generaleclectic Posted September 10, 2008 Share Posted September 10, 2008 Hey Folks! I searched and searched and couldn't find where anyone had ever started a discussion about what interesting things have been done with a perfectly good, unsuspecting PC. Currently, I have a project started where I am attempting to assert Mac OS X Panther on an HP nx6310 laptop. I've already been through one build that didn't seem to like the Centrino architecture. I continually got this error message advising me to restart the machine. A Mac user told me that on the initial install of the OS, this was normal about 4 or 5 times. After 13 times, I moved on to another Intel build called Kalyway 10.5.2. At the time that I am writing this, I've got ~4 minutes left on the initial installation. Does anyone else have any interesting Frankenstein projects going with their PC? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
downunder Posted September 10, 2008 Share Posted September 10, 2008 No, I can't say I do which is ironic given I work in IT. I just know what I want the thing to do, so as long as it does what I require I'm cool. My most expansive project was adding some extra RAM or wiping the hard drive, so I guess I'm a fail on computer geekiness. I love how PC and laptops seem to love to die just after the warranty expires, it's like the movie The Happening with PC's. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spaceace12 Posted September 10, 2008 Share Posted September 10, 2008 I used to be a little geeky. I used to rebuild my computer once every year with atleast one new part or new processor or mobo every other year when something failed. Now, I just have a laptop that I just added ram to. I have a warrenty so I won't do anything to it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
terrancew_hod Posted September 11, 2008 Share Posted September 11, 2008 Well I have a copy of OSX Leopard on my PC and it's been running since April. One of the other sites I belong to is a technical board on people installing OSX on various machines. I built my machine from scratch based on the most compatible parts that were mentioned in the various threads. I had a small contribution on getting an Airport compatible 5ghz network card in a desktop. It was a bit more expensive for the adapter, but once I got installed the OS, the card was instantly recognized and I connected it to the time capsule. Also I'm using a legal copy of the Mac OS as an install, and the discussion of it is legal as long as you don't post where to get the Kalyway and other installs. I can PM the link to the site if you want. But the box serves as a dev box for Windows and linux as well (have them on separate discs controlled by the bios) and is a temp mac machine until I can finish saving for my macbook. I'm looking into maybe doing some iphone programming for fun. I've also spent time upgrading my powerbook and my roommates macbook pro to the 5gh 802.11n network and replacing logic board, hard drive and dvd rom to a dual layer dvd. I also opened my mac mini to upgrade the network card, dvd drive and memory. I wanted to upgrade the cpu but was short on cash saving for the Europe trip. I may buy some tools to open up a friend's iMac to replace a failing hard drive. I used to love to build computers but I my priorities shift to exercising. Wouldn't mind building another hackintosh for fun. But I guess I love constantly tinkering with computers. Terry Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kraken613 Posted September 11, 2008 Share Posted September 11, 2008 When ever I have the money I put new stuff in my gaming PC I built myself. Overtime Ive put this stuff in and all together its added to about $4000 or more. Specs: ASUS Maximus II Formula LGA 775 Intel P45 ATX Intel Motherboard Intel Quad Core 3.2Ghz 4 WD 250gb 10,000 RPM VelociRaptors 2 Nvidia 9800 GX2 (yeah its like having 4 GPU's!) 8gb DDR2 RAM Creative Sound Blaster Xteamemusic card. 2 19'' Widescreen Monitors 5.1 Surround Blu-Ray Drive DVD Drive Duel Booted XP and Vista I overclock some old cards just to play around... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
generaleclectic Posted September 11, 2008 Author Share Posted September 11, 2008 ^Okie... I guess I'm kind of a geek fail in that respect. LOL Too many years of trying to help the computer illiterate I suppose. It certainly doesn't help that I have reduced myself to coding in SQL all day long. That combined with trying to figure out strange ways of making .NetFramework 2.0 to do my bidding has made me a little dull. Anyways, I got the Kalyway Mac OS build on this laptop and it's frozen a couple of times. I'm restarting for the 3rd time while turning out some SQL code. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kraken613 Posted September 11, 2008 Share Posted September 11, 2008 I also fix peoples computers my friends/neighbors. Thats how I get my money! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jjeerr Posted September 11, 2008 Share Posted September 11, 2008 ^Do any games need more then one gpu at normal rezs? I mean, maybe if you have one of the 30in lcds sli will help, but the cheapness in me says "an Ati 4870 is enough!" Maybe it's just that TF2 is still amazing nearly a year later, but other then getting print drivers working in 10.5, and screwing with the iPod touch, I'd rather play. ( though it seems like apple breaks something with every update...) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kraken613 Posted September 11, 2008 Share Posted September 11, 2008 Well I run Crysis in DX10 Max settings and get a VERY HIGH fps. It runs anything. And yes having two cards is nice. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
