tom btc Posted November 13, 2009 Share Posted November 13, 2009 This will be my first hackintosh, I've built many Windows PCs over the years and owned many real Macs. All I need this computer to do is be a file server and rip dvds. I plan on using the case/most of the parts from my old WinXP machine for this build so hopefully I only need to buy a new motherboard/CPU/RAM. I'm looking for hopefully 3 or 4 RAM slots but I can get by with 2, 4 or more SATA ports, hopefully an IDE channel or two but it isn't imperative, OSX supported onboard video and LAN and to run Snow Leopard with little to no messing around with ktexts if possible. I also need it to go to sleep and wake up properly as well as be able to wake on lan. I was thinking of going with an Intel Core2 Duo E7500 Wolfdale 2.93GHz 3MB L2 Cache LGA 775 65W Dual-Core Processor but I don't necessarily need something that powerful, I may look to buy an older, used Core2Duo to save some money, I haven't decided yet. I'd also like to hook the machine up to my LCD TV for use as a HTPC but if it adds too much to the cost it isn't worth it. No gaming and the only CPU intensive task it will do is video encoding. If it is not possible to find a board with supported integrated graphics could anyone recommend a cheap/low power supported graphics card? Any advice on what motherboard to go with and/or maybe a place to find a cheaper CPU to go in said board? Any help is greatly appreciated, thank you! Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/197386-need-help-building-cheap-hackintosh/ Share on other sites More sharing options...
LogicalUser Posted November 14, 2009 Share Posted November 14, 2009 For a processor, the Pentium E6300 is an interesting choice at $75 or so. Don't let the Pentium name fool ya, its a 2.8ghz 45nm Wolfdale processor, very similar to the E8200/8300/8400 just with 2mb instead of 6mb of cache, and a 1066mhz bus instead of 1333mhz. Oh, and unlike the more expensive 7000 series it has Intel Virtualization Technology support, for whatever thats worth. Onboard video can be an issue, you've really got to be particular about the motherboard's choice of chipset. Really tho, you should be able to pick up a well supported dedicated video card for under $50, I'd recommend Nvidia due to their wider driver compatibility, anything in the 9000 series will do well. Hooking up the machine to a LCD TV should be relatively effortless, jus use a DVI-HDMI adaptor. With that said, for compatibility be sure to pick a dual-DVI video card, and not a DVI/VGA or DVI/HDMI card. As for a mobo, Gigabyte is definitely the #1 brand around here, for the most part all their boards use compatible network & audio chipsets Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/197386-need-help-building-cheap-hackintosh/#findComment-1331124 Share on other sites More sharing options...
tom btc Posted November 14, 2009 Author Share Posted November 14, 2009 I actually went with the Gigabyte G31M-ES2 for the mb. It had pretty much everything I needed but I heard the new ones may not have supported LAN and even though the GMA 3100 is in some macs I heard that the onboard video doesn't really work. I have some IDE DVD drives but I heard you need sata ones to work under osx? What if I use an IDE to sata adapter? I went with the E6300 for the processor. I wanted to go with the cheapest 775 chip I could find which was a celeron but I figured with 512k L2 cache it wouldn't perform very well. Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/197386-need-help-building-cheap-hackintosh/#findComment-1331171 Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts