Hackintosh… Anybody built one?

Been looking over on OSX86 and insanelymac for quite some time now… And with my MacBookPro looking well past its best, my G5 PowerMac not being intel therefore totally useless for most software these days, and my bank balance not being very healthy (and a spare socket 775 processor, some RAM, and a couple of other bits lying about) I’ve figured out, hey, why not give it a try…

So from what I can work out, as far as socket 775 stuff goes (old hat I know, but it’ll be cheap) I’ve worked out that Gigabyte motherboards are the best to go for, and perhaps the G41M-ES2L in particular. Will be running it with my Q9400 2.66 Core2Quad so should have some oomph, 4GB of DDR2-800 RAM, and an Nvidia GeForce 9500GT GFX card.

Anybody else built one? How did you get on?

I found this thread on insanelymac and from what I can tell, it actually seems pretty plausible, not a huge amount more involved than installing Windows on a PC you’ve built yourself, then having to search high and low for all the drivers for everything you’ve got plugged in.

EDIT: Should just add that I already own a retail copy of Snow Leopard (and Leopard for that matter), I have nothing against giving Apple some money for the software, but I’m finding it increasingly hard to stomach their hardware prices these days…

I’ve got a hackintoshed Samsung NC10. Most bits work fine. I’d imagine if you could choose the components yourself, based on availability of drivers, it would be even easier.
The only issues I have are display on an external monitor and using sleep mode.

Got it running here.

g31m-es2l mobo; quad-core; 4gb RAM; GTX 265; 10k Raptor disk; 2x 19″ Dell TFTs

Ran it inside VMware first to see how I would get on with OSX – then took the plunge….. well, not really a plunge, as the sata drive is removable (got Win7 and Linux on another 10k Raptor).

xiphon

Glad to hear it, apparently the G31M-ES2L installs exactly the same was as the G41 does. How are you getting on with it? What processor you running? What install method did you use? How long you been running it for, and any issues? Where you based incidentally?

Sorry for all the questions, but you may well be my ticket to success here as I’ve never actually seen one running in the flesh so to speak.

geoffj, was going to do it on an NC10 a while ago, but had no real need for a netbook, just a want… As it is, I need a Mac with a pretty powerful processor, and at least 4GB of RAM for the stuff I need to use it for (mainly Logic Audio, bit of Photoshop), sadly though the NC10 is really easy to setup with OSX (so I read) sadly it wouldn’t have the juice!

I’ve done it on a number of netbooks and helped a mate do a desktop about 18 months ago.

only faff was a couple of driver issues, which would’ve been moot had he been buying all the parts new (we were trying to reuse as much of his current stuff as possible).

insanelymac’s forums are great, make sure you join up and get your post count up a bit with some half decent contributions to various threads and you should have no problem getting help. A few people just join and ask for help straight out and then get pissy when they dont get an immediate answer that works for them.

you sound like you’ve (at least) a reasonable grasp of building a pc, so you should have no bother

http://osx86.co/f36/guide-gigabyte-g31m-es2l-retail-tutorial-t3187/

http://osx86.co/f36/guide-geforce-gtx-260-in-snow-leopard-t4057/

CPU is: Core 2 Quad Q8200 (stock speed, not OC)

Mobo only takes up to 4GB RAM (G31 chipset limitation, I believe), so I’m stuck at that.

It’s fast – the 10k disk helps!

Tip : Have a laptop/PC with web access by your side when building it! Good luck taking the plunge if it’s your only PC with web access!

Tip : Have a laptop/PC with web access by your side when building it! Good luck taking the plunge if it’s your only PC with web access

probably the most important bit of advice

I specced my latest desktop specifically to secondary boot hackintoshed MAC OS/X. As the OP says, Gigabyte mobo seemed to be a popular choice. I was looking for an i7 950, so went for a X58A-UD5. I don’t use OS/X much, only for running Ableton really. I can do everything else just fine with Fedora.

From what i read, the main thing to watch out for is the graphics card. The iMac’s mostly use Intel chipsets, which you’ll have no problem finding mobo’s with. But they only used a limited set of graphics cards, so if you can pick a slightly older card with one of the fully supported chipsets. Luckily i intended using an ATI 4870 which was used in a lot of Apple products.

