Hackintosh 10.5.5 Retail Rig - Starting at $305

[scootermaster]

Originally posted by: Kaido

Originally posted by: Jack Flash
Just wanted to chime in that three months later I am still so happy with my decision to sell off my iMac and build my Hackintosh. Thanks again to Kaido! Without him I'd never had done it.

Now, I wanted to know if there's a natively working 802.11b/g/n WiFi adapter. Don't want to use Ralink's utility, though it does work.

On eBay, there's a PCI card that has a Mini-PCI card (or PCIe?) inside. You can use either a Dell 1505 or Apple Airport card in it. It's plug-and-play for 802.11n.

Glad to hear your system is working out for you

*cough* Bluetooth? *cough*.

And does anyone wanna buy my DS3L?

 

[fyleow]

..

 

[Zaap]

Interesting thing today: as is my routine for people I build systems for, I checked up on 12 people I've built Hackintoshes for in the past year. I called to ask how things are going. In all 12 cases- all the machines are plugging away just fine for happy owners, with no real problems. Several people I need to help update to 10.5.7 from 10.5.6, but other than that, no major issues. This with a range of machines from DS3L, DS4, UD3P, ES2L, DQ6 and some Intel-based machines. Many built with Kaido's guides. Tomorrow I hope to talk to about eight more people, and I expect the results will be the same. Everyone I build for I set up with a dual-install backup strategy, and give a basic "Hackintosh manual" (dos and don'ts gone over here a gazillion times) that when adhered to means virtually trouble-free use.

Bottom line: Today talking to so many non-techie but still happy Hackintosh owners really confirmed for me my belief in: stick with the right hardware, use great guides like Kaido's, know the 'rules' of OSx86 in general, and a Hackintosh is as reliable as any real Mac.

 

[Kaido]

Originally posted by: Zaap
Interesting thing today: as is my routine for people I build systems for, I checked up on 12 people I've built Hackintoshes for in the past year. I called to ask how things are going. In all 12 cases- all the machines are plugging away just fine for happy owners, with no real problems. Several people I need to help update to 10.5.7 from 10.5.6, but other than that, no major issues. This with a range of machines from DS3L, DS4, UD3P, ES2L, DQ6 and some Intel-based machines. Many built with Kaido's guides. Tomorrow I hope to talk to about eight more people, and I expect the results will be the same. Everyone I build for I set up with a dual-install backup strategy, and give a basic "Hackintosh manual" (dos and don'ts gone over here a gazillion times) that when adhered to means virtually trouble-free use.

Bottom line: Today talking to so many non-techie but still happy Hackintosh owners really confirmed for me my belief in: stick with the right hardware, use great guides like Kaido's, know the 'rules' of OSx86 in general, and a Hackintosh is as reliable as any real Mac.

Muhahahaha :evil:

I mean, great!

 

[Sophie424]

I have 2 disk drives in my Hack, the second is purely for (scheduled SuperDuper) backups.

If I eject that drive manually (right click in Finder), SuperDuper mounts it just before running the backup.

Is there a reliable way to automatically unmount + eject that second drive when I boot up, so it stays spun down until SuperDuper needs it?

Thanks.

 

[idlehands]

I'm getting ready to pull the trigger on a hack with the following hardware:
mobo: udp3
video: 7200gs
cpu: e5200
ram:8gb

because my current amd64 3000+/XP is just way over worked. I used to do some video editing, but now that I torrent a ton with that system, and also use it to media server to a TVIX6500 that is my only source of video(no cable/dish etc) for the home TV, its barely usable for surfing the web.

My question is, how are those stats for running final/cut and/or preimeire pro and ripping video from camcorders(8mm digital vid) over fire wire?

I plan on moving the media serving and torrenting to the amd system after I get some more $ for a case etc, so the torrenting and media streaming/nas duties will eventually be migrated off of the hackintosh.

 

[BTRY B 529th FA BN]

I'd go for a quad

 

[Kaido]

Originally posted by: Sophie424
I have 2 disk drives in my Hack, the second is purely for (scheduled SuperDuper) backups.

If I eject that drive manually (right click in Finder), SuperDuper mounts it just before running the backup.

Is there a reliable way to automatically unmount + eject that second drive when I boot up, so it stays spun down until SuperDuper needs it?

Thanks.

Not that I've found...I tried using Automator to eject at boot, but it auto-mounts when you wake from sleep. You can setup another script for that if you want...meh, it's kind of messy

 

[unixfan]

Kaido et al:

I have onboard audio working on the Gigabyte G41M-ES2L IC7 with ALC888B.


Let me be clear about what "working" means here:
1. Sound comes out of the rear audio jack.
2. Zeppelin on youtube video sounds better than ever,
3. An mp3 of Pink Floyd's Welcome to the Machine sounds clean and the stereo tracks have the expected separation.

