The EZ 8000 - Core 2 Duo E8400 - Affordable CustoMac Media Center

[VioletDragon]

My correction. I'll have to edit my guide.

 

[trs96]

In HP terminology the S in USDT stands for Slim - Ultra-slim Desktop.

I'm referring to the small s after the model name of the Core 2 Quads. See the chart
in my previous post. The Q9550s is meant for the USDT form factor etc.

 

[colomb]

The ebay listing says its an HP Compaq Elite 8000 with a Q8400. I didn't realize the Q8400 had less L2 cache than the E8400. Unfortunate. Shouldn't really make a difference, but...

 

[crashnburn]

Since these are offlease and hence low cost and less damage, are there any off lease Tiny Box / Mini PC/ mini ITX devices on the market?

 

[colomb]

Yes, the 4500 graphics will work via the VGA port on the back of the PC. In Windows you can get 1080p output, but in OS X only 1024 x 768 with no acceleration. So you can run headless with this, not a problem there. If you add a 30 dollar gfx card you'll get 1080p and full QE/CI in OS X. That's why I recommend that approach in the build guide.

jbamford's guide to getting El Capitan on on this states "The HP Elite has Intel GMA 4500 graphics which aren't supported in OS X." Is that El Capitan specific? Is my plan to have this running headless under El Capitan a no go?

 

[VioletDragon]

GMA 4500 in OS X has no support. No QE/CI or OpenGL. You will need to put a dedicated GPU in the machine to have QE/CI & OpenGL.

 

[trs96]

jbamford's guide to getting El Capitan on on this states "The HP Elite has Intel GMA 4500 graphics which aren't supported in OS X." Is that El Capitan specific? Is my plan to have this running headless under El Capitan a no go?

Some Macs like the Macbook and Macbook Air from 2008 used less powerful versions of integrated graphics from the same Intel family as the X4500 HD (Gen4). The GMA X3100 mobile graphics were used in Mac Laptops but not the more expensive X4500 HD which was used only in PC desktops. So the X4500 HD works in a limited way on CustoMacs. It's similar enough to GMA X3100 to allow the install of OS X on the Elite 8000 with no kernel panics. It's good enough for using on a headless server. Anything more than that will be a disappointment at best. If you need better than 1024 X 768 on your server and QE/CI acceleration, then get a basic compatible graphics card.

The X4500HD chip is integrated on the motherboard of the Elite 8000s and provides up to 384MB of vram shared from the system ram. So when your run Windows on the Elite 8000 the integrated graphics are very respectable. You could even play many games from the 2009-10 era with just that iGPU. The X4500 HD graphics are 1080p Capable and even support Bluray playback on PCs. Two things that were uncommon to any other integrated graphics chips from the late 2000s. I tried Windows 10 Pro on an Elite 8000 and the integrated X4500 HD graphics are still fully supported. Even looked really good to me.

 

[colomb]

Some Macs like the Macbook and Macbook Air from 2008 used less powerful versions of integrated graphics from the same Intel family as the X4500 HD (Gen4). The GMA X3100 mobile graphics were used in Mac Laptops but not the more expensive X4500 HD which was used only in PC desktops. So the X4500 HD works in a limited way on CustoMacs. It's similar enough to GMA X3100 to allow the install of OS X on the Elite 8000 with no kernel panics. It's good enough for using on a headless server. Anything more than that will be a disappointment at best. If you need better than 1024 X 768 on your server and QE/CI acceleration, then get a basic compatible graphics card.

The X4500HD chip is integrated on the motherboard of the Elite 8000s and provides up to 384MB of vram shared from the system ram. So when your run Windows on the Elite 8000 the integrated graphics are very respectable. You could even play many games from the 2009-10 era with just that iGPU. The X4500 HD graphics are 1080p Capable and even support Bluray playback on PCs. Two things that were uncommon to any other integrated graphics chips from the late 2000s. I tried Windows 10 Pro on an Elite 8000 and the integrated X4500 HD graphics are still fully supported. Even looked really good to me.

Yet again, thanks for the detailed explanation. Machine arrives today. I'll report back on how El Capitan install goes.

 

[trs96]

Yet again, thanks for the detailed explanation. Machine arrives today. I'll report back on how El Capitan install goes.

Great, I used the igfx to install Snow Leopard, Mt. Lion and Mavericks on the E8000 and had no
problems. If El Cap proves problematic, just buy or borrow a GT210/610 use GraphicsEnabler=Yes
boot argument if you use the @jbamford method of creating an Enoch USB installer of El Cap.

 

[Agamoruso]

So I just bought one on ebay to make it a nice little computer for the living room and some HTPC stuff. I found this one on ebay with at Core 2 Quad. Did you guys say there is an issue with the quad? Maybe just for El Capitan?