I have compiled this tutorial so anyone can have a perfect Mac for under $250.



Step 1: Hardware

The only crucial component is the Motherboard. Feel free to mix and match other components to your liking.



$69.99 (TigerDirect.com)

Intel D945GCLF Motherboard/Includes 1.6Ghz Intel Atom CPU - Onboard Sound, Video, Lan, USB, SATA, IDE, Sleep, Reboot, Shutdown all work out of the box.



$39.99 (NewEgg.com)

Coolermaster Elite 340 Black MATX



$29.99 (TigerDirect.com)

Ultra LS350 Lifetime Series 350W Power Supply



$20.99 (NewEgg.com)

Corsair 1024MB PC5400 DDR2 667MHz Memory



$39.99 (NewEgg.com)

Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 80GB Hard Drive



$23.99 (NewEgg.com)

Lite-On DH-20A4P-04 SuperAllwrite OEM DVD Burner



Grand Total: $224.94 + Shipping





Step 2: Software



1) Kalaway 10.5.2 Install DVD



- Use the OSX disk utility to partition and format the drive. Be sure to format as MBR

- Close Disk Utility and select the newly partitioned drive to install on.

- Select Customize and go to Patches. Now select Time Machine Fix

- Start instillation and relax

- When instillation is finished, resolution will be locked at 1024x768. We will fix this in a later step.





2) Kalaway 10.5.3 Combo Update **No Longer Needed - See Bellow to upgrade straight to 10.5.5



- First install the 10.5.3 update included in the package. DO NOT RESTART when finished

- Second install the 10.5.3 Kernel update included in the package. leave everything defult, which means both boxes unchecked. You can now safely restart




3) Apple Software Update 10.5.4 **No Longer Needed - See Bellow to upgrade straight to 10.5.5

- You can now use the built in apple software update to bump up to Leopard 10.5.4. You can also install any other updates listed. This step assumes you followed my instructions and are still using the vanilla Kernel.




4) Apple Software Update 10.5.5 - Using Biketown Method

- Visit http://mysticus.titanous.com/update.html and download the Pre/Post Installer Patches and Combo Update 10.5.5 directly from Apple

- Run Biketowns Pre-Installer Patch. Close when done.

- Run the official 10.5.5 Combo update you downloaded from Apple. When Finished DO NOT RESTART. Force Quit installer (Click Apple on top left and select "Force Quit")

- Run Biketowns Post-Installer Patch **This can take a long time, do not worry it is normal**

- Restart the Computer - After the first restart the PC will hang at the grey apple screen. This is normal. Let this run for 30 seconds and manually restart again. OSX should now boot.




5) Graphics Fix



- I would like to thank "Charles vdg" for posting this fix in the InsanelyMac forums. Download the GMA 950 Kext package bellow and install the two included .Kext files. You can use Kexthelper if you are not comfortable installing manually.


Link to GMA 950 Kext Package

http://forum.insanelymac.com/index.php?act=attach&type=post&id=29965


Link to KextHelper

http://www.cheetha.net/Kext_Helper/Software.html


- After a quick restart you should now have full resolution and graphic support.





Step 3: Miscellaneous



This section is for small fixes that may or may not affect you.



1) Networking



Problem:

Losing Network after waking up from sleep mode



Fix:

Change network setting to DHCP Manual and assign a manual IP address. This should resolve the problem



2) Audio


Problem:

Microphone input does not work


Fix:

No fix currently



3) Restart


Problem:

After upgrading to Leopard 10.5.4, the computer hangs when restarting


Fix:

No fix currently




I hope this tutorial is able to help anyone looking to build an affordable Mac. Please feel free to contribute with new found problems or solutions.



Cheers,

Nice little tutorial, but unless I'm blind, it seems you forgot the processor.

Anyways thank you for the clear and concise instructions.

Never mind, I looked closer, in the newegg page and the motherboard includes the processor. Maybe you should clarify that in the tutorial.

Thanks for the suggestion. Post has been updated.

Hmmm, this might be a good build for a newby like me to cut his chops on. While not as powerful as I want it would be good practice for the price.

Does the 950 package fix the fixed resolution AND artifacts?

The GMA950 included on the board has had zero issues with artifacts, before or after the updated drivers. I call it the perfect Mac for a reason .

I am sure this rig has 1 or 2 surprise problems up its sleeve, but as of right now its flawless.

Great tutorial. You might want to add a note about using Hiren or another bootcd to make your Mac partition active, so it'll boot without the CD. I was stuck on that for a little bit.

I followed your instructions up until the reboot after installing the 10.5.3 combo update and the vanilla kernel, but now my system hangs on boot this a little "no" symbol on top of the apple, like this:



If I boot with "-v update" as suggested in some other posts, I get this:



What am I doing wrong?

Here's my setup:

Intel D945GCLF w/ Atom 1.6ghz Processor
2GB DDR2-667 RAM
80 GB Western Digital SATA HD
16x ASUS SATA DVDROM

Thanks.

