My $500 Mac (Semi) Pro

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Yuri_Rage

Yuri_Rage

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I'm posting from my new computer. It's a scratch built Intel-based PC running the latest version of OS X (yes, you read that correctly). I've been messing with Mac software via the OSx86 project for some time now, and I've been pretty impressed. I was due for a computer upgrade, so I decided to see if it was possible to get Mac Pro performance on a budget. Here's the breakdown (all from NewEgg):

COOLER MASTER Centurion 534 RC-534-KKN2-GP $44.99

GIGABYTE GA-G31M-ES2L Motherboard $52.99

XFX PVT95GYDQ3 GeForce 9500 GT 512MB Video Card $64.99

COOLER MASTER RS-460-PSAR-J3 460W Power Supply $34.99

Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 ST3500418AS 500GB 7200 RPM SATA Hard Drive $54.99

LG 22X DVD Burner - Bulk Black SATA Model GH22LS50 $27.99

OCZ SLI-Ready Edition 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 $45.99

Intel Core 2 Quad Q8400 Yorkfield 2.66GHz $184.99

I used the guide at this link in order to install a legal retail copy of OS X. I even put an Apple label on the case in order to comply with the EULA (yes, I read it in detail). Everything is working, and it SCREAMS in comparison to my old AMD Athlon machine that was built on an Asus AV8 motherboard.

picture1jcn.png


Here are the XBench results:
(at least as good as the average Mac Pro)

Code: 
Results	175.07	
	System Info		
		Xbench Version		1.3
		System Version		10.5.7 (9J61)
		Physical RAM		4096 MB
		Model		MacPro3,1
		Drive Type		ST3500418AS ST3500418AS
	CPU Test	180.99	
		GCD Loop	313.48	16.52 Mops/sec
		Floating Point Basic	152.71	3.63 Gflop/sec
		vecLib FFT	126.30	4.17 Gflop/sec
		Floating Point Library	225.01	39.18 Mops/sec
	Thread Test	487.15	
		Computation	1068.86	21.65 Mops/sec, 4 threads
		Lock Contention	315.46	13.57 Mlocks/sec, 4 threads
	Memory Test	226.37	
		System	256.35	
			Allocate	344.11	1.26 Malloc/sec
			Fill	212.75	10344.56 MB/sec
			Copy	244.11	5042.05 MB/sec
		Stream	202.67	
			Copy	184.18	3804.14 MB/sec
			Scale	183.54	3791.89 MB/sec
			Add	226.44	4823.58 MB/sec
			Triad	225.10	4815.39 MB/sec
	Quartz Graphics Test	228.88	
		Line	185.56	12.35 Klines/sec [50% alpha]
		Rectangle	245.62	73.33 Krects/sec [50% alpha]
		Circle	198.43	16.17 Kcircles/sec [50% alpha]
		Bezier	186.81	4.71 Kbeziers/sec [50% alpha]
		Text	501.99	31.40 Kchars/sec
	OpenGL Graphics Test	105.25	
		Spinning Squares	105.25	133.51 frames/sec
	User Interface Test	383.75	
		Elements	383.75	1.76 Krefresh/sec
	Disk Test	86.87	
		Sequential	202.05	
			Uncached Write	228.77	140.46 MB/sec [4K blocks]
			Uncached Write	211.55	119.69 MB/sec [256K blocks]
			Uncached Read	148.16	43.36 MB/sec [4K blocks]
			Uncached Read	253.20	127.26 MB/sec [256K blocks]
		Random	55.33	
			Uncached Write	18.73	1.98 MB/sec [4K blocks]
			Uncached Write	251.60	80.55 MB/sec [256K blocks]
			Uncached Read	103.93	0.74 MB/sec [4K blocks]
			Uncached Read	188.54	34.98 MB/sec [256K blocks]

This was a pretty fun project. Next up is a Linux install, probably using some sort of virtualization scheme.
 
Did you run into any problems? I'd tried doing this with my office PC and ended up frying the MBR. The install kept looking for an IDE drive and I only had one SATA drive installed. I so want to try again though.
 
I installed hackintosh on SWMBO's laptop back when OSx86 started, works without a hitch... although wireless doesn't work. She likes it though and she hasn't turned back. Last year I put leopard on there with vanilla kernel, I haven't bothered upgrading to recent releases.
 
