'OpenMac' Promises $399 Headless Mac... But Not From Apple

[troller]

That there are several factors that affect the speed of a hard drive, not just RPM, and the 7200 RPM hard drives that you can buy currently are severely behind more modern drives in other areas.

what ever they are and what ever your oppinion is, there is just ONE fact: My Macbook is a lot faster than before and I am sorry to say that but everybody who runs a core 2 Duo with 4GB Ram and 2.4 GHz must be crazy to break the whole system with a apple 5400rpm drive.

I changed it myself and it works great and faster as before.

 

[tjohanne]

This thread is getting ridiculous, so let's end it here:

We all know that any non-Apple manufactured computer doesn't get sprinkled with iFairy Dust by the Apple worker elves prior to being boxed and shipped out of Steve's Magic Cupertino Workshop and, in turn, will never run Mac OS X properly.

End of discussion.

But if offers more computing power for the money.

 

[Clive At Five]

The Mac Pro is a tower because the "pro" specs require it.

And prosumer specs require a midtower. So what's your point?

Exactly what I was going to say.

And I repeat that Apple can make an xMac look just as good as a MacPro, if not better... not that I care as much about the appearance of my computer as its performance.

-Clive

 

[DaBrain]

I'd love to know the age and occupation demographics between those for and against.

Dittos and too add to that Id like to know that info for all macrumor users. That would be very interesting stats!

 

[ucfgrad93]

I wouldn't touch one of these with a 10 foot pole. Hopefully, other people won't as well.

 

[enteck]

Oh really? I would put down the slightly extra performance of your HackinCrap in favor of a Mac that doesn't require the headache of searching forums for patches every time Apple releases an update or for when a reformat is necessary.
You will always GET what you PAY for in this lifetime, don't try to make your Hackincrap out to be this great solution for many because it's not.

I did not read the full text of the post you quoted but just saw your response.

There is nothing crappy about Hackintoshes and not everyone needs to search forums for patches with every update. Most users can use Apple's built in updater. A key benefit to Hackintosh systems is the ability to choose your hardware within certain parameters that are already supported. Carefully choosing components can lead to a very clean, fully supported Hackintosh.

In addition, some people like playing and tinkering with their machine, overclockers for example. This spreads to the OS and software. As soon as you use third party software, you are tweaking the base system. You may/will scan forums for that software looking for further information, updates, and hacks/tweaks. Just because you choose not to do this for your OS, dont put down those who do.

FYI, I have a MacBook Pro and support Apple as a customer. Their design, support and all around package is second to none. They will work most reliably. But hey, they have built 10^7 more than i have.

 

[tjohanne]

I'd rather be forced to buy something that works than get to choose between a lot of things that don't.

Laugh it up, fuzzball.

That works? I've bought two iMacs in my life. One many years ago and one recently. Both had screen problems. The last one I had to return because of it. So, it didn't just work, oh no, sir

 

[BenRoethig]

Notice someone mentioned wanting a "mid-tower." This would fit in the iMac category. The Mac Pro is a pro machine and not a consumer tower.

Again, Apple will never create a "mid-tower."

The Mac Pro is a tower because the "pro" specs require it.

The iMac is not a tower because the consumer specs did not force them to put it in a "mid tower."

Reality isn't so black and white.

 

[supercooled]

I think that's a pretty accurate quote, if you get what I mean. Especially after you see how fragile this config will be (aside from being unsupported).

It's one thing to get an OS running on a box, but what happens when an update breaks your software?

That $399 is going to sting. Not trying to be pessimistic - just realistic about this endeavor. Apple's team of lawyers is not a force this company will be able to take on.

Curious to see where this ends up.

I'm curious whether or not you have followed the OSx86 project closely. I have only taken glimpse of it from time to time but it seems overall, the brave and patient are prevailing. Any increment updates are addressed pretty quick as well.

 

[Tallest Skil]

That works? I've bought two iMacs in my life. One many years ago and one recently. Both had screen problems. The last one I had to return because of it. So, it didn't just work, oh no, sir

Okay. It's a screen problem. I'm talking about low-level baseline code errors because of hardware differences. I'm talking about kernel panics because of GPUs (For the record, Apple needs to put pressure on nVidia/ATI to go to EFI cards so that we can have more than three in OS X), CPU overheatings, and general unsupported worthlessness.

 

[enteck]

Geekbench

Also, you guys may find it interesting to check out the geekbench results page and see the results. You might be surprised at the OSX86 community's size and the various configurations possible. Old P4s can be great toys with sse3 emulation . But damn, 8 cores in the new MacPro is crazy!

http://browse.geekbench.ca/geekbench2/similar/49792/3

 

[tjohanne]

I wouldn't touch one of these with a 10 foot pole. Hopefully, other people won't as well.

Why do you say "hopefully"? Isn't competition healthy in a capitalist system? You don't have to be a professor of economics to know that the competition benefits the customers, namely you and me. Maybe Apple now will have to do something about their insane prices.