Is your hard drive plugged into the SATA port or the PATA port? If it's PATA then that might be the reason. That was my problem a couple years ago whenever I would get this error.

It is indeed plugged into the SATA port, as is the DVD-ROM.

Great Find for that price. Might as well use a media center case much like this one. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16811164098.
or this one which i like better http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16811190017 you use that and you have ur self a mac mini

I've put together a similar list - $202.95 - there's a $10 instant savings with that board and case purchased together...

http://secure.newegg.com/WishList/PublicWi...tNumber=7936671

Patrick

Mac partition active? Why would you need to do this? This was my first OSX86 build and it went flawless using the instructions I posted above.

Sorry I don't know why your system wont boot after the update. Have you changed any settings in the BIOS? or have any other hardware in the build?

Also, I installed off an IDE DVD Drive, not SATA. I don't know if this would make a difference.

orakle When you installed the Kernel update did you select one of the Kernals from the list to instal?? If so, this is your problem. You are supposed to leave everything defult, which means both boxes unchecked.

Hope this helps.

cheers,

My system wouldn't boot from the hard drive otherwise. I had to boot from the CD.Oh, yeah I selected the 9.3 vanilla kernel. So how do I recover from this? Do I have to reinstall everything?

I am new to the OSX86 scene, so I am unsure if there is a way to role back the Kernel. Starting from scratch would probably be your best bet.



That was my fault; I will update the tutorial to make that part more clear.



Thanks,

Thanks for your help! Everything works now. Posting this from OS X 10.5.4 on my Intel Atom!

Wow.. the price is tempting.

I can't believe that motherboard has everything on-board!

amazing! Everything working fine except mic in.

thank you so much for the tutorial.

edit: even sleep works as intended wow


wonder if the tut works the same way on my msi wind hardware is nearly identical

sounds like a great machine...two questions. 1) do you really need a 350w ps? seems like overkill for the atom. think a 60w would suffice?
2) think this thing could handle any hd content?

60w should do the job. at least in windows 720p works perfect. 1080 is a little sloppy

You can definitely use a smaller power supply. I simply picked the Ultra because it is a decent affordable power supply. I am actually planning to purchase a 100watt Pico-psu and install this unit into an old Nintendo case.



I have not tried HD media yet. I will get some HD content tonight and let you know the results. I wouldn’t get your hopes up




I have updated the original post with the new mic input problem. If anyone finds a solution please post it.

Thanks,

all i can say is wow. this is really something great. great job in getting this together! i'm one click close in buying this. not for me, but for my girlfriend's younger brother. how do you think this will handle officie and photshop? will they be ubber slow or acceptable performance?
the truth is that can't complain for the price, and also can't ask for much. but i don't want to leave the poor kid with a pc that makes his basic homeworks a nightmare. if someone could post some basic performance benchmarks (no pc tests on anything like that, just honest coments about their experience) that would be awesome and i'll probably buy 2 of this badboys.

I currently have Mac office 2008 installed and it runs it perfectly. I am pleasantly surprised with the performance of this little system.



I think Photoshop is asking a little too much. However if you want a powerful photo editing software, Adobe Lightroom should run well. It requires far less system resources and is the software of choice for professional photographers.



I will be installing Lightroom tonight or tomorrow, and I will report back on performance.

that's great news. lightroom is great software, my girlfirend is a photographer and we use it quite often. although there are some things that have to be done in photoshop, although nothing that this build can't handle i guess. in any case i'll build one with 2gb ram, so it'll have little more power.

let me go how lightroom goes. thanks mate this is all good news!

Wow i was building my computer and now i'll do it this way great tut. thanks

EDIT:

BTW what will i get out of the CPU? Just basic browser and IM on OSX or can i use stuff like iTunes and like 3 programs at once or will i have to sacrifice on that stuff?

Doesn't that dvd burner only have generic drive support?

The Atom has hyper threading so is able to handle multiple applications quite easily. I often have Itunes, Mozilla, Email, ETC open at the same time.







I am unsure about the DVD-RW Drive. I simply selected that one because it was the cheapest. In my actual system I am using a spare Pioneer burner I had around.

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/Se...190&CatId=4

That seems like a pretty good drive, burns DVDs and CDs

Great thread I think cheap ass components should be added to the list as soon as users test them.
Keep it up.
Respect.

did somebody say youtube video? haha not relly though that would be really nice (booting up and stuff). i'm up with the idea of posting comments on cheap hardware so we can have a really good cheap build.

Is there a similar mother board with a bit more speed, or is this currently our only option if we want out of the box support for all of the aspects you listed above?

Either way, thank you for the information. My girlfriend is looking for a new machine, and I didn't think a mac would be possible until I found this.

Thanks,
defn

hey guys what about firewire? the mobo doesn't includes one, but i've seen pretty cheap pci ones in newegg, since this mobo has one pci slot. firewire = time machine (been using it with an imac, already saved me twice big time, also makes switching macs a breeze). what do you think? is time machine working with osx86?

There are a lot of variables that go into this, including bit rate. Not all HD files (even at the same size, such as 720) are equal. I suspect it would have some difficulties with high bit rate movies, whether in 720 or 1080.

