My Holy Hackintosh Build!

[smeared]

Hello anyone that cares enough to listen. This forum is the documentation for my new hackintosh build. I love macs and need power.. so here I am. Also I am not rich and don't like wasting money, so that rules out a comparably equipped mac pro. Sorry apple, I still love you.

 

I have been reading for like three weeks straight and I think I'm in a good spot to do this. I have built pcs before, and even modded macs before, so I'm not a noob, but things have changed since my last build so ANY guidance, tips, etc.. is GREATLY appreciated.

 

detailed pictures, and step by steps will be posted as I proceed to help me and others.

 

 

GOALS:

 

Dual boot windows 7 / Mac os X SL

Overclocked core i7 920

SSD Boot drive - Mac OS X

12gb ram

Ability to take advantage of future upgrades.

The best performance I can afford.

 

 

 

Current Status

 

Modding/Building

 

I currently have 6 Items in my shopping cart ready to purchase, but I wanted to let this sit up here for a day or so before I bought them, just to get any feedback.

 

EDIT: Order has been made, I expect it to arrive next wednesday. CAN NOT WAIT.

 

EDIT: Everything has been purchased and has arrived.

 

 

 

Current Specs

 

= undecided

 

= Decided and purchased.

 

 

Build

 

 

CASE:

 

Apple G5 Case

I need to show my mac side. And to be honest, I think most PC cases are fugly.

I've just finished completely stripping it (mainly the shelf).

 

Bought it off of ebay for 62$ shipped.

Came with 2 fans, don't know if I'll use them or not.

 

$62.00

 

 

 

CPU:

 

Do I even need to say it?

Intel Core i7 920

 

I severely lucked out and got this for $199.99 @ Microcenter a day after they jacked the price up to 229.99. Thank goodness the fools left the price tag on the shelf!

 

$199.99

 

 

 

Cooling:

 

I will be water cooling the cpu only. It isn't that expensive (comparatively).

 

custom made stainless steel resevoir - my valuable time.

Black Ice GTX120 Radiator $53.95

MPC-CPU - i7 Nehalem/1366 Block $42.95 
or the Enzotech Sapphire?

Laing DDC-12V 18W V. 3.2 Pump $76.95

Tuniq TX-3 Extreme Performance and Exceptional Reliability Thermal Compound

misc. tubing

 

strike that. after researching I've decided that for the hassle, and what I'm willing to spend on a water cooling system, I'd get more bang for my buck using a nice air cooler.

 

Thermalright "Limited Edition" TRUE Copper Ultra-120 eXtreme CPU Heatsink

http://www.frozencpu.com/products/8335/cpu...6_AM2_Xeon.html

 

$109.99

 

 

 

 

Motherboard:

 

ASUS P6X58D

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16813131614

 

why i picked this board:

 

Ready for future 32nm 6-core CPUs.

More confident overclocking with the 16+2 phase power.

future proof - USB 3.0 and SATA 6 ( i know these won't work with os x, YET)

 

$299.90

 

 

 

 

 

PSU:

 

Seasonic M12D 850 watt

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16817151067

 

Between reviews, price and size, I came to this one. More to come...

 

$139.99

 

 

 

Memory:

 

G.Skill PI series 2Gb x 6, 1600 speed ram.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16820231331

Again, seemed like decent ram for the price. Got good reviews. Decent timings.

 

$334.99

 

 

G. Skill ram had a bad stick. So I upped the ante.

 

2 x CORSAIR DOMINATOR 6GB (3 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Triple Channel Kit

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16820145224

 

$229.99 each

 

$419.99 after MIR

 

 

 

 

Video Card:

 

EVGA GeForce GTX 260 896MB 626MHz card, mainly because it's fast, and seems compatible with hackintosh. I wish I could afford the GTX285. I heard it's a pain to get ATI working, maybe I'm wrong, but considering my lack of interest in gaming, my video card isn't as important as it is to others.

 

 

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16814130433

 

 

$224.99

 

 

 

 

HD:

 

Crucial CT64M225 2.5" 64GB SATA II MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) - Retail

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16820148318

 

I definitely want an ssd boot drive. Most Likely 2 eventually. Too bad I need two separate drives for each OS, but oh well. I would definitely be interested in a striped raid of smaller ssds, but I'm trying to take this slow.

