xMac Trashintosh

January 16, 2014 7:05 AM

You can build your own xMac "Trash Pro" in a real trashcan.
posted by juiceCake (17 comments total)

Those real MacPros are pretty amazing pieces of engineering. I was stunned by the size of the thing once I got an actual look at one, especially when sitting next to the previous MacPro.
posted by Thorzdad at 7:43 AM on January 16, 2014 [2 favorites]

I'm reminded of Gismo 3, the "robot" built out of a trash can in Boys' Life in 1990.
posted by Jahaza at 7:54 AM on January 16, 2014 [4 favorites]

This is kinda like a metaphor for how the PC industry works these days. Consumers look at Macs and say "man, these things are super expensive. How can a computer be that expensive? It's totally not worth it." Then a PC manufacturer builds PCs with the same shape and people are like "see, this PC looks the same and is like half the price. Apple FAIL!" Except the PC has 1/4 the processing power and has 4x as many high-RPM, loud fans, is made of fragile plastic, overheats, and is missing various IO ports that I actually need.

Okay, except it's not really a metaphor, it's just a PC that somebody built. And actually, the construction is pretty cool. Good job!
posted by sixohsix at 8:23 AM on January 16, 2014 [3 favorites]

I looked at this last night and it is an awesome build but like others have said it is far from a Mac Pro. I do stuff like this all the time and see the value but I think on the forums I noticed this too many people were talking about how they could build a new Mac for a fraction of the cost which this is in so very many ways not.

I'm reminded of Gismo 3, the "robot" built out of a trash can in Boys' Life in 1990.

Holy Mother of Robot!! I have thought about when I built that robot many times over the years. It was an awesome project and I couldn't believe I was allowed to buy new RC toys to tear them apart and do it myself, but it turned out pretty well. I never could remember where I got the plans and idea. Now I'm 13 and in my parent's garage tearing apart a RC car and a garbage can again so thanks for that.
posted by Clinging to the Wreckage at 8:31 AM on January 16, 2014 [1 favorite]

sitting next to the previous MacPro.

My father--paragon of patience that he is--just upgraded from a G5 (with the same form factor as the last generation Mac Pro) to a trashcan Mac Pro. He called me to gloat while the Migration Assistant was running--but I haven't heard how it runs yet.

I have a mid-2009 Mac Pro that I lurve. I think I actually have a few more years of life in it, but I can't imagine replacing it at the prices the new Mac Pros are going for (awesome as they may be).
posted by Admiral Haddock at 8:47 AM on January 16, 2014 [1 favorite]

I remember being told by a Mac user that my eSATA connection on my PC was a big problem because who the hell wants any cables running out of your computer. It's inelegant to have external peripherals. A couple of years later with the release of the new Mac Pro (Warning: terrible Flash like HTML 5 experience) he has no problem with external peripherals. Highly amusing.

As usual. Use what suits your needs and patterns. It's not a competition.

This case is pretty funny as well.
posted by juiceCake at 8:57 AM on January 16, 2014

Well at least it's already in a trash can...
posted by mazola at 9:12 AM on January 16, 2014

It goes without saying that this machine's performance will come nowhere near that of a fully decked-out Mac Pro. It uses a dual-core Haswell Core i3 chip instead of a four-, six-, eight-, or 12-core Ivy Bridge Xeon; it uses one standard gaming GPU instead of two FirePro workstation GPUs; it lacks the Mac Pro's dual Ethernet ports and six Thunderbolt 2.0 ports; and it uses standard SATA storage and consumer DDR3 rather than the PCI express storage or 1866MHz ECC DDR3 of the Mac Pro. The DIY version also has at least four fans spinning inside, rather than the single fan used in the real thing.
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 9:40 AM on January 16, 2014 [1 favorite]

The Mac Pro does not look like a trash can. It looks like the torpedo that takes Spock down to the Genesis Planet.
posted by brundlefly at 9:54 AM on January 16, 2014 [3 favorites]

Computing efficacy aside, that is one beautiful trash can.
posted by misha at 10:16 AM on January 16, 2014

Just as a side note, my experience with running MacOS on a well chosen set of commodity hardware is that (with quite a few caveats around OS update time) it runs as well or better than on real Apple hardware for my use case (multiple, large external monitors attached, never sleeps). And (for instance) it's much nicer to have a few big, ugly, real DVI ports sticking out of the back of my computer than it is to have active minidisplayport to dual link DVI adapter dongles hanging off the back of it.
posted by wotsac at 10:40 AM on January 16, 2014

It looks like the torpedo that takes Spock down to the Genesis Planet.

So it's a coffin that will ultimately destroy the planet?
posted by blue_beetle at 11:05 AM on January 16, 2014 [1 favorite]

Looking at the build thread, it highlights the engineering challenges overcome in keeping the original running cool and quiet, in that — despite four fans — the copy's processor is running at a not-so-cool 127°C, which must mean it will clock itself down, be very unstable, or simply overheat. Possibly all of the above.
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 11:30 AM on January 16, 2014

So it's a coffin that will ultimately destroy the planet?

And force you to go through pon farr. Really, this machine has all sorts of problems.
posted by brundlefly at 11:34 AM on January 16, 2014 [1 favorite]

The only problem with the Mac Pro looking like a trashcan is now I have confusing desktop metaphors. Every time I want to copy files across the network to it I instinctively drag them to the trash and then I wonder where they are.

None of this is true it is a Fable For Our Time™
posted by George_Spiggott at 11:44 AM on January 16, 2014 [1 favorite]

This is pretty cool little project, but I can't help thinking:

Innovation in the PC industry == a shiny case.

Hopefully someday someone will take another look at the fundamental hardware and come up with some new and interesting architecture ideas.
posted by and for no one at 12:39 PM on January 16, 2014 [2 favorites]

Apple’s Serious Mac Pro Problem Continues
posted by homunculus at 12:28 AM on February 13, 2014