For some reason, my front jack isn't working, but I have to double check my mobo wiring. I'm just elated about the onboard audio working as well is it is.


I'm using the VoodooHDA found here:
http://code.google.com/p/voodoohda/

sudo kextstat| grep -i hda
74 0 0x54866000 0x22000 0x21000 org.voodoo.driver.VoodooHDA (0.2.1) <66 17 12 7 6 5 4 2>

I would like to contribute to the community. If you or others would like me to query my system configuration just let me know and I will be happy to respond.


This is an ALC888B IC7 board with an E8400 CPU. I gambled after reading these threads that it was close enough to the G31M-ES2L in your excellent guide. My aim was to do a proof of concept for my video editing son (uses Sony Vegas Pro but Aunt bought him Final Cut Express), who is eager to leave Windows behind. If it works, the next step would be the same mobo with a quad core for him. I intend to make this hackintosh my main rig.

RAm cost me $40, mobo + CPU combo was $215 special. AT this point the Family pack OS License becomes attractive.

Reused parts from other house computers:
DVD, HDD, monitor, Kbd, Mouse, Video card.

Other aspects:
4GB RAM,
500GB SATA HD
DVD-rom on IDE bus
NVIDIA QUADRO 540 FX Video

The hardest thing to get used to? The copy/paste keys, i.e.,
WindowsC = the new AppleC

 

[Zaap]

Originally posted by: idlehands

My question is, how are those stats for running final/cut and/or preimeire pro and ripping video from camcorders(8mm digital vid) over fire wire?

It'll work, but for video editing with FinalCut, I'd consider a beefier processor. You'll get a lot more performance benefit out of that, than you will just the 8GB of RAM. Final Cut is only a 32-bit app and won't address but so much RAM anyway- but a beefier processor and GPU will definitely make a difference.

Check out the E6300 for around $90. I love this chip. It's essentially a $120 Core2Duo E7400 with 1MB less cache. It runs at the full 1066Mhz system bus, and supports VT. (The entry-level C2D's don't have VT support).

Or you could go quad (the most benefit will probably be seen in Snow Leopard rather than current Leopard). I'd recommend the Q8400 (about $170) 3.0Ghz stock, O/C to 4.0Ghz, and VT support. The Q9550 is also fantastic at about $220- basically double the L2 Cache.

The 7200GS is a little anemic for Final Cut. Unless it's practically free, you can do a lot better with a 7300GT for $26 with 128-bit GDDR3, vs. 64-bit GDDR2. Shaving off a few dimes on price doesn't mean much when the stats are practically halved.

Better still, the 8600GT.

 

[Zaap]

Originally posted by: unixfan
Kaido et al:

I have onboard audio working on the Gigabyte G41M-ES2L IC7 with ALC888B.

Nice find! Audio was the one thing I wasn't able to get working on mine- but I've thus far been more than happy with USB audio. Still nice to know this board can be made to work 100%.

Now if only there was a supply of cheap 4GB sticks of DDR2 to take these babies up to 8GB's cost-effectively. Ahh well.

 

[Kaido]

Originally posted by: tbooth

Originally posted by: Kaido
Need Bluetooth?

http://tinyurl.com/6oxc95

-$2.50 shipped
-Class 1
-Natively supported (shows up in Menubar)
-No drivers needed!

I ordered one of these and my hack doesn't recognize it at all. It works fine in Windows though. Anyone else having a problem with these?

You missed the note a mile or two back in the thread! They updated the BT chip in those for the last shipment - they'll stop your hack from booting up to OS X! I ordered 4

 

[idlehands]

Originally posted by: Zaap

Originally posted by: idlehands

My question is, how are those stats for running final/cut and/or preimeire pro and ripping video from camcorders(8mm digital vid) over fire wire?

Better still, the 8600GT.

Is the 8600GT fully supported? On leopard soup it sounds like its not 100% stable

 

[Kaido]

Originally posted by: fyleow

Originally posted by: scootermaster

Originally posted by: fyleow
Use this dongle for bluetooth. It works fine for my Apple wireless keyboard and it was plug and play.

http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.11825

Backordered. Anywhere else to get this one? Any others that'll work?

This appears to be the same thing, except in white instead of black.

http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.17777

I just ordered one of each, I'll report back with results when I get them!

 

[Zaap]

Originally posted by: idlehands
Is the 8600GT fully supported? On leopard soup it sounds like its not 100% stable

I'm curious what that's all about. No problems with any 8600GT I've ever used. In fact, I'd say the 8600GTS model is hands down the best budget card for Hackintosh you can get- the performance is close to the old 8800GT, at less than half the price. The GT version isn't quite as good, but it certainly works for OSX. I'm not sure what is "less than 100% stable", but I've never had a problem with it. My HTPC currently runs with an eVGA 8600GT (dual DVI) just fine.