That is sweet.

I have slowly drawn out of my computer geek mode, maybe doing this will draw be back in. Are there any blu ray rippers for mac? Also how does mac handled dual monitors or in my case dual projectors and a LCD?


:off:
I have one of the DVI outs going into one of the HDMI ins on my receiver. The problem I run into is that when my receiver is off, the computer no longer sees it unlike LCDs and CRT where it may not be fully running but the computer can still see that it is there. Anyways, I just have to turn on the LCD in the bedroom and setup the multiple display every time we watch something on the big screen. Does mac have a way to permanently set your output sources so they will just always output to that source no mater if it is on or not?
 
So long as there is a suitable driver for your graphics card, multiple displays are supported just fine. I have no idea whether your current display issue is handled elegantly in OS X or not.
 
Nice, Yuri! Another (less legit) option is to download Kalyway: a version of OS X that's ported for PCs. You can download a torrent of it.
 
If you're looking for a virtualization setup, try out Virtual Box...they make a version for almost every major OS out there, and it supports NAT for differentiating network traffic between your virtual machines.

VirtualBox

XP on Mac OS X (not that you would want to...)
VirtualBox_OSX_beta_3.png
 
I've been dual-booting OSX and Vista on my office PC for a while now so I can do iphone development and whatnot while my wife is using the other "real" mac. Apple simply doesn't make a desktop that fits my needs.

The only issue I've really had with it is I can't seem to get print sharing with windows machines on my network to function properly.
 
Twoheads, For running XP and Vista on my Macs, I've tried Parallels, VMWare Fusion, and Virtual Box. By far my favorite is VMWare Fusion.
 
doggage said:
Twoheads, For running XP and Vista on my Macs, I've tried Parallels, VMWare Fusion, and Virtual Box. By far my favorite is VMWare Fusion.
Click to expand...

I just did a Bootcamp install of TinyXP on my Mini because I doubt Portal would play very well in a virtual machine. (That's all I use Windows for on that box.)

Out of curiosity, why do you prefer VMWare Fusion?
 
doggage said:
Nice, Yuri! Another (less legit) option is to download Kalyway: a version of OS X that's ported for PCs. You can download a torrent of it.
Click to expand...
I've tried Kalyway, iDeneb, and Boot 132 (all while owning a legit copy of OS X that doesn't run on any other machine). Kalyway was the worst. iDeneb actually worked pretty well, but Boot 132+Chameleon is by far the most functional (and most legitimate) install available right now.
 
yermej said:
Out of curiosity, why do you prefer VMWare Fusion?
Click to expand...

Just saw your question, yermej. I like VMWare Fusion because it's been the fastest.

Yuri, I haven't tried Kalyway, so it's good to know that it's slow. I had problems installing it so I gave up on it.

While on the subject of virtualization, sas anyone messed around with Sun's Virtual Box? I have a buddy who uses it on his Ubuntu machine and it's incredible. He flips around between a virtual machine running XP and another running Vista and three or four running OS X, etc. Doesn't seem to make any difference how many he's running, but then again he has 8 GB of RAM...
 
So far, virtualization has been a bit of a bust for me. The virtual OS (any flavor) always seems a tad slow, and hardware compatibility is ok at best. For now, I'd rather just multi-boot. The "Semi Pro" now triple boots OS X, Linux Mint 7, and Windows 7. All of them run really well with no hardware issues at all.

The LG optical drive was a poor purchase. It came with this stupid Bluebird annoy-ware that makes the computer think that there is an install disk in the CD drive when it's empty. I updated the firmware to eliminate it (only available for Windows). Regardless of the stupid firmware-hidden software, it made coasters out of all of the dual layer discs I fed it (both firmware versions, all three OS flavors, two disc brands, several disc authoring software suites). It was also loud and clunky sounding. I replaced it with a comparable LiteOn drive and have had no problems since.
 
Virtualization has always been a disappointment for me. It's a lot like driving your car on two wheels and calling it a motorcycle. Hardware is so cheap, I don't even both with multi-booting, just a KVM switch. Plus it's hard to test a website when you only have one machine.
 
Successfully updated to Leopard 10.5.8 using the built-in software update tool. I had to reload the ethernet and sound card drivers after the update. Everything still works like a charm!
 

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