Psystar Beefs Up $599 Mac Clones with the Latest Intel Processors

Psystar, which is currently facing legal fire from Apple, trusts its lawyers to handle the court filings as it continues developing and selling ever more affordable and higher-specced Mac clones. The latest advertised model, the Open (3) Computer, is the company's newest PC modified to run Mac OS X. The system comes pre-loaded with Leopard, and retails for US $599.99.

On Psystar's online store, the Mac cloner states that the Open (3) computer "features the latest technology in Intel processors to give our customers an affordable, reliable computer capable of running the OS X operating system."

"We preinstall OS X on our Open Computers so that you can begin to use your machine right out of the box,” the description continues. “Our basic configuration is ready for office-related tasks and web-surfing but the configuration for our systems can go from a mild-mannered desktop to a powerhouse. You can upgrade your GPU to a GeForce 9500GT which can play most modern games. Equipping an Intel Core2Quad, [sic] clocked at 2.53GHz will greatly enhance gaming as well as photo editing and other processor-intensive operations. With our custom configurations you can buy the Open Computer that suits your needs.”

Psystar's Open (3) Computer starts at US$599.99 and can go up to $2,022.98, for a fully-loaded version. It should be noted that Apple's Mac mini, priced at US $599, offers a 2.0GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor, 1GB of memory, 120GB hard drive, 8x double-layer SuperDrive and NVIDIA GeForce 9400M graphics. Psystar sells its basic Open (3) configuration for the same price, offering a system packed with:

Operating System: Mac OS X Leopard v10.5 (preinstalled)
Processor: 2.8 GHz Core 2 Duo E7400
RAM: 2GB DDR2 800
Hard Drive: 500GB 7,200RPM SATA
Optical Drive: 20x DVD±RW DL
Graphics: GeForce 8400GS 256MB (single DVI).

Just like the mini, Psystar's desktop system ships with new keyboard & mouse. One of the few lacking features, compared to Apple's Mac mini, are built-in Bluetooth, 802.11n (PCI-E 1x), and, of course, the beauty that no clunky PC can match.