 

$224.99

 

 

 

Secondary Drives:

 

3 x Samsung 1TB SpinPoint F3

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...2-185-_-Product

 

$269.97 total

 

 

 

Drive Cage:

 

 

Thermaltake iCage, 3 drives, comes with 120mm fan.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...;Tpk=11-999-141

 

$16.99

 

 

 

 

 

Disk Drive:

 

Standard Pioneer DVD-RW.. just for compatibility. Not that I use dvds often but hey, gotta have one.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...9-045-_-Product

 

$29.99

 

 

 

 

Case Fans:

 

Noctua NF-P12 - $24.99

Nexus 120mm - $12.99

Enermax 120mm - $7.49

Kama 92mm - $8.99

 

 

 

PCI Cards:

 

Syba Firewire 800 - $27.99

 

 

 

 

 

Peripherals:

 

Cirago USB Bluetooth - $14.99

I currently own an apple wireless keyboard, and magic mouse. I intend to use those.

 

 

 

 

Monitor:

 

I currently own an apple 30" Cinema Display that I love.

 

 

 

Total Build Cost, thusfar, haha I'm broke..

 

$2,096.32

 

 

 

That's about it. I'll be updating this frequently over the next couple weeks, as the build begins, and hopefully ends in success of some sort or another.

[JBLanteigne]

Sounds like a good build... I would have went with the gigabyte mobo but I know the asus works too. I did not keep up that much but I'm pretty sure I saw a guide to overclock that i7 @ 4ghz on one of the high end gigabyte mobo.

 

Idk what PSU this is but I remember a friend of mine spending many hours reading reviews and all to find the best psu at the best price that does as little noise as possible and he came out with some Enermax Modu82+

 

I'm sure the ram is fine.

 

GPU: nothing really pertinent here but I've been told that EVGA sucks I don't really know.

 

SSD: only 60gb? that seems small even if you're only gonna have os x + softwares on it... I'd go with a 128gb if you can.

 

Monitor: get a 2nd one, I use 2x 24" @ 1920x1200 and I love it... imagine that with 30"!!

[joshier]

12gb ram that is very impressive, what do you use the computer for?

[smeared]

Sounds like a good build... I would have went with the gigabyte mobo but I know the asus works too. I did not keep up that much but I'm pretty sure I saw a guide to overclock that i7 @ 4ghz on one of the high end gigabyte mobo.

 

Idk what PSU this is but I remember a friend of mine spending many hours reading reviews and all to find the best psu at the best price that does as little noise as possible and he came out with some Enermax Modu82+

 

I'm sure the ram is fine.

 

GPU: nothing really pertinent here but I've been told that EVGA sucks I don't really know.

 

SSD: only 60gb? that seems small even if you're only gonna have os x + softwares on it... I'd go with a 128gb if you can.

 

Monitor: get a 2nd one, I use 2x 24" @ 1920x1200 and I love it... imagine that with 30"!!

 

 

Thanks for the info, I went with ASUS because that's what I've had in the past. Also I saw some in depth reviews that put it ahead of the gigabytes in almost every test. But really I figured that no matter which mobo I picked it was going to take some doing to get this thing up and running.

 

I have heard a lot of good things about Enermax. I'll check prices, thanks.

 

I chose the evga just because my buddy has one and said it would work with os x, and was plenty fast for me, and it's fairly cheap.

 

I kinda wish I could go with a larger ssd, but I'm pushing the budget as it is . And I checked the sizes of my current setup, and all my apps are about 28 gb, and my system is about 6-8, so I figured 60 would have to suffice. It's mainly for the os anyway, If I have to throw a couple apps that I don't use that often on my secondary drive, so be it.

 

2x24 is AWESOME. I just saw another 30" on craigslist for 900... I considered it for a minute, but then I thought maybe I'll get two verticals and have one on each side of the 30". Now I'll have to find out which ones fit perfectly.

 

Thanks for all the advice!

 

12gb ram that is very impressive, what do you use the computer for?

 

I do A LOT.. Design, Web Development, Programming, Interactive Web & Standalone, Video, Animation, Simple 3d, and that's just what I do for work. With my hobbies and interests added in there, and the fact that I work from home a lot of the time, means I need enough ram to keep a lot of apps running. I probably could have been happy with 6, but it wasn't that much more.

[JBLanteigne]

I support the 12gb of ram. It's not too much.

