I couldn't afford a REAL PowerMac, so....
Behold! My latest creation! I built it about 3 months ago using the Intel Retailedge 2005 Package (processor, mobo, and Windows XP Pro for $215), as well as various components purchased with my Best Buy discount. Also, a big thank you to my wonderful girlfriend Kate for buying the DVD writer for my birthday, and for the keyboard/mouse combo she gave me for X-mas. You're one in a million, baby!!
For those of you who are into building PCs, be gentle, as this was my first project ever. As for the rest of you, there’s lots of pretty pictures to check out :)
Specs
Processor: Intel Pentium D 820 Smithfield LGA775, Dual Core 2.8GHz, 800MHz FSB, 2 x 1MB L2 Cache
Cooler: Zalman CNPS9500 LED Processor Fan/ Heatsink
Motherboard: Intel Desktop Board D945PSN
RAM: 2048 MB DDR2 667 (PC5300)
Video: eVGA nVidia GeForce 6600LE 128MB PCI Express x16
Sound: Onboard 6-channel (5.1) audio subsystem with three analog audio outputs using the Sigmatel 9220* audio codec
Harddrives:
- Western Digital Raptor 36.7GB SATA @ 10,000 RPMs (Boot Drive)
- Western Digital Caviar 80GB SATA @ 7,200 RPMs (Media Drive)
- Maxtor 40GB Ultra ATA @ 7,200 RPMs (Backup)
Removable Storage Drives:
- NEC 16x DVD+RW DL
- LiteON DVD/ CD-R Combo
- Samsung 1.44MB 3.5" Floppy
- Commodore 64 5.25" Floppy (Doesn't actually work, just for show :))
OS: Windows XP Professional w/ Service Pack 2.(Yes, that IS Windows XP)
Here’s a pic of the system’s front-panel. Notice the huge, inoperable 5.25” floppy drive. I doubt it will ever work, but I’ve seen stranger things happen.
Although the lighting of the room and my photography skills were terrible, but you can barely see the blue LEDs through the side window.
Here’s the innards of my rig, in all their innardy glory. That big orange thing is the Zalman heatsink, which keeps the ultra-hot processor from spontaneously combusting.
Dual-view display in action.
How could a Mac be complete without a genuine Apple Keyboard and Mighty Mouse?
A wolf in sheep’s clothing.
Yes, the taskbar really works, and can be customized to make it look any damn way you want.
Here’s one I thought was worth showing. When you load or unload removable media into a Mac (be it a CD, DVD, or USB flash drive) the system mounts or dismounts that specific drive to the desktop so you can access it right away. If I wanted a faithful OSX simulation, I had to get this to work on my PC.
Here’s something else I’ve always loved about the Mac OS: the dockbar. Its similar to the Windows task bar, in that it holds shortcuts to your most frequently accessed programs. The dock zooms in and out as you run the mouse over the shortcuts and makes opening those programs a breeze.
Mac users may already be familiar with Dashboard. Dashboard lets you run small programs, called widgets, in the desktop’s background and are available to view by pressing a hotkey. Widgets can be made to do just about anything you could imagine: Check your local weather, write youself notes on stickypads, even check which gas stations have the lowest prices in your area. Cool, eh? What you see above is actually Konfabulator, a Dashboard clone which mimics this Mac feature for use with Windows.
Here’s another sample of the desktop. For some reason, the screen print didn’t capture the coolness of Johnny Five driving the NOVA truck. That was pretty much the whole point of this blog.
I apologize for the quality of some of these pics, but apparently I can't resize a JPG to save my fuckin life.