A Miami, Florida PC maker, PsyStar, started shipping Mac clones called OpenMac. The machines cost $400 and boast a 2.2GHz Intel Core 2 Duo E4500 Processor, 2GB of DDR2 667 memory, onboard Intel GMA 950 Graphics, a 20x DVD+/-R SATA drive that is Lightscribe-capable, a 250GB 7200RPM hard drive and is capable of running unmodified OS X Leopard kernels. All is packed in an Asus TM-211 white computer case.

There is also an option to buy the machine with Leopard preinstalled, which also gives you the actual Leopard retail box with genuine installation disc and an additional Psystar restore disc to get your OpenMac back from the dead quickly if your software breaks down.

There are options such as a powerful NVIDIA GeForce 8600GT video card for $110 (which you could also add yourself from another source) and FireWire, which is a little costly at $50, considering you can find FireWire add-on cards for like $15.

The Psystar's offer is quite good, but there are a few catches. Apple is bound to do something to prevent Psystar from succeeding (their website is already down, cause still unknown). One of the problems is that the EULA for Leopard, which is legally challenged in itself, states that you cannot run the Apple Software on any non-Apple-labeled computer, or to enable others to do so.

Also, you probably will not be able to run updates. The Psystar website read (before it came down):

Can I run updates on my OpenMac?

The answer is yes and no. No because there are some updates that are decidedly non-safe. Yes because most updates are not non-safe. It's best to check on InsanelyMac for this information but when in doubt don't update it. You may have to reinstall your OS X if it is a non-safe update.

There are Leopard hacks which make it run on non-Apple PC hardware. The so-called OSx86 hacks are already popular on the Internet. To run on a normal PC, the first thing Leopard needs is an Extensible Firmware Interface (EFI) hack or emulator. This means that a Leopard-compatible firmware must be installed on the motherboard or an emulator must be used. Psystar uses the EFI V8 emulator.

So what Psystar really offers is just standard PC hardware, chosen to closely match whatever Apple is putting in its machines, at a fraction of the price. In addition, the EFI emulator is provided to enable running OS X.