Nothing special to it.

Go to insanelymac.com and read up on other, cheaper, faster ways (considering you need to have EFI-X shipped to you!), to boot a retail OS X disc.

I’m curious for editing film/ video on one of these systems. Any glitches with software, any glitches with hardware, any glitches with firewire 400 or firewire 800 ports or memory card readers?

Thanks for the info

‘Stis

I think that the solution is great, but Mr John Warwick comments are very interesting and ithink that you must not reply him trying to make him appear as a “what are you doing here guy”.

Good Review, not completly honest but good.

Thanks

1. First off, I run a mixed network of Windows and Mac machines at home. So I use SMB and AFB protocols. When I am on the EFiX built machine and try and log on either one of these types of networked machines, there is a 2-3 second delay before the machine is connected in finder. Not a big deal, but something I did not notice.
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2. In my communications with Davide Rutigliano, the CEO of Art Studios Entertainment, he mentioned that this is a known issue and is going to be addressed shortly in a firmware update. Plus I am using a Gigabyte Motherboard that is in the testing stage for their Hardware certification, so that may be the issue with the networking problem.
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3. That question, you would have to take up with the folks at EFiX, Davide mentioned that as a short term solution, I could use the GA311. I assume it may be something in the EFI code. I am just guessing about that. The forums (http://forum.efi-x.com/viewforum.php?f=1) over at the EFI website is full of helpful folks who could offer you more detailed answers about this product and any further questions you may have.

Regarding this paragraph in your review:

“Using the EFiX built PC was indistinguishable from an Apple Mac and worked almost flawlessly. The only thing I did notice is sometimes when connecting to other machines on my network, there was a few second delay before the other machines are recognized. That issue is being addressed, but can be easily corrected by installing a cheap PCI gigabit card such as the Netgear GA311.”

Would you mind explaining the following points:

1. “connecting to other machines on my network” — what do you mean by this? Are you using AFP or SMB (file-sharing protocols), or are you doing something else, like `ssh` or starting Mail.app?

2. “That issue is being addressed” — who is addressing this? The manufacturers of EFi-X? Someone else?

3. Why does a cheap PCI gigabit card resolve this problem? Is this a link-layer (network-card-, Ethernet-wire-, etc. level) problem? Or is it something else entirely?

Your overall review is commendably thorough, but for this particular paragraph, I would appreciate as much technical clarification as you would mind providing. Thank you.

In my opinion, here are are the reasons that everyone isn’t running a Hackintosh and the mothership is still in business:

Most people do not want to do command-line unix commands to keep their machine going. And most people interested in doing this simply do not want to go hunt down hack software updates when their “Mac” breaks. While I admire the people who do run these Hackintosh (which this EFI-X system is not and requires no “hacks” to make it run) machines, the level of geekiness required to put one together, the level of research to find out how to do it, is beyond the desire of 95% of Mac users or “switchers” out there. God Bless You if you like to screw around with command lines and want to go read..and read…and READ…and research…and research…and READ some more…to build a Hackintosh. Most people simply won’t do it. But plugging in the EFI-X and changing a few simple Bios settings, and following 10 minute instructions to get an OS-X capable machine that’s nearly as fast as a Mac Pro (and I would have liked to seen some more current speedy hardware in this review as Robert Mohns reviewed at macintouch..and I think comparing a machine like this with an iMac isn’t really a good indicator…many other factors to be positively considered, i.e. the upgradability of a Gigabyte mainboard for one)….YOU BET people will jump on this about 1000 times faster then they would ever even THINK of doing all the research and hacking necessary to make a Hackintosh.

Your suggestions are valid…for the geeky among us I’m sure you could just run right out and find the software updates for the hack software. And have your machine be broken for that 24 hours. EFI-X may have some minor issues…but it’s been well-tested and WILL just work when you plug it in and will work with multiple OS boots on the same machine.

I would question the sound issues as being related to the EFI-X *BOOT HARDWARE* and without some valid test results I would blame those issues more on the motherboard being used than I would on the EFI-X. I’d like to see some hardcore comparison results that would prove that it’s the EFI-X’s fault if there’s a sound issue before I jump and just believe you.

Sleep functionality was supposedly rectified with the latest firmware update. I would qualify this by saying that I’ve been using Macs almost since the beginning, and a fair amount of Macs have had sleep issues since day one, thru all the different releases of the Mac OS, and I have known numerous people with sleep issues on the Mac, myself included. It’s not unique to the EFI-X, and I am happy their firmware update corrected this in 10.5.6.

“3. Don’t be fooled into thinking that installing an EFIX will turn your PC into a fully fledged Mac. Even EFIX’s own forum staff aren’t brave enough to install an OS X update without letting other forum users report their success first.

I don’t think anyone is being “fooled” here. If you’re willing to put together the hardware that the EFI-X works on to create a bootable Mac on “non-Mac” hardware, you certainly aren’t a fool. I can appreciate that you are a proponent of the Hackintosh community, but I would say don’t be fooled into thinking that because Hackintosh software is free that it’s easier or more desirable to do. You’re gonna spend more time, research, and possibility of screwing something up than you will with this EFI-X, that’s very plain to see.

Did you personally talk to the EFI-X staff? Or maybe it was just those rude guys on efixusa’s site saying that? Because I got an email from one of their staff who told me he owned a Mac Pro for quite awhile and put one of these together and actually likes it better. He wasn’t specific why, maybe that was a bit of a sales pitch, but he certainly didn’t lack any “bravery” in doing it. You wanna talk bravery…go make a Hackintosh machine and hack the OS. You wanna talk illegal changing of the Mac OS…go build a Hackintosh.

You wanna run the risk of using your own RETAIL DVD without needing to Hack the installation of it at all or see a command line or hunt down a bunch of hack software and follow pages of instructions, and simply put the DVD in and use it after making some minor hardware settings, then get an EFI-X.

I’m excited about this piece of hardware. It allows me to create something for myself to fill the gap Apple has blindly (or not so blindly) chosen to ignore..the gap that faithful Apple users have been clamoring about for years…the desire of the community to have a good, speedy, mid-range mac without being raped on the price. Apple just will not make this machine. And I for one simply am not gonna give them ~$3k for a Pro when I can create one of these with very close to the same performance…WITHOUT the use of software hacks…for HALF that price. And one that is much more expandable, and one that I can use a Video card in that ISN’T over 2 years old…which is the most “current” one available from Apple! Now THAT is a pathetic situation and Apple is not paying attention to what its users want. And even if you do do the upgrade to the 512 video card in a Mac Pro, they want about twice as much for that too than you can just go out and get the same card for yourself!