Why I Went Mac But Still Keep My PC

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The Entire Setup From the Old Days

The above is a diagram of the entire setup. Unfortunately, I didn’t and couldn’t take pictures of the entire setup back then, and it’s too late to take one now. The setup was pretty extensive, sucked up an incredible amount of power. But was it fun? Hell yeah! The diagram didn’t include the fibre setup at the time.

Hackintosh

Above: A LG mini laptop running Leopard. (Photo courtesy of lemon.soju.co.uk, with permission)

Those who want to try out OS X but don’t want to fork out the money for a Mac may want to look into building their own hackintosh clone. There are tons of resources available on the net that detail exactly how to install Mac OS X onto generic PC hardware. Apple’s EULA for OS X says explicitly that OS X can only be run on an Apple branded computer, so don’t say we didn’t warn you.

Going this route will allow you to experience OS X without breaking the bank. Unfortunately, you may not experience all of OS X’s goodness. Patches and system updates may not work and may actually break the install completely, so proceed with some caution. If you manage to get all the right hardware together, OS X will run great. Although the full "Mac experience" won’t be there, getting OS X to run on a home brewed machine is a neat experiment.

Tuan An Nguyen
242 Comments Comment from the forums
  • jaragon13
    Obviously,with two 8800 GTX's,I don't see why you wouldn't want to play Crysis,Battlefield 2,Call of Duty 4,etc.,all day long....
    Reply
  • kidswithguns
    Can I play PC games on an Mac system? I never used a Mac before. I couldn't find a main point in your post. Who should move to Mac? A casual user? Entertainment purpose? Servers?
    What Mac can do, that Windows can't?
    What Windows can, that Mac can't?
    You are getting really excited with this, and wrote a really long article, but I couldn't see a big point, that could move me from Windows to a Mac.
    Maybe Mac is really something. But I don't think it's some breaking news, that make me have to say WOW!
    I noticed your hardwares, most of them for server purposes, so, Is that mean Mac is a good way for servers? I thought i would learn the different between Mac and Windows from this article, but I mistaked....
    Maybe I did, mostly about the interface? (The way how it looks).
    Someone knows more about Mac please explain?
    Reply
  • tuannguyen
    kidswithgunsCan I play PC games http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Personal_computer_game on an Mac system? I never used a Mac before. I couldn't find a main point in your post. Who should move to Mac? A casual user? Entertainment purpose? Servers?What Mac can do, that Windows can't?What Windows can, that Mac can't?You are getting really excited with this, and wrote a really long article, but I couldn't see a big point, that could move me from Windows to a Mac.Maybe Mac is really something. But I don't think it's some breaking news, that make me have to say WOW!I noticed your hardwares, most of them for server purposes, so, Is that mean Mac is a good way for servers? I thought i would learn the different between Mac and Windows from this article, but I mistaked....Maybe I did, mostly about the interface? (The way how it looks).Someone knows more about Mac please explain?
    Well, essentially what I wanted to get at was that I just found myself getting a lot more done on a Mac, everything is well unified, and Apple does a great job of integrating hardware, software and services. I mentioned about the Remote app on the iPhone allowing you to use your phone as a remote control for iTunes, which is pretty darn cool. As well, the apps that ship with iLife has a great synergy too.

    I'll cover more about how it all ties in together in a follow up article. This article was for me to set the ground work really. I didn't want to publish an article that was insanely long and had too many pages to click. :)

    You'll see me go through some of the magic that makes all these apps work well together on a Mac in an article coming soon.

    / Tuan
    Reply
  • randomizer
    Expose always seemed messy to me, but I rarely have enough windows open to need it anyway. It's definitely simpler and faster to use than Vista's scrolling... thing... whatever it is called again. Flip 3D, that's it.

    Looking forward to the Ubuntu setup guide. I can never get my NVIDIA drivers working because my chair to keyboard interface is constantly malfunctioning.

    @jaragon13: Some people actually have a job :kaola:
    Reply
  • warezme
    judging by the title, you didn't really go Mac..., you just added a Mac. If Mac was all that you wouldn't need to keep a PC.
    Reply
  • apache_lives
    Wow this article felt like a total ego trip

    heres what hardware i was using two years ago:
    Intel Idontgiveacrap-eron 4 with HT
    16 giveacraps of ram
    bla bla bla

    on a totally different note, the computer i use the most in my house is a ~8 year old windows 98 based pc - Tutalain Celeron 1100a @ 1.46, 512 SDR, Voodoo2 SLI, SB AWE32 etc - more fun in old classic games then the newer modern games i think, CARAMAGEDDON NUT!!!!!!

    I know for a fact that nether MAC's nor XP/Vista machines can play these games!
    Reply
  • This was a waist of my life, I need to bill tomshardware for this.
    Reply
  • randomizer
    warezmejudging by the title, you didn't really go Mac..., you just added a Mac. If Mac was all that you wouldn't need to keep a PC.If PC was all that you wouldn't need to get a Mac in the first place. In the end it comes down to preference and/or use. Buying a Mac would be a waste of money for me because I wouldn't know what to do with it, but that doesn't make it inherently useless. It's my fault :D
    apache_livesI know for a fact that nether MAC's nor XP/Vista machines can play these games!I got a 1997 Star Trek game to work on Vista, I think you should give it a go. Admittedly I got occasional BSODs when trying 6xAA at 640x480 but dropping to 4xAA mostly fixed that up.
    Reply
  • apache_lives
    XP and Glide never really shared that love windows 9x did, and EA never really made a decent patch for Need for Speed 3 to work with XP properly even.

    Dos box gives some relief but in the end, the 9x machine is easier when its native etc.
    Reply
  • hairycat101
    Macs will never game like Windows unless the gaming community gives up Direct X. You can game with a macintrash... you just have to do it from a windows boot.
    Reply