The Hackintosh 101 Thread

[KeypoX]

Originally posted by: rikadik
Hey up guys, I'm about to put together a system purely to hackintosh! I've been doing quite a bit of reading recently and have decided I have the time and patience to give it a go and do some tinkering, and not worry about wasting a few £££ in the process if it all goes horribly wrong! I think I've pieced together an ideal system based on my requirements:

Antec Sonata III Piano Black Quiet Mid Tower Case - With 500W EarthWatts PSU
Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3L Rev 2.0
Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600
Corsair XMS2 4GB Kit (2x2GB) DDR2 800MHz/PC2-6400
MSI 8600GTS Heatpipe Edition 256MB DVI HDTV PCI-E Graphics Card
Samsung SpinPoint F1 HD103UJ 1TB Hard Drive SATAII *32MB Cache*

I plan to use the GA-P35-DS3L guide recommended by Kaido to help me on this exciting quest.

Two questions:
My research would suggest that the MSI 8600GTS heatpipe 256mb card (passively cooled) will probably work, but does someone with a better idea of things think this is a safe (ish) bet? I require a silent card with dual-dvi, this seems to be a good buy at £39.99. With this being my first build would it be better to start with something safer GPU wise (e.g. vanilla 7300GT)?

Secondly, how can I tell when ordering online if I'm getting a Rev 2.0 DS3L... it doesn't always say, is there something in the speclist that can help me identify this?

Thanks in advance for any tips or advice!

Here you go http://cgi.ebay.com/BRAND-NEW-...8&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14

you can use the 30% off for that ebay too. Get that board for $53 shipped!

I think the 8600gts should work check insanelymac im not sure.

 

[rikadik]

Originally posted by: KeypoX
Here you go http://cgi.ebay.com/BRAND-NEW-...8&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14

you can use the 30% off for that ebay too. Get that board for $53 shipped!

I think the 8600gts should work check insanelymac im not sure.

Ahh cheers for the link but unfortunately I'm in the UK and don't fancy getting a motherboard off eBay shipped across the Atlantic!

Yeah I've searched insanelymac for the 8600GTS it seems a few people seem to have it in their rigs but theres no specific mention in the hardware compatibility list or any discussion about it...

 

[Kaido]

If you have a P35 or EP35 DS3L and would like to try out a new system, please PM me. You will need access to Windows (XP or Vista, PC or VM), a USB stick, and a copy of Leopard (Retail - image or DVD), as well as a blank hard drive for installation.

 

[Gooberlx2]

Just thought I'd chime in and say that those who own recent HP Pavilion Elites are likely in luck. This guide goes through the steps.

I've had success installing on my system after a change/mod of my bios. The only things not working (yet) is my wireless, TV tuner (not likely), and the USB mouse/keyboard would not wake up from sleep. I haven't tested the firewire yet, but it shows up correctly in the system profile. Also the card reader, but I think that might be because my internal USB headers are flaking out.

HP Pavilion Elite m9077c.

 

[Kmax82]

I know this question keeps getting asked ad infinitum, but how's this build?

GIGABYTE GA-EP45-DS3L LGA 775 Intel P45 ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail
Intel Core 2 Duo E7200 Wolfdale 2.53GHz LGA 775 65W Dual-Core Processor Model BX80571E7200 - Retail
Rosewill R103A Black SGCC Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case 350W Power Supply - Retail
HITACHI Deskstar T7K500 HDT725032VLA360 (0A33435) 320GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM
LITE-ON 20X DVD±R DVD Burner With 12X DVD-RAM Write Black SATA Model LH-20A1S - Retail
G.SKILL 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model F2-6400CL5D-2GBNQ - Retail

From what I can tell, that will be a good setup, so I'm mainly concerned about whether to go ATI or nVidia. I personally have always liked ATI cards, but I think I'm leaning toward a cheap 7300GT to keep the cost as close to $400 as possible.

 

[Kaido]

Airport card for $40:

http://cgi.ebay.com/Dell-Wirel...93892674QQcmdZViewItem

802.11n PCIe, shows up as an Airport card natively. You can also pop off the chip and use it in a laptop, such as the MSI Wind.

 

[Sophie424]

Originally posted by: Zaap
Intel DG31PR
Fully compatible- just the on board VGA doesn't support QE/CI, so use a supported PCIe card. Tricky wolfdale only after BIOS update using a 65nm processor.

I just got this board, with a 45nm Wolfdale. http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16819115052 Have not updated BIOS. What would you recommend I do?

Thanks!

