I built a Mac PC!

[Silence04]

Recently i had a friend give me a bunch of extra PC components to build my own windows machine. I've never built a 'full' computer before, so i figured i'd give it a shot. It was pretty fun to put together, but then i realized i didn't have an OS. And at that point i wasn't to thrilled about going out an buying Vista just to downgrade to XP (especially since I'm more of a Mac guy).

That's when i remembered i had an extra copy of Mac OS X that i never used.
Well, after 3 weeks intense research and mind boggling trial and error, I have successfully installed a retail version of Mac OS X on a custom built PC. :D

I have yet to purchase a copy of photoshop to see how well it runs, but so far the the whole OS is working great!

[JgS]

Bet that was a pain getting the OS to work. I did the same thing about a year ago except in reverse. I have a Mac Mini that is running windows XP.

[Virgo Nightingale]

That sounds pretty cool! What are the specs of your little Frankenstein machine? What did you have to tweak in order to get it to work? I'm sure I won't fully understand what you're talking about as far as getting the OS to work, but I'm just curious.

I once toyed with the idea of building my own PC, figuring it would be cheaper, but very soon into researching I realized that I simply did not have the computer skills to pull it off.

[Mynock]

How dare you :P

[Exodus]

Sweet. I've built PCs for years, my Dad has been in the computer business since the mid 70s so I've grown up around computer parts. I'm currently in the process of making a frankinmac of sorts. I have to say I'm a little more than curious how you were able to make OSX work on a typically windows based set of hardware.

[MD]

google hackintosh

[Silence04]

:D

It can be done with almost any Intel/AMD SSE2 or SSE3 processor and compatible motherboard.

The only thing that makes an intel mac different than a windows machine is something called EFI. It's comparable to BIOS, but much more advanced and is capable of command line access. The trick is making OS X think that EFI exists "on board." There is a Wiki-type site out there that is a haven for building a OSx86 Mac.

[Virgo Nightingale]

Just as I suspected. It was the whole BIOS thing that kept me from trying to build my own machine, that sounds even more complex and over my head. I give you props, my man.

[MD]

Have you tried to run anything substantial on it yet?

[Randomhero]

I've wondered what would happen if I straight up installed Windows on my iMac to replace OS X. I'm not sure I want to find out, although now-a-days it doesn't seem like there would be a problem.

[budafist]

I hope your frankenstein machine doesn't have identity issues. You might need to invest in some therapy sessions for it!

[Silence04]

I haven't run anything that substantial on it yet other than the software that comes on OS X... however last night i was able to get Full 3d acceleration from my graphics card, so that means i can install World of Warcraft. :D

Random, bootcamp will allow you to install windows on a mac. Bootcamp does the exact opposite of what i did to get Mac OS X on my pc, it makes the EFI emulate BIOS.

[ChinChilla]

Wow, I bet that was a very complicated and tedious process. Congrats! I would have no idea how to go about doing something like that, I am not even close to knowledgeable enough to pull something like that off.

[Randomhero]

I haven't run anything that substantial on it yet other than the software that comes on OS X... however last night i was able to get Full 3d acceleration from my graphics card, so that means i can install World of Warcraft. :D

Random, bootcamp will allow you to install windows on a mac. Bootcamp does the exact opposite of what i did to get Mac OS X on my pc, it makes the EFI emulate BIOS.

Yeah I know, but when I tried installing windows on a partition having no idea what to do other than the 3 sentences on the apple website, I accidentally started the install process of windows on the main partition wiping my hard drive and making it useless. Thank god for warranties :D. I was just wondering what would have happened if I had gone thru the whole install and had Windows as the only OS. I'm thinking it would run normally but I could be mistaken.

[Red Kittie Kat]

That is pretty cool Silence :D

What are you going to name it?

Wintosh ... Macdows? :D

[white]

My bf's a computer geek and he keeps telling me that he'll build me a mac, I'm so excited!

[Silence04]

I installed World Of Warcraft last night and it works!
I also temporarily installed CS3 for testing and it also worked.

The only thing I'm having trouble with is getting my specific pci wireless card to work, the manufacture only made a PPC Mac driver for it.

[Craig B]

Cool. That's pretty awesome.

[Mynock]

I think once I get my PS3 back from the service station I going to drop a different hard drive in it. The 40 GB just wont do it for me. I'll drop in a 160GB or something and quadruple its capacity.

[Silence04]

^what happened to your PS3?!

[Mynock]

My drive stopped recognizing media. :( Still under warranty Yay!

[Silence04]

damn, that's weird!

[Mynock]

I don't know exactly what happened, but I ended up getting a corrupt data icon for my GTA4. I took it out and put it back in, no dice. Formatted hard drive, NO DICE. Search for receipt, DICE.

[MD]

Sounds like you have some time to challenge me in Dr. Mario.

[Mynock]

I might.

[reuber1]

I don't know exactly what happened, but I ended up getting a corrupt data icon for my GTA4. I took it out and put it back in, no dice. Formatted hard drive, NO DICE. Search for receipt, DICE.

Who knew that the hookers in that game would actually infect you with something for real?

[Mynock]

I hadn't had relations with hookers at all yet. It must have been one of my two girlfriends. I was about to go on a date with a third at the time.

[Randomhero]

Big Pimpin!!

[MD]

Who knew that the hookers in that game would actually infect you with something for real?

Thats actually pretty funny.