In the end, getting it running was reasonably straightforward. I needed to add a couple of kernel flags to get the graphics card working for the installer. Now it’s fine.

Once i got that working i hackintoshed an old Thinkpad t60p i had lying around.

A tip, if you have a spare drive of the same capacity, lying around. Once you get OS/X installed, “dd” the contents of the working drive to the spare. Until you know how to boot off the media & into rescue mode, if you start playing around with kexts, it’s quite easy to have a non-booting system. (Another tip, once it’s working, leave well alone, you don’t need to touch it 😉

I actually don’t have an issue with the cost of the Apple hardware. I was considering a Mac Pro & compared the middle of the range to a home built equivalent system with dual Westmere-ex, Super Micro mobo, full speed memory, ultra-quiet fans & PSU. That was getting close to the cost of the Apple product & the result would have looked just like any other PC. In the end i opted for the i7 as it provided enough of the Nehalem virtualisation features i needed & enough horsepower.

Edit: +1 having internet access when you do this.

I did a Dell mini 10 for my daughter. Everything works perfectly and she loves it. I liked it so much i bought another and did one for me 🙂

Cheers again guys

This will be my main computer once up and running, but for now I’ve got 2/3 others I can use (depending whether they’re all working or not) and was planning on having my MacBookPro on, connected to the internet by my side at all times when setting it up. Had thought that far ahead don’t worry!

As this machine’s only/primary task will be to run OSX, I can afford to cherry pick the parts. And as budget dictates it can’t be an all singing, all dancing i7, then that should make it even easier as I can use Socket 775 stuff that’s tried and tested, and my old 9500GT GFX card to get it up and running (plan is to install a newer “mac native” GFX card down the line, such as a Radeon 5770 or the like).

Think as Overclockers have got a prebuilt barebones with a G41M-ES2L in and a 500W power supply for £70, I’ll just order that. Case and PSU can get an upgrade if needed in the future. Put my Q9400 on the board, swap my old E5300 back into my PC, steal the 9500GT from the PC (it can make do with onboar GFX for a while), nick 2GB DDR2-800 RAM out of the PC to get the Hack up and running, and borrow the DVD drive too. Then as funds allow in a month or two, replace the rest.

Only other expense should be a HD, but they’re relatively cheap these days, though tempted (for speed reasons) to get an SSD, or at least one of those Seagate Momentus XT “hybrid” drives.

Will start posting on insanelymac I think to get a user rating going, and oddly enough that’s why I asked on here first, cos I figured I’d get more responses from people who had seen me posting already. Newbies often get ignored when demanding help I know, cos it often goes unappreciated.

If funds permit, either go down the SSD or WD Raptor route, depending on how much data storage space you need on a fast disk.

WD (£140) 300GB ->

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HD-238-WD&groupid=701&catid=14&subcat=768

SSD ( £130) 80GB ->

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HD-012-IN&groupid=701&catid=14&subcat=910

Cheers again xiphon

Have been reading up about HD’s, seems that this Seagate Momentus XT really is the best of both worlds. Checked out the Youtube vids etc and it’s apparently quite a bit quicker than a WD Raptor, and only about 10% slower than a full on SSD. Plus it negates the faff of running one HD for your OS, and another for all your data.

Another question about your install… With the method you used, did you have any hiccups at all? I’ve now read of the G31/G41 Gigabyte boards being used in a Hackintosh via a retail disc install, in at least 4 different methods now! I’m wondering which is the easiest/most reliable route to take…

Well the bits are bought, and should be with me courtesy of ebuyer free next day delivery tomorrow! Budget has dictated going with conventional HD to start, and managed to blag 2GB of DDR2 ram to get it up and running (will buy 8GB soon), and an Nvidia 8800GTS too courtesy of a friend upgrading a while ago.

So can’t wait for the postman tomorrow now!

Might give that a try when I rebuild my spare PC.

I’ve stuck a kingston SSD and 2gig in a Dell mini – it does suffer a small track pad – but it’s surprisingly usable.
It also has the benefit of passive cooling – so not a sound – I’m now rethinking my ‘main computer’.

So imho a ssd is worth holding out for.
< need silence >

So imho a ssd is worth holding out for.
< need silence >

Yeah quiet is good. But given there will be about 4 fans in this case in total, including one on the GFX card (can’t afford to water cool either) just getting it to work properly is priority number one.

