Components advice, new build - excited noob seeks experienced OSx86'er for advice

[squidwardd]

Hoping to catch your attention with a funny topic title.

 

I literally just came across this community in the last 5 days and am so excited. My wife has to use a Mac for her graphic design work and I was looking at the price tags of those new Mac Pro's and grimacing. Someone in a signature line of a posting said they were running a Hackintosh with Leopard 10.5.5. I googled Hackintosh and the rest is history. I used a PC and Kalyway 10.5.2 to successfully install Leopard on a spare hard drive this past weekend. Now I'm jumping in full speed and am looking for advice.

 

As my wife complains when any piece of electronics doesn't work perfectly, especially her cursed fonts, and the display has to be just perfect, I am already hearing about my little project. So I need to purchase the most compatible hardware that runs everything especially the video card.

 

Please please please give me your thoughts on my proposed configuration. I have spent a fair number of hours reading through the postings and hope that I've selected a configuration that will be most compatible and kick some serious butt.

 

(FYI. Newegg public wish list does not appear to be working as I can't publish mine)

Total net price after rebates of ~$820 depending on shipping cost of out of stock motherboard

 

Motherboard: GIGABYTE GA-EP45-DS3L LGA 775, $87.99 after mail-in rebate, http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16813128345

Processor: Intel Core 2 Quad Q9550 Yorkfield 2.83GHz 12MB L2 Cache LGA 775, $319.99, http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16819115041

Video Card:MSI N9800GT-T2D512-OC GeForce 9800 GT 512MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16, $94.99 after rebate, http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16814127381

RAM: OCZ Platinum 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 1066 (PC2 8500), $55.99 after promo code and rebate, http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...-L4D-_-20227298

Hard Drive: Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 1TB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA, $109.99, http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16822148274

DVD-RW: LG, $23.99, http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16827136152

Keyboard: (gotta have the apple key) APPLE Ultra-Thin Keyboard - Wired USB Model MB110LL/A, $49, http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16823101006

Power Supply: APEVIA ATX-CW500WP4 500W ATX Power Supply, $24.99 after rebate, http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16817148027

Case: COOLER MASTER Centurion 534, $49.99, http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16811119104

 

Please, I'm desperately seeking affirmation that the above components will result in a stable, compatible, and phenomenal OSx86.

I would love to purchase today/tonight.

I included everything but I think the most critical are motherboard and video card. The Gigabyte motherboard looks to be highly compatible and a fan favorite based on the postings. And it can run vanilla, I believe.

The video card I'm less sure about. Honestly, my weekend install had a bit of a haze or fuzziness or simply a lack of crispness that my wife found to be a complaint/concern. Hence my extra caution.

I've built lots of PC's from their parts and know Windows and Mac quite well. I wil admit kext's and terminal are all new to me but I'd love to be able to update just by using the vanilla Software Update.

Ah, but my excitement makes me digress. Must have components first.

 

I thank you in advance for your time and comments.

[MacUser2525]

I am just about to pull the trigger on a new build at Newegg myself everything looks fine except that power supply the most important part of any system. I would suggest something like this.

 

http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?...N82E16817371015

 

Now it is more expensive but you are getting a quality power supply that will most likely outlast the computer itself or you could go with anything around 500+ watts from another quality brand name like OCZ, Corsair, PC Power and Cooling, Seasonic, Thermaltake, Enermax, the already linked Antec just look for something with Active PFC. And you may want to consider this case it has the power supply at the bottom so makes the cables hanging down in the way problem go away plus the hard drive bays are positioned so the air can properly blow through from the included fan.

 

http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?...N82E16811119152