The $900 Cardboard Box Hackintosh Built In A Hurry

**Wiley John Wright** · 10-06-2010, 09:33 PM

When the guys over at One Block Off The Grid ran into trouble with Adobe After Effects, they realized that they needed a faster Mac to finish their project on time. They could have done what most people in this situation would do and go buy a new Mac at an Apple Store, but not these guys. Instead, the team decided to go another route and build their own hackintosh from parts ordered from Amazon for about $900.

The One Block Off The Grid personnel assembled their hackintosh using a 2.66 Intel Core i5 CPU, a 1 TB hard drive, 8 GB of 1333 MHz DDR3 RAM, and an XFX Radeon HD 5770 1GB DDR5 Graphics Card. The best part: they installed all of these components into the cardboard box in which the order was shipped. Using iBoot + MultiBeast, the team was able to install Snow Leopard on their new hackintosh.

One Block Off The Grid was able to put together exactly what they needed to finish their After Effects project, and they only spent $900. Compare this to paying $2700 for an equivalent Apple computer. It may not be as stylish as a new Mac, but then you could never get anything as fast as this from Apple for 900 bucks.

I know Apple has been touting how green they are lately, but I don’t think you can get more recyclable than cardboard. Maybe the team at One Block Off The Grid’s next hackintosh project can be built using aluminum cans instead. The CPU could even be soda cooled.

Source: Cult of Mac

**Cer0** · 10-06-2010, 09:36 PM

Lol, nice case. Makes moving easier.

Got a heating problem? No problem. Cardboard box allows the user to add more vents to it or "let the top down" for heavy usage.

**Nelly998** · 10-06-2010, 09:36 PM

Yay for cardboard!!

**BeachLivin88** · 10-06-2010, 09:42 PM

Wow, $900 for a monster Mac?! I'm seriously considering this. I need more speed than my PowerBook...

**reppin4you** · 10-06-2010, 09:49 PM

Sweet!

**blkcadi** · 10-06-2010, 09:59 PM

Wow, of the wall, boing............lolz

**GellBrake'rrrr** · 10-06-2010, 10:02 PM

Originally Posted by Cer0

Lol, nice case. Makes moving easier.

Got a heating problem? No problem. Cardboard box allows the user to add more vents to it or "let the top down" for heavy usage.

Couldn't have said it any better.

**DisneyRicky** · 10-06-2010, 10:09 PM

Nice!

Somebody clearly has too much time on their hands!

**Cer0** · 10-06-2010, 10:10 PM

Originally Posted by DisneyRicky

Nice!

Somebody clearly has too much time on their hands!

Or not enough. lol

**corkey20000** · 10-06-2010, 10:11 PM

Tutorial plzzzz

**hitman10** · 10-06-2010, 10:12 PM

con grads you built a computer using computer parts and put it in a cardboard box that will probably catch fire while using flash. Heres a cookie.

**CsSxPlay3r** · 10-06-2010, 10:16 PM

Originally Posted by hitman10

con grads you built a computer using computer parts and put it in a cardboard box that will probably catch fire while using flash. Heres a cookie.

My thoughts exactly...lol. I mean you did save money...but cardboard will burn.

**Rob2G** · 10-06-2010, 10:18 PM

I have a similar computer but with a msi MB and nvidia 8400 gxf card. Mine cost abt $650

**Waleed786** · 10-06-2010, 10:23 PM

Cardboard burns at a temperature above 420 Celsius (800 farenheit)..I really don't think computers get that hot..anyways who cares about the box, u can put it in a metal box if it makes u happy, the point is that they made a computer spending one third of how much it would have cost.
@Corkey, +1 for tutorials =D

**NessLookAlike** · 10-06-2010, 10:27 PM

Originally Posted by CsSxPlay3r

My thoughts exactly...lol. I mean you did save money...but cardboard will burn.

I know right? I mean, these guys spent $900 to make a great PC, and they didn't bother to spend another $50-100 bucks - if that - to get a case that won't catch fire? This story isn't about building a Hackint0sh for way under the Apple tax; it's about building a computer in a cardboard box.

Cardboard boxes be damned!

**politicalslug** · 10-06-2010, 10:31 PM

Originally Posted by Waleed786

Cardboard burns at a temperature above 420 Celsius (800 farenheit)..I really don't think computers get that hot..anyways who cares about the box, u can put it in a metal box if it makes u happy, the point is that they made a computer spending one third of how much it would have cost.
@Corkey, +1 for tutorials =D

My thoughts exactly. If you're catching stuff on fire, something must be broken.

On another note, this is far from anything new, and it's a real disgrace to see modmyi not linking to www.osx86project.org/

**raduga** · 10-06-2010, 10:36 PM

Originally Posted by NessLookAlike

Cardboard boxes be damned!

This story isn't about building a computer in a cardboard box;
its about filling in that great big void on a Wednesday evening
to avoid losing pageviews, ad clicks, pagerank...

**stfudvs** · 10-06-2010, 11:18 PM

these doods is legit

**EskimoRuler** · 10-06-2010, 11:20 PM

Sweet I want one

**JacquesChirac** · 10-06-2010, 11:29 PM

this article is kinda redundant. everyone knows that apple grotesquely overcharges for specs, but that's not their product. their product is their image and their kernel that make the mac OS.

you could probably buy this same computer as a PC from dell for a lot cheaper too, install mac OS, and call it a mac (although you may have driver and other issues).

the point I guess is, if ya take this computer, put it in a cheap $10 computer case instead of a cardboard box, and let it cost $910, then the novelty disappears because the real novelty is in the fact that they just took a given set of computer parts anybody could buy and put them in a cardboard box. oh and also installed a mac OS so that it can be called a mac

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