Psystar's Open Computer arrives at CNET

The Open Computer has landed at CNET Networks.

My colleagues over at CNET Reviews in New York have managed to get their hands on a review unit of Psystar's Open Computer, and they've got all sorts of pictures to share. For those of you who just woke up, Psystar is selling computers with Mac OS X Leopard as a preinstallation option, which is not part of an official program run by Apple and involves the use of some trickeration in order to get things up and running.

Click here for an unboxing video, or here for a slideshow. Rich Brown of CNET Reviews says he'll have a formal review of the Open Computer up this evening, so make sure to check back for that as well.

All sorts of questions about Psystar's legitimacy arose about the company after it was inundated with orders, forcing its Web site offline and causing its initial payment provider to cut ties with the company. But the kinks appear to have been worked out.

I ordered an Open Computer as just a regular customer, not as a reviewer, and received a call this morning from Psystar that my order is ready to ship if I was willing to switch to a black case. Apparently the white cases are in heavy demand; there would have been a 10-day back order if I wanted to keep the white case.

And now that the lingering doubts appear to have been satisfied, we can start to focus on the real question: What sort of legal issues is Psystar going to encounter down the road, and how exactly is Apple going to handle that?