 

[mshan]

Buy an used Celeron Conroe-L to do update, then resell or keep (I've got a Celeron 440 and it is an awesome little processor; I upgraded to e7200 and going to put the Celeron 440 into a Shuttle Windows box eventually).

http://processormatch.intel.co....aspx?Boardname=dg31pr

 

[Sophie424]

It actually boots up OK with the Wolfdale. I have OSX installed from retail following http://menoob.com/2008/09/04/h...-x-retail-dvd-on-a-pc/, but shutdown sometimes fail, sleep does not work.

Should I still do the bios update? I'm a bit of a newbie with bios ... can I make a bootable USB stick, boot off it, and update bios off it? With the Wolfdale in?

Thanks!

 

[mshan]

Check your BIOS and see what voltage the board is feeding to the cpu.

Do at your own risk, but I would recommend BIOS update so mobo feeds proper voltage, etc.

Sleep works fine for me, but when I try and wake from sleep, I get four beeps, then computer restarts as from cold boot.

You can always just do an unactivated Windows install to make sure everything is fine before playing around with Hackintosh.

(I still recommend getting a Celeron Conroe-L - should be $25 - $30 shipped in For Sale Forum, it's an awesome little cpu and only pulls 35W - and doing BIOS update that way. I would also make sure you aren't frying your e7200 right now because mobo doesn't correctly recognize your cpu).

 

[StinkyPinky]

Mine works perfectly apart from one thing. The keyboard! It goes crazy after a few minutes of use and just keeps typing the same key over and over again. Like it's stuck. It does this on both USB and PS/2 keyboards. Weird.

 

[Sophie424]

Thanks, mshan.

Bios shows VCore = 1.20 V
CPU temperature 31, MB temperature 79.
Bios version = PRG3110H.86A.0052.2008.0612.1910

Is that OK? Am I current?

If you think further Bios upgrade might fix Shut Down problems, I'll go ahead with it; otherwise tempted to leave it alone

 

[mshan]

I believe you already have BIOS 52, which supports the e7200 (I think BIOS 53 was mainly released for e5200).

My mobo shipped with 0028 and I updated to 0052.

And personally, I would leave good enough alone (I don't think sleep works on this mobo, but you can also PM zaap as he has built multiple systems using this mobo).

 

[Zaap]

Originally posted by: Sophie424
It actually boots up OK with the Wolfdale. I have OSX installed from retail following http://menoob.com/2008/09/04/h...-x-retail-dvd-on-a-pc/, but shutdown sometimes fail, sleep does not work.

Should I still do the bios update? I'm a bit of a newbie with bios ... can I make a bootable USB stick, boot off it, and update bios off it? With the Wolfdale in?

Thanks!

It looks like they are finally shipping these boards with the updated BIOS allowing 45nm out of box. That definitely wasn't the case up until very recently, as all of these boards I've bought had the older BIOS that needed updating. You should be fine leaving the BIOS as it is.

As for sleep and shutdown- that seems entirely dependent on the install method. Using Kalyway and Leo4Allv2, sleep and shutdown are reported to work perfectly on the hardware list from insanelymac.

Installs I've done using Leo4Allv3- sleep didn't work, but shutdown has always worked perfectly. I've only used 65nm processors with this board.

Using the Boot -132/ Chameleon retail install method you linked to, did you try the shutdown fix from that page?

Also, Kaido solved the sleep issue (and at the same time LogMein support) on a system of mine using a different motherboard by pointing me to an SMBIOS update. It enabled sleep on my system (the system profiler reads as an iMac) but keep in mind it also wasn't a retail install, and I've never tried it with a retail install, or with the DG31PR.

You might give it a try:

http://my.macdotnub.info/content/view/22/26/

 

[Kaido]

There's a DSDT patcher available now:

http://forum.insanelymac.com/index.php?showtopic=133683

Needed for 10.5.6. Hopefully coming in an integrated Universal Bootloader soon

 

[Kaido]

Wow, Core i7 benchmarks in:

http://www.engadget.com/2008/1...me-look-like-a-washed/

Intel may not be able to name their processors very well, but man do their performance numbers speak well

 

[Kaido]

I was throwing around ideas for a dual-CPU Hackintosh, but after some price comparisons it's almost 1:1. The Intel Skulltrail board is compatible with Hackintosh:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16813121330

Some threads about it:

http://forum.insanelymac.com/index.php?showtopic=102288

http://forum.insanelymac.com/i...ic=96886&st=0&p=798785

http://forum.insanelymac.com/i...2913&showtopic=117222#

It's somewhat cost-effective if you're building a low-end duallie (like 2.0ghz Quad Xeon chips for $220ish a pop, ~$2100), but still..you could build a 3ghz Single Quad for about a third the cost. It was almost 1:1 when I was price shopping for the DP 2.8ghz Hack vs. the DP 2.8ghz Mac Pro.

