Mobo / CPU Thoughts

[NashvilleMac]

Hackintosh newb here. I'm sure some of you are tired of answering questions like this. I tried to search and got mixed results. I'm looking to build my first hackintosh, and like many ppl I'm sure, I'm trying to walk the line of getting the best compatibillity and performance for the lowest price, and I'm considering one of three mobo/cpu options, below:

 

Gigabyte GA-G41M-ES2L / Pentium E6300

Gigabyte GA-MA74GM-S2 / Athlon II X2 240

Gigabyte GA-MA78LM-S2 / Athlon II X2 240

 

My understanding is that the Gigabyte G41 boards are very well supported out of the box and it's hard to go wrong from a budget and compatibillity issue there. Historically I prefer AMD products though, and I was wondering if there are any known performance or compatibillity issue with that processor or either of those boards. I'd prefer the GA-MA74GM-S2 since it's a little bit cheaper, but the GA-MA78LM-S2 has audio/lan components that are closer to the Intel board, at least in name. They also have different chipsets. I found one review some where of a guy who got one of these boards to work, but am I asking for pain as a newbie? Would I be better off spending an extra $20 and getting the Intel combo?

 

Thanks,

 

dmp

[everdone]

Hackintosh newb here. I'm sure some of you are tired of answering questions like this. I tried to search and got mixed results. I'm looking to build my first hackintosh, and like many ppl I'm sure, I'm trying to walk the line of getting the best compatibillity and performance for the lowest price, and I'm considering one of three mobo/cpu options, below:

 

Gigabyte GA-G41M-ES2L / Pentium E6300

Gigabyte GA-MA74GM-S2 / Athlon II X2 240

Gigabyte GA-MA78LM-S2 / Athlon II X2 240

 

My understanding is that the Gigabyte G41 boards are very well supported out of the box and it's hard to go wrong from a budget and compatibillity issue there. Historically I prefer AMD products though, and I was wondering if there are any known performance or compatibillity issue with that processor or either of those boards. I'd prefer the GA-MA74GM-S2 since it's a little bit cheaper, but the GA-MA78LM-S2 has audio/lan components that are closer to the Intel board, at least in name. They also have different chipsets. I found one review some where of a guy who got one of these boards to work, but am I asking for pain as a newbie? Would I be better off spending an extra $20 and getting the Intel combo?

 

Thanks,

 

dmp

 

Make things simple, go with Intel for your first build. You can do it with AMD but not with a "vanilla" approach. I have built a G31 so I would suspect the G41 would be just as simple. However, Core2 is last years tech, I would suggest moving up to socket 1156, i7 processor. There are a number of boards which will work here with Gigabyte being the most popular manufacturer. The P55M-UD2 is a micro ATX board that will work well, I have a P55-UD3R - this costs a few dollars more and is a full ATX board. The major price difference is in processor and MB, choose what best fits your budget. I would suggest nVidia 9400, 9500 or 9600 cards for video, they are quite simple to make work and are not budget breakers - ATI will work but require a bit more effort than nVidia.

 

Digital Dreamer has a thread in Tutorials on SnowLeopard for the X58 board. I have used his 'script' for a number of different boards including the P55. Different kexts in the Audio and Networking kext folders are required when moving to different boards, but running his script will do all the 'heavy lifting'. Video treatment will depend on the video card, I use EFI strings (generated with OSXTools) copied into the boot.plist file in the scripts plist folder.

 

Shop around for pricing on various configurations (MB and processor), but I believe a P55 MB with i7 processor is today's best bang for the buck.

 

Enjoy your build.

[NashvilleMac]

Thanks for the suggestion on the i7, but I think you missed the part where I said that cost was important to me. I have no doubt that an i7 is "better" than a Core2, but the cheapest i7 CPU costs about what I'm looking to spend on the whole system, so that's definitely out. Also, just so we're on the same page, the Intel CPU I'm considering isn't even a Core2, it's a Pentium dual core, but the AMD procs are in the same class with the same cache and a slightly slower lower FSB. I'm not looking to use a video card either. If I'm gonna buy a board that comes with a video chipset, I'd like to find one that is supported so that I don't have to spend more on a card, so the GMA X4500, Radeon 2100, and Radeon 3000 are what I'm looking at. I guess I need to look at the kexts available, but what about the Intel boards makes them easier? Are the kexts already included in most images? If it's a file copy issue, I can handle that.

