News, info, and opinion by Mac users, for Mac users.

April 18, 2008

geekery

Cloning around

Posted Apr. 18, ’08, 9:20 AM PT by Dan Moren
Category | Geekery

Mac cloneThanks to the appearance of the mythical beast known only as “Psystar,” Mac clones are a hot topic at present. It’s been more than ten years since a Mac clone was on the market and, of course, then they were actually legitimate. But the amount of discussion that Psystar’s coning has fostered makes one thing apparent: Apple’s current lineup does not have something for everyone.

Over at the Mothership, our colleague Rob Griffiths—you might known him from such websites as Mac OS X Hints—has undergone a mad experiment: building his own Mac clone. Should you wish to risk life and limb, you’ve been able to do this since Apple made the transition to Intel processors: the hardware is cheaply and easily available, and then it’s just a matter of following in the footsteps of those who have already hacked the software to get it running.

Rob took the time to bench his self-constructed Mac against a Mac Pro, concluding that the $980 computer he’s built stacks up pretty well against Apple’s own offering. But that doesn’t mean it’s the right solution for everybody: as I pointed out in my own editorial on the subject, what we pay for is not just the hardware and software, but the experience and niceties of running a Mac. And in that race, the Frankenmac, as Rob dubbed it, is going to have a hard time getting out of the gate.


2 Comments

fletcher Author Profile Page said:

I know some people swear by white box computers. You can save a lot of money by building your own. This is a great idea for somebody who is comfortable doing it.

I feel that buying a white box computer is another story. You end up with the same downsides as a white box, but the non-technical buyer is not equipped to deal with them.

Things that are "easy" like rebooting off a clean drive to deal with driver issues, finding and downloading new drivers, even recompiling the kernel, are simply bewildering to a non-technical user.

I know a lot of people who bought inexpensive white box PCs from local stores over the last decade. Inevitably they seem to have encountered some, probably minor, issue which was beyond their knowledge to fix. If the store had already gone out of business then they were kind of out of luck.

Long story short. Unless you want to go to Fry's and build your white box from scratch, I would advise you buy a brand name computer with a warranty and a help line. Macintosh is obviously a great choice, but if you must get a PC at least go with Dell or HP or someone.

April 18, 2008 10:02 AM
Dave-O said:

My brother recently built his own Linux box. It's the text box example of why I don't do that. Suppose I bough a Mac and it didn't function. I'd take it to the Genius Bar and say, "It's broken, fix it." My brother determined his RAM wasn't working, he ordered more and returned what he bought. The replacement didn't work, so he thought the motherboard was bad returned it and ordered a new one. That arrived two weeks later and the RAM still didn't work. So he bought RAM from a different supplier and finally got it working.

You have only one company to turn to with Macs. Build your own, and there's only one company you can't turn to (and I understand Apple support can be pretty nice).

April 18, 2008 4:01 PM

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