Budget Hackintosh "lifehacker guide" Snow Leopard Retail Install

[nomoretables]

Hey guys. Big up to all those dudes that slaved away to make this all happen!

 

I want to build a budget hackintosh to test the waters, using the "lifehacker Snow Leopard Retail Install guide". The 2 best supported mobos seem to be GA-EP45-UD3P(expensive) and the GA-G31M-ES2L(budget). I'm going to use it with a Geforce 9400GT and IntelE5300, which I already own.

 

The lifehacker guide uses a Geforece 9800, but doesn't mention anything specific in the guide and the package he sets up, that makes the guide only compatible with the 9800. The 9400GT is in the HCL, so it should work using the lifehacker guide?

 

In South Africa, where I live I can't get hold of the GA-G31M-ES2L but I can get hold of the GA-G31M-ES2C and GA-G41M-ES2L. The problem is I can't find a "lifehacker" type of guide for these mobos. I spoken to some people and they say that the main chipset is the same so it should work fine, but I don't want to end up struggling and patching left and right.

 

Besides the mobos I mentioned that are available here in South Africa, what other budget boards are good alternatives that will work with the lifehacker SL retail guide?

 

If it comes down to it, I'm prepared to use my savings to buy the GA-EP45-UD3P which is $328 here in South Africa, which is really steep. But I'm desperate to run SL. But I get the feeling it's not really necessary, there must be a cheaper mobo that works great?

 

Also I don't have access to a mac at this stage, so in the mean time I’m looking for guides to install SL without usb install method using retail SL, but even for the GA-EP45-UD3P I can't find a conclusive guide?

 

So then I start to think, screw it, I'm just gonna fork out the $328, but then I check this mobo out on the HCL 10.6 and there's 3 duplicates of this with different comments next to each one and a rev 1.6, so which one do you take, and will it work out of the box following the lifehacker guide? How in sync is the HCL with this forum?

 

So I'm really confused at this stage...Any advice/guidance would really be appreciated.

 

Thanks

Nomoretables