My Hackintosh or Customac Mini as the folks over at TonyMacX86 call it was assembled inside of an Apex MI-008 Mini-Itx Case that included a 250W power supply and not a lot of room to spare. As I was assembling my buddy Dan’s CustoMac, I started to ponder future builds and what parts were going to go into it. Maybe I could start getting my new build together slowly, one piece at a time. I wouldn’t lay out a whole wad of cash all at once. I’d scoop up components here and there as they went on sale.
My first new purchase was the Cooler Master Elite 130 mini-ITX case. It’s larger than my Apex case, but the improved airflow in this box will keep the components within a lot cooler especially the more power hungry components and the possible video card I hope to get. It could also hold more hard-drives than the smaller box. There’s always need for more storage, and it’s nice to have room for it.
The guts from my old Hackintosh have been transplanted into the new box. Eventually those components will be upgraded, and the old ones will be returned to the Shoebox to be used by someone else in the family.
They may lack Apple’s exquisite industrial design along with their exquisite price tags. They also lack Apple’s impossible-to-service, proprietary hardware. If something dies on my Hackintosh, stock parts are readily available and usually only require a screw driver to replace. The PCs I build will be around for a long time, and should I grow weary of Apple’s operating system, they will last quite a bit longer with one distribution or another of Linux. Ubuntu runs beautifully on the above machine.
