Hackintosh 10.5.5 Retail Rig - Starting at $305

[sjwaste]

Originally posted by: Kaido

Originally posted by: sjwaste
Are there any technical difficulties/drawbacks by going MBR over GUID?

You can't resize the partition once you've created it with MBR. If you use GUID, you can re-partition any time you want.

Bah, I think I'm just going to keep my 80 gig IDE in there for XP and run OSX off of SATA, using the ol' F12 boot menu

Will there be any issue in OSX with IDE if I just don't install the kext for it (obviously, I lose visibility of that drive, but that's ok)?

 

[mosslack]

Originally posted by: sjwaste

Originally posted by: Kaido

Originally posted by: sjwaste
Are there any technical difficulties/drawbacks by going MBR over GUID?

You can't resize the partition once you've created it with MBR. If you use GUID, you can re-partition any time you want.

Bah, I think I'm just going to keep my 80 gig IDE in there for XP and run OSX off of SATA, using the ol' F12 boot menu

Will there be any issue in OSX with IDE if I just don't install the kext for it (obviously, I lose visibility of that drive, but that's ok)?

I have mine setup this way, trouble is, I have to disable AHCI in the bios if I want to use my DVD burner (SATA), other than that it works well.

 

[Sophie424]

Kaido ... Any chance you can help me setup a 1-click for the Intel BOXDG31PR mATX? If I'm too much of a noob to attempt that just let me know Thanks!

 

[Kaido]

Originally posted by: sjwaste

Originally posted by: Kaido

Originally posted by: sjwaste
Are there any technical difficulties/drawbacks by going MBR over GUID?

You can't resize the partition once you've created it with MBR. If you use GUID, you can re-partition any time you want.

Bah, I think I'm just going to keep my 80 gig IDE in there for XP and run OSX off of SATA, using the ol' F12 boot menu

Will there be any issue in OSX with IDE if I just don't install the kext for it (obviously, I lose visibility of that drive, but that's ok)?

Not 100% sure. I know with the IDE driver, it cause isses. Does it cause issues with IDE enabled without the driver? Don't know.

 

[kalster]

Originally posted by: Kaido

Originally posted by: sjwaste

Originally posted by: Kaido

Originally posted by: sjwaste
Are there any technical difficulties/drawbacks by going MBR over GUID?

You can't resize the partition once you've created it with MBR. If you use GUID, you can re-partition any time you want.

Bah, I think I'm just going to keep my 80 gig IDE in there for XP and run OSX off of SATA, using the ol' F12 boot menu

Will there be any issue in OSX with IDE if I just don't install the kext for it (obviously, I lose visibility of that drive, but that's ok)?

Not 100% sure. I know with the IDE driver, it cause isses. Does it cause issues with IDE enabled without the driver? Don't know.

it should be fine

i have an abit ip35-e with osx on the sata drive and an ide drive connected off the jmicron ata controller on which i have xp, i simply removed/renamed the jmicronata kext file and osx doesnt see the ide drive at all and i use the f12/boot order trick to run windows xp when needed.

 

[mosslack]

For anyone interested, I have installed Windows Vista Ultimate x64 on my P35-DS3L and it does support AHCI and works well to dual boot with Leopard. Just in case you need to have Windows for some silly reason like me.

 

[sourceninja]

This is a great thread. My grandparents need a new computer, so i am going to give them my 'old' linux box (p4 3ghz 2 gigs ram, nvidia 8600) and build myself one of these.

 

[Sophie424]

Originally posted by: mosslack
For anyone interested, I have installed Windows Vista Ultimate x64 on my P35-DS3L and it does support AHCI and works well to dual boot with Leopard. Just in case you need to have Windows for some silly reason like me.

Could you recap your sequence of install / format / etc., including your bootloader, OSX, and XP? Thanks !

 

[sjwaste]

Awesome. Can't wait to see the guide. How's it coming? The later it goes out, the more studying I get done before I start fooling with this project

 

[Ub3rSlug]

Kaido, I'm about to order the GA-EP45-UD3R (sister motherboard to the GA-EP45-UD3P). Is there any downside from trying the GA-EP45-UD3P's kexts/plugins on the UD3R? The two boards share audio/ethernet types, but how much does the DSDT dump effect things? If the plugins/kexts for the GA-EP45-UD3P don't work for the UD3R, I'd be more than happy to help develop the plugin/Dump DSDT as necessary. I'll post back when it all arrives and I've played around with it for a little while.

 

[Zaap]

Originally posted by: mosslack
For anyone interested, I have installed Windows Vista Ultimate x64 on my P35-DS3L and it does support AHCI and works well to dual boot with Leopard. Just in case you need to have Windows for some silly reason like me.

FYI, you can enable AHCI in Windows XP after it's been installed.

Follow the instructions here.

In Step 1 download Intel Matrix Storage Manager (Title 1).

