Success Report, for now (w/ my hardware setup)

[MithrilFox]

Alright, I've successfully gotten my Hackintosh up and running, and everything seems to be a GO so far.

 

Here is my setup:

 

Intel Core 2 DUO 3.8GHz

8GB RAM (4 2GB modules)

ASUS P5K-V (motherboard)

(w/ built-in Realtek ALC883 audio)

SATA 1TB HDD, 500gb HDD (Windows Vista)

SATA optical drive

nVidia GT8800 512MB (Asus model EN8800GT)

Buffalo Wi-Fi PCI card (WLI2-PCI-G54S)

 

My method: I used a the BOOT-132 DVD swap method. Burn the loader to a CD, boot it up, swap the disc for a Leopard retail install, and install it. Biggest snag here was that I needed to find a boot loader with "drivers" for my motherboard. I ended up just using some P5K one that worked fine, even though I have a P5K-V. Search for BOOT-132 and your motherboard's code (like P5K).

 

Here are a few of the snags I ran into, from biggest to smallest:

 

1) HUGE ISSUE: My original IDE optical drive wouldn't allow me to use the BOOT-132 boot loader method. I really wanted this method because I can use my retail Leopard DVD and I can use Software Update. I *had* to buy a SATA drive to get it to work, I tried everything.

 

2) At first, I wasn't getting anything but basic video card support. I used the EFIStudio application from the Chameleon package to install the "drivers" for the card, and it came up with full support (I also clicked "enable" for the Quartz GL support in the OSX86Tools app).

 

3) I had to manually get my Airport working on the Buffalo card. The first time I did the install, after using Chameleon's installation and tools, it somehow just worked. Later, I had to follow the advice of another website to manually edit some files (changing the Buffalo card to be "en1" instead of anything else). That worked like a charm, perfect Airport so far.

 

4) My audio was the biggest fight. I had to install two kexts (the ALC883 one, then the HDAEnabler.kext). After that, I fought with it for a while before realizing that selecting "internal speakers" in the output settings in System Preferences did the trick. I dunno why, but I had to select that.

 

Also, here are the current "quirks" with my system that I've noticed:

 

1) I have a lot of trouble with hitting the eject button on my DVD player. I generally HAVE to use a built-in Mac OS X eject procedure (click the icon in the system bar, or drag the desktop icon to the Trash).

 

2) Once when I rebooted after installing some audio kext, my Airport was permanently set "off." I couldn't turn it on. A reboot fixed it. I always use the "-f" setting at the Darwin prompt when I reboot, so dunno if that is necessary. I'm a bit of a noob at this.

 

That's it! So far, everything else seems perfect. I'm running Software Update now, and I'll let you know how it goes in a follow-up post. If it works, this would seem to be the generally "best" Hackintosh method around, since it uses the retail DVD (and this is not only convenient for most of us who buy the software, but it promotes and encourages purchasing the real thing from Apple, which is very good).

 

P.S. I forgot to mention that I had to do the install twice. the first time I accidentally installed a wrong kext, and when I rebooted, I got a kernal panic (a screen that said I need to reboot the machine). Endless cycle of needing to reboot every restart, so instead of fighting it, I reinstalled fresh.

[MithrilFox]

Follow-up after using the native Software Update (no hacks, no preparation, just updating like a normal system).

 

RESULTS: Apparently a complete success . No problems whatsoever, all available updates installed correctly.

 

Updates included one "system" updated (updates to Mac OS X) and two other key updates that required a restart. No problems.

[MithrilFox]

Quick update for any who have a similar system and could benefit:

 

After fully updating, I noticed that running QuickTime or iTunes causes my mouse to jump or skip around. This is a common problem for many regular Mac users too. Updating to the latest QT is what caused it, so I used Pacifist and an older version of QuickTime to install the older components and it works fine now. Something to do with the new H264 codec that was causing trouble.

[levronstyle]

Quick update for any who have a similar system and could benefit:

 

After fully updating, I noticed that running QuickTime or iTunes causes my mouse to jump or skip around. This is a common problem for many regular Mac users too. Updating to the latest QT is what caused it, so I used Pacifist and an older version of QuickTime to install the older components and it works fine now. Something to do with the new H264 codec that was causing trouble.

