I wish to make a few points clear before I go on:
I own a real iMac 24″ along with many other computers and while this is great for streaming due to CamTwist & Colloquy – the built in iSight is fixed. I did buy a “Mac compatible” Webcam but there is not controls so the image is dark. This is why I looked into making one of my Spare computers (A Dell GX620) into a Mac Clone so it could do what I needed.
So many Version – which is best?
We have iAktos, Leo4All, Kalyway and probably a few more DVD Images you can download and turn a normal desktop PC into a Mac Clone. By luck, the Dell GX620 Machine worked with either Kalyway or Leo4All. There is many things missing but if you own a normal Mac, then they can be copied across, such as the Alex Voice (which is a CD worth of Data in itself). Remember when people are sharing files, they want to make it both fit onto a DVD and be as small as possible – so this is why there is stuff missing, a Proper Leopard DVD is 6.XX Gigs – Dual Layer in fact. If you do get to try this out, it is not for the faint hearted and for most, it will probably fail before or after the install – this is life, get over it and buy a real Mac if you want one that badly.
How compatible is this machine??
I loaded all the software I run on my real iMac onto this Dell machine – and it all worked and quite quickly too I would say. I have connected a Lead which allows dual screen on the Dell GX620 (plugs into the DVI Port) and indeed – I now have a dual screen Mac, Ideal for Broadcasting. I can turn it into a Web Server by means of MAMP Pro and set up a FTP and so forth, as this beats the real iMac due to the ability to turn off the screen. I would say that a Mac Mini Might well be as good but more expensive of course – why would I want to go and spend £399 or £499 when I can reuse this equally small Dell GX620. I would say you could pick one up on e-Bay for half the cost of an iMac. The P4 3.2 Ghz is not slow but of course not as fast as a Dual Core Machine.