The only 'issue' I've ever noticed with the 8600GT (not the GTS) is that dual DVI monitors are not supported in OSX (at least with the model card I have)- the 2nd DVI port needs to be adapted to VGA then dual monitors works just fine. The GTS version has no such problem. Also the card I linked to has DVI +VGA so the 'problem' is irrelevant.

 

[Sophie424]

If you don't use Sleep, this script may be a useful addition to your Login Items. It keeps my disks spun down on my backup drives (they auto-mount when its time for backup, then unmount again). Just edit the first line. I also did Save As an application from Script Editor.

===============

set disks_to_unmount to {"Backup_A", "Backup_B"}

repeat with disk_name in disks_to_unmount
set disk_path to "/Volumes/" & disk_name
tell application "Finder"
if (exists disk disk_name) then
try
do shell script "diskutil eject " & quoted form of disk_path & " > /dev/null &"
end try
end if
end tell
end repeat

 

[Kaido]

Originally posted by: Sophie424
If you don't use Sleep, this script may be a useful addition to your Login Items. It keeps my disks spun down on my backup drives (they auto-mount when its time for backup, then unmount again). Just edit the first line. I also did Save As an application from Script Editor.

===============

set disks_to_unmount to {"Backup_A", "Backup_B"}

repeat with disk_name in disks_to_unmount
set disk_path to "/Volumes/" & disk_name
tell application "Finder"
if (exists disk disk_name) then
try
do shell script "diskutil eject " & quoted form of disk_path & " > /dev/null &"
end try
end if
end tell
end repeat

Excellent! For Sleep, check out Sleepwatcher - it lets you add scripts to execute in relation to sleep, idleness, etc:

http://www.bernhard-baehr.de/

 

[negatv]

Is the 8600GT fully supported? On leopard soup it sounds like its not 100% stable

I'm running a 256mb 8600GT (I believe it's an XFX?), and using both DVI ports to drive dual monitors at 1920x1200, and seems stable to me. 'uptime' agrees with me.

 

[idlehands]

Originally posted by: negatv

Is the 8600GT fully supported? On leopard soup it sounds like its not 100% stable

I'm running a 256mb 8600GT (I believe it's an XFX?), and using both DVI ports to drive dual monitors at 1920x1200, and seems stable to me. 'uptime' agrees with me.

I'll then assume the 8600gt info in the wiki is old, and it doesn't randomly wink out.
Thanks!

 

[Sophie424]

Originally posted by: Kaido
Excellent! For Sleep, check out Sleepwatcher

If only I could get sleep to work properly, I certainly would ...

 

[Sophie424]

Anyone happily using a BT Headset + dongle on a hack? Which ones?

 

[excalibur3]

Just so you know, hard drives are supposed to have a few parts that rattle around when you shake it. I obviously didn't hear it, if you didn't suspect anything otherwise, (ie the box wasn't damaged) it might be okay.

 

[renderingrocks]

My machine is running great on 10.5.7. Its a UD3P, Q6600, 7200GS, 8 GB. My wife buys the kids some windows only games, she should know better as we are a mac family. So I added another hard drive and attempted to install XP. Upon booting from the CD, I get a STOP error, 7B this indicates that you left out a critical boot device.
I tried a PATA and a SATA drive, (the SATA drives are fine on 10.5) removed memory down to 2 GB, still no success. I rarely use any windows machines and have limited knowledge on troubleshooting these things. Has anyone had this problem with this hardware and bios set up? The hardware must be OK, mac os sees them and reads and writes to them ok.

Sad part is these components are 'designed' for a windows desktop yet the hackintosh loaded and ran fine without a hitch!

 

[Kaido]

Originally posted by: renderingrocks
My machine is running great on 10.5.7. Its a UD3P, Q6600, 7200GS, 8 GB. My wife buys the kids some windows only games, she should know better as we are a mac family. So I added another hard drive and attempted to install XP. Upon booting from the CD, I get a STOP error, 7B this indicates that you left out a critical boot device.
I tried a PATA and a SATA drive, (the SATA drives are fine on 10.5) removed memory down to 2 GB, still no success. I rarely use any windows machines and have limited knowledge on troubleshooting these things. Has anyone had this problem with this hardware and bios set up? The hardware must be OK, mac os sees them and reads and writes to them ok.

Sad part is these components are 'designed' for a windows desktop yet the hackintosh loaded and ran fine without a hitch!

Disable AHCI in BIOS.

 

[renderingrocks]

thanks, I will try it.

Will it affect the hackintosh experience?