Step 2 isn't explained well for anyone not used to the command line in Windows. Go to start menu and type cmd to bring up the command line. Navigate to the desktop (if you downloaded the IMSM file there) IE: cd desktop, then type the command based on the file name, IE: iata86enu.exe -a


From there it's pretty straight forward.

Edit: This works for ICH9R and ICH10R chipsets. [Don't use for (E)P35 boards, rather use the method posted by sjwaste at the top of pg 33]

 

[Zaap]

Also of interest to dual-booters: I was using Parallels on my machines, but now I've switched to VMWare Fusion 2 because lo and behold it can boot my actual Windows installs as BootCamp virtual machines in OSX. I never knew that was possible on a Hackintosh.

Maybe it's possible in Parallels too, but I could never get it to work. VMware just picked up my Windows install right off and made it a bootcamp VM.

 

[dclive]

I had no problems simply using the existing Chameleon setup with a Dell Inspiron 530 & nVidia 8800GTS/320. Worked great.

 

[mosslack]

Originally posted by: Sophie424

Originally posted by: mosslack
For anyone interested, I have installed Windows Vista Ultimate x64 on my P35-DS3L and it does support AHCI and works well to dual boot with Leopard. Just in case you need to have Windows for some silly reason like me.

Could you recap your sequence of install / format / etc., including your bootloader, OSX, and XP? Thanks !

Actually I'm using 2 separate drives and just using the F12 boot menu to choose which one I want to run. I'm hoping Kaido's guide will have a more eloquent solution.

 

[mosslack]

Originally posted by: Zaap

Originally posted by: mosslack
For anyone interested, I have installed Windows Vista Ultimate x64 on my P35-DS3L and it does support AHCI and works well to dual boot with Leopard. Just in case you need to have Windows for some silly reason like me.

FYI, you can enable AHCI in Windows XP after it's been installed.

Follow the instructions here.

In Step 1 download Intel Matrix Storage Manager (Title 1).

Step 2 isn't explained well for anyone not used to the command line in Windows. Go to start menu and type cmd to bring up the command line. Navigate to the desktop (if you downloaded the IMSM file there) IE: cd desktop, then type the command based on the file name, IE: iata86enu.exe -a


From there it's pretty straight forward.

This works for ICH9 and ICH10R chipsets.

I still have XP Pro on another drive so I may give this a shot, thanks Zapp

 

[sjwaste]

Actually, that guide didn't entirely work for me b/c I have the ICH9, not ICH9R.

I followed this guide:

http://www.msfn.org/board/enab...l-ICH9-XP-t109450.html

And it worked. Although in the newer version of Intel Matrix Storage Manager, the line in the INF file that you modify will be the ICH8R line, not what it says in the guide. I currently don't have any SATA drives, but ran through this to enable it just so there werent surprises when my SATA drives come tomorrow. My XP install will remain on the IDE disk, so I'm not sure if I had to do it.

 

[Zaap]

Whoops- you're right sjwaste.

Use that guide rather than the one I posted, if you have the P35 board.

The guide I posted works with ICH9(R) and ICH10(R). (I used it for my own EP45-DQ6 and EP35-DS4 boards)

 

[randomlinh]

Kaido, you making any major updates to your hardware list for December? I've bitten the bullet and will order tonight if I can.. just ordered the dell 2408 + 30% live cashback to kick things off, haha. I plan on going quad-core I think. my target applications are lightroom and photoshop... and virtualization of a small windows box maybe to stream stuff to the ps3 (mac tools just aren't happy with me).

 

[Kaido]

Originally posted by: randomlinh
Kaido, you making any major updates to your hardware list for December? I've bitten the bullet and will order tonight if I can.. just ordered the dell 2408 + 30% live cashback to kick things off, haha. I plan on going quad-core I think. my target applications are lightroom and photoshop... and virtualization of a small windows box maybe to stream stuff to the ps3 (mac tools just aren't happy with me).

Nothing major - the E5200 will be the new default chip ($82). Eventually I wil start recommending the UD3P for higher-end builds (8 USB, 8 SATA, 16gb RAM, dual 16x PCIe, Onboard Firewire) once I get the driver package finished for it. Q6600 for Quad if you're on a budget, Q9550 if you have a little more cash to burn. I've actually added 2 more configurations for 6 recipes total (Budget, Desktop, Gaming, Video Editing, Workstation, and Media Center).

 

[Kaido]

1-Click Installer updated:

+ Now supports more than 55 Video Cards OTB
+ More Quadros supported (3500, 4500, 5500, and of course the 5600)
+ 9800 GTX supported for Gamers
+ Plugin Downloader added (hooks up to Plugin Respository for browsing)
+ Custom Boot Resolution fields added

Guide currently stands at 50 pages. I'm about 2/3 done. Inching closer

 

[Kaido]

Originally posted by: Zaap
Whoops- you're right sjwaste.

Use that guide rather than the one I posted, if you have the P35 board.

