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To build or not to build

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dariksta

dariksta

Joined
May 2, 2017
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Hi all.
N00b here.
Mac user since my first Mac Plus and stumbled across this site when wondering what to do with my beautiful but motherboard stricken old G5, which had been gathering dust under my desk for the past 5 yrs. Never knew I could potentially build my own Mac, but now somewhat tempted. I'm no massive techie but have a logical brain and can follow instructions! Unsure of the practicalities of sticking everything in the G5 case though as my appetite for cutting with a Dremel and soldering a lot of small connectors is limited! I'm pretty happy connecting motherboards, processors, SSD and graphics cards - as well as installing BIOS and Mac OS. Is it possible to bench test the whole build before I decide to just pop it in a standard case - or take the jump and try to build it into my lovely G5 tower?
One part of me is really excited about building a £1k Mac that'll rival the best performing Macs out there and the other part of me is shouting- just buy an iMac 27" and be done with it. I'd probably like to hook my Hackintosh up to a 26-28" 4K monitor.
On the whole - if you get it up and running properly, is it then a fairly solid bet that it'll be fine and compatible with most hardware and also software upgrades? Or are they likely to continuously falling over and needing tinkering - which may be a deal breaker for me.
I guess I'lll be weighing up the pros and cons - and wondering whether I'm just looking for a huge reason to procrastinate over a large project - rather than spending my time catching up with other projects that I really should be doing?!
Sorry for the rambling - and realising that there is no clear answer to my query, I'm looking forward to hearing how easy people have found these projects :)
 
Thank you Stork. I had a look at the G5 builds but just not quite sure I'm up for the cutting and soldering of small connectors. I reckon I'll have a better idea once I get all the components together and start gutting my G5. Do most builders 'bench test' first before fitting all their components in whatever case they choose?
 
dariksta said:
Thank you Stork. I had a look at the G5 builds but just not quite sure I'm up for the cutting and soldering of small connectors. I reckon I'll have a better idea once I get all the components together and start gutting my G5. Do most builders 'bench test' first before fitting all their components in whatever case they choose?
Click to expand...
Yes, all of us bench test first. I, personally, bench test even when using PC case; but, make sure your case doesn't require you to install the motherboard before you install the processor and processor cooler. :thumbup:
 
dariksta said:
... and the other part of me is shouting- just buy an iMac 27" and be done with it.
Click to expand...

I find iMacs too limiting - can't change GPUs, RAM is limited, no expandable PCI-E slots, proprietary power supply, must use suction cups to remove the display to get to a faulty disk drive, the newest iMac displays have bonded glass and if you crack the screen you will have to pay about $850 for a new display, "etc."

Most all-in-one PCs are limited, especially if you don't have rear access to disk and DVD drives, and RAM, as you typically have on a laptop. Now many new laptops sometimes need the case to be split to get to the internals, but some will still allow the keyboard to be removed to get to the RAM slot.

We're getting rid of some early iMacs at work because they're limited to 4G of RAM and so run Sierra very poorly. What's the max RAM on the newest iMac?
 
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