Unibody MacBook Pros (and the previous generation models too) are capable gaming machines. They can’t compete with purpose built gaming notebooks that sport much faster video chips like the Nvidia 9700m, 9800m, 260m or 280m series (or AMD RADEON Mobility cards like the 3850, 4670, 4850 or 4870). But those notebooks are big fat and ugly, and they creak when you carry them around (the ones I’ve owned have, at least). Read the rest of this entry »
Cider Performance on 9600m GT
17 09 2009Comments : Leave a Comment »
Tags: cider 9600m gt, cider games, hackintosh, mac 9600m, mac cider, mac gaming
Categories : News
Hackintoshes as a Trojan Horse?
22 08 2009The venerable Mac website www.lowendmac.com (if you have a Mac, bookmark it) has an interesting pice up on the Hackintosh phenomenon. They think Snow Leopard – version 10.6 of the Mac OS – is designed to test Windows PC users willingless to switch by making installation on Intel PCs (of any brand) slightly easier.
Problems with that argument:
- Hackintoshers are almost all pirates – they download hacked install ISOs, and ignore the EULA. They are not a market and you can not make money off them.
- Snow Leopard is not easier to hack just because of its Intel only architecture
- As long as Jobs is boss, vertically integrated products will be the mantra – its more than just looks that make Apple products sell.
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Tags: hackintosh, lowendmac
Categories : Opinion
Netbook OS X Compatibility Guide
23 04 2009Boing Boing has compiled a great list of netbooks that will run Mac OS X (with a bit of work).
Comments : 3 Comments »
Tags: boing boing, hackintosh, netbook os x
Categories : News
Review: Acer Extensa 5220-2516
3 08 2008Every year as back to school season approaches Best Buy teases consumers into their stores with loss leader notebooks. Usually they sell out pretty fast. It probably isn’t the typical PC users that buy them, but rather tweakers who are looking for a decent kit to experiment with. What kind of experiments? Linux distributions and other hacked OSes.
I thought it would be cool to pick one up when my monthly Best Buy Credit Card statement arrived with a ‘$50 off any notebook’ coupon attached. This years Best Buy attention grabber is priced at $399 CDN ($349 after coupon).
What does $350 get you these days?
- Celeron M550 2 GHz CPU
- Intel Santa Rosa chipset with GMA X3100
- 1024 of DDR2 at 667MHz
- 120 GB Hitachi 5400 RPM HDD
- Pioneer DL DVD Multi recorder
- 802.11g and Gigabyte Ethernet
- Windows Vista Home Premium
- 6 cell 4000 mAh battery Read the rest of this entry »
Comments : 4 Comments »
Tags: acer, buy, hackintosh, ubuntu, vista
Categories : Reviews
Observations on Hacintosh OSX86
3 08 2008After experimenting with OS X 10.5 on an inexpensive notebook, I have come to the following conclusions:
- Apple software developers are excellent at squeezing performance from basic hardware. On a machine that choked on Vista Home Premium, Leopard absolutely screams.
- Although relatively easy, most normal PC users will struggle getting everything to work. Quite a bit of terminal usage is necessary.
- What makes Apple great is their software. My fully functional Hackintosh notebook works just as well as a MacBook and runs cooler.
Given how well a $350 notebook runs OS X I can understand Apple’s reluctance to license the OS. It would kill sales of their products because not only can today’s bargain machine run OS X nicely, ones from a couple of years ago can too.
Also, competition from MS for OEM operating system sales would drive the license fees down. Neither company wants a race to zero.
I will say this though, OS X 10.5 is the best $130 a PC user can spend.
Find everything you need here.
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Tags: hackintosh, leopard, microsoft, vista
Categories : Opinion
