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Core components for a MAC system??

N

Nailbunny

Senior member
Anyone know, is it possible to buy just the Case - Powersupply - Logicboard - Processor for the Mac G4's?? Or is Apple the "it just works" dictators and don't allow only core components to be sold??

I've seen that some ebayers sell older parts, but I'm lookin for newer (Dual 1ghz logicboard) stuff. Not to mention someone paid close to $200 just for an empty blue G4
case. That's insane!

Just wonderin...building a mac sounds like it might be a fun project if it wouldn't cost $3000. I've already got most the other parts laying around, just not the core.









 
Sorry, but if you want a new Mac, you need to buy the system from Apple. Technically you could run it on an IBM workstation with a 604e, POWER3-II, RS64-IV, or POWER4. That would just be expensive, though.
 
It'll probably cost you $3000. I'd like to own a Mac myself if I could either build it myself for significantly cheaper or buy one from Apple for significantly cheaper than it sells them for.
 
I figured a whole system would have to be purchased...dang it. Just wondering though.

I've ran across a few walk throughs on building a mac from ground up using a PC case....but these are for the older AGP G4 400mhz. After you buy all the parts off ebay it winds up costing about as much as buying a complete G4 400 system already built off ebay.

I'm not about to spend 2x the $$$ for a dual proc mac than I spent building my dual 1.2ghz AMD with 220GB HDD space, Raid, and 128MB Geforce 4. Not to mention not too great a selection in DVD authoring software or 3D Software for the Mac (although Maya 4.5 is for OS X now).
 
Yep, everything is Mac. It's bad because it's $$$, although you can put your own video cards, hard drives, optical drives, PCI cards, etc. It's at the same time good though because I seem to run into much less driver issues than I do with PCs (for obvious reasons).
 
EUG: It's kinda like I told a buddy of mine. I'm neither anti-mac nor really pro-pc. Use both daily. Removing the whole M$ variable from the Mac vs PC equation, it seems Mac's are great for people who don't wanna jack around with the guts of their system. Plug it in..it works...great. (Granted M$ winblows should work like this as well) You wind up paying for this..out the a@# though for Mac. I do find it dumb that the hardware (specifically video cards) for Mac cost 2x the price as the PC equivalent. Looked into soundcard replacements...Sb Live for Mac is $120 ($35 on PC). This is because Creative is new to Mac, but still. Again..not to mention the software for OS X still is geared for 2D desktop (Photoshop, Illustrator, etc). I need a strong DVD authoring / 3D setup.....right now the Mac isn't there yet, especially in software options for that IMO.

This is why..if I could find the parts for cheap..it'd be cool to build one. But i can't justify spendying $3000 for a computer that is so limited in what I need it to do. I need options man! Hear that Steve Jobs...options! 🙂
 
cmdrdredd:

Do you know anything about the Noise removal capabilities of DVD Studio Pro? I need something that can do some hardcore noise removal off old VHS tapes.


Although..to get the MAC and software you're lookin at $5000. PC equivalent would be ~1/2 that. I can handle a periodic windows reboot or troubleshoot to save $2500. 🙂




 
Originally posted by: Nailbunny
cmdrdredd:

Do you know anything about the Noise removal capabilities of DVD Studio Pro? I need something that can do some hardcore noise removal off old VHS tapes.


Although..to get the MAC and software you're lookin at $5000. PC equivalent would be ~1/2 that. I can handle a periodic windows reboot or troubleshoot to save $2500. 🙂
Click to expand...
DVD Studio Pro is purely DVD authoring. If you want to edit video then it's different software. I'm not sure what Final Cut Pro includes because I've never used it. (I hear it's awesome though. 🙂)

By the way, on a G4 you can do real-time effects in Final Cut Pro without extra hardware. I dunno what is avail. for PC, but most of the ads I've seen have required additional hardware for this purpose.

But it sounds like all you want to do is convert VHS tapes, no? If you want something fast, it may just make more sense to buy a Panasonic DMR-E30 set top DVD recorder. (That would not remove all the noise though.)
 
