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Complete N00b would like to try and build a hackintosh

drvr8
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drvr8
drvr8
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I've never built my own pc before but I would very much like to try and build a hackintosh system and run leopard on it. I am mainly into gaming and would want to run the upcoming diablo 3 on it with a good video card and maybe do some video editing, and large scale photo and graphic work on it as well. I've been looking at some of the build guides but I haven't really found a detailed setup that i would be able to buy and set up for under $1000? Is there any recommendations on an easy, reliable product buy list + basic guide for putting together your own pc? thanks. again i'm a total n00b at building anything out of the box. I've only done hardware upgrades, and setting the right jumper settings on my old scsi drives. I did overclock my old g3 and had to set up a heat sink on it, but that is the extent of my experience. My dual g5 died, the processors shut down, so would i be able to recycle anything from that system? The power supply may be buggy on it cause if it runs for any longer than 2 minutes it sounds like the jet engine.

Ingram
Ingram
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Nvidia Geforce 8800+ gfx card (make sure it's nvidia, because ati blows...). 8xxx seems to be supported, i'm not sure about 9k or 200 series

Intel Core2... Processor so hackintosh will support the processor things.

Mainboard - here we can discuss alot, because looking for budget mainboards, start looking at gigabyte ones, if you have some money to spend, then asus is your next friend. These brands have usually HD audio and gigabit lan functionalities.

Memory: 2-4 gb at dual channel and better if the freq is 800mhz... if i remember correctly, sharing 4x1gb or 2x1gb does the job better than 1x4gb or 1x2gb. I need memory refresh :( memories are cheap and they get cheaper by month.

Harddrive: best brands for hackintosh are western digital and seagate i think... also prices are very cheap as we all have noticed. HDD capacity is your own choice, 300-500gb should do fine...

Case: more like an eyecandy thing.

Power supply: 500W+ should do, a proper psu costs around 80 bucks.

Cooling: Good cooling = system stability.

Putting together: some companies put them together taking some extra charge. Good thing about it is that they are pros and won't damage your parts or elements.

Optical Drives: hm... make just sure that one supports reading and preferably writing Double Layer discs...

 

Just i have no clue about the motherboard chipset so some experts will know what you would possibly want.

BebopBlues
BebopBlues
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A member here named sarahbau has a page that shows compatible parts from cheap systems to expensive one. I thought it was helpful for the newbies out there. Its down now but message her about bringing back the Hackintosh Deal of the Day page.

drvr8
drvr8
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i was looking on newegg.com and put together a wish list. I have been double checking two and three times over with the 10.5.2 compatibility list and everything seemed to check off on there:

 

newegg wishlist

BlackCH
BlackCH
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Two full compatible mATX boards:

Intel DG31PR (cheap, ICH7, FSB1333, supports quadcores)

ASUS P5K-VM (far one of the best boards for OSX)

You need a NVidia PCI-E graphic card, 7100, 7300, 7600, 7900, 8xxx series, even 6xxx series will work.

minimum of 2GB ram,

Any core 2 duo would do (all depends on how much you want to spend), you can even start with a E2xx0 (pentium dual) or Celeron 400 series if you want to go really cheap.

The most important thing is the motherboard; all the rest is basically upgradable.

drvr8
drvr8
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my list right now then is:

 

MB: Asus P5K-VM

CPU: Q9300 yorkfield

CPU cooler: Artic cooling freezer 7 + artic cooling mx-2 thermal compound

RAM: G.Skill 4GB (2x2gb) 240-pin DDR2 SDRAM 1066 (PC2 8500)

GFX: MSI NX8800GT 512M 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0x16

Case: Antec 900 (it looks like a monster but I like the fans...noise better than overheating?)

PSU: Rosewill Stallion Series RD600n-2DB-SL-BK 600W ATX

dvd: Lite-On LH-20A1S (the compatible samsung was out of stock at newegg)

HD: seagate Barracuda 7200.11 750gb (read the 7200.10 was not as compatible?)

LAN: Encore ENLGA-1320

 

A copy of windows vista home premium and a family pack of leopard. I have a couple other macs that we can update the system.

 

Total with tax & shipping at newegg is $1400.

 

Any thoughts or warnings is greatly appreciated.

farukp
farukp
Posted
Posted
Two full compatible mATX boards:

Intel DG31PR (cheap, ICH7, FSB1333, supports quadcores)

ASUS P5K-VM (far one of the best boards for OSX)

You need a NVidia PCI-E graphic card, 7100, 7300, 7600, 7900, 8xxx series, even 6xxx series will work.

minimum of 2GB ram,

Any core 2 duo would do (all depends on how much you want to spend), you can even start with a E2xx0 (pentium dual) or Celeron 400 series if you want to go really cheap.

The most important thing is the motherboard; all the rest is basically upgradable.

 

Hi. Why go with mATX, why not with a normal ATX? Can you suggest some of these?

