[Guide] Building a Mac Compatible AMD System (10.4.5)

[ken21]

EDIT: Some info was inaccurate, so.. I corrected it.

 

Hey all. I'm new to this site and I have gathered that to construct an AMD system capable of running OSX appears to be quite complicated.. (like lots of patching, editing, etc) Leeching off a wealth of info in the past few days from the crappy search (honestly, it is.. I get better results from googling this site haha)..

 

Therefore for my eccentrically long 1st post I intend to consolidate as much info as I've found from searching these forums so that the same questions wont keep popping up again.. (as ive read from searching threads) I would've put this on as a wiki but I need a bit of feedback.. some of the info I've found seem to contradict one another i.e. SATA support on nForce 3/4 chipsets and the patches applied by Myzar's iso (SS3->SS2 stuff).. hopefully this will clear some confusion in advance for the new users here (like I did).. So anyway here goes:

 

 

1. Getting Started

 

It's essential you read the HCL List for 10.4.5 to get the most compatible hardware components to build your system. As an example, I've used this configuration as a basis for this guide and the problems that arise from using this setup.

 

The goal was a "modern" semi-futureproof system, capable of dual booting between Windows and OSX, and as such both OSs (of course, i mean OSX) must be fully usable for day-to-day operations i.e. sound, video, etc playing recent 3d games and the like

 

Gigabyte GA-K8NF-9-Ultra [nForce4 Ultra/AMD-S939/DDR400/PCI Ex16/SATA/G-Lan]

AMD Athlon 64 X2 3800+ Dual-Core [socket 939/HT2000/2x512KB Cache]

Kingston 1Gb 400MHZ DDR RAM

Seagate 250Gb 8Mb 3.5" SATA

Seagate 80Gb 7200rpm PATA

HIS ATI Radeon X1600PRO IceQ Turbo 256Mb DDR Dual DVI PCI-Express

Pioneer 16x DVD±RW 8x Dual Layer [DVR-111DBK]

Netgear WG311T 108Mbps Wireless LAN PCI (Must have T behind the 311)

 

Since I'm from the land down under, it has set me back by about AU$1400, of course I had to BYODKM.. Anybody with a better (ie more compatible, less trouble AMD configuration, please share it

 

Also, try obtaining the Acronis Disk Director suite if you plan on dualbooting

 

And yes, the myzar dvd is probably the best prepatched dvd around for AMD-based systems, it comes with pretty much most of the patches you need preapplied to the image, so it saves you a lot of trouble patching the dvd manually only to find out that you stuffed it up somewhere, wasting a good blank recordable dvd. Get it from searching google or whatever. This guide will semi-assume you have used this dvd to install OSX.

 

Greash.. onto the install..

 

2. Installing

 

Bearing in mind that SATA support is appalling in OSX for AMD systems, you MUST use a PATA(Parallel ATA) hard disk to workaround that problem, otherwise you'll be having a VERY hard time getting this onto your machine. I'll discuss more on this later. The easiest I think so far is to have two hard disks in your box, SATA for WinXP, PATA for OSX, it's just easier that way. I installed XP first on the SATA partition and then the Acronis stuff + the OS selector from the xp start menu.

 

That done, I popped in the myzar dvd, rebooted and began installing OSX on the PATA (2nd) hard drive (some F12 pressing to bypass the OS selector I installed before this).. It went smoothly, but that's just the beginning.. Now comes the tedious bit to get everything else working i.e. video, sound, stuttering due to dual core etc.

 

But first..

 

3. SATA support

 

Apparently, there IS a way of getting OSX to support SATA by doing some tinkering with this guide here but appears to be very buggered for most people.. as in it works initially, but it gradually corrupts itself eventually rendering the OS(s) unbootable.. which doesnt really meet my criteria for a day-to-day use computer, therefore I'm not experimenting with that. Anyone with better luck, or did not have any corruptions like that on their machine, please comment!

 

4. The myzar dvd and SS2, SS3 bs

 

Whatever it is, I can say with reasonable faith that having these patches on doesnt affect the way the system handles SS3 instruction sets, although the system profiler might say otherwise.. so really give it a rest, everything is swell, there's no need to stress.