 

I have 8gb on my rig and I wish I had 16. (of course I'd build a new machine rather than buying addition 4gb sticks for this build)

[smeared]

So, I',m just patiently waiting for my newegg order. Took some snaps of my current progress.

 

I don't think I'm going to be able to make this build as clean as some of the amazing work I've seen on here. But at the same time, I'll be customizing as much as I can. At this point I don't plan to use any of the apple parts that came with the case, except for maybe the front panel. Maybe the fans actually. But I plan to build a custom HD tray as well as some other custom holders. I was thinking plexiglass, just for the nice transparency.

 

I'm going to try to avoid buying one of those motherboard trays, but if I have to, I will. I'd prefer a custom mount to the g5's wall so that I can put it anywhere I want, and then I'll work out the rear panel so that it's nice looking.

 

I don't have the cord for the front panel, and I don't want to spend 30$. so I'm currently reading all the posts on here to get at least the power button working. I'll get there.. for now I'm focusing on fitting everything in the case cleanly. I don't foresee any problems considering I'm not bound to apple's layout in any way.

[smeared]

Still waiting! Stupid 3 day select UPS shipping really means 4 days.. I'm so impatient.

 

Anyway, I've been reading a lot about water cooling the 920 vs. air cooling, and am currently deciding which direction I want to go.

 

Water Cooling:

 

pros:

Probably be able to over clock to 4GHz.

Quieter.

 

cons:

More pricey.

Takes up more room in case.

 

 

Quality heat sink:

 

pros:

cheaper.

simpler.

 

cons:

Less ability to over clock.. probably 3.6GHz.

louder.

 

I don't really want to run my chip at 80º under load. I'm sure some of you may have experience with air cooling the 920. All tips appreciated. Thanks

[Cindori]

corsair h50

[smeared]

I've taken a quick look at the corsair h50. I'll take a closer one for sure now that you mention it.. thanks..

 

So I received my package from newegg a couple of days ago, but work has been insanely busy, so this morning, and this whole weekend will be my first chance to see what I can do with it.

 

Also, I removed all of the standoffs from the inside of my g5 case. sanded it down. Removed the rear fan plate.

 

So I didn't think about this until yesterday, but it's kind of a bummer that I'm mounting the board upside down and reverse, as it has heat pipes, and people are convinced they won't work as designed because of this orientation. But after reading a bunch about the subject, I've decided to continue mounting it upside down, and if my temps are more than 6º over normal, I'll either buy a bigger heat sink for the northbridge, or figure out some other simple cooling method.

 

Right now, I'm taking a trip to MicroCenter because I need some supplies. While I'm there I'm going to take a look at those removable motherboard trays, if they have any.. because I don't know how long I want to wait to get this thing up and running.

[madd!n]

I don't really want to run my chip at 80º under load. I'm sure some of you may have experience with air cooling the 920. All tips appreciated. Thanks

 

Well, i run my i7 920 @4.00 Ghz on air cooling, and it doesnt get hotter than 65°C, even after prime95 testing (which runs the CPU @100% load) for about 6 hours. Im using a Arctic Cooling Freezer Extreme (Rev.2) and some Revoltec Case Fans + one 180mm fan in the front.

 

My Setup is on a similar level to yours, my CPU is a i7 920, Board is the Gigabyte X58-UD5 because its fantastic for overclocking, video card is a Zotac 260 GTX and the Memory comes from Corsair, 6GB (3*2) @ 1600mhz. Although I chose different manufactures, its more or less equivalent i think and it performes really great. You will love it

 

Im a little jealous of the ssd I couldnt afford one bigger than 32gb which isnt really sufficient... But I think will be my next purchase..

 

So good luck, and have some fun

[DaveVegas]

Dude, this build is {censored} awesome!

 

I'm looking forward to buy exacly the same things as you did

 

Dave

[smeared]

Well, i run my i7 920 @4.00 Ghz on air cooling, and it doesnt get hotter than 65°C, even after prime95 (which runs the CPU @100% load) testing for about 6 hours. Im using a Arctic Cooling Freezer Extreme (Rev.2) and some Revoltec Case Fans + one 180mm fan in the front.

 

My Setup is on a similar level to yours, my CPU is a i7 920, Board is the Gigabyte X58-UD5 because its fantastic for overclocking, video card is a Zotac 260 GTX and the Memory comes from Corsair, 6GB (3*2) @ 1600mhz. Although I chose different manufactures, its more or less equivalent i think and it performes really great. You will love it

 

Im a little jealous of the ssd I couldnt afford one bigger than 32gb which isnt really sufficient... But I think will be my next purchase..