Oops...I meant Final Cut Pro..he he. 😱 I know Premiere 6 doesn't have very good noise removal, don't know about Final Cut.

Yea..all I'm needing right now is transfer of VHS to DVD. I've got Pinnacle Studio Deluxe, Premiere 6, & Tmpgenc. It works great except for one major issue (this is what sparked looking into MAC). I purchased a Tyan S2466N mobo and dual Athlon MP procs. Well to make a long story short after TONS of troubleshooting the Pinnacle Deluxe simply won't work with any MPX mobo's (not to mention DVD+RW won't work with MPX as well..had to pop that in a external case). All I got was B&W video. So I had to install the Studio Deluxe in my old K6-III 350 and purchase removable storage racks. Popped one in my dual system and one in the K6-III so I can capture on the K6 machine, then swap the hard drive into my dual machine. Works, but kinda sucks having to do it that way. I had the deluxe working great with an AMD Epox 8kha+ mobo...should have stuck with that I guess. :disgust:

So then I started looking into Mac guess my buddy "switched" and loves it. But right now the cost is waaaay too much for what I need to do. Cost wise I'd rather have two kickass Dually AMD Pc's than one mid grade MAC.

I must say TmpgEnc is awesome. It does a fantastic job removing noise and cleaning up the video.
 
Originally posted by: Nailbunny
Oops...I meant Final Cut Pro..he he. 😱 I know Premiere 6 doesn't have very good noise removal, don't know about Final Cut.

Yea..all I'm needing right now is transfer of VHS to DVD. I've got Pinnacle Studio Deluxe, Premiere 6, & Tmpgenc. It works great except for one major issue (this is what sparked looking into MAC). I purchased a Tyan S2466N mobo and dual Athlon MP procs. Well to make a long story short after TONS of troubleshooting the Pinnacle Deluxe simply won't work with any MPX mobo's (not to mention DVD+RW won't work with MPX as well..had to pop that in a external case). All I got was B&W video. So I had to install the Studio Deluxe in my old K6-III 350 and purchase removable storage racks. Popped one in my dual system and one in the K6-III so I can capture on the K6 machine, then swap the hard drive into my dual machine. Works, but kinda sucks having to do it that way. I had the deluxe working great with an AMD Epox 8kha+ mobo...should have stuck with that I guess. :disgust:

So then I started looking into Mac guess my buddy "switched" and loves it. But right now the cost is waaaay too much for what I need to do. Cost wise I'd rather have two kickass Dually AMD Pc's than one mid grade MAC.

I must say TmpgEnc is awesome. It does a fantastic job removing noise and cleaning up the video.
Click to expand...


:Q
Holy-lots-of-work-Batman!

Apples editing and authoring software (be it iMovie/iDVD for home use FCP/DVDSP for pro use) is by far the best out there for a desktop solution. When I burned my first DVD (out of FCP into iDVD) it took me 45 minutes start to finish including rendering time (short project, 20min long or so). The DVD layout had a custom video loop for the background, and a still image from each movie to "click" on. Simple, but it looks pretty cool. Next time I'm going to make some custom graphix instead of having still images, but I didn't want to take the time since I was just messin' around. And this was in iDVD. Everything was literally drag 'n drop and it was so easy. I feel guilty.. that's how easy it was. I have friends (both pro's and weekend warriors) who cut and/or author DVDs on their home PCs/studios and they are are having a hell of a time getting consistantly smooth workflow when trying to kick out DVDs.

