With a little ingenuity you can make your own Mac-like computer.

When it comes to PCs, geeks usually make a decision between buying a prebuilt computer or building one, component by component. This isn't true when it comes to Macintoshes. You're stuck with whatever Apple has to offer, with only a few measly dollars differentiating the products from retailer to retailer.

Is it possible to build a Mac-like G4 computer from scratch? Yes and no. If you visit Apple's online store you won't find motherboards, processors, or Apple cases for sale. Instead you must search for alternative parts providers.

Thankfully, in our quest to build a Mac-like G4 we ran across a great article from MacOpz. This article provides you with all the information you'll need to build your own Mac-like G4.

It can be tricky to find the necessary parts. Here are the places where we obtained the parts for our G4:
  • CPU
    I used a 1GHz G4 processor that I bought from Sonnet.
  • Logic board
    At MacResQ we bought a PowerMac G4 AGP logic board with gigabit Ethernet.
  • RAM
    There's nothing really special about the PC133 RAM we bought at Crucial.
  • Power supply
    We bought ours on eBay. You can also buy power supplies at Nexcomp.
  • Video card
    We chose an ATI video card.
  • Hard drive
    You can go with just about any hard drive. We installed a Western Digital Caviar Special Edition WD800JB.
  • Keyboard and mouse
    The ports on your motherboard will determine what kind of keyboard and mouse you can get. You may have to use USB or ADB. There are tons of replacement keyboards and mouses available.


When you're done you'll have your very own G4. But don't call it a Mac. Only Apple can do that.