 

So good luck, and have some fun

 

wow.. that's amazing! If I could get it steady at 65˚C while loaded at 4ghz, I'd be so happy. And on an air cooler at that! And yeah it seems we do have very similar setups. We're both pretty lucky, well you are, I will be when it's all said and done.

 

Honestly, your choices of manufacturers are probably better than mine. I feel like I went for more underdog brands. But everything I've bought has had at least one glowing review. Except for the video card. But everyone has to understand, I don't game at all. And my current video card is in my macbook pro. The infamous 8600M GT. So I'm going from 256mb to 896mb. And performance wise, this one has done me well (besides frying my logic board TWICE).

 

I really wanted to get 3 ssds and raid them.. maybe in the future. After I'm more comfortable with hackintoshes.

[smeared]

OK.

 

Day 1 of getting into it!

 

I started it off with a trip to Microcenter for more necessities.

 

A barracuda 1TB 7200rpm drive for windows. On sale for $89.

 

The cheapest case they had for random metal and parts. $20 on sale.

 

This 5 drive internal rack. http://microcenter.com/single_product_resu...duct_id=0290245

(not sure about this yet, it was $37, and I found this 4 drive one for $17, http://microcenter.com/single_product_resu...duct_id=0294692 ).

 

Also miscellaneous cables, a $3 keyboard (mine is bluetooth), tools, 2.5 to 3.5 drive adapter, and boy, I was close to picking up the Corsair H50 for $79. But I held off, glad I did after I saw it later in the day at frys electronics for $49!!!. I still held off. I still think I'm going to go with a simple water setup with a double fan rad.

 

_____________________________________________________

 

 

So far, the build is going well. Lots to figure out still. I was elated to see that after a few modifications to the top shelf, my PSU is going to fit PERFECTLY, where the G5 hard drives used to be (top rear, above the motherboard). I don't want to take it apart, and void the warranty, so the cord will be routed to the bottom, or some other solution.

 

HD rack suspended from the top shelf. Motherboard has been positioned and tomorrow I'll be attaching some custom standoffs, and hopefully booting the system for the first time.

 

If my dremel held a charge longer I'd be much closer to that now. But it's seen a lot of action today.

[smeared]

Hey y'all. Things are progressing pretty fast for me actually. But this post does come with some questions.

 

So, I drilled out the motherboard tray from the $20 case I bought, and modified it slightly. Mainly the height, using the existing edges. I fashioned three small tabs for some of those tiny #4 − 40 screws.

 

Then after a good deal of measuring, mounted the tray with those screws, and a healthy dose of JB Weld. When using JB Weld, it's always best to remember surface area matters most. I figure I carefully covered about 25 − 30 square centimeters. Quite a bit. But I wanted to be sure. I also covered the screws in it. I stacked about 10 large books on top of it overnight. I pulled on it very hard, and it's never coming off. Which is why I was really happy that everything still lined up after curing!

 

I decided early on that I wanted the i/o ports to be even with the rear of the g5, which meant that something would have to protrude to anchor pci cards. I thought this was a simple enough solution. Easier then using extensions for ports I wanted to use. And easier then creating a new back panel and mounting it inset. Who knows, some may hate it, I don't mind it. I used another piece off the cheapo case. I think it'll look better once i alter the fan housing and reinsert it. Now I just need to create something to go between the ports and the card slots.

 

As you can see in one of the photos, I cut a hole in the shelf for the seasonic psu fan, as well as another for the cords. I'm working on a nice clean hole in the back for the power now, but again the dremel is dead

 

 

 

Questions:

 

Anyone know of a silver paint for the cheapo part that matches closely the silver of the g5?

 

Does anyone have or know where I could get the cd drive mount that fits into the slots on the shelf, without paying a ton? I don't know how it goes as of right now. Didn't think I was going to keep the shelf in the beginning, but obviously I am, so... any info would be awesome.

 

I have a lot to do before this system will be usable, but I am considering hooking it all up just to check that everything works. Should I put it together stock right now and test it? or should I wait until I have chosen and purchased a cooling system, as well as installing everything "permanently"?

 

Til next update.

[smeared]

well, I answered one of my own questions and decided to hook up the essentials and make sure they work. Kind of glad I did as it didn't turn out so well.

