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My Popcorn Hour A-110 order made the cutoff for the September 27 shipment from China. I’ll hopefully receive it sometime during the first week of October. I picked up a Seagate Momentus 7200.3 250GB 2.5″ drive to put into the Popcorn Hour. I went with the 2.5″ for hopefully lower temps in the box and something a little more quiet, though the 7200rpm speed may offset any advantages gained by going for the smaller 2.5″ form factor. It looks like the pre-orders have caught up with the real orders, as the September 29 shipment was including orders made up until last night. So if you want one and order it today, it will probably ship out in one of the first October shipments.

I placed my order for the EFi-X on September 17, and according to the website, all orders placed on or before September 19 will be shipped “within the next seven to ten business days.” The only thing is I don’t know when that message was posted. Either way, I’ll probably be receiving that sometime in mid-October. Currently, orders are being accepted, but with a 3-4 week wait.

I also gave in and picked up a Seagate 7200.11 1.5TB drive from Newegg, which arrived yesterday. It’s currently out of stock, but I will add this to the beast that is my Hackintosh. I haven’t had time to add it in yet, but I will try to do so tonight or this weekend. 

In non-tech orders, I just received my George Foreman GRP90WGR Next Grilleration (yes, I’m serious, that’s what it’s called) from Amazon. I ordered it last Friday when it was on sale for $99.99. At the time of the post, the price was $114.99. I originally tried to buy it in-store at Bed, Bath, and Beyond with one of those never-expiring awesome 20% off coupons, but apparently they only carry the little baby George Foreman Grill. Cooked some beef tenderloin on it last night. Tasty. The great thing about this grill is that it is 1) huge and 2) has removable plates for things that I will never use (waffles). I saw some omelet plates on Amazon that turn the Next Grilleration into the GT Express 101 (you know that informercial with the creepy old lady and guy where everything you make looks like an omelet).

next grilleration. what a beast!

boo gt express

Regardless of the cheesy copy (With EFI-X^TM you will be able to enter a new computing dimension), I am so excited about the possibilities of EFi-X. EFi-X allows you to build a PC and run Mac OS X without any modifications. The supported list of motherboards is small at the moment (limited to Gigabyte mobos), but I’m sure it will grow in time. EFi-X promises the ability to install from a retail Leopard DVD, firmware updates within Mac OS X as well as the ability to install Mac OS X software updates via, well, Software Update.

Every time I run a Mac OS X updater, I fear for my Hackintosh’s well-being. It’s upgraded fine so far and I have my SuperDuper bootable image + Time Machine backup in case things go awry, but it would be nice to be able to update my software like I do on my real Macs.

I’m not sure who the target market is (people that know enough to install Mac OS X on a PC don’t need EFi-X, and people that want a Mac that know nothing of the Hackintosh world will probably buy a real Mac.) I could see enthusiasts building these hassle-free Hackintoshes for their non-technical family/friends or. Whatever the case may be, I decided to be a guinea pig and pick up the EFi-X v2. I’ll let you know when I receive it and will try it on my current Hackintosh (my mobo is not supported) as well as a supported Gigabyte mobo and let you know how it goes.

I’ll leave you with this nugget from the EFi-X US website.

It costs a lot to us, and it costs a lot to you.

EFi-X is selling for $155 +$5 shipping.