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Possible to Build Own Mac?
- Thread starter rexy1326
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In a word no... Unless you use a cracked version of OS X floating around the internet... It probably wouldn't be much more expensive to buy a Mac than build yourself (though not if you want things like multiple internal hard drives and PCI card slots)
can't say I can take credit here, but this is (sort of) a homebuilt mac
![case2.jpg]()
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/170902/
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/170902/
you CAN, but in essence you would be building a mac that you could buy, from parts of broken macs or something.
you cant take a part from most macs and use it in another, unfortunately.
aside from the usual, RAM/HD/Optical etc
when it comes to CPUs, mobos, PSUs, and all that, NO you really cant.
All you could do was find all the parts for one mac and build it.
Though the G4 towers were "upgradeable" with daughtercards etc...
But the newer macs, no way.
you cant take a part from most macs and use it in another, unfortunately.
aside from the usual, RAM/HD/Optical etc
when it comes to CPUs, mobos, PSUs, and all that, NO you really cant.
All you could do was find all the parts for one mac and build it.
Though the G4 towers were "upgradeable" with daughtercards etc...
But the newer macs, no way.
Eraserhead said:
Hm.. assuming I buy an Apple Power Mac Intel (as soon as they're out), and start upgrading hardware.. the harddisk, then the processor, a better DVD-writer, etc... when exactly would it become illegal? When I exchange the mainboard (oh - sorry, I think Apple calls this a logic-board)?
rexy1326 said:
It depends heavily on which Mac you're talking about and what case it's going into....it's usually not terribly difficult.
Generally speaking, you can't build a Mac. Certainly not from a standard PC motherboard, since that would require using the cracked OS X floating around illegally on the 'net. On the other hand, you could get broken Macs and pulled parts at a discount and put them together into a working machine with a unique configuration - that's about as close as you'll get to building your own Mac right now.
Well the hard disk, the DVD, the RAM are all replaceable parts.weg said:
The processor is more problematic - Apple does not design their machines for processor upgrades. Some third party companies have offered them for G3 and G4 machines (not G5s) - who knows for the intels? Certainly it would void the warranty, as would taking the machine out of the Apple case or swapping motherboards.
The power supplies that Apple uses are generally proprietary, and ATX power supplies cannot be used without modification.
To be fair, we haven't seen what the Intel PowerMac will look like yet...Being a desktop it may have more commonality with PCs than the PPC Macs did, like standard ATX power and whatnot. We'll see.
I'm actually wondering - is Apple currently selling the version of Mac OS X that ships with Intel Macs? Because different manufacturers have started selling Core Duo compatible motherboards, so I wonder if it would be possible to buy one of those and a Core Duo and install Mac OS X on it? Just a wild shot in the dark, here.
Oh, and nice use of the shoebox Mac, though technically that was already an assembled G3 that I transfered into a shoebox in order to move it.
Oh, and nice use of the shoebox Mac, though technically that was already an assembled G3 that I transfered into a shoebox in order to move it.
Somewhere there's a link I saw to someone upgrading a Core Solo mini to a 2.16(?) GHz Core Duo.CanadaRAM said:
EDIT: Found it: http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?t=91459
You're right though about Intel Powermacs, we'll just have to wait and see.
