be released with fat binary files. Otherwise maintaining and supporting of several code bases will be a nightmare for Apple.

All of Apple's stuff had always been in the format of Fat Binary files -- you must mean 'Universal Binaries'?

They would not be separate code bases, as they are simply different distributions of the same code-base... something Apple is already doing with the disks shipping with the newer G5s and the iMac G5. You see, none of what Apple is planning on doing on doing is either a departure from the norm, or in any way 'new'. All the pieces have been in place for a long time.

Even if Leopard is released as Universal Binaries, if Apple's stated goal is to not allow Mac OS X on non-Apple machines, they will have a more effective hardware protection scheme in place by then -- and a license, just as the present one, that will not allow tinkering with the product.

Notwithstanding mindless diatribes about the philosophical 'rights' of licenses, Apple certainly cannot enforce any such licensing, besides going legally after those selling or otherwise profiting from distribution (and, undoubtedly, there will be a couple of idiots that will get caught for their greed and stupidity) - but at the same time, the number of people that are going to willingly jump through the hoops of patching and installing a hacked OS X will be relatively small, and certainly, no one will be able to commercially exploit such a thing (though, some will try - see above).

On the other hand, despite Apple's 'controversial' legal sabre rattling with several (idiot) rumors sites, do note that their strategy has been successful -- the number of rumors circulating, or reliably being distributed, have been reduced to nearly zero.

Likewise, if Apple strategically shoots a couple of shots in front of hobbyist sites, they will dramatically reduce the number of sites (and more will spring up, as time passes) dealing with OS X hacks. Yes, right now, it may serve Apple well to allow the beast out in the wild, but at one point it will need to get reigned in (lest it shows voluntary restraint, which I don't see happening).

Second, they may implement draconian measures like product activation and DRM to stop this. This is the most likely way.

Unlikely - Apple has repeatedly assured that such measures will never happen to Macintosh. Generally, Apple can be trusted with such statements. Neither product activation, nor DRM are foolproof - personally, I feel a far better method is hardware signature, and subsequently marrying the installation to the hardware (i.e. it can only run on Apple hardware, not uniquely *your* hardware)

As a friend of mine said:  no management team ever changes a failing strategy voluntarily.  I don't think these guys will.  But, we will see....

I fail to see where you are jumping at the conclusion that Apple's management team has a failing strategy - care to elaborate?

All of Apple's stuff had always been in the format of Fat Binary files -- you must mean 'Universal Binaries'?

"Fat" binaries are the same thing as "Universal" binaries, Apple calls "Univeral" what NeXT called "Fat". Both of these terms refer to a single file that effectively contains binaries for multiple architectures, and clearly this is new for Apple.

Okay, i bought mobo to, but with an exception in CPU, which in my case is: Intel Pentium 4E 3200 MHz 1 MB cache. Everything will arive tomorrow. I will post my results ASAP .

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I did as well.... I got the MOBO from NewEgg and eBay for the CPU. However my day job is testing HW any way. My Lab CPUs are right here so I will just have to put it thru the paces until my Cely shows up.

Keep up the good work guys and girls.

Peace Out!

I did as well.... I got the MOBO from NewEgg and eBay for the CPU.  However my day job is testing HW any way.  My Lab CPUs are right here so I will just have to put it thru the paces until my Cely shows up.

 

Keep up the good work guys and girls.

Peace Out!

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Success!!!!

I just ripped open this ASRock Mobo and installed a 3.2E P4, 512MB ECC, and the DD' d drive.

Booted Right Up!!!!!

Thanks To All....

I would say snap one up....for the price!!!

Will get back to you with test results later.

Peace Out

Guido

Medford, OR USA

I just told Mashugly about this on IRC so I'll post it here because it's funny as hell.

 

Consider that it's a $199.66 PC that can run OSx86 - now consider that with a slight modification the price could come down and you could boost the CPU speed by almost 700 MHz.

 

How?

 

Check it:

 

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/Se...79398&CatId=191

 

After rebates that package is $49.99 and includes a mobo that you could keep as a spare but it's got a Celeron D running at 2.93 GHz - that's the kicker to this deal. Of course you'd have to put out $129.99 for the thing first then get the rebates (hopefully) but...

 

It would bring the cost of the "Hackintosh" down about another $12 roughly... soooo...

 

Funny stuff we're working on, ain't it?

 

Have fun, always...

bb

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Interesting. I might buy that.

