Is there a way around Apple's locked down platform?

[logicalnoise]

Ok I've been a PC user all my life. I learned Windows 3.11 when I was 6 and went from there. I've used macs at school from time to time and my graphic desighner friend raves about them. I just upgraded my pc and now know that I'd need another 400 or so just to get it to this latest generation. The thing is except for the HDDs and Optical drives this upgrade was practically a whole new PC. I bought the parts individually and assembled them myself. My same computer probably would have cost about another 300 dollars if I bought it pre made.

Is it cheaper or more cost effective to get a mac piece by piece? I could use a mac pro but I can't afford it's starting price. Same with the imac andf I outright refuse to pay 600 for a mac mini. I know I can buy off ebay but I'd rather not. I'm trying to be polite here, but the truth is I'm looking for value and I don't see it on apples website are there some other vendors that can help me?

 

[Queso]

You need to understand that both the Mac experience and Apple's business model are based on the hardware and software being tied together. There aren't currently any models in the range that allow you to piecemeal a Mac together and as far as we know Apple have no plans to release anything similar to what you're asking for.

If you're unhappy with Windows and desperately want to change, I would suggest you either Linux your current machine or sell it and buy an iMac. Although there are hacking sites that will get OSX (even Leopard) running on your current hardware, you'll most likely find the results will be less than your expectations and your friend's experiences.

Sorry, but that's the current state of play.

 

[CashGap]

"Is it cheaper or more cost effective to get a mac piece by piece? "

No.

If you value your time at $0, still no. Even in the PC world, the only way to say that a self-built PC is more cost effective is to value your time at zero and value minor tweaks as valuable in order to skew the comparison.

Apple gets TREMENDOUS brand image from being the solution that works. If OS X were available on generic hardware, it would be just another OS that some people can get to work some of the time.

 

[logicalnoise]

thanks for being honest, I've never had a problem with the versions of windows I've owned. I'm waiting on to see if SP1 fixes enough problems in vista before I consider buying it. Thanks again I think I'll just slowly build this PC up(it plays half life 2 and portal maxed out so I shouldn't have to worry about it for a while). Thanks for the help.

 

[logicalnoise]

"Is it cheaper or more cost effective to get a mac piece by piece? "

No.

If you value your time at $0, still no. Even in the PC world, the only way to say that a self-built PC is more cost effective is to value your time at zero and value minor tweaks as valuable in order to skew the comparison.

Apple gets TREMENDOUS brand image from being the solution that works. If OS X were available on generic hardware, it would be just another OS that some people can get to work some of the time.

Your talking about expected value. Actual value saves me 300 dolars for the same product. I can't get that from Apple evidently.

 

[jellomizer]

You will need to find a Used Mac Motherboard (With all the chips on it) you cannot get them new, through normal chanels. Then you may be able to make a frankin mac (just in time for holloween) Other then the Motherboard with the CPU and the other chips on it. The rest of the components are mostly standardized. Will you save money perhaps, but just getting a Mac Mini for $500 if you have a keyboard, mouse, and monitor. Or an iMac which is a better value. You will probably be happier. OS X Running on PC like systems for Frankin Macs. You often loose a lot of the integration. And things will run a bit more choppy and like it doesn't belong.

 

[Airforce]

You will need to find a Used Mac Motherboard (With all the chips on it) you cannot get them new, through normal chanels.

OS X is on Intel now. No need for specialized hardware.

 

[realmcenter]

OS X is on Intel now. No need for specialized hardware.

You still can only officially run OS X on Apple hardware. OS X requires the presense of an Apple TPM chip on the motherboard, as well as the motherboard using EFI (BIOS will not work), and the OS only has drivers for particular Intel-based system components. It is possible to get it to run on non-Apple hardware, but it's relying on a hacked kernel and may not have the stability and ease-of-use expected.