Hi,

UPDATED: Have placed Order and updated part list below.

New PC being put together specifically for OSx86. Have spent most of day pulling this list together. I am mainly concerned with my mobo and wifi compatibility. Does the configuration sound good?

Critical Components:
GIGABYTE GA-EP35-DS3L - $85
Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 -$195
EVGA 512-P3-N801-AR GeForce 8800 GT 512MB - 149.99
ASUS WL-138g V2 PCI - $23
G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) DDR2 1066 (PC2 8500) - $110

Non-Critical (Case/HDD/CD)
Rosewill R230-P-BK - $27
APEVIA ATX-CW500WP4 500W - $40
Western Digital Caviar SE16 WD6400AAKS 640GB - $85
SAMSUNG 22X DVD Burner Black SATA - $25

Misc:
OKGEAR 18" SATA II cable - $4
GENERIC 73CT-01-0840-BK Cable Tie - $5 (100count)
GIGABYTE 2GB USB Flash Drive Gift - Free with Mobo

Total: ~$780 (that final price including shipping and everything)

Some good threads I have found for my configuration - I think ...
http://forum.insanelymac.com/index.php?showtopic=111156
http://forum.insanelymac.com/index.php?showtopic=86167
http://forum.insanelymac.com/index.php?showtopic=115824
http://forum.insanelymac.com/index.php?showtopic=79891

Motherboard:
http://forum.insanelymac.com/index.php?showtopic=120540
http://forum.insanelymac.com/index.php?showtopic=112708

Video:
http://forum.insanelymac.com/index.php?showtopic=91755

Wifi:
http://forum.insanelymac.com/index.php?showtopic=34153
http://forum.insanelymac.com/index.php?showtopic=113846
http://forum.insanelymac.com/index.php?showtopic=111064

Tell me what you think. Any problems I may be buying into?. Thank you,
DPC

Get a SATA dvd drive instead of IDE, imo.

No point, a DVD drive hasn't hit it's limits with IDE. If it were blu-ray, I'd say go with sata, but only go with sata if you don't want more cables in your computer.

I will take a look at some SATA optical drives. Come to think of it I dont need IDE anymore....

Anything that you may think I may want to add? I have huge budget if I need it. But I am looking for a good value (so no quad extreme, etc.). Type of guy who still uses an ancient b wifi router simply because my internet has not even come to using it.

I am a tech by trade and doing this as simply a fun project to keep me occupied (similar to many others on these forums). Something about OSX86 draws back every couple months...

DPC

Yeah but the Jmicron IDE controller causes kernel panics with greater than 3gb of ram and while I am commenting I hate to disparage a brand but every Chaintech product I have every owned was a piece of junk I won't touch them at all now, so to the OP maybe you may want to try another brand for the video.

I have went ahead and chose a EVGA 8800GT 512mb. Had strong reviews and looked good for the price.

Also went ahead and grabbed a SATA dvd burner. I did it because it will be easier for cable management.

The current computer Im using is one I put together that is a cheapo Sempron 3400+ and the Chaintech 8600gt (I was going to pull this one but not anymore) and 1.5gb mixed ram.. A 280 watt PSU (ridiculous yes but it works like a tank). A strong workhorse machine I do have to say though. It hasnt failed me yet.

This is crazy. You can put togther a highend (very high in my opinion) machine for 780 bucks.

Good choice I have that same card one thing though if you value a quiet computer you may want to go with an after market HS&F there is no way to control the fan speed (or read temperatures for that matter) in OS X so it can be rather loud it defaults to full on as far as I can tell, I went with a Thermal Right HR-03 with a nice 120mm fan attached with tie downs.


Also saved the inevitable "Why am I getting kernel panics?" question.



Yeah shocking what your computer dollar will buy you these days, happy times indeed!!!

Took a quite look at the ThermalRight Hr-03. Its a rather spendy addition ($50 for no performance gain.... then again how much is your peace of mind worth??). Initially I will try out the stock configuration.

Later on I am considering overclocking my Q6600 to the magical 3.0ghz. I will naturally upgrade my CPU cooling module and will consider upgrading the GPU cooling (if only keep case cooler). But this is something that I will probably do closer to a snow leopard release.

Ouch, that sucks on both parts...D:

Thanks for the tips everyone - saved myself from several bad buys (gfx, and cd). Much appreciated!

That being said any tips, links, guides, etc for this hackintosh? I have iaktosv4 and Jas10.5.4c/s both ready to hit the machine.

