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That’s right!  I’m now a proud new owner of a Psystar Open(3).

Well, the company I work for is.  I had been working off my own Macbook Pro ever since I started, and it was about time to move to a company machine.  Thankfully I was able to convince them to buy me the Open(3).  At only $700 total ($600 – base, $50 – 4GB RAM, $50 shipping) the machine was a steal.

Some specs:

• Mac OS X Leopard v10.5
• 2.5 GHz Dual Core E5200
• 2.5 GHz Dual Core E5200
• 2.5 GHz Dual Core E5200
• GeForce 9400GT 512MB (DVI + VGA)
• 20x DVD±RW DL

After using the machine throughout the day, I can say that it’s no different than using any other Mac. The only one problem I had was installing Parallels. For some reason it thought my machine couldn’t handle the hardware virtualization. A quick install of VMWare Fusion solved that problem.

Would I recommend an Open(3)?

Yes, though I would prefer an actual Apple Mac (you can’t beat the style). For the price, though, you can’t get a better Mac cheaper. The base model is the same price as a Mac Mini, and packs WAY more punch.