I cut on a home built PC for a year and then I couldn't take it anymore. The PC wasn't limiting me or anything like that. I cut want I needed to cut but it was such a b**ch sometimes. It was becoming a quality of life issue. 😉 I had to switch. And it is sooooo nice working w/software that is designed to work together and on a plaform that has such tight software and hardware integration. 🙂 Do I still have issues? Sometimes, nothings perfect. 😉 But it's soooo much nice than cutting on a PC. 🙂


Lethal


Lethal
 
Wolfe: Do you know how FCP is with noise removal of video? Video editing/DVD authoring isn't my only thing. The other thing is capturing analog into the Mac (which is what I need). It'll cost about another $200 for an analog to DV converter. So that's more money. My other issue in the Mac Vs PC scenario in my life is the 3D aspect. I use 3D Studio Max for work (which is PC only). Maya 4.5 has been released for OS X..but I definetly couldn't afford to buy the Mac, the analog to DV converter, Maya and Final Cut Pro. There's not much 3D wise for Mac yet...got Lightwave 7 and Maya 4.5.

I know about the "mhz" myth around PC vs Mac. So does anyone know, processor/speed wise, what would a G4 400mhz be comperable to in the PC world? I simply can't get rid of my PC because of work and I've sunk too much $$$ into it. Plus it's a great gaming machine.

 
Originally posted by: Nailbunny
Wolfe: Do you know how FCP is with noise removal of video? Video editing/DVD authoring isn't my only thing. The other thing is capturing analog into the Mac (which is what I need). It'll cost about another $200 for an analog to DV converter. So that's more money. My other issue in the Mac Vs PC scenario in my life is the 3D aspect. I use 3D Studio Max for work (which is PC only). Maya 4.5 has been released for OS X..but I definetly couldn't afford to buy the Mac, the analog to DV converter, Maya and Final Cut Pro. There's not much 3D wise for Mac yet...got Lightwave 7 and Maya 4.5.

I know about the "mhz" myth around PC vs Mac. So does anyone know, processor/speed wise, what would a G4 400mhz be comperable to in the PC world? I simply can't get rid of my PC because of work and I've sunk too much $$$ into it. Plus it's a great gaming machine.
Click to expand...
No question. With pure video encoding, the fastest PC is usually noticeably faster than the fastest Mac. Where the Mac shines is ease of use. There is a MHz myth of course, but it's not as big of a myth as the Steve Jobs Reality Distortion Field (TM) would try to lead people to believe.
 
With pure video encoding, the fastest PC is usually noticeably faster than the fastest Mac.
Click to expand...

And that's why I upgraded to a dually setup. It was taking 3 days to clean/mpeg encode 2 hours of video. With dually setup I can hack it all up into smaller parts and encode all at once. Cuts the time almost in half.
 
Originally posted by: Eug
Originally posted by: Nailbunny
Wolfe: Do you know how FCP is with noise removal of video? Video editing/DVD authoring isn't my only thing. The other thing is capturing analog into the Mac (which is what I need). It'll cost about another $200 for an analog to DV converter. So that's more money. My other issue in the Mac Vs PC scenario in my life is the 3D aspect. I use 3D Studio Max for work (which is PC only). Maya 4.5 has been released for OS X..but I definetly couldn't afford to buy the Mac, the analog to DV converter, Maya and Final Cut Pro. There's not much 3D wise for Mac yet...got Lightwave 7 and Maya 4.5.

I know about the "mhz" myth around PC vs Mac. So does anyone know, processor/speed wise, what would a G4 400mhz be comperable to in the PC world? I simply can't get rid of my PC because of work and I've sunk too much $$$ into it. Plus it's a great gaming machine.
Click to expand...
No question. With pure video encoding, the fastest PC is usually noticeably faster than the fastest Mac. Where the Mac shines is ease of use. There is a MHz myth of course, but it's not as big of a myth as the Steve Jobs Reality Distortion Field (TM) would try to lead people to believe.
Click to expand...

What he said. 😉

For what you need a Mac isn't a good choice right now, IMO. For what I need, a Mac is a very good choice. And that's the great thing about computers, there's something out there for everyone. 🙂


Lethal
 
For what you need a Mac isn't a good choice right now, IMO. For what I need, a Mac is a very good choice. And that's the great thing about computers, there's something out there for everyone. 🙂


Lethal
Click to expand...

After researching it, I agree with you. It just isn't there on the Mac for what I need to do.
 
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