terrancew_hod Posted September 11, 2008 Share Posted September 11, 2008 ^Yeah Crysis is the one game that will put your video card to the test! I have a 8800GT installed that is slightly overclocked. Not that I've played any games with it, but it was more for compatibility for my mac install.I have 3 hard drives installed and I use it to store my music and video. I got some cheap computer equipment directly from China; the wireless card that apple uses and 3rd parties want to charge $120 for I got for $40 with shipping. Can't beat that! Eli: I would check insanelymac.com for the boot-132 patch that allows you to install the original mac disk from any computer. Also I would check into making sure you have the proper patches for your network and other hardware. There's a program called kext helper that will alllow you to install the drivers for the hardware. You also may have to try a different install to see if you get a different result. If you're using a laptop with a core duo, it may make sense to go the boot-132 route, and use the efi strings for best compatibility (look for a program called efi studio). It's a bit harder using OEM laptops than custom built rigs. But the key is know what hardware on your laptop is compatible and anything is incompatible. But anyway that site is a good reference (well the only reference) for trying the mac-on-pc project. Terry Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Angry_Gumball Posted September 11, 2008 Share Posted September 11, 2008 My usual geekdom arrives when I either am upgrading a component (video card, ram, etc) or when my computer completely dies out on me requiring me to build from scratch. That happened last year where my power supply hit the fan, and my mobo was being screwy...not to mention, my harddrive kept having bootup problems. I finally said 'screw it' and rebuilt from scratch. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dandaman Posted September 11, 2008 Share Posted September 11, 2008 I'd rather just buy it a couple of drinks and see where it takes us. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mcjaco Posted September 12, 2008 Share Posted September 12, 2008 ^ LOL. I was going to say, "My PC just isn't that into me. I guess we're just going to be friends." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dandaman Posted September 12, 2008 Share Posted September 12, 2008 I couldn't believe it made it to page 2 with nothing in that vein posted. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheRapidsNerd Posted September 12, 2008 Share Posted September 12, 2008 Mine said not even if I bought it dinner. Denied....... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gamerdave Posted September 20, 2008 Share Posted September 20, 2008 I do like to mess around with my desktop. I only have a modest one though. It has a 2ghz Duel Core, ATI 3850 and 2gb of ram and one 74gb raptor and a second 150gb HDD. It gets the job done though. I can play most games and on pretty high settings. I play most games PC because I only have a Wii. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MG Posted September 20, 2008 Share Posted September 20, 2008 I no longer experiment with PCs. Too many times in the past of causing loads of problems. I doubt I ever did anything though on the scale that some people appear to be doing on here. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kalepi_Konei Posted September 20, 2008 Share Posted September 20, 2008 I don't experiment with PC's but I just ramp them up with stuff I KNOW will work. i.e. I recently took RAM from one computer and doubled it in mine. Updated my virtual memory...so on and so forth.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gnome Posted September 20, 2008 Share Posted September 20, 2008 yes, i experiment all the time with PCP.... oh that wasn't the topic? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheRapidsNerd Posted September 26, 2008 Share Posted September 26, 2008 Tried flowers and candy tonight. No luck.... Oy! Such a tease! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
coasterguy99 Posted September 26, 2008 Share Posted September 26, 2008 I don't have that good of a machine, but it gets the job done... I currently have.... MB-ASUS M2N-SLI Deluxe CPU-AMD 6400+ Black Edition GPU-XFX 8600GT currently clocked at 620 MHz HDD-Seagate 320GB (oh how i would love a Raptor X) RAM- 2 1Gb sticks of Geil LiteOn DVD drive PSU-OCZ 600watt i think that about covers it, maybe sometime next year I am going to begin to mess around with water cooling this rig. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rousfv Posted September 26, 2008 Share Posted September 26, 2008 I've tried alot to do something cool to it, but it goes wrong and I get lot of promblems everytime. Few times I've been unable to start windows, then now I stopped, standard = no problems! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kalepi_Konei Posted September 26, 2008 Share Posted September 26, 2008 I totally learned to speed up my internet like 2 seconds ago and its working amazingly! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
terrancew_hod Posted September 26, 2008 Share Posted September 26, 2008 I found a Commodore Amiga emulator the other day. Still have to set it up, but I got nostalgic since I used to own an Amiga 2000 years ago. I'm still looking for this tank "capture the flag" game that I used to play with my roommate, who was one of the members of the college football team (sigh). (On a side note this was the same guy that got me a girl for my 21st birthday. Had to return it. Ya'll know why! Poor thing... I was passed out and she crawled in my bed... then I pushed her out and threw the covers over my head. The guys said they fell out laughing! Yeah they were watching!) Anyway, one time we were snowed in and I came back to the room from the cafeteria and just about the whole team was in there playing on my computer.... big boys! (sigh) Anyway, once I got it together, I had to tell them not to play with my computer when I'm not in, and then challenged them to play the tank game. That was a fun day... not as fun as I wanted it to be, mind you. Terry "wouldn't minded being tackled just once" Weaver Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
terrancew_hod Posted May 2, 2009 Share Posted May 2, 2009 Has anyone had a chance to play around with the Windows 7 RC1? I downloaded it last night, and surprisingly enough it's not that bad. I put the disk in and about an hour later it had set itself up. It even knew I was using an Apple keyboard! I only updated the video driver and it found everything else. I'm playing around with the 64bit version instead of the 32bit version and it's nice to see all 4gb of RAM recognized. It's pretty fast too! I also like the window previews down in the start bar so I can see which window I want to switch to. It's also nice not to get the 50 million security popups just to install a program like Vista had! I guess when it comes out, I'll be buying it (along with Snow Leopard--gotta keep my mac updated!) If you are going to update your machines later, I would suggest moving up to 64 bits to you can have more memory management in your programs; won't speed things up but at least your 32-bit programs have more memory to play with instead of sharing 4gb with the operating system. Guess someone was cracking the whip in Redmond! I also bought a Nvidia GTX 280 and another 4gb or RAM! Happy B-day to me! Now I have to see if I can run both that video card and my 8800GT without swapping them when I run Leopard (it doesn't support the new card). Now to test my 3D Modeling program and RCT3... Terry Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now