Well it’s installing!!!

Hackintosh’d mine but didn’t spec it for it. As such the network and audio cards don’t work, but I use an external audio interface anyway. Works pretty well but for some reason text is a bit blurry compared to my mate’s iMac. Would be interested to see if anyone else had this blurry problem and if so did you manage to fix it?

I’ve also noticed that mine is terrible at multi tasking compared to the Windows 7 install on the same machine.

It only bloody works too!

Just in the business of updating to 10.6.7 from the 10.6.3 install disc I used, but it’s snappy!

OK, only about as snappy as one of the lower core i5 iMacs probably (just did a Geekbench score of about 6000 on it, but only 2GB of RAM at the mo), but it’s only an old Core2Quad processor anyway. The fact it’s loads more powerful than a Mac Mini, for less than half the cost, is the best bit!

Just got to install the iBoot and Multibeast to the HD now (so I don’t need the disc constantly in the drawer for bootup, and away we go! 😀

Oh, and some mild overclocking (got the Mobo, RAM and PSU for it for certain) should get my 2.66 up to 3.2 or 3.4GHz no problem, then my scores should start rocketing!

You would not believe how happy I am right now!

Sad eh… 😉

Nice … can you install other applications like normal?

Does it work with other graphic?

Compatible issue?

I have a spare gigabyte mobo so is that compatible?

SSD?

Nice … can you install other applications like normal?

The computer thinks it’s a Mac. I just ran “Software update” and it did everything that a normal Mac would! THIS ROCKS!

Does it work with other graphic?

I’ve got an Nvidia 8800GTS in it at the mo, you’re safe with any 8 series, or 9 series Nvidia card from what I hear, but have heard of GT240’s and 250’s working, and may get support for newer card soon. Any ATI cards that have featured in a Mac (4870/5770/5870 etc.) are also fully supported.

Compatible issue?

None yet, haven’t got the onboard sound on the motherboard working yet, though that’s not an issue for me, I use a Tascam US-144 as a sound output anyway. Though it’s pretty easy to fix apparently.

I have a spare gigabyte mobo so is that compatible?

What model number? Gigabyte are about the most compatible motherboards out there on the whole to be fair… So highly likely it could work yes. And the motherboard is the main key to it all working, a few other bits and pieces need to work too though.

What network adapter are you using and did that require any additional faffing to get working?

What model number? Gigabyte are about the most compatible motherboards out there on the whole to be fair… So highly likely it could work yes. And the motherboard is the main key to it all working, a few other bits and pieces need to work too though.

It’s a Gigabyte P55M-UD2 mobo that was repaired/replaced recently.
Woohoo! I am giving it a go then if that is the case.

I have a spare GT240 Nvidia card too.

How about Solid State Drive compatibility? Shouldn’t be a problem?

p55m-ud2 in action…

Stick a decent processor in it too

SSD won’t be a problem at all, you just format the drive before you do the install same as with a normal HD

EDIT: Posted from my Hackintosh 😉

i thought i lived in a world of jargon but by god i’m absolutely lost on this thread!

Double post … d’oh!

mboy – Member

p55m-ud2 in action…

Woohoo! That’s good info that.

Cheers.

p/s: I am going to be a fanboi … 😆

What network adapter are you using and did that require any additional faffing to get working?

Bought one for my old G5 off ebay the other week, advertised it as “Apple Airport compatible (recognised as Airport Extreme by OSX)… It worked fine in my G5. Just thought I’d give it a go and see if it worked on this…

Lo and behold, it did!

So got another one on the way now too… Only wirless G, but that’s all I need anyhow, and only about £15 on ebay.

p/s: I am going to be a fanboi …

a fanboi has no qualms paying full rrp for Apple hardware!!! You ain’t a fanboi for sure… 😉

mboy –
a fanboi has no qualms paying full rrp for Apple hardware!!! You ain’t a fanboi for sure…

D’oh! … a fakeboi then … LOL!

It looks like it will also work on Asus P7P55m too! But might need to do a bit of research to see if can dual boot with my current Asus P7P55m

So it looks like I will have a new “Mac” in Sept and become a fakeboi … 😆 Not sure if my sister and her children will be impressed since they have wanted the real thing which I promised to get them. LOL!