Someone posted the Jas10.5.4 options:
http://forum.insanelymac.com/index.php?act...st&id=32374

Any ideas on the options to choose? Suggestions,best practices etc? Not my first hackintosh but the prior ones never had compatible hardware (video mainly, but wifi too).

Once again thank you everyone.

I've built almost identical machines, and it's hard to go wrong using sWORDs' guide.

This is using Leo4Allv3 plus the Kalyway 10.5.3 update, which I've had perfect results with. Following the linked guide you can do an install and update to 10.5.4 in roughly 30 minutes. I'm pretty sure the Kalyway install DVD would work perfectly too with that setup.

I have no idea how JAS works on that hardware, but based on what I know, I'd try:

Kernel: default
Chipset: Intel-ICHx
Video: none, patch after install with EFI studio
Network: LAN should work OOB, wireless: not sure, hopefully OOB as well.
Audio: ALC888
SMBIOS: 1066

Looks good, dont see any problems your should encounter at all. Have fun putting it together!

Its coming in the mail tomorrow...

Anything that might want to find out? Perhaps how it handles a certain game? I got my hands on several PC games and mac games so I will do some tests.

Also have latest iaktos, jas, leo4allv3 that I will giving spins to... I am looking forward to the Jas 10.5.4 though mainly because latest updates are slip-streamed.

Its has arrived. Its all put together. I must say the case looks very decent. Want some pics?

Anyways have install 10.5.4 JAS. So far I have:
Audio Works - But need to get it to show up properly in sys info - Ideas?
Video Works with EFI studio
Wifi Works out of box (nothing needs to be select)
Not sure about ethernet (havent tested)
Shutdown issues....

Any ideas?

I have install with JAS 10.5.4 wiht ICHx under chipset, ALC888 under Audio, and SMBios.

INSANE WINDOWS XP PERFORMANCE!!!

I just played a little TF2 at maxed out everything (res is only 1280x1024 unfortunately due to monitor constraints) but full AA and everything.... At spawn I get 120-200fps and at battles I get 45-75... Now that is amazing.

good to hear a success story with this board, I should be up and running my wed. too *holds breath*

One last reply before I let this thread die...

So its been roughly one month now. Here are some thoughts:

Use 10.5.4 JAS (much easier)
RAM arrived bad (sent off to RMA with newegg - hope next set works fine). CD drive seemed to act up so I RMAed that as well (just to be sure). Using 2gb (2x1gb) of crucial at the moment.
Use CCClone to make diskimage for later reinstalls (keep it close to as to a OSX vanilla install to get the "perfect feel" - so no codecs/apps that are not absolutely needed)

OSX runs like a beast on this machine - Super awesome performance. Not a single crash in OSX (even with the bad memory - XP was BSODing occasionally). Everything I have tried thus far works like a tank.

XP works awesome on this thing as well. I have held some late night matches of TF2 and C&C3 and AOE2 and I love it. Nothing more to ask for.

Definitely recommend this build - Other then the RAM (bound to happen to someone) I have had a great experience thus far.

I have an Iphone and I am looking to possibly to purchase macbook (for fun). OSX has been a real treat to work with thus far.

Good luck to everyone

Nice.
Thanks for being one of the RARE FEW that actually posts back and lets people know how things went.

Did you have any problems with the wifi? I need wifi in my house because I have no way of routing cables to the upstairs. Are there any wifi N options?

@delicatepc

Thanks for your time and effort in following up on this post. I am new to the osx86 scene and wasn't sure where to start to look for a stable configuration. I decided to take the plunge to build a hackintosh and your post helped me tremendously. The links you posted are awesome, made my shopping much easier. I bought the same processor, mobo, case, video card, wireless card, dvd burner, and sata cables. I went a cheaper route for the memory and got 4x 1gb sticks of ram for $66, bringing the shipped total to $693, minus $30 in mailed rebates. Eventually I want to buy a mac pro case off of ebay to complete my hack. I should receive the parts on 9/15/08, and I will also post my progress in this post because I am using the same configuration. Hopefully my experience will help out others, as your posts have helped me. Again many thanks, and hopefully you are still around if I have a couple of questions.

Nate

My mac is up and running great!!!

I used your instructions and had absolutely no problems with my install.

To elaborate on your instructions, when installing JAS 10.5.4 i used these settings:

-JAS (non server version)
-Kernals - Stage XNU, Intel SSE2 SSE3, 9.2.0 Sleep
-Chipset - ICHX
-SMBIOS-800 - (may be different based on the speed of your memory.

I don't know if these are the best settings, but it worked like a charm in my setup.