 

Thanks

sWORDs
sWORDs
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It's very easy. Get a Gigabyte p35 board DS3(L/R/P), DS4 or DQ6 with a Core 2 Duo/Quad processor, SATA dvd/hd drives get a nVidia GF8 card, and USB keyboard/mouse. Check the DDR2 (P35C/P35/EP35) or DDR3 (P35C/P35T) Memory Support List for compatible memory. Then install like this.

 

Extreme (1200 euro):

- Premium case + Premium PSU

- GA-EP35-DS3P rev. 2.1 (Firewire/Energie efficient, no DDR3 support but who cares)

- Intel Core™ 2 Quad Q9450 or Xeon® X3350 (2.66GHz, 12MB cache, 1333Mhz FSB, Yorkfield 45nm)

- 4x MICRON MT16HTF25664AY-1GAEZES (8GB DDR2 1066)

- nVidia 8800 GTS 512MB (Might be very usefull for Snow Leopard with Cuda)

- If you buy 2 or more SATA HD's and also have a spare drive (you need a working installation to clone and edit from before booting the array) you can use Apple Software RAID with this guide, which will increase your performance a lot. Don't care about the word software, the raid controllers on desktop boards also use software RAID.

- SATA burner

 

Cheap (270 euro):

- Standard Case 400 Watt

- GA-P35-DS3L rev. 2.0

- Intel Pentium Dual-Core E2180 (2Ghz, 1MB cache, 800MHz FSB, Conroe 65nm) it's a Core 2 Duo, don't mind the Pentium name

- 2x Kingston KVR667D2N5/1G (2GB DDR2 667)

- nVidia 8400 GS 256MB

- Samsung Spinpoint T166 320 GB

- Sony AD-7200S Black

 

Or anything in between.

 

About the Gigabyte p35 boards, I'll try to explain the differences for OSX:

 

EP35/P35:

Gigabyte claims EP are more efficient atleast because of DES (works best with 45nm processor), but DES is software on the GA-P35 boards (p45 boards contain a Intersil hardware chip) which can actually be added to the rev 2.1 GA-P35 boards by bios update aswell (GA-P35-DS4, GA-P35-DS3P, GA-P35C-DS3R, GA-P35-DS3R, GA-P35-DS3)

 

35/35C/35T

35 is DDR2, 35C is DDR2/DDR3, 35T is DDR3. The performance upgrade of DDR3 is so small that I'd recommend DDR2 based on price.

 

DS3/DS3L/DS3P/DS3R/DS4/DQ6

I'm not going to talk about the differences in Power Phases or Silent Pipe, I really can't say that they make any difference in overclock so I'll ignore them. I'm not going to talk about RAID, because Intel Matrix Raid won't work in OSX, the only advantage of the RAID boards is two more Intel SATA connectors. I'm not going to talk about DTS Connect, because it doesn't work in OSX anyway. I'm not going to talk about Realtek 883/888/889a because it does not make much difference. I'm not going to talk about Realtek Lan chips because they all can work well.

 

-Firewire

There is no firewire on DS3, DS3L and DS3R.

 

-Dual PCI-e x16

There is only one PCI Express x16 slot on DS3, DS3L and DS3R. You can't use Crossfire/SLI (not supported on p35 anyway) on OSX, so you only need this for Triple/Quad displays or using a compatible SATA/SAS raidcontroller.

 

Summary:

Feature based selection you should only have to choose if you need Firewire or Dual PCI-e x16.

No FireWire and no 2x X16 -> GA-EP35-DS3 (or GA-EP35DS3R if you want two extra Intel Sata Connectors)

FireWire and 2x X16 -> GA-EP35-DS3P

 

I would not recommend DS3L because it has less overclocking options.

I would not recommend DS4/DQ6 because they don't offer any real advantages and are more expensive.

sWORDs
sWORDs
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Can you suggest something for about 400-600 Euros. Best GPU is not a must, but I play once in a while Top Spin 2 :-) A lot of RAM could be useful, 4-8 GB maybe.

Do you need FireWire, do you want software RAID, how much storage do you need? Graphics might be important for CUDA/OpenCL support in Snow Leopard (10.6), some tasks that are better handled by GPU then CPU will be performed by GPU which will be able to perform that tasks up to 7 times faster.

 

Standard 400watt case + DS3P + Q6600 (try to overclock it) + 4GB DDR2 800 + 3x 320GB + SATA BURNER + 8800GT 512 < 600 euro. Or < 650 with 8GB.

farukp
farukp
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Posted
Do you need FireWire, do you want software RAID, how much storage do you need? Graphics might be important for CUDA support in Snow Leopard (10.6), some tasks that are better handled by GPU then CPU will be performed by GPU which will be able to perform that tasks up to 7 times faster.

 

Standard 400watt case + DS3P + Q6600 (try to overclock it) + 4GB DDR2 800 + 3x 320GB + SATA BURNER + 8800GT 512 < 600 euro. Or < 650 with 8GB.

 

 

Hi. Raid is not important. Firewire is important - I work a little with videos. What is going to be CUDA, and which card support this? Can you suggest some cheaper GPU? These 8800GT are in Europe a bit expensive, or do you mean, I am going to need this and should maybe save somewhere else?

