Hi. I have an old AMD system running Windows XP and want to give it a new lease on life with OS X. I am wondering if it's possible and if so which distro I should use. I suspect my GPU may not be up to the task but if the rest will work I am open to uprading the GPU with something cheap off ebay.

Here are my specs:

- Epox 8K3A+ mobo
VIA Apollo KT333 chipset
4x AGP 2.0 slot, 6 * 32-bit PCI slots, 4 * USB 1.1 ports, 3 * DIMM slots (which support up to 1.5 GB of PC1600/2100/2700 DDR RAM), 4 * IDE-100 ports, 2 with RAID support

- AMD Athlon XP 1800+
Code Name: Palomino
Package: Socket A
Core Speed: 1536.8 Mhz
Multiplier: x11.5
FSB: 133.6 Mhz
Bus Speed: 267.3 Mhz
Supports: MMX (+), 3DNow! (+), SSE

- 512Mb DDR RAM

- ATI Radeon 7200 (R100) 64Mb AGP x2 GPU

- IDE HD

- Some other odds and ends - floppy drive, IDE DVD burner, PS/2 keyboard and mouse, etc.

Thanks in advance.

Sorry, I have to say you it won't work. OS X needs a cpu with contains at least the SSE2 instruction set, and the Athlon XP only has SSE. You'll need as minimum requirement a Pentium 4 or an Athlon 64.

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2 Opteron systems: OSx86 10.5.8, Andy's 9.8.0 kernel, Asus A8N-SLI Premium, Opteron 185 o'clocked @ 2 x 2,95 GHz (2nd system 2.6 GHz), ATI Radeon HD2600XT 256MB Dual-Monitor 2x HP L2035, 4 GB RAM, Griffin FireWave as main audio device, Marvell + nForce LAN, Asus U3S6 USB3/SATA6 card, 5,5 TB harddisk, Firewire 800 card, Apple Remote + eHome IR receiver, 2x Wacom serial graphics tablet, Canon Pixma iP4700, Logitech Internet Navigator wireless keyboard/mouse combination.

My Audio stuff: M-Audio Transit USB (default audio), M-Audio ProFire 610, M-Audio ProFire Lightbridge (34 channels) using Creamware A16 ADAT converter • MIDI: M-Audio Midiman 4x MIDI interface • Behringer Audio Mixers: Xenyx 1002, Xenyx 1002FX, Xenyx 1202FX, Eurorack UB1002FX, Eurorack MX1804FX, Eurorack MX262A • FX devices: Lexicon MPX100 DSP, Behringer DSP-1000 Virtualizer, Behringer MiniFEX 800 DSP, Behringer Multicom Pro MDX4400 compressor • RETRO: MSSIAH midi/sequencer/synthesizer cardridge for the C64 (Dual-SID), Steinberg M.S.I. MIDI Interface for C64

im using a Pentium 4 lol xD

cant wait till I have enough money to build my Mac Pro, going with a Duel Core ;D booting Retail w/ 4GB of RAM

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I think I'm the only one who is running Socket 939-Dual-Core-Opterons
Opteron 180 @ 2x2.4 GHz, Opteron 185 @ 2x2.8 GHz, Opteron 185 @ 2x2.95 GHz

In the opposite to the Athlon X2 cpus they have the advantage that they have 1 MB Level-2-Cache per cpu, the Athlon X2 only 512K. And they seem to be much better overclockable, the Opteron 185 normally has 2.6 GHz. I got one of them to 3.03 GHz, but during highly cpu-intensive operations it crashed. But with 2.95 GHz it runs absolutely stable. I'm using Scythe coolers, the Mugen and the Shuriken.

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2 Opteron systems: OSx86 10.5.8, Andy's 9.8.0 kernel, Asus A8N-SLI Premium, Opteron 185 o'clocked @ 2 x 2,95 GHz (2nd system 2.6 GHz), ATI Radeon HD2600XT 256MB Dual-Monitor 2x HP L2035, 4 GB RAM, Griffin FireWave as main audio device, Marvell + nForce LAN, Asus U3S6 USB3/SATA6 card, 5,5 TB harddisk, Firewire 800 card, Apple Remote + eHome IR receiver, 2x Wacom serial graphics tablet, Canon Pixma iP4700, Logitech Internet Navigator wireless keyboard/mouse combination.

My Audio stuff: M-Audio Transit USB (default audio), M-Audio ProFire 610, M-Audio ProFire Lightbridge (34 channels) using Creamware A16 ADAT converter • MIDI: M-Audio Midiman 4x MIDI interface • Behringer Audio Mixers: Xenyx 1002, Xenyx 1002FX, Xenyx 1202FX, Eurorack UB1002FX, Eurorack MX1804FX, Eurorack MX262A • FX devices: Lexicon MPX100 DSP, Behringer DSP-1000 Virtualizer, Behringer MiniFEX 800 DSP, Behringer Multicom Pro MDX4400 compressor • RETRO: MSSIAH midi/sequencer/synthesizer cardridge for the C64 (Dual-SID), Steinberg M.S.I. MIDI Interface for C64

I am not aware of any AMD socket A machine that has a processor with SSE 2 capabilities, so unfortunatly I must say: no it won't work.

A SSE 2 processor is minimum, SSE 3 will work faster due to not having to emulate SSE3.


Edit: Obsolete post, you two above where faster.

How about a patched kernel or something? Is there such a solution? Or is it completely no-go?

transitionality, completely no-go, sorry. You can continue using Xp which is, i bet, working great on that machine. I personally like those 'aged' machines, i could never sell any of mine. I turned a few into servers and used them for varios things.

Yours is not that old and i think it will still do its job. If you maybe in the future decide to assemble a new machine you can build a cheap one for Mac OS X.

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If I trade this in (or sell it and buy instead) a P4-based machine with maybe 512Mb of RAM, can I run OS X then? What sort of graphics card should I look for as a minimum? Can I install OS X on a P4 system with 256Mb or is that a no-go as well?

A GeForce 7300 GT (like ASUS EN7300GT SILENT/HTD/256M) would be a great option or a 8400 GS works and is cheap.
A lot of Nvidia cards work, even some 6000 series ones (not all). If you trade it in, 6000 series is a option. If you get a new one: 7300GT or 8400GS.

P4 can work, depends on the mainboard. 512MB ram I'd say. But better you look up the minimum requirements on ram for OS X on the Apple site.