 

 

 

Cool Man....! I had the exact same prob with Boot 132 method. I got myself a SATA Dvd Drive before it was IDE. And worked like charm. I hav Leopard 10.5.4 one tht i got with my MacBook. haven't update to 10.5.6 yet.

 

There are people out ther in this forum who are facing the same problem hopefully they will find ur thread. So that they wont give up...!

[MithrilFox]

I'm curious if using a IDE-SATA converter would suffice. I didn't want to risk it and just bought a SATA drive, but I've heard that the converter works just as well. The converter is 1/4 the price of buying the SATA drive when I checked at the store, but it's worth it for me to have the peace of mind of not worrying about it.

 

Stability update:

 

So far, here are the issues I've encountered:

 

1) Sleep doesn't function. I haven't tried anything to fix it yet.

 

2) When I shut the computer down, it appears to shut down fully, yet the fans remain running. I have to force the power off. This doesn't appear to be a "forced shutdown" on the Mac OS, just the hardware.

 

3) I had to install an older QuickTime codec for the H264 module to avoid the infamous "jumpy/jerky mouse" issue. Apparently unique to 8xxx and 9xxx nvidia cards.

 

4) Occasionally I have to unplug and plug back in my USB mouse to get it to work.

 

5) Running a torrent download = can't browse the internet reliably . HTML pages take forever to load. Haven't tried to fix it yet.

 

6) On a few occasions, I booted up with no Airport functional, and had to restart. I'm thinking I should try to reinstall my wifi card.

 

Other than that, it works like a charm. I've loaded up World of Warcraft and played with better FPS than my Windows Vista setup with a better graphics card (ATI Radeon HD 4850 versus my current 8800GT). I've installed and imported footage over Firewire in Final Cut Studio. I've run a variety of programs and browsed the internet and downloaded torrents, with only the above mentioned issue.

 

This is by far the most powerful "Mac" I've owned.

 

I posted this to an entirely different forum, but thought you guys here might enjoy reading it:

 

Just checked out how much my configuration would cost as an actual Mac Pro from the website. After clicking through all the options, not including a monitor, the total price ended up:

 

Genuine Mac Pro: $5799.00

 

Now, all of my hardware altogether cost me approximately:

 

DIY "Mac Pro:" ~$850-900

 

Can't remember a few details so it's around $50 margin of error.

 

Wow. That's all I've got to say is, WOW. Sure, the RAM isn't as nice as the RAM in the Mac Pro, and the motherboard doesn't support as much stuff and can't be expanded as much, but even then, it's still a HUGE cost savings even taking into account those things.

 

Price difference:

 

$5799

- $850

---------

$4949

 

That's a savings of nearly $5000. Considering that my current system is solidly stable, can run World of Warcraft with great performance and run FCS no probs, and that I can use the built-in Software Update to keep my system up to date, a Hackintosh is definitely worth the effort.

 

You can get nearly 7x the power per dollar. That's amazing.

 

One catch: this assumes that you've already purchased Leopard (legitimately). If you haven't, tack on $129 for the retail DVD. Unfortunately, you still don't have legal access to iLife without buying that separately, but even then, it's still a cost savings of well over $4700.

 

Oh, and as for the legality of installing Leopard (even a retail DVD) on non-Apple hardware, well... The license says it must be "Apple-labeled" hardware. OK, so here it is, my Apple-labeled hardware:

 

[MithrilFox]

Another follow-up. I noticed that after a while, System Profiler started crashing. Dunno why, multiple reports and it still crashed. I didn't change anything to my knowledge.

 

Apparently the answer is to change the CPUID = Max setting in your bios to "Disabled." That fixed it for me, loads up no problem now. It was always set that way, so not sure why it crapped out after a couple days of use.

 

Also, FCP started crashing on start-up, but a Software Update w/ the Prokit update (for the pro apps) solved it completely.

[MithrilFox]

OK, whenever I was downloading a torrent my web browsing would slow to a HALT.

 

I found the solution after much trial and error. I disabled my router's UPnP feature, and now I can run torrents at 200kbps download and browse the net without a problem.