Building a Mac?

I'm finding myself in need of a Macintosh that can run OS X. Sadly Steve Jobs left my PowerMac 8500 out of the running for compatible machines. Even adding a G3 card and using the latest "hackerz" tools to get it on there didn't work.

So now I'm looking for a cheap (very cheap) means of an OS X box. Last I looked a few months ago there were G4 cubes selling for $600. Thanks to Sonnet and their new Cube processor upgrades, people have hiked the prices up to that of $1200 ... same as a new eMac.

I've found a place or two on the web selling logic boards for G4's for pretty cheap. But after the logic board, you have to buy an apple power supply (not cheap), a G4 processor, not cheap, G4 memory, not cheap, and an AGP card with mac drivers.

Does anyone have any ideas for a cheap student such as myself?

Greg

There's some infor on building your own mac here:

http://www.macopz.com/buildamac/

Thanks a bundle .. I just ordered a logic board. Next on the list will be a power supply, then a CPU.

Anyone have a spare G4 (AGP) processor module they want to part with?

Greg

Please post how it works out I have always wanted to do this.

You can use an ATX power supply with some modifications. If you've bought a G4 motherboard, you can use your run of the mill PC-100 (or PC133 if it's a newer one) RAM.

And for a graphics card you can get an ATI RADEON 9000 Pro very soon for $150 or less. Dual-output no less. (Dual digital in fact - both ports can be used with analog adapter, one is provided). Or you can try your luck with a PC 8500 and then flashing it with the Mac BIOS. I don't suggest it though. Won't work for all 8500 configurations, due to memory differences (timings, not amount). Not to mention most PC boards have a 64KB flash chip and our Mac BIOS fits nicely into 128KB.

Have you thought what you'll do about a case? I may be able to get a spare one. Maybe.

Bruno

I haven't thought about a case yet ... If you can locate one, I'd be very grateful!

Greg

FYI, here's a catalog of where I'm finding parts...

Logic Boards

Processors

Heat Sink

Power Supply

Let me know if you guys see or know of any cases. This is one thing I'm still lacking.

Greg

Using the supplies I posted earlier, along with a Mac Firmware flashed (originally PC firmware) Herculese GeForce 2 MX 400 AGP card, I know have a working Apple Gigabit G4 (350Mhz) from scratch, for less than $400. Runs OS X like a banshee.

Fun project, I'm just sad that it's completed and have nothing to twiddle with anymore!
Greg

The good thing about the Sawtooth board is that down the road you can push it all the way to dual 1ghz G4 chips and still be cheeper off then the new Powermacs. Very nice...

what did you do for a case?

Right now it's jammed inside a big ol' PC case, it works well enough, but I found a nice Quicksilver case on Ebay that wasn't outrageous, should be here in a week or so.

Greg

The Screen Savers just did a segement on building a Mac. The best part of the article is the list of resellers they managed to find for all the parts.

This is stellar. Way back in the old days you could build an old Mac 512 yourself if you could figure out a way to get (or copy) the ROMS. I'd *love* to do this with an OS X capable mac. I have a few questions for the group (sorry if these are obvious):

1. Is the necessary firmware already installed on the board?
2. How will the G4/350 compare with a Pentium class windows machine for performance (assuming OS X)? I'm guessing it will "feel" about like a PIII/1GhZ running Windows. Is that about right?
3. What is the cheapest way to get OS X?

1. Is the necessary firmware already installed on the board?

Yep. No need to worry about aquiring it. 3rd party PowerPC boards are coming soon for the Amiga revival, it's unknown what the possibility of OS X running on those is.

2. How will the G4/350 compare with a Pentium class windows machine for performance (assuming OS X)? I'm guessing it will "feel" about like a PIII/1GhZ running Windows. Is that about right?

Not really. OS X slows a machine down quite a bit, compaired to OS 9. It's much less noticible depending on a few things: 1. Processor speed, Processor L3 cache, graphics card support for Quartz Extreme, memory, and altivec. I have a 450 cube, and it's usuable, but not as "snappy" as my 600 desktop at certain things. It's still very usable though, and memory seems to be my main limitation (due to all the programs I run).

3. What is the cheapest way to get OS X?

The store, $129. Unless you are a student, then I think it's $69 or so. Nothing special is needed with the above setup to get it installed, since the guts are identical to the PowerMac towers.

Unless you are a student, then I think it's $69 or so

Sweet, so I can wander into my old college bookstore, display my college ID that they never collected from me and walk away with os x for $70 bucks. And I thought the only thing I could use that old ID for was getting student rate lift tickets.

Some school bookstores are a little more demanding these days. Some want a current paid fee receipt.

I got OSX through apple's online store for students for about $69.

Greg