joshd Posted October 23, 2008 Share Posted October 23, 2008 Total noob questions: Just about to dive into my first Hackintosh. I'm thinking about doing this because I already have a Mac Pro that I use for work but the Mini isn't cutting it for gaming in the living room. The challenge of building my own system also sounds like it could be rewarding. 1. Can I expect to have a Mac-like experience after I've gone through the build and set everything up (nearly crash-free, quiet, not much ongoing tweaking)? Or, should I expect to get what I paid for (it'll run 4 times worse than an equivalent official system at 1/4 the price)? 2. What would you recommend in terms of hardware ingredients? I'm looking to build a decent gaming system (8800GT) with a 3+ GHz Dual Core processor. I'd like to have FireWire available for my EyeTV. 3. Finally, is it worth the extra $ to buy something pre-built (like a Dell desktop)? Thanks very much. Josh Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
~ BlurKing Posted October 23, 2008 Share Posted October 23, 2008 Answers to your questions.. 1. Yep it would crash very easily, and it's more unstable than a real Macintosh. If you do not install any system updates you should be fine. At least fine on Vanilla installs on Intel procs. On AMD systems, practically all updates must be patched. Depending on the hardware, you might need to constantly tweak things (for me every bootup/restart I have to sleep and wake my computer to get Bluetooth and sound to work, quite a wierd solution for Lenovo computers...). Depending on your hardware you might also have noisy or quiet machines... Kernel Panics are also very common (especially when installing OS updates...) 3. If you do not want to build your own computer, you can buy those pre-built computers... but bear in mind that most of them do not work fully at all. You must buy external USB equivalents.. oh and Boot Camp does not work on Hackintoshes... and assuming you do not know anything about Hackintoshes, here's some explanations... 1. Vanilla = stock Apple things, quite stock, but for stuff like kernels they need to be modified... 2. You cannot install a retail version of Mac OS X Intel on a normal PC. They need to be patched (either download one or create 1 yourself (with complicated methods)), or an alternative (and complicated) way is to download (and modify) a Boot-132 CD, which allows you to boot a retail Mac OS X Intel INSTALL DVD/CD (PPC and Restore CD/DVDs do not work). 3. Intel that works with Vanilla things are stuff like Core Duo, Core 2 Duo. Pentiums and AMDs work after lots of patching... 4. Some users have problems with sleep (mine wakes immediately), shutdown and restart. 5. For noobs, it's best to download the latest version of Mac OS X (10.5.5), although 10.5.4 and 10.5.1 are the most available ones (I have only found 1 version of 10.5.5 on DVD). Updating to a later version is very difficult for some (I failed my 10.5.4 to 10.5.5 update 3 times before succeeding) although most people are able to upgrade very easily. Every time an update is released, you just have to google the update many many times before finding the method to update (most of the time it requires Terminal) benefits of a Hackintosh: 1. You learn lots about Mac OS X (Now I know how to use Terminal and disk utility and the system in whole) 2. I learnt what kext files are, what mach_kernel and kernel files are, what plists are, etc etc 3. Hackintoshes give a full Macintosh experience (apart from upgrading) (but they do not have the startup sound and bootup is very non-Mac like) 4. Solving Hackintosh problems is a good time waster! Overall, if you have lots of time, a Hackintosh is a fun thing to do (but beware, it's against Apple's EULA, and it'll most likely be pirated, so buy a copy of Leopard and stick the included Apple stickers on your Hackintosh. That should solve the EULA problem...) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Korrupted Posted October 23, 2008 Share Posted October 23, 2008 Genius Bar isn't the section for questions. Moving. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zaap Posted October 23, 2008 Share Posted October 23, 2008 Good grief. If you haven't actually built or used a wide range of Hackintosh variants, don't purport to offer up an authoritative post on the overall Hackintosh experience, with misleading (and false) proclamations like "It'll just crash and be unstable, and you'll be tweaking it all the time." Sure, that can happen IF: You don't know how to, or refuse to follow instructions. You don't follow the HCL Wiki and pick parts that don't actually work, or parts that work half-assed. You buy a pre-built system with no idea what exact hardware it has and just expect OSX to automagically run on it. If you'd like a Hackintosh that isn't all of that, rather, that is stable, that doesn't crash, that can be updated, that doesn't require constant tweaking, (I haven't had to tweak anything since the day I first set my machine up 5 or 6 months ago) then stick with hardware that's known to work, and follow various guides written by people that *AHEM* actually know what the deuce they're talking about. Read the threads around this forum from people that have successful builds, and learn what hardware they use, and exactly how they set it up. Double-check the hardware WiKi before you buy anything (motherboard type and graphic card being the most critical parts for success) and give it a try. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
joshd Posted October 23, 2008 Author Share Posted October 23, 2008 Thanks guys. Would you have specific hardware recommendations? I've found a lot of tutorials at the Genius Bar here but not sure what is the most current or appropriate given the ever-changing state of the hardware. In other words... got a list or got links? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Khan_Man Posted October 23, 2008 Share Posted October 23, 2008 Hi, I'm a little worried that U are looking for a quick fix. The resouces are already here but.... Gigabyte GA-EP45-DS3R would be my choice for MBoard Either an 8800GT or a 3870 video card any of the C2D or C2Q processors (might want to check the gigabyte website for compat processors) hard drives, optical drives, mem, case, powersupply to match. If U are looking for an cheeper or easier build I'd go with a Intel D945GCLF2, parts to match. Khan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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