A company called Psystar announced on Monday that it has created a Mac-clone for $399 that will run Apple's OS Leopard, according to published reports.
By late morning on Monday, however, Psystar's Website was down, leading to speculation about whether Apple had put a stop to the Miami-based IT consulting company's efforts to sell the product it's calling the Open Mac, built from standard PC components.
Psystar's Website did not load on repeated attempts after 11 a.m. on Monday.
According to the Web rumor site Mac Rumors, the Psystar Mac-clone includes a 2.2 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor, 2GB of DDR2 667 memory, integrated Intel GMA 950 Graphics, 20x DVD+/-R drive, 4 USB ports and a 250 GB 7200 RMP drive.
Psystar offers upgrades of components, including a GeForce 8600 GT 512 MB graphics card for an additional $155.
With "minimal patching," Psystar claims that the machine will run Apple's Leopard OS Leopard, but it does ship with the OS pre-installed. "With the EFI V8 emulator it is possible to install Leopard's kernel straight from the DVD that you purchased at the Apple store barring the addition of a few drivers to ensure that everything boots and runs smoothly," Psystar claims.
"Readers should note that these claims have not been independently verified, so this should not seen as an endorsement of this product. However, the technology appears to be derived from the osx86project, which has allowed hobbyists to install Mac OS X on their non-Apple PCs," Mac Rumors cautioned.
Using Apple's Leopard OS on non-Apple hardware is prohibited by Apple's user agreement.