The guide I posted works with ICH9(R) and ICH10(R). (I used it for my own EP45-DQ6 and EP35-DS4 boards)

A Plugin Downloader has been added to the 1-Click App. We'll get your DQ6 and DS4 boards added in December

 

[swilso]

Good work Kaido. I am looking forward to giving osx a clean slate.
I have noticed more so lately leopard gives me excessive wheel spins (like the loading a program/from HDD wheel spin you see the cursor turn into) than it use to, and more than my lower spec'd macbook. They are generally at random - like saving things from firefox, loading word, using time machine, sometimes just loading up a webpage I will get a wheel spin for about 5-10 seconds (and leopard freezes while it does it, can't click the apple symbol the dock doesn't magnify with cursor over it e.t.c.) but then once the wheel spin has gone it is fine again .... :-S

 

[randomlinh]

Originally posted by: Kaido

Originally posted by: randomlinh
Kaido, you making any major updates to your hardware list for December? I've bitten the bullet and will order tonight if I can.. just ordered the dell 2408 + 30% live cashback to kick things off, haha. I plan on going quad-core I think. my target applications are lightroom and photoshop... and virtualization of a small windows box maybe to stream stuff to the ps3 (mac tools just aren't happy with me).

Nothing major - the E5200 will be the new default chip ($82). Eventually I wil start recommending the UD3P for higher-end builds (8 USB, 8 SATA, 16gb RAM, dual 16x PCIe, Onboard Firewire) once I get the driver package finished for it. Q6600 for Quad if you're on a budget, Q9550 if you have a little more cash to burn. I've actually added 2 more configurations for 6 recipes total (Budget, Desktop, Gaming, Video Editing, Workstation, and Media Center).

glad I asked, heh, 16GB of ram and onboard firewire are huge pluses. kinda hurts on cost.. but you're talking about the GIGABYTE GA-EP45-UD3P right? I always am ready to buy at the wrong times, haha... a little reluctant to order it tonight if the drivers aren't ready.

Also, is a 10.5.0 retail disc ok to use? It's all I have (and I think it's all I get from my university).

 

[swilso]

Originally posted by: randomlinh

Originally posted by: Kaido

Originally posted by: randomlinh
Kaido, you making any major updates to your hardware list for December? I've bitten the bullet and will order tonight if I can.. just ordered the dell 2408 + 30% live cashback to kick things off, haha. I plan on going quad-core I think. my target applications are lightroom and photoshop... and virtualization of a small windows box maybe to stream stuff to the ps3 (mac tools just aren't happy with me).

Nothing major - the E5200 will be the new default chip ($82). Eventually I wil start recommending the UD3P for higher-end builds (8 USB, 8 SATA, 16gb RAM, dual 16x PCIe, Onboard Firewire) once I get the driver package finished for it. Q6600 for Quad if you're on a budget, Q9550 if you have a little more cash to burn. I've actually added 2 more configurations for 6 recipes total (Budget, Desktop, Gaming, Video Editing, Workstation, and Media Center).

glad I asked, heh, 16GB of ram and onboard firewire are huge pluses. kinda hurts on cost.. but you're talking about the GIGABYTE GA-EP45-UD3P right? I always am ready to buy at the wrong times, haha... a little reluctant to order it tonight if the drivers aren't ready.

Also, is a 10.5.0 retail disc ok to use? It's all I have (and I think it's all I get from my university).

I use a 10.5.0 retail disc and it works fine. Only issue I had was my WL-138G V2 PCI wireless card didn't work in 10.5.0 but then once i updated to 10.5.5 it worked fine.

 

[Kaido]

Originally posted by: randomlinh

Originally posted by: Kaido

Originally posted by: randomlinh
Kaido, you making any major updates to your hardware list for December? I've bitten the bullet and will order tonight if I can.. just ordered the dell 2408 + 30% live cashback to kick things off, haha. I plan on going quad-core I think. my target applications are lightroom and photoshop... and virtualization of a small windows box maybe to stream stuff to the ps3 (mac tools just aren't happy with me).

Nothing major - the E5200 will be the new default chip ($82). Eventually I wil start recommending the UD3P for higher-end builds (8 USB, 8 SATA, 16gb RAM, dual 16x PCIe, Onboard Firewire) once I get the driver package finished for it. Q6600 for Quad if you're on a budget, Q9550 if you have a little more cash to burn. I've actually added 2 more configurations for 6 recipes total (Budget, Desktop, Gaming, Video Editing, Workstation, and Media Center).

glad I asked, heh, 16GB of ram and onboard firewire are huge pluses. kinda hurts on cost.. but you're talking about the GIGABYTE GA-EP45-UD3P right? I always am ready to buy at the wrong times, haha... a little reluctant to order it tonight if the drivers aren't ready.

Also, is a 10.5.0 retail disc ok to use? It's all I have (and I think it's all I get from my university).

10.5.0 is great

UD3P is $99 AR, only $20 more than the DS3L. The DS3L is still fantastic, the UD3P just adds a few more features for power users. I'd say splurge if you plan on upgrading later. 8gb is currently in the sweet spot at less than $100, but 16gb should come down soon enough ($450 on Newegg).