Conclusion? Building a Dual-Processor Hackintosh is not cost effective. A Quad-CPU rig, on the other hand...

Edit: Looks like some Xeons are VERY overclockable, with some people getting 3.6 - 3.8ghz from a 2.66ghz > $400 chip. Hmm...

Edit 2: Looks like FB-DIMMs are terrible at overclocking. Only good for single-CPU boards. Oye.

 

[Kaido]

News from Netkas:

http://netkas.org/?p=73

"pc_efi v9 with hibernate, x64, and snow leopard support will be released soon"

:shocked:

 

[intogamer]

How do I know which kernel to select for Kalaway.. I have an Infinity 975X board

 

[Kaido]

Did some more research...a Dual-Processor system IS cost effective if you're building a low-end DP rig or a DP rig for overclocking. Here's a build list, mostly off Newegg: (don't forget to use Live Cashback for some small savings)

Guts: $381
Nocro RPC-470 CEB-sized 4U Rackmount Case ($75)
PC Power & Cooling 860w EPS PSU ($260)
120mm Scythe Fan (2 x $15 = $30)
80mm Vantec Fan (2 x $8 = $16)

Core: $1400
Asus Z7S WS Xeon DP board ($470)
Intel Xeon 2.5ghz E5420 Harpertown CPU (2 x $335 = $670)
2gb DDR-800 FB-DIMM (4 x $65 = $260)

So $1781 - just add cards & drives. For overclocking, there are a number of options, but expect to add $100 - $150 for two heatsinks, a pair of fans, and some Arctic Silver 5 thermal paste. Although you can put up to 24 gigs of RAM on this board, you shouldn't use any DIMMs over 2gb in size each for overclocking according to some overclockers over at Xtreme systems. So that means no 16gb if you want to OC. But, you can get the 2.5ghz up to 3.0 - 3.2ghz and the higher-end chips up to 3.8ghz. So you can build yourself a 3.2ghz Octo Mac Pro for $2,000 with overclocking. Nice! Here's a good all-around card, especially good for Final Cut Studio, stuff like Motion etc.:

512mb Sapphire ATI HD 3870 video card ($95)

 

[QurazyQuisp]

What is considered the best board as of right now? I currently have the ASUS P5W-DH Deluxe, however I think I'm going to go for a new one as this one has a terribly slow boot time. (Not getting to the os, but running through the bios)

I'm also considering going to a quadcore (probably q6600) and getting another 4 gigs of ram.

 

[Kaido]

Originally posted by: QurazyQuisp
What is considered the best board as of right now? I currently have the ASUS P5W-DH Deluxe, however I think I'm going to go for a new one as this one has a terribly slow boot time. (Not getting to the os, but running through the bios)

I'm also considering going to a quadcore (probably q6600) and getting another 4 gigs of ram.

"Best board" really just depends on what you're willing to research. For example, you can take the spoon-fed route and follow my guide for the Gigabyte DS3L here:

http://forums.anandtech.com/me...id=81&threadid=2242545

It really depends on what your ultimate goal is. Hackintosh is a hobby, unless you find a good guide with good software and follow it. I've tried to do that with the DS3L board. I originally made my guide to help me install Leopard on other DS3L board I owned and then made it public to help identify and fix bugs. It's a pretty good system now and works well. Now I can quit the "hobby" aspect and just enjoy my "Mac on PC" system

 

[Zaap]

Originally posted by: QurazyQuisp
this one has a terribly slow boot time. (Not getting to the os, but running through the bios)

Try turning off fan-monitoring in the BIOS. (under PC Health)

 

[Kaido]

Added to my "future OSx86 projects" list:

http://www.engadget.com/2008/1...ren-and-product-waifs/

Asus EEE Top - 15" iMac clone with touchscreen for under $600 USD. Runs an Atom chip, has a webcam, touchscren, speakers, multitude of jacks - I can think of sooooo many projects for this beast!

 

[Kaido]

Originally posted by: Kaido
Wow, Core i7 benchmarks in:

http://www.engadget.com/2008/1...me-look-like-a-washed/

Intel may not be able to name their processors very well, but man do their performance numbers speak well

Gentlemen, set your phasers from stun...to kill:

http://www.engadget.com/2008/1...hine-benchmarked-yeah/

Dual-Processor Nehalem board with 24 gigs of RAM benchmarked...the current Dual 3.4ghz Xeon setup got 90 in the test, while the Dual 2.8ghz Nehalem got 160...HOLY COW!!

This + Snow Leopard = Happiness