 

Steady DRAM LED lit. Tried the mem ok button. No sound from a speaker I plugged into it. Tried all the memory, then 3, then 2, then 1. Same thing, no beeps. Ended up just trying the bare essentials.. no ram, no video card... no beeps. Tried reinstalling the cpu and heatsink. unplugged and replugged everything. Same thing, not a single beep. Spent 30 minutes on the phone with ASUS and they said they think it is the processor.

 

So I already requested an RMA for the motherboard, and will exchange the cpu tomorrow as well. If I had to guess, I'd say it's the motherboard, but who knows. Either way, looks like I'll be waiting a week or week and a half to move on.

[smeared]

well, I answered one of my own questions and decided to hook up the essentials and make sure they work. Kind of glad I did as it didn't turn out so well.

 

Steady DRAM LED lit. Tried the mem ok button. No sound from a speaker I plugged into it. Tried all the memory, then 3, then 2, then 1. Same thing, no beeps. Ended up just trying the bare essentials.. no ram, no video card... no beeps. Tried reinstalling the cpu and heatsink. unplugged and replugged everything. Same thing, not a single beep. Spent 30 minutes on the phone with ASUS and they said they think it is the processor.

 

So I already requested an RMA for the motherboard, and will exchange the cpu tomorrow as well. If I had to guess, I'd say it's the motherboard, but who knows. Either way, looks like I'll be waiting a week or week and a half to move on.

 

WAIT! SUCCESS!

 

I took everything completely apart this morning, and rebuilt it very slowly and remounted it, and everything is working!

 

I have no idea what was wrong. But I sure am glad that I have it up now.

 

Soon I'll be ordering a cooling system. But for now.. I've spent too much time on this, and clients are waiting.. back to work.. will update in a few days.

[vlad1966]

Very Cool. I'm considering this same mobo, so I'm anxious to see what kind of success you have installing OSX.

V

 

WAIT! SUCCESS!

 

I took everything completely apart this morning, and rebuilt it very slowly and remounted it, and everything is working!

 

I have no idea what was wrong. But I sure am glad that I have it up now.

 

Soon I'll be ordering a cooling system. But for now.. I've spent too much time on this, and clients are waiting.. back to work.. will update in a few days.

[smeared]

Very Cool. I'm considering this same mobo, so I'm anxious to see what kind of success you have installing OSX.

V

 

 

Yeah, I'll definitely let you know. I'll be following this posted method right here http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=199818

 

If I hadn't found that I might have been more hesitant to buy it. But I figured it wouldn't be too different from the P6T, and I'm super psyched about the possibility of the gulftown 6 core in my extended future

 

But I am having more problems. I am getting the bios cpu temperature warning. I've tried putting on the crappy stock heat sink twice with arctic 5. Thinking it may be something else, but I don't have the time to look into it further right now unfortunately.

[smeared]

Alright, I'm back working on it for the moment, until there are changes from the client.

 

I just finished lapping the thermalright TRUE copper.

 

It came pretty badly convex actually. but only about 6mm from the edge, then the edge actually fell off a little bit.

 

I got it very flat, which I'm proud of because this heat sink weighs a ton, and this was not an easy job.. there was no way I was going to be able to move the heatsink to sand it down, I had to use a small piece of glass and move that very carefully instead.

 

You can see in the photo that right near on the edge it's not perfectly flat, but I'd have had to take another 1mm, if not more, off the whole thing just to get the edge flat, when it's not even going to be contacting the heat spreader. So I just left it.

 

I don't really care about mirror finished, so I stopped at 2000, but it's still got a nice shine to it.

 

Next up is lapping the cpu, and installing my hdd rack.

[smeared]

Also, I should be getting the the LAST three items for the build by the end of the week. 3 − 1TB samsung SpinPoint f3 drives.

 

I am selling the barracuda on craigslist as I never had a seagate and decided to check some reviews and it's performance was less than admirable. Also Ive been running 3 of the samsung 500gb spinpoints in my external for over 3 years without a single failure. During which time, the cheap ass power supply for the enclosure has failed 3 times. But anyway. I have to highly recommend samsung drives personally.

 

So come friday.. it's all going to get put together. And the hardware phase of this build will be complete.

 

I'll post in a minute about my hack job of installing the HDD rack.

[danova]

I chose the evga just because my buddy has one and said it would work with os x, and was plenty fast for me, and it's fairly cheap.

