Kevin 'Dr. Frankenstein' Rose creates a revolutionary hybrid PC built from Mac and PC hardware.

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I love my Mac and I love my PC, but what I don't love is having two monitors, two keyboards, and two mouses. Switching back and forth has become a royal pain. And since Jobs and Gates probably won't be releasing a Mac/PC combo box any time soon, I decided to take matters into my own hands.
Why choose sides in the platform war when you can boot both operating systems simultaneously, on the same machine, on the same screen? Watch Tuesday's episode of "The Screen Savers" to witness the unveiling of my homemade G4/PC monster.
Project goals
  • Build a single computer that runs Jaguar and XP natively with one keyboard, one mouse, and one monitor.
  • Bonus: Have PIP (picture-in-picture) support so you can launch and view PC and Mac programs on the same monitor.

Inside the case
  • G4 guts -- I already had the homemade G4 running Jaguar from last December's build your own G4 project.
  • PC guts -- For size considerations, I decided to go with the LPC-301 Small FootPrint Powerful Little PC ($895), a powerful, miniature PC that fits into a tiny 5 1/4-inch drive bay. I went with the Pentium III 1.2-GHz model with FireWire, USB, DVD player -- the whole works. It runs Linux!

Miracle monitor
If you're going to build a classy machine, you might as well have a nice view. I chose the Samsung SyncMaster 171MP 17-inch, multi-function LCD monitor.
Mouses and more
I decided to go wireless with the keyboard and mouse. For our bi-platform needs, I went with Microsoft's Wireless Desktop Pro keyboard and mouse combo.
Switching stuff
Now all I needed was a USB switch to toggle the keyboard and mouse between the two systems. For this, I went with the Belkin OmniView 4-Port USB KVM Switch with Audio. Not only will this unit switch our keyboard and mouse control between the two operating systems. It will also switch our video and audio signals.
To connect the G4 and PC components to the Belkin switch, you'll need two Belkin KVM cable kits or the equivalent USB and monitor cables.

Click here for full instructions.


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