Hackintosh Build Using Intel Core i7 920. Reccomendations and Review please

[zaboomafoo1212]

Can someone please help me with two issues im having? 1.) I'm not able to post topics...anywhere.

2.) I have my system and I have installed Leopard just fine but when I try to boot this happens: watch video

http://vimeo.com/10250751

[Swhay]

Can someone please help me with two issues im having? 1.) I'm not able to post topics...anywhere.

2.) I have my system and I have installed Leopard just fine but when I try to boot this happens: watch video

http://vimeo.com/10250751

 

I recommend you take a better picture of your kernel panic, it's very hard to read in your video. I would also try searching for any information on osx86 on your motherboard. I noticed in your specs that you have a EVGA motherboard, most users on this forum are using a Gigabyte motherboard since they are the easiest and most trouble free for installing Leopard/Snow Leopard.

[zooli]

Hi All,

 

I'm a music producer and about to build a dedicated audio machine, not sure if this is the best set-up for using both win7 / mac via (ableton live,cubase,logic etc.) all via firewire audio interface + light video editing. should i get Asus P6 or G.B.X58 ?

 

Any advise would be helpful !

 

 

Intel Core i7-860 Lynnfield 2.8GHz LGA 1156 95W Quad-Core Processor

 

ASUS SABERTOOTH 55i LGA 1156 Intel P55 ATX Intel Motherboard

 

2 x Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 ST31500341AS 1.5TB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive

 

2 x G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model

 

Antec P183 Black Aluminum / Steel / Plastic ATX Mid Tower Computer Case

 

Antec CP-850 850W Continuous Power CPX SLI Certified CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS Certified Modular Active PFC

 

Thermalright TRUE Black 120Rev.C CPU Cooler

 

XFX HD-477A-YDFC Radeon HD 4770 512MB 128-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card

 

Acousti Products AcoustiPack™ ULTIMATE PC Soundproofing Kit

[Phorte]

wow, ive never seen so many noob posts inside someone else's thread before... LOL

[thinkpadius]

I got my Core i7 920 rig working with windows 7 and Snow Leopard.

 

It is fantastic, though I spend a lot more time in windows for its gaming capabilities and because Netflix gives me grief on the mac side.

 

I followed the guide from insanely mac and also made a video of the process so you can get an overview of what its like to put this rig together. (coming from an all mac background and never having built a computer before, there was a lot of learning)

Core i7 Video & Specs

[orlandomike]

Ok, so are people saying that when it comes to converting say a large AVI file to flash or regular DV editing that the i7 isnt a noticable speed improvement over a high end quad core? I've read benchmarks saying otherwise so I hear it from all sides. Obviously intel wants to sell this stuff and much of the time these upgrades dont amount to any visual difference but from what I have heard the i5's and i7's scream.

 

Obviously the bottleneck is still the hard drive until we get to SSD's but I too was considering the higher end i7. I have a Q9700 (?) series quad core? I think its a 2.8 ghz with the 12 megs L2 cache. The specs on an i7 dont seem to improve on that much other than their theory of arcitecture with the FSB and the 8 virtual cores, hyperthreading , powerboost all that rig-a-morol.

 

Anyone with a knowledgable first hand knowledge opinion on it?

[Bocado]

My suggestion is first to install one of the modified distribustions (IPC would be my choice), and learn what hacks you need to get it all working. Then, do a retail EFI install (munky way), because that way you can install all system updates from Apple and not worry about something breaking your install.

 

 

I've been reading this site and others for a couple of weeks now and some say use EFI, others say to use Chameleon to install.

 

While I'm not an advanced techie, why do some frown upon the EFI install?

Because that was something I was actually looking into, the only drawback from my understanding is you have to use the hardware they list which isn't current and a year old - personally I'd rather do a new build with current line up of products.

[neil43]

I've been reading this site and others for a couple of weeks now and some say use EFI, others say to use Chameleon to install.

 

While I'm not an advanced techie, why do some frown upon the EFI install?

Because that was something I was actually looking into, the only drawback from my understanding is you have to use the hardware they list which isn't current and a year old - personally I'd rather do a new build with current line up of products.

 

In my experience, an EFI install can be accomplished after you have the hack for your set up. The pros and cons of an EFI boot have been documented. It is a matter of personal preference.

 

Today, using an i3, i5 or i7 processor with a Gigabyte motherboard and an Nvidia 8400GS or 9600GT video card is simple a task to install OS X and updates. Search on Kakewalk and TonyMacX86 and install retail DVD.

 

Some video cards are problematic but can be sorted out with patience. My advice is buy a cheap 8400GS card to use for bring up. Then once you have your system running well, swap in the video card that you want for everyday use (this way you are dealing with one variable not the whole system).

 

You can decide to go for an EFI boot once you have a running system. I documented my version of an EFI booting system in the Zotac H55ITX thread (see Post 143).

 

neil

[Swhay]

I've been reading this site and others for a couple of weeks now and some say use EFI, others say to use Chameleon to install.

 

While I'm not an advanced techie, why do some frown upon the EFI install?

Because that was something I was actually looking into, the only drawback from my understanding is you have to use the hardware they list which isn't current and a year old - personally I'd rather do a new build with current line up of products.

 

The post you quoted is talking about the EFI partition install but you are talking about ( I think) EFIx usb device.

 

If your talking about that EFIx usb device, then the reason most users of this board frown upon it (me as well) is that

you are getting charged for something that is actually free. The company that makes that thing uses open source software that was developed by a lot of people on this board such as Chameleon and other ones too. Not only that, they won't even acknowledge that they are using it and give credit to those who deserve it. If you do buy the device and something happens don't expect a very fast (if at all) response time to fix your problem.