________________

download movies

[smeared]

I chose the evga just because my buddy has one and said it would work with os x, and was plenty fast for me, and it's fairly cheap.

 

 

 

Cool, how do you like it? Everything functioning? Ci and such?

[smeared]

So, After about 4 hours of sanding, I'm finally done lapping the CPU.

 

I used about 3 sheets of 220 grit, 3 sheets of 400 grit, and I still couldn't get about a millimeter of the edge flat with the rest. I find that you need to start with a lot of low grit paper to combat intels bulging heat spreader. I gave up after I ran out of sandpaper, but I don't think it's going to effect performance at all.

 

After the low grits I used 600, 800, 1000, 1500, and 2000 to smooth it out. The picture doesn't do it justice.

 

Here is how I ended up modding the top shelf. Holes for the power supply. And I attached the thermaltake hd rack to it. This is the only orientation that would allow me to use the clear plastic door of the g5 case.

 

Also, it's very snug, esp. with the giant video card. With the fan on the right of the hd rack, I have millimeters between it and the video card. but I expect the hd fan to assist with airflow from both the video card, and the power supply.I wanted to almost separate that air flow from the airflow of the cpu.

 

I jb welded nuts on the inside bottom of the hd rack, so that I could tighten the screws, since there was no way I'd fit a wrench in there once the hard drives are in place. Also there is a layer of anti-vibration material between the rack and the shelf.

[smeared]

Heyyyy.. OK, all is up and running as of right now. idle temp in bios is 30 degrees C. But, bios is only report something like 8000 mb of ram. Should I not expect to see 12000?? I know there is something about ram and 64bit os, but I am not sure about bios showing less ram.

 

Heyyyy.. OK, all is up and running as of right now. idle temp in bios is 30 degrees C. But, bios is only report something like 8000 mb of ram. Should I not expect to see 12000?? I know there is something about ram and 64bit os, but I am not sure about bios showing less ram.

 

 

ah ha. Swapping two dimms seems to have fixed that little issue. Now showing 12280 MB.

 

ok, so, overall, Everything is good. Only hiccup I ran into today is that the fan for the hd rack doesn't fit. effing video card. It is soooo cramped in this small case, but everything fits!

 

But, I'm worried about the weight of the TRUE copper. Mainly the crappy motherboard tray i used. I can see the mobo flex slightly when the case is upright. Maybe not enough to worry about, but after time with higher temps.. I don't want to chance it. So tomorrow I think I'll make some kind of a brace for it. it is close to the bottom of the case so I think I can manage something.

 

Right now I'm installing windows 7. I'm pretty psyched right now but still a long way to go.

 

next up:

 

slight case mods for long term use. (heat sink bracket, mesh back, fan placement)

get windows solid.

Install os x

[smeared]

Ok, so right now. Mac OS X is installing on my crucial SSD.

 

I will tell you exactly how I accomplished this. But only up to installing it, as I haven't booted from it yet.

 

I spent the last two days trying 4 different versions of Empire EFI with every flag possible.

 

The one that worked was the newest as of right now, Empire EFI 1.085. Get it here: http://prasys.co.cc/2010/01/empire-efi-v-1-085-is-out/

 

I initially started with my sata DVD-rom plugged into sata port 1 and my ssd plugged into sata port 3, but after trial and error, it's now working with the ssd in port 2. Not sure which is better.. start trying with port 2 and if that doesn't work (still waiting for root message) then try port 2. If you are able to get into the snow leopard dvd, but can't see your hd, then try port 2.

 

Only way I was able to get vesa mode with the gtx 260 was to use a DVI -> VGA adapter and use a clunky old monitor from the basement. Again this is only if you're using the gtx 260.

 

1. you want the regular version, not legacy, not aschars, just the regular 1.085 version.

 

2. Burn the iso to a cd.

 

3. follow the empire instructions. Boot to cd.

 

4. after pressing f5 and waiting a bit, I had to use graphics enabler for the gtx 260, and also had to set pci root to 0. if that doesn't work try -x for safe mode.

 

Type in: GraphicsEnabler=Y PciRoot=0

 

5. if that doesn't boot to the snow leopard dvd, try "-x -f GraphicsEnabler=Y PciRoot=0" that will ignore errors, and safe mode boot.

 

 

 

That's all for now.. I have 5 minutes left in the install.. will update once I've boot successfully for the first time from the ssd.