Building a mac......

[BiggeeC]

Hey everybody. Here's the deal. I'm looking for a new hobby. I want to build a computer. I figured........since I'm now an apple guy, why not build a mac? So, here are a few questions:

1. I have general computer knowledge, but am no genius. (I know what parts are what) Can I do this? Will I be overwhelmed?

2. I have this obsession with the G4 towers. I don't know. when I "switched", I just thought they were the sweetest looking things on the market. So, I want to build a G4 tower. Do you all have any suggestions as to which one?

3. Generally speaking (cause hopefully some of you have done this before), how much will the parts cost?

4. Can I use whatever I want? For example, can I put a 300 Gig hard drive in it, or will I be limited to something like 80. Also, could I put something similar to a Superdrive, or would I have to use the ACTUAL Superdrive.

Well, I have about 1,000 more questions, but I'll keep it to 4 today. Thanks everybody.

--Chris

Swtiched in 2002. Have, and love my G3 700 mhz ibook, maxed out on ram, running Tiger smoothly

 

[robbieduncan]

1) If you can find the parts it's no more difficult than building a PC tower.

2) The best you can afford! A dual CPU system will probably last the longest.

3) A fortune. Mac logic boards are difficult to get hold of hence very expensive.

4) Depends on the logic board.

 

[shadowmoses]

You cant build macs from scratch unless you want to pay huge costs, I would suggest getting a Quicksilver G4 they look amazing and are currently the best value in terms of performance out of the second hand G4 powermac's you will be able to pick one up on ebay cheap....You can use normal superdives i would suggest the Pioneer DVR series as they are bootable, I think the Quicksilver G4's are not limited in terms of HD like the older G4's i think the quicksilvers can take almost any IDE HD's.

Anyhow getting one of these would be a nice project as they still need a bit of work to be upto modern day standards, also the G4 800ish mhz processors they use are very fast. The upgrades i would reccomend are:
1-SUperdrive
2-Bigger HD
3-Better graphics card
4-PCI USB 2.0 card
5-Airport
6-Max out the RAM

Do all of this to a quicksilver G4 and you will have a sweet system on your hands.

SHadoW

 

[BiggeeC]

shadowmoses,
That's pretty much what I had in mind. I don't know if I want to spend so much money on a loaded quicksilver though........Here's what I'm thinking. (tell me if this would work)


If I bought a Sawtooth (which I can get for about $100 thru a friend), and upgraded everything, would I get the same preformance as if I did it w/the Quicksilver? What I'm asking basically is this: Can u upgrade any of the towers to whatever u want them to be? Can I put a Quicksilver based CPU in a Sawtooth tower?

--Chris
Swtiched in 2002. Have, and love my G3 700 mhz ibook, maxed out on ram, running Tiger smoothly

 

[shadowmoses]

sawtooth's are very upgradeable you can add most any processor's SOnnet make a wide range...SO basically the answer to your question is YES you can do all the things you would want to with a sawtooth.

Shadow

 

[Pistol Pete]

wish i was easy though but not

 

[ITASOR]

You cant build macs from scratch unless you want to pay huge costs, I would suggest getting a Quicksilver G4 they look amazing and are currently the best value in terms of performance....

SHadoW

thanks that made me feel like I have a great computer!