(no subject)

[nolly]

Anyone have any tips or ideas on making the step from G5 mac to Intel-running-OS X less fiscally painful? I have a perfectly good monitor, so I'm not especially interested in all-in-ones like the iMac, and I've had very bad experiences with external drives, so I'd like something a little more tweakable than a Mac Mini, though I might think about it if the price were right. Hackintosh is a possibility, but the HW guides I've found seem less than helpful; one reason I like using Macs is that I don't have to dedicate a lot of time and energy to making things work. Unfortunately, it's getting to the point where an annoying amount of saftware requires the Intel architechture, which means I need ot think about an upgrade.

Comments

[nolly.livejournal.com]

Really? The pictures I've seen and tales I've read imply the Mini's case is a royal pain to open.

My last external drive/enclosure had a habit of locking up and taking the whole system if I didn't powercycle it as soon as it started...which was the equivalent of unplugging it without dismounting it, also a bad idea, but sometimes better than a forced reboot. I assume it was the enclosure, since the drive had worked flawlessly in the past, as an internal drive, but can't say for sure.

[gvdub.livejournal.com]

It probably depends on the enclosure. I tend to stick with the ones from Weibe Tech. I've got several and never had a problem with any of them.

The Mini case is not that hard to open and work with, provided you get a thin, flexible putty knife. There's a useful video on this upgrade page at macsales.com.

[nolly.livejournal.com]

It was something inexpensive but with a decent rating from newegg. I don't recall the brand, and it's probably nothing anyone's heard of anyway. There were quite a few with about the same price, features, and rating, so I chose the one with penguins.

[dancingguy.livejournal.com]

I've replaced RAM, HD, or both 3 different times on 2 different Minis. So long as you have the putty knife, it's pretty easy to open. Doing the replacement is pretty straightforward, although when putting it back together it's nice to have either a magnetic screwdriver, or something sticky that will keep the screw attached to the screwdriver.

the amusing thing is that it doesn't even violate the warantee. :-)

ummm

[(Anonymous)]

that's so long as you don't have idiots at the apple store in a different region. I moved to Atlanta , they told me it voided it so i had to ship it back to Ca to get it fixed.

ummm

[(Anonymous)]

As too voiding the warrantee by popping the caseing that's so long as you don't have idiots at the Apple store in a different region. I moved to Atlanta , they told me my self installed upgrade had voided it said warrantee < at 2 different stores no less> so I had to ship it back to Ca < original purchase point> to get it fixed.