Alright, so light room has been installed and tested. Verdict.... works great!

I was using 3mb Jpeg files (I think using RAW files would be a little to much) and it was handling them no problem. I applied filters, and checked and slid every option i could.

Most things rendered instant, but nothing had be waiting for more then 1.5 seconds to render.

I also installed ilife yesterday. I am going to play around with a couple of the software packages and see how that goes.


Also just finished my HD content test.

I used the Wall-E trailer from apple.com/trailers

480p - Ran perfectly no noticeable problems
720p - Ran perfectly no noticeable problems
1080p - Very Choppy, Slow and clearing skipping frames.

Looks like 720p is the systems sweet spot.

It is worthwhile to note that different HD formats may perform different. If anyone tests another format, please post an update.

Hope this helps,

Apple trailers are generally at a moderate bit rate (Wall*E 720 is at 5800), which is usually fine but can have pixelation during high-motion scenes. Did you use Quicktime for this assessment? It's not that great of a decoding app. You ought to try X Box Media Player for Mac - it is easily the best playback software for Macs, at least as far as decoding high bit rate, high resolution video without dropping frames.

great news that lightroom runs fine. guess its a buyer then. i'll order my parts tomorrow monday. thanks guys!

Just remember what MrFlooD said - he did not try a raw file. My suspicion is that you might be a little disappointed if you're going to be working with 12- or 14-bit raw files.

Thanks for putting together this guide! I just finished building up a system based on this board using a vanilla Leopard Retail install with very few issues. I am having problems with graphics (Screen Sharing causes a kernel panic) though, so I'll give the patched kexts a shot.

More info: http://forum.insanelymac.com/index.php?sho...mp;#entry808296

I've got the system running perfectly. Everything works with vanilla kernel 9.4.0.

Unfortunatly, there I get kernel panics while running time machine. Sometimes after a few minutes, sometimes after a few hours. Since I disabled time machine I got no kernel panic so I guess it' the issue. Any advice?

Hmm,

I haven't been using Time Machine, but I just turned it on. I will leave it on all night and see if I experience a Kernel Panic.

I have found a new issue though. My restart is no longer working (I used to work perfectly) Not big enough of a problem for me to start messing with thing.

I am using Darwin Kernel 9.4.0

type "uname -a" in the terminal to get kernel version

Maybe my problem is that I've selected "TimeMachineFix" during Kalyway 10.5.2 install. I suppose that I have a patched "IONetworkingFamily" kext. Can someone provide me the original version?

Does sleep work? I guess I could worry about SpeedStep too but with the Atom it barely seems like there is a point

Mr Flood, please tell me the best place to get Kalyway 10.5.2, how long to download with a cable Internet download speed of 10mbps, explain the use of ISO software, and the procedure to burn the DVD. I am hoping to build the Intel Atom as a first try and then a much faster unit after that. Thanks.
leroiun@gmail.com

Time Machine was on all last night and zero problems.However, it isn't able to make a successful backup. I tried backing up to another partition and a USB key and I get this error "backup volume could not be found".I am going to look for a fix now.



Sleep works 100%, no worries there.I got my copy of Kalaway off newsgroups. I am sure you can use P2P and Torrent sites as well

EDIT:

Time Machine Update

Just tested the ToH IONetworkingFamily.kext and not only did it NOT work, but it also took out my eathernet connections. Glad I backed up my original Kext file.

I am going to test another solution now.

Update 2:

I have tested almost every Time Machine fix I could find. Still no luck. If anyone gets this working please post.

Ok, it turned out that my kernel panics where related to the Ralink driver of my USB-WLAN stick. No I'm using ethernet and run OS X for more than 10 hours without any problem.

Now I've ordered a ASUS WL-138g V2 card to get native (Airport) WiFi.

My time machine backup ran perfectly! I am using the TimeMachineFix_ionetworkingfamily from the Kalyway 10.5.2 DVD.

Did I mention how amazing this system works?

Glad to hear it

I am going to try to install the fix now. If it works for me, I will update the Tutorial.

Edit:

Is there a way to install the fix after I have already installed the OSX? I don't know how to explore the DVD and find the fix.

Thanks for the help.

You need something to set Finder to show invisible Folders....I believe Onyx has the option to, though I could be wrong. Once you do that, you can see all the invisible folders on the DVD. I believe that the install packages are usually in

/System/Installation/Packages

on the install DVD. Just hunt around and find the right one, and double click to install it.

So I bought this system with 1 GB ram. SATA 250gb hard drive and pioneer SATA DVD burner. I'm having a problem installing it. There is only 1 option when it boots which is to boot off of my DVD which as kalyway 10.2.what ever in it. So I boot, a lot of loading text scrolls by. Then it stops and gives me a kernel panic. The error is something like 0x0000002 I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong... How do I get by it?

Hmmm... Well I used an IDE DVD drive and that is really the only thing I can think of. Try change the SATA mode in the BIOS to IDE.

Hmm... Does anyone have an idea of what the error means?