Does anyone have any hardware suggestions for a Hackintosh under $300? I already have hard drives, a DVD-RW drive and a case. I want to be able to at least use Front Row and iLife 08. Thanks to everyone here!

Wow that would be quite a deal. Good luck!

You can try the stuff in my sig, its probably cheap now...

Nope. I looked up the processor and it was over $350.

in the genious bar, there is a sub-250 dollar hackintosh build with all required patches and stuff included. It usis a mini/microatx board with a preinstalled intel atom. The board+cpu is under 150$, I think.

Go AMD

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16813128360 Mobo

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16819103255 CPU'

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16814131115 Graphic

Under $300 and should be fully compateble

mine was about $350 canadian, so around $300 american. pieced together from ncix and tigerdirect.
nforce 630i board
pentium d 3.0 ghz
gefore 8800 gs 392 mb
3 gig ram
500 gb hard drive
dvd-rom

AHA! Found it! I only need the motherboard, the fan, and the PSU, which amounts up to $150 USD!

If anyone has a hackintosh with this build, can they run some benchmarks? Thanks.

it's to weak for Ilife and Front row becouse it uses GMA 950 and a Atom prossesor

Linky for the curious?

Yeah, I think it's http://www.forum.insanelymac.com/index.php?showtopic=113623
I am not exactly sure, as my only means of Internet browsing are through an iPod touch... No copy and paste.
Anyways, a GMA 950 will run front row and iLife perfectly. The previous gen MacBooks had it, they came with both built-in.

The Atom is like the intel core solo used in previous Mac Minis.

Edit: The link doesn't work. Just google (with quotes) "Build a perfect mac for less than $250"

Personal question to Nick14: you posted some links above for mobo, cpu and graphics card. Do you think that everything (under everything I mean lan,audio,sata I know that integrated ATI won't work) will work? Because I am considering buying this mobo with the cpu you linked.

Stick with Intel. Benefits are many- you can stay with the vanilla kernel using hacks like Kalyway, Leo, iDeneb, or do a full retail install with boot-132, which then allows nearly effortless System Updates. Pound for pound, Intel performance also trashes AMD. (And I say this as an owner of many AMD systems). It was bad enough vs. the C2D, but the new i7 smokes anything AMD so bad it's embarrassing.

Mobos:

Search ebay for seller Macpalace7- he sells brand new, never opened P35-DS3L ATX boards for $75 and free shipping. ( I just built 2 machines with these) It's hard to find a more compatible mobo for Hackintosh. Takes the full retail OSX install like a champ, and everything works.

Or, cheaper, but still very good:

Intel DG31PR

Gigabyte GA-EG31M-S2


Processor:
E2180 Allendale



Memory (if needed):
Transcend 4GB DDR2 800


Use any mac-compatible graphic card, IE:
Zotac 7300GT

Are the mobo and the cpu you've written compatible? And would everything from the mobo be supported? I mean the Intel mobo, not the Gigabyte one.

Xcode, iphoto and front row on such a configuration?

Is it important from which manufacturer the ram will be (for example not Transced, but Corsair)?

And the graphics probably 7200gs (from EVGA) instead of 7300GT?

Check the HCL Wiki (outdated as far as the latest boards, yes, but still a lot of relevant info). I've built several systems with that Intel board, and it works great. Everything works, audio just requires a patch which is common for any Hackintosh. I've installed this board with Leo4All, but it can also be installed with the retail. (By far, retail installs make for the best systems).



I've never used Xcode, but it should certainly run. Front row and iphoto, absolutely. If you really want the best compatibility, and easy to set up system, I recommend the Gigabyte P35 board from ebay, though the Intel is great also.


Corsair will work fine- any decent brand of DDR2 800 will work with any of these boards- the P35 will take DDR2 1066.


Again, check the Wiki. The 7200GS should work fine- enabled with EFI Studio. I'd only recommend it if you already have one- I wouldn't buy one, unless it was super dirt cheap.

Thanks a lot for the help, maybe I'll buy the parts even this week