 

I know it seems easy, but you can do the same thing yourself for free, if you just take the time to learn how. Not only that, those EFIx devices have a very high failure rate and they do not keep them up to date very well, that is one reason why they list old hardware.

 

 

The EFI partition install is where you install all the needed extra files (com.apple.boot.plist, smbios.plist and kext files that allow your hardware to be recognized by OS X) as well as the boot loader to a 200 MB hidden EFI partition on the hard drive.

 

The Intel EFI specs call for a 200 MB partition for use with EFI but Apple does not use the partition.

 

With all the advances in OS X boot loaders, I never found a need to use that method.

 

The best way to build a Hackintosh is to focus on getting the most compatible parts you can, which comes down to mainly the Motherboard and processor.

 

You can get pretty close these days too. Let me give you an example...

 

I just built (last week) a new computer for my brother-in-law. He had a 6 year old Dell which died, and he wanted to try out OS X. But like so many other people that have never tried OS X, he did not want to invest a lot of money in something he had never used. Plus if you have only ever used Windows and your not a computer geek, then it is hard to switch when most of the world is using Windows.

 

So, I built him the following system, after researching what was currently the most compatible components available.

 

Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-P55M-UD2

CPU: Intel Core i5 2.8GHZ Quad-core

Memory: 4GB G.Skill DDR3 1333

Video Card: Sparkle slient Nvidia 9500 GT 512MB

Hard Drive: 500 GB Western Digital SATA and a 1 TB for Time Machine

Optical: Sony Optariac SATA DVD reader/writer

 

 

I used Tonymacx86 [url="http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/279450-why-insanelymac-does-not-support-tonymacx86/"]#####[/url] Supported boot CD to install Snow Leopard 10.6.3

I used Chameleon RC5 (latest build) as the boot loader

 

the only extra files I had to use are the following...

 

in the /Extra/Extensions folder:

FakeSMC.kext

IOBlockStorageInjector.kext (Internal hard drive orange icon fix)

LegacyALC888b.kext ( a legacy kext to get the onboard audio working)

 

in the /Extra folder:

com.apple.Boot.plist

SMBIOS.plist

DSDT.aml

 

in the /System/Library/Extensions folder:

RealtekR1000SL.kext (for ethernet)

AppleHDA.kext (10.6.2 version) (the reason for this is that newer versions of OS X (past 10.6.2) remove some stuff that keep some audio chipsets from working so you have to use 10.6.2 version of AppleHDA.kext.

 

 

Everything works like it's supposed to...

 

Sleep (auto and forced)

Shutdown

Restart

Wake from mouse, keyboard or power button.

Time Machine

Audio

Network

 

The system can be updated without fear of breaking it. The only thing that might get broken is audio and that can be fixed very easily by replacing AppleHDA.kext in /System/Library/Extensions with the 10.6.2 version or just buy a compatible USB sound card and leave AppleHDA.kext alone.

[starobrno1]

I ended up buying the Asus P6T SE mother board and the i7 930 cpu and this is up till now in my experience the best and easiest mobo for installing SL. First I bought a Gigabyte mobo which in the past always seemed to be a really good choice but with this specific mobo (GA-X58A-UD3R rev 2.0) I had so much troubles I took it back to the store.

 

There´s a thread for the P6T SE mobo but the method is in my opinion not the easiest and most optimal method. If you have access to a mac or a hackmac the easiest way is to restore your retail SL to it´s desktop and use it to install to an external harddrive. Or if you have access to a mac pro or a hackmac you can hook up your haddrive internally too.

 

Second best is to search for the kdetech boot 132 cd and learn how to use it but that will give you an installation that´s not 100%. And it will even in the end of the installation process tell you it failed but it still will work pretty ok so just let it reboot with the CD still in your DVD and finnish the installation. It will work good enough to use to make your "real" installation with the "easiest" method above here so don´t bother to fix it just stay with having to boot with the CD.

 

The backside of the second best method is you need two harddrives and this method is only if you don´t have access to a real mac or hackmac.

 

Ifabio has posted a DSDT.aml specially for the P6T SE and the kexts you need so look for his posts in that thread. Then check for my posts how I did it using terminal commands I found in LTLs method under Leo installtion. These are really easy copy and paste commands so when you have thought it through so your clear how to do it and have your kexts and dsdt you should be able to have your hack up running in 30-40 minutes or so. That is with the "easiest" method though. The second best will probably take an hour or so.

 

When it comes to videocards it the same old story you have to investigate which cards work the best, I use a noname 7300gs 512mb pcie card and a NVinject.kext I found and edited the nvcap on.

[okstuv]

First I bought a Gigabyte mobo which in the past always seemed to be a really good choice but with this specific mobo (GA-X58A-UD3R rev 2.0) I had so much troubles I took it back to the store.

 

I'm running that board with the i7 920 with no issues using Chameleon for 10.6.5

[AOX]

Hi guys, First of all I must say, love what you guys are doing here. I am a newbie here on this forum, but also a newbie when it comes to the "Hackingtoch" lol. So if I ask some really obvious questions please bear with me :-). i am also aspiaring to build a Hackingtoch, and i want to use the Intel Core i7-2600K BX80623I72600K Unlocked Processor - Quad Core, 8MB L3 Cache, 1MB L2 Cache, 3.40 GHz as the CPU . After some seriouse reading, i have learned that a Hackingtoch requires carefully selected hardware if you don't want allot of hassle. Provided that I havn't bought any of the parts yet, we can start from scratch. So I kindly ask for your profeprofesional advice on choosing the right parts, so I will be able to build a vearly good functioning Hackingtouch. My budget is roughly $1200 more or less. :-)