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Build a Perfect Mac for less than $250

MrFlooD

By MrFlooD,
in Tutorials (The Genius Bar)

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Starscr3am
Starscr3am
Posted
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Hello,

 

I have the same motherboard and 1024 DDr2 Corsair memory.

 

And installed Kalleyway 10.5.2 + update 10.5.3 combo + apple update 10.5.4

 

but i get constant kernal panics randomly, when i am o the internet downloading with azureus ect..

 

can someone help me please?

 

greets Jeff

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maccompaq
maccompaq
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Installing the graphics kexts is easy. Look in the GMA950 Extensions folder and drag AppleIntelGMA950.kext and AppleIntelIntegratedFramebuffer.kext onto the Kext Helper app icon. Then give it your admin password and click Easy Install. When that is done, reboot.

 

I did just that and it killed my Install. So I got out my DVD and reinstalled Leopard, only this time, I looked in the options and discovered the video area. I clicked on the GMA950, finished the Install, and now I have all resolutions, and I can put the monitor to sleep.

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JaE-V
JaE-V
Posted
Posted
Hello,

 

I have the same motherboard and 1024 DDr2 Corsair memory.

 

And installed Kalleyway 10.5.2 + update 10.5.3 combo + apple update 10.5.4

 

but i get constant kernal panics randomly, when i am o the internet downloading with azureus ect..

 

can someone help me please?

 

greets Jeff

 

had a problem similar to this and it was kernel related before. Did you choose vanilla? What install options did you choose durring install, and after the 10.5.3 update?

 

someone with a working system install geekbench and run it please...with your system specs ;)

 

http://www.primatelabs.ca/geekbench/

 

screenshot or post your score...

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Starscr3am
Starscr3am
Posted
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had a problem similar to this and it was kernel related before. Did you choose vanilla? What install options did you choose durring install, and after the 10.5.3 update?

 

someone with a working system install geekbench and run it please...with your system specs -_-

 

http://www.primatelabs.ca/geekbench/

 

screenshot or post your score...

 

Hi JaE-V

 

1st install i selected Vanilla 9.2 after the combo vanilla 9.3

 

2st install i left everithing default

after the combo i selected nothing

 

fingers are now crossed!

 

my Geekbench score is : 819

 

 

UPDATE

 

I figured out that when i watch youtube or other online flash videos i get a kernal panic system freezes and tells me to reboot.

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JaE-V
JaE-V
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Hi JaE-V

 

1st install i selected Vanilla 9.2 after the combo vanilla 9.3

 

2st install i left everithing default

after the combo i selected nothing

 

fingers are now crossed!

 

my Geekbench score is : 819

 

 

UPDATE

 

I figured out that when i watch youtube or other online flash videos i get a kernal panic system freezes and tells me to reboot.

 

 

tried an alternate browser? if it does it with both browsers sounds something graphics related....boot flag with -v into safe mode and try it, that'll disable the graphics drivers...let us know

 

My score is 846.

Used kalyway 10.5.2+combo update+software update.

As well GMA kext.

 

 

sweet, so its slightly faster than a dual g4...not bad for leo. great for tiger ;)

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puma7
puma7
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How fast is this computer? Because I know for ~$400 you can have a 2.0gHZ core 2 duo with some good specs. Once you add a wireless card into my potential setup, it hits around $283, which seems excessive for a single core. Is there any way someone can make a guide for a perfect $400 Mac :(? What mobos +processors work best (besides this of course)??

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puma7
puma7
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Posted

How fast is this computer? Because I know for ~$400 you can have a 2.0gHZ core 2 duo with some good specs. Once you add a wireless card into my potential setup, it hits around $283, which seems excessive for a single core. Is there any way someone can make a guide for a perfect $400 Mac :(? What mobos +processors work best (besides this of course)??

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jjumper
jjumper
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How fast... Fast enough to do basic stuff... No big graphic projects and no high end games.... Still very usable and quicker than an old 68k mac that was top of the line just a few years ago (am I showing my age)

 

My build was about $248.00 and that included wireless and shipping. The idea here is cheap and 'fully' functional

To the previous persons question about the fan running 100%....

