Questions About Hackintosh, Keyboards, Printers, etc...

[kick_me]

Hi guys, first off let me say thanks to everyone in the community for the plethora of info on the net.

 

I myself am a PC man for years (the Windows kind). Anywho, a few months back I got really into OS X on PC's and tried to get it on my laptop (an Asus G2S-B1). I tried several times but it would never boot and sort of game up for the time being (seems that trying to install OS X on your laptop when you should be paying attention to your professors' lectures and taking notes doesn't do good for your marks). Now for lack of time I stopped checking for a while.

 

Anyway, my Girlfriend is a total Mac chick. She does photography and graphic stuff an loves her Mac laptop to death. Anyway, her laptop has several years on it now (it's an older one, with a G4 or G5 processor), and even though I got her OS X Leopard from a friend of mine (a legal copy) it won't install because of the requirements. So now she's been looking to get a new computer, a powerful desktop. Problem is... they're stupidly expensive.

 

Anyway, since she's not in the best financial situation, she's finally decided to accept my offer to build her a new computer. Now, I am a total Mac newbie. I've used OS 9 and OS X back in highschool... just for Photoshop and Illustrator

 

Anywho, she's told me that we'll be starting the building process later this year (around August, when she gets back from a trip). I know things will change drastically in the scene in 8 months, but thoguht I could ask for some simple recomendations?

 

i.e.

MoBo manufacturers/Models?

Video card suggestions?

 

 

This rig will have probably 4GB of RAM, though she wanted the 8GB upgrade on the Mac... I told her she doesn't need that much, but we'll see down the road.

 

Also, we plan to dual-boot it with Windows XP Pro (OS X being the primary/defauls OS however).

 

Now, she mostly uses Photoshop so I don't think we'll need to go too high end. I will have to look into a wireless card (thinking a USB dongle maybe) because her room is upstairs, and the main family PC and modem/router is downstairs in the living room (opposite end of the house).

 

 

Another quick question she asked me the other day. She says she's really used to her shortcuts with the Mac keyboard. What we were wondering is, if we used a normal keyboard (with the little Windows key and whatnot) does that windows key function as the Mac key? Or would we have to buy an Apple Keyboard?

 

 

Oh, and she has this big fancy like $3000+ printer (Epson I believe). It's USB connected. Do you think I'd have trouble interfacing it with a hackintosh? or should it be a simple enough set up.

 

 

AND I read somewhere you can't do that apple user migration thing, with the settings or whatever being coppied over to the new machine because it will screw it up. Should we just avoid the risk and have her start off from scratch on the new Hackintosh?

 

 

Thanks a lot for all your help!

[tech4]

Just look at the spec of some signatures to get a feel what people are using. It seems to me that Gigabyte boards with the P35 chip set seem to work the best.

 

As for video cards got to eshop.macsales.com. They sell hardware for Macs. All there stuff works on Macs.

 

I am using the new Mac thin aluminum keyboard and all the hotkeys work.

 

As for building this for your girl your a brave man. Just remember you cannot do the updates like you would on a real Mac. They tend to mess thing up. Also I would check out efi-x. That might a route to go. They have a hardware list. It should cut down the update issues although I don't have one yet.

[kick_me]

Just look at the spec of some signatures to get a feel what people are using. It seems to me that Gigabyte boards with the P35 chip set seem to work the best.

 

As for video cards got to eshop.macsales.com. They sell hardware for Macs. All there stuff works on Macs.

 

I am using the new Mac thin aluminum keyboard and all the hotkeys work.

 

As for building this for your girl your a brave man. Just remember you cannot do the updates like you would on a real Mac. They tend to mess thing up. Also I would check out efi-x. That might a route to go. They have a hardware list. It should cut down the update issues although I don't have one yet.

 

 

Thanks a lot for the tips, I'll check out those sites.

 

Also, if you use your Mac keyboard on XP (sorry, it might be sacrilage to some of you), does it function as a 'Windows' key?

[tech4]

I will have to try it on Windows. I'll report later.

[kick_me]

I will have to try it on Windows. I'll report later.

 

 

cool, thanks a lot, I really apreciate it.

 

I've never been an Apple fan (hate the whole overpriced factor on everything Apple, iPods, Macs, etc.) but I must say at least the OSx86 community has won me over.