iMac Dies -- Over To The Dark Side

[buad hai]

My faithful iMac is dead. Ms. B shut it down and moved it to the new house when the phone/Internet got transferred.

Once in the new house it won't start.

She's taken it to several shops. The last one says it needs a new motherboard for 20K. For that I can buy a generic box, slap on Linux and have twice the machine for the same price as the repaired Mac.

But, this is all new to me.

Recommendations please.

Buy a box, or build one? What motherboard, video card, etc.?

My price limit would be about 20K, including monitor, etc.

Your thoughts, please. But, remember, I've been a Mac-only guy since 1984....

[Thetyim]

I bought a desktop from here two years ago.
No problems, works fine, good service.

ATEC Desktop PC : ¾Õ«Õ »ÃÐÊÔ·¸ÔÀÒ¾áç...¨¹á«§ÃÒ¤Ò

[mrsquirrel]

BH

You could build yourself a Hackintosh for very little.

It would run a hacked version of OSX86 Leopord or Tiger that has been altered to run on none back Intel machines.

You could build a desktop for under 300 dollars.
or you could get a notebook and run it.

I know you like Mac.

InsanelyMac

Main Page - OSx86

HCL 10.5.1 - OSx86 components to build your own box

HCL 10.5.1/Portables - OSx86

HCL 10.5.1/Desktops - OSx86

No need to go to the darkside at all



I have ran Leopard on my Lenovo Thinkpad. It needed a few tweaks. Hardest thing is the wireless but there are ways around it. Easiest one is buying an airport compatible USB wireless, others is replacing the mini PCI card with a airport compatible one.

[Marmite the Dog]

I bought a new desktop PC today. Sadly, I'm going to run XP on it, but my home PC may become a test-bed for Mandriva flavoured Linux.

[buad hai]

^What did you buy, and where?

[Wallalai]

For that I can buy a generic box, slap on Linux and have twice the machine for the same price as the repaired Mac.

If you're going to GNU/Linux I recommend a Nvidia graphic card. If you don't play 128MB RAM is enough but 256MB are cheap now.

[Marmite the Dog]

What did you buy, and where?

I bought a cobbled together machine with a 19" LCD Samsung monitor for 33,800 Baht. I'll post the details tomorrow as the receipt is at the office.

[buad hai]

^So that's about US$1000. I'd be interested in seeing the specs so I can compare with what I could get here in the US. Only here for two more days.

An iMac for US$1200 is as follows:

20" LCD Screen
2.0GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
1GB memory
250GB hard drive1
8x double-layer SuperDrive
ATI Radeon HD 2400 XT with 128MB memory

[mrsquirrel]

BH

My old man tells me you can buy a cheap generic laptop at Fry's for 350 dollars.

can't really argue at that.

Or try Tiger Direct or newegg.com

[buad hai]

^Right you are. Had a look. Still undecided.

Of course, the sad truth is that not only can I not afford $1200, I can't even afford $350!

Ah, well. I still have my PowerBook and it will have to do until my ship comes in.

[MeMock]

Ah, well. I still have my PowerBook and it will have to do until my ship comes in.

I could start a thread if you want getting every td member to click on ya google links.

bugger about ya puter BH.

What kind was it?

[mrsquirrel]

BH

Take it to Phantip and see the Area 52 boys. They can fix nearly anything.

[Thetyim]

^
Can they fix the exchange rate ?

[Butterfly]

Don't throw the iMac yet, it might be battery related, got that on a few Macs, there is some keyboard sequence to do for making it boot again,

PRAM is usually the guilty one, a reset and it works again, dead motherboard is quite rare and extreme even on a Mac

Tesco is having a great promo now, COMPAQ 3600 very nice design, 1GB RAM, 80GB SATA, 14'' etc... for only 16,900 THB !!! bootleg WinXP for 100 THB (with SATA drivers) and you are set

[good2bhappy]

Where is the best place to get a cheap laptop in bkk?
Or what about a second hand one?

[NickA]

If you're going to GNU/Linux I recommend a Nvidia graphic card. If you don't play 128MB RAM is enough but 256MB are cheap now.

Yep, it is essential.... ATI is a real balls-ache on Linux

[buad hai]

Don't throw the iMac yet, it might be battery related, got that on a few Macs, there is some keyboard sequence to do for making it boot again,

PRAM is usually the guilty one, a reset and it works again, dead motherboard is quite rare and extreme even on a Mac

Ms. B tried resetting the PMU, but that didn't fix things. Trouble is, when she presses the power button there is no sound at all, nothing, nada. To me, that means power supply. But, the shop said motherboard.

I'll be there in a few days and rip the thing apart myself.

I agree that it is rare for a motherboard to go. Especially when it was working fine when she shut it down and then wouldn't start up after she moved it to the new house.

Thanks for the all the replies.

[Panda]

My last two PCs have lasted almost exactly 3 years each. Both died of fried motherboards. It wasn't until the death of the last one I discovered why. During the dry season, a lot of dust and lint gets sucked in and accumulated on the cooling unit for the CPU. You wont see it until you pull the fan off the CPU heat exchanger, (which looks like a motorbike barrel with lots of radial fins sticking out). Once the fan was removed I could see a layer of dust and lint that had built up into a layer of felt about a couple of mm thick. It completely covered the top of the cooling fins in the heat exchange unit like a blanket and prevented the fan pushing any air at all onto them.

I don't know if this is what killed you PC or not, but it would pay to take a look under the CPU fan at the end of each dry season.

Since I am a lazy bastard I have installed "PC Probe 11" which constantly monitors my CPU temperature. When I see the temperature going up I will give it a clean.

[Butterfly]

Burning a CPU is not the same as burning a motherboard,

usually the power supply die first, then the fan, in extreme case the CPU, and then eventually the motherboard if you inject 220V into it

[Panda]

Burning a CPU is not the same as burning a motherboard,

usually the power supply die first, then the fan, in extreme case the CPU, and then eventually the motherboard if you inject 220V into it

I am not up on these technical things, but I do know the result is the same.--- No computer :-)

[Tao]

Sounds like the power supply if it does nothing on pressing the on button.

[Marmite the Dog]

19" Samsung 932B
Intel E8200 CPU 2.67GHz
2 Gb RAM
80 Gb HD (System)
250 Gb HD (Data)
Good Case
Good PSU
Wireless PCI Card
ATI Pro VGA Card
ASUS P5KR Motherboard

That's pretty much it.

[Butterfly]

^^^ No computer doesn't mean anything,

it's like a woman who go see a mechanic, and tell him "my car doesn't work, yeah could you be a bit more specific, yeah I can't drive it"

[Butterfly]

19" Samsung 932B
Intel E8200 CPU 2.67GHz
2 Gb RAM
80 Gb HD (System)
250 Gb HD (Data)
Good Case
Good PSU
Wireless PCI Card
ATI Pro VGA Card
ASUS P5KR Motherboard

That's pretty much it.

very good setup for surfing porn and trolling TD

[Tao]

Ummm. just a thought. If your Mac has been moved around then the RAM may have come loose. It might just need reseated.