Filed under: Desktops, Hardware, Mac Pro
OS Xbox Pro is the hottest hackintosh ever
Warning: some NSFW lyrics on the music in the video above.
What do you get when you combine an old Xbox with OS X and some Mac Pro level hardware? This monstrosity. Built by Will Urbina, the OS Xbox Pro is a hackintosh casemodded into an original Xbox dev kit, with some crazy hardware under the hood, including a pair of 2.93GHz Intel Core 2 Quad Q9550s, an NVIDIA GeForce 9800GT card, 8GB of RAM, an 16GB solid state drive, and four traditional hard drives -- one boots Windows 7, the other one does OS X (Snow Leopard, we believe -- he bought a copy retail), a Ubuntu install in there somewhere, and two other sweet hard drives for video editing.
And here's the wacky thing: Total material cost of the system is under $1500. That, combined with the video above, almost makes me want to spend a month of weekends trying to do something like this myself (aside from, you know, fitting it into a dev kit Xbox thing -- although fitting it into an old Macintosh might be a fun build, too). At any rate, awesome build for sure.
![TUAW [Cafepress]](http://www.blogsmithmedia.com/www.tuaw.com/media/tuaw-cafepress-promo.png)
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Ben said 4:25PM on 11-26-2009
With the way he customized the xbox case, he could've started from scratch with some aluminium sheets.
Reply
Edog Lost said 4:32PM on 11-26-2009
I want one. That was hot.
Reply
Teslanaut said 4:35PM on 11-26-2009
Why with OS X? I mean, I love OS X. But why? I woulda turned that into an awesome HTPC & Emulator box.
Reply
Jose said 10:04PM on 11-26-2009
If you have to ask why, you are in the wrong crowd! Modding is about being able to do it, without any reason. Same goes with running OS X on whatever...
Boyo said 4:41PM on 11-26-2009
Ladies that guy deserves a BJ.
Reply
Bender Bending Rodriguez said 4:42PM on 11-26-2009
I made a comment this past week about how poorly the native Chrome OS demo was done. Engadget should take some tips from this video. Even from the camera angle of Newegg box sitting on the porch it was obvious that this was done well.
Reply
Pascal said 9:25PM on 11-26-2009
It's not "a pair of 2.93GHz Intel Core 2 Quad Q9550s". It's one (1).
a) It's a normal consumer grade single-socket board, not a server dual-socket one.
b) You can't even use two Core 2 cpu's in one mainboard, that's reserved for Xeons
c) The original article mentions one, not two.
Reply
Scott said 5:13PM on 11-26-2009
Very nice, how much?
Reply
books said 5:24PM on 11-26-2009
Pascal has it right. None of the hardware in that build is Mac Pro class - not even close in fact.
It's an amazing mod and an excellent video apart from the terrible music, but the hardware is just consumer-level grade. In fact the memory is sub-par grade Crucial Ballistix (ultra-ultra-ultra low-end, over-clocked memory that dies even when under-clocked for safety).
The creator claims his $1500 is the equivalent of a Mac Pro at $4500. Not close. Not even in the same league. The mainboard, the processors, the memory, the hard disks, the power supply, the heat sinks, the fans, everything in a real Mac Pro is high-end and high-budget. The aluminum enclosure alone on a Mac Pro would cost as much or more to build as all the components used in this system. :)
Anyway, great effort, cool video, usable system, but "it ain't no Mac Pro."
Reply
The1 said 1:09AM on 11-27-2009
Stop hating jack, there was nothing wrong with the music or the hardware used for that matter. I think the guy did an awesome job from beginning to end. You always have some moron trying to critique a project to the very end. If you have better skills than this guy, why didn't you do it?
Bernie said 3:02AM on 11-27-2009
What do you mean "none of this hardware is in the same class"? Apple uses the same Intel processors that everyone else does and they probably have just as cheap other components as well.
Also, if you really think a Mac Pro case would cost $1500 you're delusional or simply trying to be a troll although I don't see what you're trolling because it runs Windows/OS X/Ubuntu so all the camps are given homage.
oZ said 12:21PM on 11-27-2009
Bernie: Mac Pros use Xeons, which are workstation/server grade CPUs. Yes, it's all Intel, but at the same generation, Xeon > Core 2 Quad.
Skoalbandit said 5:42PM on 11-26-2009
More impressed with the time lapsed dolly shots.
Reply
JKT said 12:46AM on 11-27-2009
Agreed---the longer the video went on the more I realized just how much this guy had to interleave his modding and his video work. "OK, I'm about to go and do an hour's worth of work on the grilles, so I'll go start the dolly." Further, it was almost painful to know that he assembled the whole box and then disassembled it again just so he could reassemble it to do the rotating time-lapse with the parts organically "growing" in. This guy loves video and loves to (re) build boxes. Indeed!
Reggie said 8:02AM on 11-27-2009
Agree about the the dolly shots. I just hoped he used longer a shutter speed (on the dolly shots) so he would have movement trails than just jumping out everywhere.
All in all, great video production.
Dan Woods said 5:51PM on 11-26-2009
Probably runs cooler than an original XBox too!
Reply
Blazeblaster said 8:52PM on 11-27-2009
wouldn't it be epic if it could run xBox games somehow?! This guy seems talented enough to make it work
timeimp said 6:29PM on 11-26-2009
So, when is mainstream production starting? One thing I learned from it - I WANT ONE!
Reply
levent said 6:41PM on 11-26-2009
what crazy hardware??
Reply
tmlclone said 1:09PM on 11-29-2009
The hardware tools he is using for modding are some crazy hardware.