Hackintosh, Jr.

[widefault]

Built this a while back, and it was on Gizmodo, but I never posted it here.

Started out when I was playing with Hackintoshing on this box. Click the pic for more.
http://www.widefault.com/35c2d/mermini19.jpg (http://www.widefault.com/35c2d/mermini.htm)

I wanted to use that box for Windows 7, so I decided to dig in the parts box and throw together something for a new Hackintosh. I had a "spare" embedded 3.5" Core Duo T2500 setup with 2GB of DDR(my parts box is AWESOME!), wireless card, and some extra aluminum mesh and flat sheet. Couple bends here and there, a tripod leg for curves, and some tweaking led to this.

http://www.widefault.com/hackjr/hackjr005.jpg
http://www.widefault.com/hackjr/hackjr008.jpg

And for an idea of size...
http://www.widefault.com/hackjr/hackjr013.jpg

No optical drive, and only an ATA HD right now, but it's also not really being used. It's also not a Hackintosh anymore, was converted to Win7 when I realized OSX was interesting but not very useful for me.

More pics and info here (http://www.widefault.com/hackjr/hackjr.htm).

[DonT-FeaR]

now thats a cool parts box

[BuzzKillington]

I second that. lol

[widefault]

In my parts "box" right now, I have another eight 3.5" embedded setups and around as many mini-ITX boards. Only things I need now are ideas. I'm tempted to build another like this, but using a mini-ITX board. I'm just not motivated enough.

[DonT-FeaR]

wanna send me some stuff? lol

[widefault]

So this system has basically been sitting on a shelf for a while now. Decided I want to put a PC into my living room for web browsing, and since it will be seen by people I grabbed this one.

Also finally found the quiet 60mm fan I originally planned on using, and figured I'd replace the IDE hard drive since it was a pretty big dog in performance. I had picked up a 60GB SSD for very good price, so I figured I'd drop that one in while changing the fan.

Since the power input is straight 12 volts, and the board has no accessory power jacks, I had to create my own. Took a 44 pin hard drive cable, removed all the data lines, and splice the +5 volt power and ground to an SATA power cable. Plugs into the 44 pin IDE connector on the board, the only 5 volt source besides USB. That was the easy part.

To actually change the drive, I ended up taking the entire system apart. While doing this, I said out loud "What jackass designed this thing?" and then realized I was that jackass.

Luckily everything came apart and went back together without damage, and now I just need to get an OS installed and rearrange furniture.

[mDust]

...and rearrange furniture. Haha! Is your living room so small you needed to make space?
It's a cool design though. Looks like it could use water cooling.:D

[widefault]

Not a small room, but right now there's no place to put it next to my preferred seating location. Need to get one of the end tables moved over, and that pretty much means changing things around.