 

Is a 400Watt enough?

 

Do I really need a SATA Burner? I have an IDE LG Double Layer Burner which is about 2 years old.

 

Q6600 or some other Duo should be ok. Overclocking will not be necessary. Stable is better.

 

So the Gigabyte GA-EP35-DS3P, P35 should be ok.

sWORDs
sWORDs
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Posted
Hi. Raid is not important. Firewire is important - I work a little with videos. What is going to be CUDA, and which card support this? Can you suggest some cheaper GPU? These 8800GT are in Europe a bit expensive, or do you mean, I am going to need this and should maybe save somewhere else?

 

Is a 400Watt enough?

 

Do I really need a SATA Burner? I have an IDE LG Double Layer Burner which is about 2 years old.

 

Q6600 or some other Duo should be ok. Overclocking will not be necessary. Stable is better.

 

So the Gigabyte GA-EP35-DS3P, P35 should be ok.

I'm in europe too :P. What CUDA/Grand Central/OpenCL will mean for osx is explained in that post, if you want to know more, see wikipedia or nVidia. The 8800GT 512 is available here for 120 euro, I think for price/performance its the best buy with Snow Leopard in mind.

 

The system shouldn't reach more then 280 watt under full load, so a 400 watt should be enough.

 

Using JMicron SATA or IDE is not recommended put possible (you'll need to patch Kalyway/Leo4all image with Chameleon to be able to boot from IDE DVD), so is PS/2. Sata burners are available for 19 euro's so why bother with an old IDE burner?

 

Overclocking a low rated Core2Duo/Quad within chipset supported busspeeds won't hurt stability, the yields are so good they all overclock perfectly. I've got mine at 3GHz prime/orthos stable without raising any voltage. 3.6 stable with vcore increase.

 

If RAID isn't important you can save on harddisks.

farukp
farukp
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Posted
I'm in europe too :P. What CUDA/Grand Central/OpenCL will mean for osx is explained in that post, if you want to know more, see wikipedia or nVidia. The 8800GT 512 is available here for 120 euro, I think for price/performance its the best buy with Snow Leopard in mind.

 

The system shouldn't reach more then 280 watt under full load, so a 400 watt should be enough.

 

Using JMicron SATA or IDE is not recommended put possible (you'll need to patch Kalyway/Leo4all image with Chameleon to be able to boot from IDE DVD), so is PS/2. Sata burners are available for 19 euro's so why bother with an old IDE burner?

 

Overclocking a low rated Core2Duo/Quad within chipset supported busspeeds won't hurt stability, the yields are so good they all overclock perfectly. I've got mine at 3GHz prime/orthos stable without raising any voltage. 3.6 stable with vcore increase.

 

If RAID isn't important you can save on harddisks.

 

OK. Thank you for your advice. If Cuda or whatever is going to be that important, than I will not save on the GPU and get one of those 8800GTs. The Burner as well. Where can I check, how much Watt is being used for each component?

 

How about the Antec Three Hundred Case with the 500W PSU, is that ok too? Or would you suggest some nice low-noise psu?

 

Which CPU Cooler would you suggest? It should not be very loud at idle..

sWORDs
sWORDs
Posted
Posted

You can check max usage of the chip specified by nVidia and Intel for graphics, chipset and cpu.

 

500W Antec PSU will be fine.

 

Actually the stock Intel coolers aren't bad at all. You could use a zalman, scyth or whatever. Just make sure it's a 4 pins, else it won't be temperature driven.

farukp
farukp
Posted
Posted
You can check max usage of the chip specified by nVidia and Intel for graphics, chipset and cpu.

 

500W Antec PSU will be fine.

 

Actually the stock Intel coolers aren't bad at all. You could use a zalman, scyth or whatever. Just make sure it's a 4 pins, else it won't be temperature driven.

 

Hi. Are the stock Intel coolers temperature driven? If yes, then I´ll just get the boxed. Or would you prefer the alternative for peace while working easy going things....

 

And there is no ATI which you could suggest. Or is this because of the CUDA thing?

sWORDs
sWORDs
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Posted

The extreme versions are only higher clocked cpu speeds (and bus speeds for Q9775 and QX6850). Barely faster but much more expensive. I would buy a Q6600 when you'll overclock or a Q9300 when you don't, based on price/performance. With Snow Leopard in mind quad core makes sense because Grand Central will ensure even better multicore support.

sWORDs
sWORDs
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Posted
ok thanks.... but according to this, a 400W psu is never going to be enough:

Q6600 + 8800GT + P35 = 130 + 110 + 16 = 256 so total system should top at 300 Watt (real world stress test should top at 270), a 400 Watt psu should be able to reach 340-350 and 310-320 after a few years. I've got a 530 Watt psu and I can clock the hell out of every component and still have no issues.

 

Bad psu's can damage a lot. Harddrives are very sensitive, but I've seen multiple mb's going in to a system and fail after a short time with a bad psu.

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