Guys,

I lurked here for a while putting together the rig I settled on. I wanted to post some thoughts on the experience overall.

First, the hardware list:

Intel E8400
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16819115037

4GB Memory
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16820231166

Gigabyte Mobo
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16813128337

EVGA 8800GT
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16814130318

640GB HD
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16822136218

SATA DVD Burner
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16827151171

Antec 900
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16811129021

500W PS
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16817148027

The one thing I would mention is that this power supply comes with only one SATA power cable, so you have to have an adapter in order to power the DVD burner if you don't put them close together in the case. Now, I had one lying around from old Mobo purchases, but the Gigabyte didn't come with one. I was surprised. If you're starting fresh, be sure to add a power adaptor if you don't have one lying around...

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16812104652

I ended up using the Kalyway disc which worked really well for me. My advice to you is to go ahead and upgrade to 10.5.4 via the combo update and then apple software update. Do that before you load things like the nvidia drivers since you'll have to do it again after the updates.

Expect everything to work right off the bat, but you'll need to tweak things to get them to run well. For example, the ethernet works, but you get hostname errors and time machine doesn't work until you update the IONet kext. Video will work, but 3d is a bust until you get the nVidia injecter. Sound will work, but the mic will not until you get the audio codex...

If people want it, I'll post links to every site I ended up applying updates from in order to get this exact rig to work. Better to do the digging yourself though. "Give a man a fish/Teach a man to fish" type of thing.

great!!! thanks for that.

I'm just wondering why did you settle on a C2D and not a C2Q?

I ended up going that route because I tend to play a lot of games. WOW Native on OSX was a big factor in me finally trying it out. In addition, I am running Crossover Games to run Steam Powered games like Portal/HL2/CS:S...

All this to say that most of these applications don't take advantage of extra cores. Instead, they want a faster clock on a single core. That being the case, I went with fewer cores at a higher speed.

Never owned a mac or built a pc and first post in this forum. Was thinking about building a hack since I need a new computer for CAD anyway. Would get osx, xp and vmware fusion to tie it all together. I plan on getting hardware similar to your choices so do you think it would work well for what I want? Am I crazy for building a hackintosh to use for work even though I will need it for CAD? Thanks for any help you may offer.