 

[k2spitfire88]

I will pay whatever for this with Mac OS X 10.5.2 inside:

- MOST IMPORTANT: bedroom quiet Mac. If possible, fanless.
- FireWire 800 (two ports)
- FireWire 400 (two ports)
- USB 2 (4 ports)
- 1TB 7200 rpm drive inside. Option for a second drive (Time Machine)
- Option for up to two quad core Intel processors (octo).
- Option for 8 GB RAM (1GB/core)
- Audio in
- Audio out
- No need for PCI slots.
- No need of graphic card.
- No need for expandbility.

Size: less important.

Without a graphics card, whats the point of those processors? Doesnt that kind of defeat the purpose having the octo set up?

 

[twoodcc]

Without a graphics card, whats the point of those processors? Doesnt that kind of defeat the purpose having the octo set up?

maybe a server?

 

[BenRoethig]

Okay. It's a screen problem. I'm talking about low-level baseline code errors because of hardware differences. I'm talking about kernel panics because of GPUs (For the record, Apple needs to put pressure on nVidia/ATI to go to EFI cards so that we can have more than three in OS X), CPU overheatings, and general unsupported worthlessness.

Why would they? Windows doesn't use EFI and the cheapest (and only) Mac with a x16 PCI-E slot starts at $2300

 

[Digital Skunk]

what ever they are and what ever your oppinion is, there is just ONE fact: My Macbook is a lot faster than before and I am sorry to say that but everybody who runs a core 2 Duo with 4GB Ram and 2.4 GHz must be crazy to break the whole system with a apple 5400rpm drive.

I changed it myself and it works great and faster as before.

You do realize that Apple doesn't make the hard drives, most PC makers put 5400 RPM drives in their machines, and that the hard drive really isn't a bottleneck?

Yes the machine runs faster with the faster drive, but it doesn't slow the system down, and it's not really a problem that plagues laptops.

 

[topgunn]

Without a graphics card, whats the point of those processors? Doesnt that kind of defeat the purpose having the octo set up?

Aside from games and a few video editing programs, what are you doing that requires a dedicated video card let alone a bleeding-edge video card?

 

[troller]

You do realize that Apple doesn't make the hard drives, most PC makers put 5400 RPM drives in their machines, and that the hard drive really isn't a bottleneck?

Yes the machine runs faster with the faster drive, but it doesn't slow the system down, and it's not really a problem that plagues laptops.

Sorry but I just can'T agree with that. I see it day by day! My little machine runs much better with the 7200 drive and all I say is, that I don't understand, why apple is not able to offer a 7200 hdd for the macbook as an option.

 

[k2spitfire88]

Aside from games and a few video editing programs, what are you doing that requires a dedicated video card let alone a bleeding-edge video card?

Not top of the line, but my integrated graphics on my current satellite doesnt even let me play some 6 year old games, and this computer is a year old! I was just wondering why someone would need that many cores without a dedicated video card, because those applications and games (from my limited knowledge) that would need that kind of power (at this moment in time) are the ones that need dedicated graphics to fully support them. I could be wrong, correct me if I am

 

[Eidorian]

Not top of the line, but my integrated graphics on my current satellite doesnt even let me play some 6 year old games, and this computer is a year old! I was just wondering why someone would need that many cores without a dedicated video card, because those applications and games (from my limited knowledge) that would need that kind of power (at this moment in time) are the ones that need dedicated graphics to fully support them. I could be wrong, correct me if I am

There are quite a few command line, multi-threaded applications.

Not to mention of lot of mathematical and scientific applications that just need an X window.

 

[Electrolytic]

Good article about the need for a mid range mac

Good article about the need for a mid range mac

http://www.macworld.com/article/58562/2007/06/midrangemac.html

 

[overcast]

Sorry but I just can'T agree with that. I see it day by day! My little machine runs much better with the 7200 drive and all I say is, that I don't understand, why apple is not able to offer a 7200 hdd for the macbook as an option.

Heat.

 

[topgunn]

Not top of the line, but my integrated graphics on my current satellite doesnt even let me play some 6 year old games, and this computer is a year old! I was just wondering why someone would need that many cores without a dedicated video card, because those applications and games (from my limited knowledge) that would need that kind of power (at this moment in time) are the ones that need dedicated graphics to fully support them. I could be wrong, correct me if I am

Photoshop is a good example of an application that will benefit greatly from increased processing power (say 8 cores) and massive amounts of RAM (say 16GB) yet doesn't give a lick what GPU you have.

 

[ease718]

Photoshop is a good example of an application that will benefit greatly from increased processing power (say 8 cores) and massive amounts of RAM (say 16GB) yet doesn't give a lick what GPU you have.

my hackintosh quad loses nothing to the 8 core machines in PS benchmarks.

 

[farmboy]

Piaget was right...

Sorry but I just can'T agree with that. I see it day by day! My little machine runs much better with the 7200 drive and all I say is, that I don't understand, why apple is not able to offer a 7200 hdd for the macbook as an option.

Reducing...cognitive...dissonance....

Believing will make it so. I don't care what you say.

So many new trollers today. It'll take months for most of them to leave...summer school and all...