Hello,

I've written the tiger image using method 2a from Vinc0r's Guide to a unformated harddrive using a Windows PC and the dd tool, but the OSX is not booting.

Hardware used:

- Asrock 775Dual-915GL

- 80 GB Samsung IDE Drive

During startup the bios reports "Detecting third IDE master....". S-ATA is disabled in the Bios.

When the machine is trying to boot it hangs, the number "0078" appears in the right corner, the light of the harddisk is on and nothing happens.

Any idea what to do?

Thanks!

I bought those parts. THey come on thurs... will report on success or not.

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Well, parts came sooner than expected.

Booted up WAY faster.

Video works great - no video glitches.. I can pick high resolutions. fading now looks nice.

Ethernet and sound both work.

Itunes works.

It's a TINY mobo too. So if you buy one of those slim cases you should be in great shape. I had one lying around - so I got everything working for very cheap.

Great find dude. I'm happy with my purchase.

It's a TINY mobo too. So if you buy one of those slim cases you should be in great shape. I had one lying around - so I got everything working for very cheap.

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Cool! Can you please tell me which boot settings and type of harddrive you use? Is your Bios also reporting "Detecting third IDE Master..." when it initializes your boot disk?

Thank you.

This mobo did not work for me as expected . It shares only 8mb to video memory, and osx says that QE is not supported. How much video memory does your bios share to video (you can see the amount in bios), what version of bios do you have and how much RAM do you have (what type)?

Thx.

This mobo did not work for me as expected . It shares only 8mb to video memory, and osx says that QE is not supported.

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But it seems that your OSX86 booted properly!

Can you please tell me which boot settings and type of harddrive you use? Is your Bios also reporting "Detecting third IDE Master..." when it initializes your boot disk?

"Fat" binaries are the same thing as "Universal" binaries, Apple calls "Univeral" what NeXT called "Fat".  Both of these terms refer to a single file that effectively contains binaries for multiple architectures, and clearly this is new for Apple.

If you say so -- I guess the specifically defined 'Fat Binaries' that we have been creating since the 90s in order to provide PPC/68k programs are, geologically speaking, a new thing -- but to Apple, this has been pretty much old hat for the past 10 years.

If you are referencing to code written to accomodate the intel transition, then those are refered to as 'Universal Binaries'.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fat_binary

It wasn't NeXT that called them 'Fat' first, as you implied.

Geez, get it right, please!

But it seems that your OSX86 booted properly!

 

Can you please tell me which boot settings and type of harddrive you use? Is your Bios also reporting "Detecting third IDE Master..." when it initializes your boot disk?

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It says nothing about detecting third ide mater. I am using two IDE drives (no cdrom). both my ide harddisks are IBM 60 GB, set to 'cable select' with jumpers. mac osx boots fine, network works, i can change resolutions, but QE is not supported ;(.

It says nothing about detecting third ide mater. I am using two IDE drives (no cdrom). both my ide harddisks are IBM 60 GB, set to 'cable select' with jumpers. mac osx boots fine, network works, i can change resolutions, but QE is not supported ;(.

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Hmmm..... can you please tell me your Bios settings? Is the S-ATA controller enabled? Thanks!

Cool! Can you please tell me which boot settings and type of harddrive you use? Is your Bios also reporting "Detecting third IDE Master..." when it initializes your boot disk?

 

Thank you.

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Havent looked in the bios - will later.

My bios shows zero text when it boots... black screen until darwin bootloader appears.

My HD is a WD 160GB IDE drive. I took it out of my P4 1.6A and just plugged it in - already had osx so it booted right up.

Is there someone with the 200$ Mac can do a speed test, to see how fast it is against my iBook G4 1Ghz ?

It will help me to considere if it is interesting to buy...

Thanks

This mobo did not work for me as expected . It shares only 8mb to video memory, and osx says that QE is not supported.  How much video memory does your bios share to video (you can see the amount in bios), what version of bios do you have and how much RAM do you have (what type)?

 

Thx.

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how did you install OSx86? to take full advantage of having supported hardware I would use a rosetta only patched pheNIX dvd.

how did you install OSx86?  to take full advantage of having supported hardware I would use a rosetta only patched pheNIX dvd.

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I used deadcow's image (method 2 with dd). I also asked around in irc, people said should try phoenix, im currently do the PaerPc step, will keep you guys updated.