 

5. Athlon X2+ Processors

 

They are dual-core, which means OSX will most probably have trouble using both cpus, causing "stuttering" problems, to fix this try setting idlehalt=0 as a boot parameter in your com.apple.Boot.plist

 

To do this:

a) Open Terminal from OSX

 

Next type:

 

su root

(enter your password)

nano /library/preferences/systemconfiguration/com.apple.Boot.plist

 

d) then

 

Edit this portion of the plist as follows:

 

		<key>Kernel Flags</key>
	<string>platform=ACPI idlehalt=0</string>

 

Save the file (WriteOut) , and then type "exit", followed by "exit" again

 

*This solution thanks to Careless*

 

6. DVDRW Drive + Wireless LAN

 

These two should be working without any tweaking required, so yes.

 

7. Sound

 

OSX appears to only support audio coming out from the left channel (ie mono sound) for some people and top of that, it requires some editing for it to work.. There is a very good guide here to get this working.. Read it thru, you'll get it. Alternatively, you can get a Creative External Sound Blaster Live! SB0490 sound card for around AU$100, it works out of the box according to the 10.4.5 HCL

 

8. Video

 

I picked the X1600 Pro as I didnt want to blow too much on a GFX card, at the same time I wanted to get a card that has some form of new technology (such as the shader 3.0 model) that meets the semi-proofed criterion I've set.. Anyway I'm running out of time so I'll continue this later meanwhile check this thread and hopefully you can work out the solution yourself while I get back to some long overdue study.. I hate it when my computer geekish tendencies take over my higher priorities.. damn..

 

I'll finish this soon.. in the meantime.. hope this helps

 

p.s. any corrections, better ideas welcome.. this was written hastily on a busy monday night

[Georgiles]

5. Athlon X2+ Processors

 

<key>Kernel Flags</key>

<string>platform=ACPI idlehalt=0</string>

 

 

 

 

The idlehalt=0 won't solve the stuttering problem. ONLY "cpus=1" wich means you will have only one processor to use.

 

I have x2 3800.

[DD_nVidia]

Ahh I wanted a fix to that stuttering, I knew it had something to do with the 2 cores, not sure exactly how this slows things down, but it must do some how.

 

Here is a small breakdown of what I have working, or not working.

 

 

-Working-

 

OSX 10.4.6 (Jas) Install

 

AMD X2 4400+ CPU (using SSE 2 as X2 in OSX = no sse3 / windows = yes sse3)

 

2Gb Kingston DDR 400 Ram (although says its 2gb but then says its 2 x 512mb 333mhz :S works though)

 

Intel 10/100 PCI Lan card (one i found in the house)

 

 

-Not Working-

 

ASUS A8V Deluxe VIA Audio - Left Audio only (Tried many kexts - most messed up and had to re-install)

 

nVidia GeForce 6800GT AGP - No Drivers - Can't install MacVidia Drivers properly - mess up, need a simple installer

 

Most other Audio ports like mic etc.

 

 

I really need to get some type of drivers working for my nvidia geforce 6800GT for some type of acceleration for example playing high definition content. I can play 720p Smooth (kinda) but 1080p struggles.

 

I can get a Radeon 9550 if some one can get me on msn or skype and send me drivers that work.

 

DD_nVidia@hotmail.co.uk - DD_nVidia

[suntex]

Hey,

Can I use a Sempron for installation instead of X2? And do I really need top-notch hardware for MAC OS?

thanks

[macgirl]

5. Athlon X2+ Processors

 

Kernel Flags

platform=ACPI idlehalt=0

The idlehalt=0 won't solve the stuttering problem. ONLY "cpus=1" wich means you will have only one processor to use.

 

I have x2 3800.

Well for most of us idlehalt=0 stops the GRAPHIC stuttering. Although cpus=1 also resolve the thing i though that you end with less CPU power, I did some benchmarks and with cpus=1 i have a very poor number in xbench, in my case the Opteron 165 with one cpu is slower than the 3500+

 

And the stuttering is only a graphic glitch because if you chech the benchmarks with and without stuttering the numbers are the same.