Mopping the floor with a Mac Mini
p2pnet news | Products:- When p2pnet wrote about Pystar, the small company that’s daring to challenge Steve Jobs with a $400 configurable Mac clone, it was offline and yesterday the ’smart money’ was betting that was because it’d been nailed by Apple.
Pystar, on the other hand, was saying, “the massive influx of users in the last 24 hours” was responsible.
When we went for a look this morning it was back online, although it was a very slow load, and, unrepentant, in its section offering an affordable stripped down Mac clone, it’s asking, ‘Why doesn’t Apple offer a stripped down Mac that is more affordable?’
It goes on >>>
Why spend $1999 to get the least expensive Apple computer with a decent video card when you can pay less than a fourth of that for an equivalent sleek and small form-factor desktop with the same hardware.
Sometimes reinventing the wheel is a good thing. The Open Computer can work for new Mac users and Mac geniuses, alike.
It’s PC that works just like a Mac with Apple’s Leopard, says the company, going on:
“With the Open Computer you can run OS X natively as if you had purchased an expensive Apple computer except that, while paying less, you receive more. Apple’s entry-level computer, the Mac Mini, is a small and not very powerful machine. When comparing base configurations, the Mac Mini costs 150% of the price of the Open Computer while offering poorer performance, smaller storage space, and RAM. Not only that but the Mac Mini doesn’t have the option for an nVidia GeForce 8600 video card like the Open Computer does so playing games on it is a lost cause.”
InformationWeek kicks off its story on the Mac Mimic with, “A Miami-based vendor that has ported Apple’s Leopard operating system to generic PC hardware says Apple’s restrictive licensing terms run counter to antitrust laws – and it’s vowing to fight.”
However, “It also represents a direct violation of Apple’s end-user license agreement, which forbids third-party installations of Leopard,” says the story, quoting a Pystar spokesman known only as Robert as saying:
“What if Microsoft said you could only install Windows on Dell (Dell) computers?”
And, “They’re charging an 80% markup on hardware.
And, “What if Honda said that, after you buy their car, you could only drive it on the roads they said you could?”
Psystar, InformationWeek has ‘Robert’ saying, will, “continue to sell the OpenMac system, despite the fact that it appears to violate Apple’s EULA.
Meanwhile, “The Open Computer mops the floor with the average Intel Mac Mini as can be seen from the XBench results (but the Open Computer shows up as a Mac Pro in XBench and isn’t too far off from the average Mac Pro in it’s base base base configuration),” Pystar promises.
What’s in an OpenMac basic? Here’s what the company says:
- Processor The base processor of the Open Computer is faster than any processor available for the Mac Mini.
- Memory The Open Computer comes with 2 GB of memory by default–twice as much as the Mac Mini.
- Storage The Open Computer brings, by default, a 250GB 7200RPM SATA hard drive which means better drive performance and three times as much space as the base Mac Mini and the drive on the Open Computer can be upgraded to a 400GB model for file sharing and media editors.
- Video Card The Open Computer can be configured with an optional nVidia GeForce 8600 video card for improved performance in image and movie editing and drastically improved performance in gaming. The Mac Mini does not have this capability.
- SuperDrive The Open Computer comes equipped by default with a Dual Layer DVD+/-R burner that is equal to the Apple SuperDrive without you having to pay extra for it like you would when buying a Mac Mini
- Options You can buy it in black without having to pay more. You can buy it with Firewire. You can buy it with a GeForce 8600, if you like. Psystar gives you options that Apple does not. If you want something different then let us know and we’ll work it out for you.
Today, the smart money would probably be saying, ‘Get one now —- while you still can!’
Definitely stay tuned.
$400 configurable Mac clone – $400 Apple Mac madness, April 14, 2008
InformationWeek – Mac Clone Maker Psystar Vows To Challenge Apple EULA, April 14, 2008
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April 15th, 2008 at 10:55 am
So here’s the big question. Can you run a legal copy of Logic Pro on it?
April 15th, 2008 at 10:57 am
I know that Mac is the latest “thing”, but can you wipe the HD and install Windows?
April 15th, 2008 at 3:01 pm
What is funny about this story is the legs that the press have given it. But what about the actual computer itself and the company that makes it? First, a little digging around shows that this company just doesn’t seem to have existed prior to last week. The companies address changed overnight, last night after this story broke, from some dudes 3 bedroom home, to another “office” space. So lets get this straight shall we? Some guy in his garage in Florida with internet connection says he is going to take on the 4th (or is it 3rd) largest computer maker in the world and undercut them by so and so much money. No one has seen said computer and no one has researched if this “company” has the means or backings to even make a demo model more or less the ones they are selling online. They admit they are breaking the law, but note that it is an unjust law. That mean lawyers which equates into money; lots and lots of money that will be required to fend off the giant and prove their case. The point is, instead of given some guy name “Bob” working on his little homebrew computer project more free advertising what doesn’t a tech reporter get off their butt and do a little due diligence on this Pystar’s operation. At current, you are setting people up to waste a great deal of money by leading them to buy something I’ll bet you isn’t anything more than the figment of someone’s over active imagination.
April 15th, 2008 at 4:53 pm
I would rather have the Mac mini.
April 15th, 2008 at 10:09 pm
Can’t wait for someone to post a torrent of the hacked osx so we can try osx out instead Vistula.