I like Apple products, but I’m no fan of the trendy cult of superiority they’ve managed to build around their stuff. Apple fanbois tend to look down on us Windows users as if we’re just lost sheep, who have yet to see the light emanating from Cupertino.

If you’re sick of people judging you by your choice of computer, here’s a way to build a PC that might fool them, if only for a few seconds.

First you need a Lian Li PC-V1200 computer case in silver. Okay, so it’s not a perfect clone, but it certainly gets a healthy slice of the Jonathan Ive/Mac Pro aesthetic. Then you need some emulators to make your desktop look suitably Macish. RK Launcher gets you one of those cool launch bars you see at the bottom of a Mac screen. Then you can go to Cult Of Mac to get some Appley looking desktop icons. Apple centric wallpaper can be found here, and of course you’ll also want to install iTunes, one of the only things Apple actually gives away.

Of course you could also just go out and buy one of the freakin’ things.

Via Unplggd.com

What You Need

A Lian Li Case
RKLauncher
Windows 7/Vista
iTunes
Some pretty icons
A sleek wallpaper

Instructions

1. Grab a Lian Li Case. We’ve searched far and wide and it seems only Taiwanese manufacturer Lian Li knows how to build a sleek and functional PC with similar aesthetic points of a Mac. Silverstone and Antec get points for trying, but they don’t even come close. The Lian Li featured above is the V1200 case. Obviously, you’ll need to plug in all the parts to get it up and booting – we’ll reserve this for another talk and assume you know how to piece together a power supply and a motherboard. Otherwise, consult our build-it article here.

2. Get Vista/Windows 7. The main reason being is that Windows XP doesn’t have drop shadows and requires tons of additional software to get the Mac OSX look. Plus, why are you still on that 10+ year-old OS, grandma?

3. Install iTunes. A no brainer here. If you want the Apple multimedia experience, you’re going to need iTunes.

4. Install RKLauncher. This program pretty much emulates the OSX dock perfectly. It even has that cool minimizing genie effect that we all know and love. Works best with Vista. Compatible with Windows 7.

5. Grab some pretty icons. Mac’s all about the aesthetics… Really. So grab some really awesome Snow Leopard-inspired ones over at CultofMac or one of the millions over at DeviantArt.

6. Move that taskbar up, dock to the bottom. Right click to enable resizing of the taskbar and drag it to the top of your screen. Though this may not emulates the OSX menu bar exactly, it certainly is a convincing look. Launch RKLauncher, make sure its location is at the bottom, and have it run every time windows starts. Customize it using all those pretty icons you’ve downloaded.

7. Wallpapers matter. While Windows 7 does include a few nifty ones, if you’re really trying to match that Apple look, you’ll need something that screams “sleek.” Hongkiat has a great roundup of 60 Mac wallpapers over here.

8. Get crazy! We’re not too big on adding customizable skins all over the place since it’ll start eating up your RAM eventually, but you want to go all out, check out Instructable’s hardcore conversion instructions (lots of programs, lots of skins).

Via Unplggd.com