Newbie questions on D630

[paradoox]

First, some more background.  I'm a Dell fan.  I have about four working D630s at the moment.  Three of them are 2.2ghz machines and one is a 2ghz machine.   (All are running XP SP3.)   I've gone out and bought a replacement 500gb hard drive to use as our "sandbox".

 

1) Only one of the 2.2ghz machines has the Nvidia 135M graphics card.  However, it has an Intel Wireless Card rather than a Dell Wireless Card.   The other machines all use the native Intel Crestline Graphics but have Dell Wireless Cards.  I assume I'd be better off using the machine with the Nvidia Graphics?   And either buying a separate USB wireless or swapping wireless cards?  

 

2) The Pre Installation Instructions on this site say we need access to a working OS X machine.  However, the myHack site says we need access to an x86 machine running OS X 10.6 or newer.   So, can we use my housemate's existing PBG4 running 10.4 to create the boot USB or not?   I suspect the answer is not and we'll need to borrow a friend's more recent Mac.

 

3) The only Mountain Lion version I can find on the Mac App store is the $19.99 Update.   Is this the correct version?  Or is there a full install for more money hiding somewhere on the Mac App store?

[Hervé]

[...]

1) Only one of the 2.2ghz machines has the Nvidia 135M graphics card.  However, it has an Intel Wireless Card rather than a Dell Wireless Card.   The other machines all use the native Intel Crestline Graphics but have Dell Wireless Cards.  I assume I'd be better off using the machine with the Nvidia Graphics?   And either buying a separate USB wireless or swapping wireless cards?  

[...]

The nVidia model is indeed the machine you should choose as it supports all recent Mac OS versions, from Snow Leopard 10.6 to the forthcoming Mavericks 10.9 in 32/64bit mode. The Crestline models can run Snow Leopard and Lion natively in 32bit mode and Mountain Lion in 32bit mode with a special Hack called MLPF. You can swap wireless cards, yes and you would have to as Intel cards are not supported by Mac OS.

 

[...]

2) The Pre Installation Instructions on this site say we need access to a working OS X machine.  However, the myHack site says we need access to an x86 machine running OS X 10.6 or newer.   So, can we use my housemate's existing PBG4 running 10.4 to create the boot USB or not?   I suspect the answer is not and we'll need to borrow a friend's more recent Mac.

[...]

You need a system with SL 10.6 minimum. PB G4 running Tiger is no use.

 

[...]

3) The only Mountain Lion version I can find on the Mac App store is the $19.99 Update.   Is this the correct version?  Or is there a full install for more money hiding somewhere on the Mac App store?

It is the latest version Apple commercialise at the moment. Mavericks should be released next month (and is fully supported by D630 nVidia). I believe Snow Leopard can still be ordered somehow -> might need to call your local Apple Rep for that. Lion is no longer available as far as I know.

 

 

Please think of doing a search before posting a thread as most of these questions either been asked and answers provided or are covered in the various pages of the Web site.