 

It's a desktop - not a laptop and it's a cpu designed to run at one speed and with very low power.... (am I right here?)

 

If the fan is running... I don't know in this build I don't think the cpu fan is variable..... It will always run at 100%.

 

Now for something completely different...

 

Installed vmware fusion, set up windows xp, and selected the unity view...

Now I'm running winamp and listen to sweat tunes from my library (have a library with over 24,000 songs of which about 50% were burned in wma -- don't want to have to convert them to ones that Itunes supports and wanted to still view a library view) I continue to love this very cheap build.

 

Now I must admit that I did spend an extra $49.00 that I did not include in the price of the build on an aluminum keyboard that makes this hackingtosh look a bit stylish.... Also took my two 500 gig externals and installed the NTFS software to fully read and write to them....

 

This project is just down right fun and the basic cost was about what 50 Venti Carmel Machiotos would cost me at my local coffee house.... Or about 60 gallons of gas at the going rate..... 3 fill ups.... Now that is cheap!!! And it works... Still amazing to me..

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moondragon
moondragon
Posted
Posted
How fast... Fast enough to do basic stuff... No big graphic projects and now high end games.... Still very usable and quicker than an old 68k mac that was top of the line just a few years ago (am I showing my age)

 

My build was about $248.00 and that included wireless and shipping. The idea here is cheap and 'fully' functional

To the previous persons question about the fan running 100%....

 

It's a desktop - not a laptop and it's a cpu designed to run at one speed and with very low power.... (am I right here?)

 

If the fan is running... I don't know in this build I don't think the cpu fan is variable..... It will always run at 100%.

 

Now for something completely different...

 

Installed vmware fusion, set up windows xp, and selected the unity view...

Now I'm running winamp and listen to sweat tunes from my library (have a library with over 24,000 songs of which about 50% were burned in wma -- don't want to have to convert them to ones that Itunes supports and wanted to still view a library view) and continue to love this very cheap build.

 

Now I must admit that I did spend an extra $49.00 that I did not include in the price of the build on an aluminum keyboard that makes this hackingtosh look a bit stylish.... Also took my two 500 gig externals and installed the NTFS software to fully read and write to them....

 

This project is just down right fun and the basic cost was about what 50 Venti Carmel Machiotos would cost me at my local coffee house.... Or about 60 gallons of gas at the going rate..... 3 fill ups.... Now that is cheap!!! And it works... Still amazing to me..

 

Hey Jjumper,

 

thanks for the reply on the fan thing... I was hoping that this CPU had speedstep or that the version of hack osx supported it. the fan just seems loud to me (guess I'm getting sensitive in my old age hahaha)

 

I also have vmware fusion working with tinyxp...seems to run fine

 

thinking about popping a graphics card into this build to see if it will help the refresh a little... anyone have experience with a graphics card in this build

 

Moon

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puma7
puma7
Posted
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How did you get it to $248? Here's my list:

LITE-ON iHAS120-04

$23.99

 

Intel BOXD945GCLF Intel Atom processor 230 Intel 945GC Mini ITX Motherboard/CPU Combo - Retail

$69.99

 

APEX MI-100 CASE + POWER SUPPLY

55.99

 

Western Digital Caviar SE WD1600AAJS 160GB 7200 RPM 8MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM

$41.99

 

Kingston 2GB 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 667 (PC2 5300) Desktop Memory - Retail

$35

 

ASUS WL-138g V2 IEEE 802.11b/g PCI Wireless Adapter Up to 54Mbps Data Rates 64/128-bit WEP WPA2 (including 802.1x, TKIP, AES) -

Retail -

$22.99

 

I bought the motherboard and RAM in store so there's no shipping on those - only tax (total: $113). When I put the other 4 items into my cart at newegg, I get a grand total of $170.95, which comes up to $283 total for the project.

