Custom Built

Re: Custom Built

its kind of difficult since you need an apple logic board (generic PPC systems won't boot mac OS). You have to get a salvage board, but you'll still be limited by whatever slots and ram slots apple has on the board you get. Slashdot had a good article a while back about someone who got some stuff salvage and saved a bunch of money doing it, but I don't know that I would really call it custom built.

 

Apple has you by the balls.

They know that allowing custom built Macs would save people lots of money, but they can't afford to lose the profit they get by selling to you. You can do what Strider said, but that's all. You can't actually buy two 1.42GHz G4's and build your own dual G4 PowerMac. Yes it sucks, but "Apple has you by the balls."

 

You can only do so much with a Mac, as posted previously. There was an article on TechTV on how to do it. Ebay is your best bet for finding Apple Motherboards. OWC carries every kind of CPU upgrade. I suggest getting a cheap Mobo from ebay, read the articles on techtv, and give it a go. you can get up to dual 1.4ghz G4s now from Powerlogix for $999.99. They also have single 1.4GHz, and Gigadesigns and OWC themselves make a 1.467GHz upgrade for less than $600. The Mobo should be around $150-200, plus a powersupply. Any ATX case will work with some modding. RAM and Hard drives and CD Drives are easy to find, and most PC hardware works fine. Good luck!

 

With regards to this, does anyone know of a good Mac "tinkering" site? I've searched all over for a site detailing more hardcore Mac stuff, like disassembling cases, modding, etc. I'd love to rebuild an old G3 iMac into something else, for example...

 

xlr8yourmac.com has some info on it. Here is a page with various "tinkering" articles I'm sure there are others, but this is a good start

 

The one they built on TechTV ran the OS but wasn't pretty in any way. If I remember correctly the logic board and power supply were from Ebay, processor was an upgrade, video card, memory, hard drive, and optical drive were all off the shelf. Then it was cobbled into an ATX case. I priced that kind of a setup and the total cost came dangerously close to a new (faster, better looking, and waranteed) Mac. It's something you do for bragging rights mostly--unless you have a lot of spare parts laying around.

 

Great! This is exactly the kind of stuff I was looking for! Thanks!