# PC parts in a Mac



## ViperGuy (Dec 23, 2004)

I made the mistake of buying a pc laptop and now decide that a macbook would be better. Can I buy a shell for a macbook and put the expensive parts from the laptop into the macbook? They both have Intel duo core processors and a 945 chipset. Can I at least put those and maybe my videocard, and hard drive into a macbook, and have it work properly? Thanks

Derek


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## sinclair_tm (Mar 11, 2005)

only that everything is solder to the mobo in the macbook, well, except the ram, and maybe the cpu. and macbooks use the same chipset, but the rest of the mobo is different, very different. its not the shell that makes a macbook, its the guts, and how apple puts them together. so to answer your question, nope.


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## ViperGuy (Dec 23, 2004)

So it would be best to sell the laptop then buy a mac. Alright thanks.


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## FreoHeaveho (Aug 22, 2006)

In MHO, apple hardware is several generations behind (yes even the 8600GM). Beyond the 'its cool' factor, there is nothing at all different between a Core2 etc in a mac and an alternative laptop. Its marketing and that is all. 

what exactly do you mean by 'guts'? explain please, the difference? in all honesty im interested as i run 10.4.10 and appreciate the apple os, but hardware... cant see how you can make the difference....except, oh they use rubbish Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 950 or 8600GM. ooh hold me back.

not but really i am being overly confrontational, but i cannot see how you can say "the guts" is different. If you are right, i will eat my words quite happily.


no disrespect sinclair, but the guy wants to keep his 'expensive parts'.


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## sinclair_tm (Mar 11, 2005)

the guts, ie, mobo is setup different. apple uses open firmware to control the hardware during boot up, instead of a bios. technically speaking the firmware is a bios, but its set up differently, as there is no menu where you can adjust settings. when you boot the mac into firmware, all you get is a prompt. from here you have to know what commands you want to use, and their options before hand, as there is no way to find out what they are from within the firmware. and so, with this basic low level difference of the mobo, you can't just swap parts and they will work. in order for hardware to work with apple's software, without major hacking involved-that most times is illegal in form or another- it has to be certified by apple to work. i'll be the 1st to admit that macs aren't for everyone, but i love them, and they suit me just fine. i like the whole package deal, and that it just works, and looks great, very zen like. and yes, the cpus are identical, and the chipsets are mostly identical as well, but its how apple has set up those pieces to work together that is different. and with apple laptops, there are few interchangeable parts, only cpu, ram, wireless card, hard drive and optical drive. everything else is part of the mobo, and can not be swapped out, unless you replace the whole mobo. but then, there is no guaranty that the newer version of the mobo will fit in an older mac. this is also why you can't buy a copy of os x and install it on a pc, as the os needs certain things that apple uses, but nobody else does, and without those, it will not work.


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## FreoHeaveho (Aug 22, 2006)

Legality aside, you can run osx on many pc's (regardless of the TPM), my point is however when recommending an alternative, these comments about the limitations (restrictions in my view) should be made clearly.

But you are correct, the parts would be very difficult to migrate, but this is not because of the parts, but rather Apples restrictions on their use. The firmware is hardware independant. This will also affect upgradability, user selection and ultimately (in my opinion) quality. But this is a discussion for a different time.

thanks for the respones sinclair, interesting reading ray:


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## Cynicize (Jul 19, 2005)

^^^

Just out of curiosity, is that to say that...if I buy a Vista laptop, I can set up OSX on a separate partition...and it should work? As long as it's Intel based? Wanting to buy a laptop, but not pay Apple's ridiculous prices for things which may have warranted that price 5 years ago. A $1099 laptop with an 80-gig hard drive? Give me a break...

What kind of hardware would a laptop have to have to work with OSX?


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## sinclair_tm (Mar 11, 2005)

no, you can not buy a windows laptop and install os x on it. the install disk will not even boot the laptop because it will see the firmware that it is looking for, as windows based computers do not use firmware.


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