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klp45
klp45
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Posted
Anyone have the fan running at 100% all the time? Anyway to fix this?

 

thanks!

 

Moon

 

I noticed that mine was running for a little over a week.

I went into "energy saver" and restored the defaults - even though I hadn't changed anything.

Fan powers down now.

 

Hope this helps.

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gospel71
gospel71
Posted
Posted
How did you get it to $248? Here's my list:

I recycled a case, for example... :)

At the beginning it was even without a case:

 

1p3hMeYwZccwh0w1sYcWgbJw_500.jpg

 

:D

Seriously... The overall cost here is about € 250, that is about your price in $... ;)

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nousernameavailable
nousernameavailable
Posted
Posted

Hello everyone,

 

I have a D945GCLF with 1GB Samsung RAM (don't know wich one), a pioneer slot-in DVD-Burner, a 2.5" Seagate 160GB HDD. I followed the tutorial but i still have got Artifacts in several programs (iTunes searchbar, Truecrypt, even when renaming a file/folder). I installed the kext files with kexthelper serveral times now but it has no effect. I can change the resolution and QE is working. I also get an error about USB-Overpower (as someone has mentioned before), does the BIOS upgrade help?

 

THX

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fxsts
fxsts
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Posted
How fast is this computer? Because I know for ~$400 you can have a 2.0gHZ core 2 duo with some good specs. Once you add a wireless card into my potential setup, it hits around $283, which seems excessive for a single core. Is there any way someone can make a guide for a perfect $400 Mac :) ? What mobos +processors work best (besides this of course)??

 

As there are still some issues with this (i.e. USB hot swap problem, funky behavior after sleep, updates not working 100% and etc) I wouldn't quite call it "perfect" Mac. The reason is that I do not think that you can use it all the time as your main computer. Of course, you can install Windows or Ubuntu instead and use it reliably 100%.

 

I built mine because I had all the left over parts for it except the motherboard which only cost me $69 including S/H. I wouldn't have done it if I had needed to buy all the other components and spend $250+ for the system. If what you need were a reliable Mac, I would recommend you spending $500 and buy a refurb Mac Mini from Apple Store. That's twice as much money, but I think that it's worth it. If you are planning on spending as much as $400, I would no doubt buy a refurb Mac Mini.

 

On the other hand, there are some cool things about this montherboad. First, it's low power requirement is great and ideal for a file server or a system running 24/7 downloading torrents. It's very green. Compared to that, I don't want to know how much electricity my main system with Core2Quad running at 3.6Ghz is draining running all day. Second, there is always a priceless fun factor of hacking and getting a thing to work the way it is not supposed to. I have enjoyed hacking Tivo, I-Opener, and etc., and this is just another quick entertainmant.

 

 

By the way, my Geekbench Score was 893 with 1GB RAM. In comparison, my wife's 1.33Ghz G4 iBook with 1.25GB RAM running Tiger 10.4.11 scored 732.

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JaE-V
JaE-V
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Posted
So do you guys think this is a computer worth the money, or should I just get a lil' more and go for a core 2 duo. I'm really worried about the performance. How fast does the computer boot?

 

any core 2 duo will run loops around the atom, my personal opinion would be to get a low end core 2 duo or an pentium D plus a board with onboard gma950 IE anything 945chipset. You can still end up around the same price with better performance.

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tank27
tank27
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Posted
any core 2 duo will run loops around the atom, my personal opinion would be to get a low end core 2 duo or an pentium D plus a board with onboard gma950 IE anything 945chipset. You can still end up around the same price with better performance.

 

Tell me how much your core 2 duo will cost. No way you can come close to 250 with new parts. I did the atom for 215

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JaE-V
JaE-V
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Tell me how much your core 2 duo will cost. No way you can come close to 250 with new parts. I did the atom for 215

 

built the system in my sig for around one 170 today, much better than the atom. Minus the video card of course, i could've used the gma950 but decided otherwise. i personally just watch the frys ads. they normally have an core 2 duo with an ecs board for around 129 once a week. and build out from there, it can be done.

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