 

FWIW, I'm new to OS X installations, but not to computers in general. I've installed many operating systems and other systems that require manual intervention such as NetWare, Linux (going back to Slackware), Solaris, and Oracle. I can handle minor lifting, and even some heavy.

 

Thanks again,

 

dmp

[Generic George]

Thanks for the suggestion on the i7, but I think you missed the part where I said that cost was important to me. I have no doubt that an i7 is "better" than a Core2, but the cheapest i7 CPU costs about what I'm looking to spend on the whole system, so that's definitely out. Also, just so we're on the same page, the Intel CPU I'm considering isn't even a Core2, it's a Pentium dual core, but the AMD procs are in the same class with the same cache and a slightly slower lower FSB. I'm not looking to use a video card either. If I'm gonna buy a board that comes with a video chipset, I'd like to find one that is supported so that I don't have to spend more on a card, so the GMA X4500, Radeon 2100, and Radeon 3000 are what I'm looking at. I guess I need to look at the kexts available, but what about the Intel boards makes them easier? Are the kexts already included in most images? If it's a file copy issue, I can handle that.

 

FWIW, I'm new to OS X installations, but not to computers in general. I've installed many operating systems and other systems that require manual intervention such as NetWare, Linux (going back to Slackware), Solaris, and Oracle. I can handle minor lifting, and even some heavy.

 

Thanks again,

 

dmp

 

Basically, the closer you can get to actual apple hardware, the more likely it is to be successful. There are no AMD based macs, so your odds of success are significantly lower or at least you are going to have to jump through significantly more hoops and your system will be more "fragile" and prone to be getting messed up by any updates or changes.

 

1) Hunt through the genius bar section for successful hacks using your components. That is actually better than asking in here, if you are looking at a less common build. Each and every component counts. A poorly supported video card or an IDE HD/DVD vs the more standard SATA, can make things vastly more difficult.

2) If you can't find one, then try and find what ever is closest. The Wiki link at the top of the page, can be helpful, but tends to be biased towards outdated HW. So Ebay or craig's list might be good sources.

3) If you have the HDs, having a second drive with a clone (Carbon Copy Cloner is a solid program for this) of your last functioning system, can be an invaluable hedge against problems.

[NashvilleMac]

Thanks. After reading here, thinking about it, and checking out the HCL, I think I'm just gonna go with the GA-G41M-ES2L / Pentium E6300 combo. It costs a few dollars more, but HCL says all I would need is RebelEFI, IOATAFamily patch, and retail media. Sounds nice and easy and supported. I'll probably order tonight or tomorow. Thanks!

 

dmp

[LogicalUser]

the E6300 is a great processor for the price, its the little brother to the E8000 series with the same 45nm wolfdale core just with a slightly slower FSB and only 2MB of L2 cache.

 

the G41M-ES2L is a popular board, and likely the cheapest you'll find with supported ethernet & digital audio.

As for video, everything I've read leads to believe that you will not get the onboard Intel GMA X4500 video working fully on OSX. Nothing apple uses is even close, and unless you've found some new solution to the problem, I would highly recommend some sort of PCI-E video card, even if its just a $20-45 Nvidia card. (8400GS/9400GT/9500GT/9600GT)

 

 

IMO i would stay away from RebelEFI unless you REALLY need ez-mode, you could achieve the exact same results if not better with Chameleon, two hours of reading & one of the many guides available here.

 

As for AMD vs Intel... everything is easier on the Intel. With intel it is possible to have a completely vanilla 10.6.2 install on a drive that one could swap between a real mac and a hack-mac without issues. (chameleon can load basic kexts direct from the loader, no changes to installed OS) With AMD you will need a replacement modified kernel at minimum, and likely a bunch of kexts as well. I see no reason to buy AMD hardware specifically for a hackintosh, people already stuck with the hardware have a hard enough time with their systems, no need to bring the pain for no reason.

 

and I agree with george, SATA is the way to go for HD & DVD, otherwise you need added kexts for the IDE controller, and even then some people have tons of hassles.