Fancy a bit of a challenge and I could do with a dual boot machine for entertainment and music and file sharing duties. Has anyone built one with any success?
Don’t mind windows 7 for games but prefer os x for everything else.

Yes

The trick is not making anything any harder for yourself than needs be. So select all your components based on those that are known to work well, rather than having to spend many hours hacking an OSX installation to sort of work. TonyMac’s website is your best friend here.

If you’re lucky, a Hackintosh can be every bit as stable and reliable as a proper Mac. The key really is in cherry picking the components from scratch though, and doing a proper retail install.

I did a Samsung NC10 a couple of years back – worked OK.

Yes, pain in the backside but rewarding, advice is make a backup when you get it working ! ! !

Sold mine and got a used macbook 2.4ghz with 2GB ram with a broken screen for around £120 on ebay, much much better 🙂 could get a new screen for £60 if I could be bothered but I just hook mine up to the TV so no need

The mac mini appeals due to size. It can fit behind and out of sight if the telly.
However this weekend was spent trying to get xp working in boot camp on my iBook.
No luck sadly so I might try to get one of these working. At worst I’ll end up with a very nice mini pc.

I have a small Shuttle PC (no fans) behind the TV running Open Elec (XBMC port). Actually I think Open Elec is also available for Apple TV hardware, IMO a lot nicer then running Apples own software as any files / XBMC plugins work.

Hackintosh has always interested me, and probably will interest more in the future if Apple continues on it’s path of limiting user memory upgrades on imacs… How is updating? I’m assuming you can’t run Apples security updates when they are offered, rather you have to wait for a patched patch?

I’m assuming you can’t run Apples security updates when they are offered, rather you have to wait for a patched patch?

TOTALLY depends on the hardware and the install method… Hence my comment previously…

The trick is not making anything any harder for yourself than needs be. So select all your components based on those that are known to work well, rather than having to spend many hours hacking an OSX installation to sort of work. TonyMac’s website is your best friend here.

I built a Hackintosh from scratch, using all components that were known to work well… My Hackintosh basically thinks it’s a Mac Pro, I can do software updates from Apple in the exact same way as you would on a Mac! In fact, my Hackintosh running Snow Leopard has been more reliable than my i7 MacBookPro has on Lion!

My Hardware for anyone interested…

Gigabyte G41M-ES2L Motherboard (most Gigabytes work well, but still worth checking in advance)
Intel Q9400 Core2Quad 2.66GHz Processor
2x2GB DDR2 800MHz OCZ Gold RAM chips
Nvidia 8800GTX Graphics Card (these were standard issue on Mac Pro’s a few years ago so all the drivers are in OSX anyway)
“Hackintosh compatible” wireless card I bought off ebay for about £13, as was advaterised as “guaranteed to work in a Hackintosh”… And it does!
650W Coolermaster Power Supply
1TB Samsung 7200rpm HD
Sony DVD Rewrite drive

The motherboard is the key. Gigabyte are in general the most compatible, but there are still Gigabyte models that don’t work that well. Graphics Card is the next issue, choose a model that has at some point been fitted to a Mac (8000 or 9000 series Nvidia, 5000 and 6000 series ATI all work very well). As far as sound is concerned, I’ve not bothered trying to get the onboard audio to work as I’m always using a USB external interface for mine, but some boards will have audio that works out the box, others will work when hacked, and some you will just have to put another soundcard in (or run external interface like I do). As for other Hackintosh compatible bits… Well, HD’s are pretty much all fine, just choose the one you want. Optical drives can be very choosy though, best bet is to choose a Sony, almost all Sony’s work out the box with no issues. And find a wirless (and bluetooth if you want it) card that is known to work. TonyMac’s website and forum are DEFINITELY is your friend here!

I use a hackintosh professionally – its bombproof

I’d like an upgradable version of the Mac Mini. quite a bit of cash and in a couple of years it’ll be beaten by newer stuff.
Looking to go shopping one the new year sales get going.
At worse it’ll be a very quick PC at best both.
Thanks all

And woo Hoo, here we are posting on somfink what I built, <puffs out chest with pathetic pride.>

Pointless making one.
Its already here for £ 100 quid

Adroid TV/Music/Video etc