Need some advice with building a Hackintosh...

[Hayato]

My dad decided to give me the computer we've got in our computer room because he's getting a better one, so I'm thinking of installing Hackintosh on it (Leo4All?). Obviously this'll save me the expenses of going out and buying a $1200 iMac, although the USB ports stopped working on it so we're going to buy a new motherboard, and probably some new RAM chips and a new CPU, too. My dad's thinking of 2GB of RAM, which I know is more than enough to run Mac, but I'm wondering what motherboard and other parts all of you would recommend to stably run Hackintosh on my PC. (I'm sorry, I know a lot about OSes and software, but I really don't have the first clue about hardware and what makes computers tick, other than RAM and harddrives... >_<)

 

If I didn't really give enough information, I'd appreciate being told what else I need to say about the computer and/or how to check if I already have it.

 

EDIT: Oh, and the computer's got a good video card, so I don't think that should be a problem. And I'm not sure, but I think I've heard talk about running Hackintosh straight off the DVD to see if your computer is compatible (like what you can do with lots of versions of Linux and Ubuntu; I just can't remember the phrase for it)? Is that true?

[Zaap]

Find out exactly what video card the computer has- it needs to be OSX compatible and not all video cards are. Make sure it's a PCIe card, not an older AGP slot card.

 

Chances are if it's a little bit older machine and you're replacing the motherboard, you may also have to replace ALL the RAM, and possibly upgrade the hard drives as well. IE: if the old comp uses older DDR memory, any new mobo will require DDR2. If you have older IDE drives, you'll probably want SATA drive(s) for a Hackintosh, (hard drive and optical) especially for setups that don't do IDE very well. While you're at it, check that your PSU can handle a newer mobo if needed.

 

Check the Hardware Compatibility List.

 

If your current motherboard happens to be compatible, you might be in luck.

 

If you do need new hardware, I recommend starting with Gigabyte motherboards. Many on the HCL and mentioned here in dozens of threads work great. You can't go wrong with a (for example) GA-P35-DS3L or a newer GA-EP45-UD3P. Check people's sigs and other threads for what they are using. There are also any number of older boards that work well, and are relatively cheap.

 

Check your video card against the HCL. If you need a new one, make sure you also check what works- IE- it needs to support QE/CI and res switching.

 

Basically- do a lot of reading on this site before you buy anything. In my experience, a great Hackintosh that sets up quickly and rarely if ever has to be messed with (IE performs the way you might expect a computer to) uses ONLY parts that are known working, and has a tried and true install method. If you want a machine that crashes all the time and has you here constantly looking for solutions to one problem after another, then pick "any ol' combo of critical parts" and just wing it.

[dopeyo]

USB ports stopped working? may be a driver issue with windows. check the hardware compatability list, find a distro that supports your motherboard (leo4all is a good choice here), and try an install without purchasing anything. what have you got to lose?

 

and if you are lucky, you may save a lot of money. heck, you could then go out and buy a retail leo DVD and try a retail / vanilla install. wins all the way around.