[IUJHJSDHE]

Ok this is probebly a DUMB question but.

I have a pc that I never use (because it is a PC) And is there anyway that is I remove the floppy disk drive and HD that is could get parts and turn it into a mac?

[turtle777]

Originally posted by IUJHJSDHE:
<STRONG>I have a pc that I never use (because it is a PC) And is there anyway that is I remove the floppy disk drive and HD that is could get parts and turn it into a mac?</STRONG>

Although your sentence is not clear to me, I got the punchline:

NOOOOO, it's not possible.

If so, why wouldn't everyone do it ???
And why would you like to have a butt-ugly Mac in a PC-Tower anyways ???


Sorry, but nice try...

So far,
-t

[bluedog]

While its not possible to 'build' a mac from a PC, you *can* use the PC parts to accessorize your macs, depending on the model of a Mac you have and the parts from your PC.

The IDE drives on PCs will work fine if formatted with a 3rd party disk formatting utility on a Mac. A word of warning on older IDE drives; I've had several older IDEs from PCs fail on me. I think the quality control and manufacturing on these older drives (think 1GB or less) were simply horrible. They will work though and can provide you with extra drivespace if you have the need. You may need to jumper the drive properly and possibly get a new ribbon cable or power cable splitter.

The memory from PCs may also be useable on your Mac. Its all a matter of specifications and memory has its standards. If you see the requirements of your particular machine, buying/pulling the comparable PC memory has worked for me in all but one instance (and I think it was the supplier I used who sent the wrong item)

There are a few occasions where you can use a PC video card. Most often you have to flash the bios chip on the card using an updater (and likely requiring it being in a PC first). This is fairly rare, but worth looking into if you know the manufacturer and model of the card.

Keyboards and mice can be used with adapters (although these are a bit expensive). t is most helpful when wanting to share one keyboard, video, and mouse with several computers. (KVM switches as they are called).

Internal fans are fairly common and able to be used in either platform. There may be more items, but these are the most common and likely to work.

The biggest hindrance to 'building your own' from scratch is the lack of other suppliers for motherboards. It may be very interesting to see manufacturers who might attempt to get OSX running on non-apple PPC motherboards. In my mind with openfirmware, it should be possible. I can only imagine that a commercial offering of such boards would be slapped with a lawsuit from Apple though.

[superlarry]

Originally posted by bluedog:
<STRONG>The IDE drives on PCs will work fine if formatted with a 3rd party disk formatting utility on a Mac.</STRONG>

maybe it's just my luck, but drive setup has ALWAYS worked for me. also my old pc drives are standing strong to this day. 4 or 5 of 'em (they get switched around between pc's and macs).
i say the issue with using old pc parts is just that: old. they older they are, the slower they'll be, and slow parts will slow your mac down. a general rule to maintain speed could be to use only parts as old (or young) as your mac.

[turtle777]

Originally posted by bluedog:
<STRONG>While its not possible to 'build' a mac from a PC, you *can* use the PC parts to accessorize your macs, depending on the model of a Mac you have and the parts from your PC.
</STRONG>

bluegog is right, you may re-use some parts of your PC.

The question is, if it really makes sense.
Reusing the harddisk may make sense in some cases, if the drive is not too old and too slow.

But concerning mices, keyboards, video cards and stuff, I guess in most cases it would not really make sense.

First, I will cost additional money for adapters, with which you still don't even get up-to-date hardware, and
second: what kind of Mac do you get out of it overall ?

Who wants such a bastard ???

So far,
-t

[Cipher13]

Originally posted by turtle777:
<STRONG>And why would you like to have a butt-ugly Mac in a PC-Tower anyways ???</STRONG>

More drive bays, mainly.

[ 10-02-2001: Message edited by: Cipher13 ]

[turtle777]

Originally posted by Cipher13:
<STRONG>

More drive bays, mainly.

[ 10-02-2001: Message edited by: Cipher13 ]</STRONG>

Yeah, but this is another thing. The question was whether you can turn a PC into a Mac or if you can re-use inner-parts in a Mac.

What you suggest is turning a Mac into a PC
Well, kind of...

So far,
-t