Project: DorkPro
These days, building a machine to run OSX out of standard (i.e. cheap) PC parts has been made pretty easy by the folks on websites such as insanelymac.com, and elsewhere on the web. So, I figured it was about time for another hardware project, I decided to trade up from my trusty, but aging, Mac Mini to something a bit more powerful.
Hence, the DorkPro was created.
The goal was to build a machine that performed like a Mac Pro, but do so on the cheap. Thanks to craigslist and the tendency of PC gamers to upgrade their parts every 6 months or whenever a newer/faster/better part is introduced, it was pretty easy to meet this goal.
The specs: Gigabyte P35-DS3L motherboard, e8200 Quad Core CPU, 8GB of DDR-2 RAM, Western Digital 640Gb/32MB Cache Hard Disk, Nvidia 8600GT, 20X Dual Layer DVD-RW. The specs wouldn’t impress the PC kids, but definitely suit my purposes just fine.
That said, the performance is not far off what can be expected from a current model Mac Pro. In fact the benchmark scores compare to a Quad Core 3.0 Mac Pro. Not bad at all.
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- Initial test run of the system.
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- Dork Pro almost done.
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- Dork Pro ready to go.
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- View of the internals of the Dork Pro G5
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- Rear view of the G5 case.
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- And yet another view of the components mounted in the G5 case
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- Another view of the components mounted in the G5 case
Disclaimer: I understand that this machine is not a real Macintosh and a software update can make it inoperable at any time. Also, I am fully aware that this machine is in by no means as good as your machine. No animals were harmed in the making of the DorkPro. Any similarities between this computer and anyone living or dead is purely coincidence.