Gigabyte GA-G41M-ES2L - 2.8GHz Dual-Core Pentium

[natgab]

Like many a disgruntled G5 owner left behind by Snow Leopard, I have decided to make my own Hackintosh. I am building myself a Hackintosh for Christmas. This will replace my PowerMac G5 1.8GHz DP as my main computer. I even sold the G5 to pay for the cost of the Hackintosh.

 

I had lurked and posted a question or two a while back about getting a machine built. Well, I finally have the money and ordered my parts from Newegg.com two days ago. I chose parts from those mentioned here in the forum and from Newegg feedback.

 

I will be making mine a dual boot with Ubuntu Studio. I had already been using Ubuntu 9.04 on the PowerMac G5 for the last two months to familiarize myself with the Ubuntu apps. I did this because if I bork my Hackintosh install, I want to be able to have a working system.

 

Beside the usual e-mail / web, I like to work on websites, do some graphic work and edit videos for the family. This is the reason I chose Ubuntu Studio rather than regular Ubuntu.

 

UPDATE: This system worked with iPC_OSx86_10_5_6_Universal_PPF5_Final, but I did not get audio. It probably just needs a patch. I only used it to format USB thumbdrive to use Lifehacker method to load Snow Leopard.

 

Lifehacker method works perfect for this mobo, except for audio. I am in process of finding a fix.

 

Here is my list:

 

Motherboard - Gigabyte GA-G41M-ES2L LGA 775 Intel G41 Micro ATX

North Bridge G41, South Bridge ICH7

Video GMA X4500, Audio Realtek ALC 888b, NIC Realtek 8111 DL <-NIC works / GMA video not tested / audio needs patch

 

Videocard - Gigabyte GV-N84S-512I GeForce 8400 GS 512MB

64-bit GDDR2 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready <- works

 

CPU - Intel Pentium E6300 Wolfdale 2.8GHz LGA 775

65w Dual-Core Processor

 

Memory - Crucial Ballistix 2GB 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800

(PC2 6400)

 

Drive - LITE-ON CD/DVD Burner Bulk Black SATA

Model # iHAS124-04 OEM <- works

 

I/O - SYBA PCI USB 2.0 & 1394a combo card Model SD-COMBO-02 <- Firewire works !

 

Please advise me as to what install version I should use for this hardware. [EDIT: Leopard or Snow Leopard, whatever is easiest / stable for noob.]

 

Parts are already on their way, so this is what my Hackintosh will have for hardware. I think everything should be ok, or at least partially working. I have attached my wishlist for cost information, though I messed up and only ordered one stick of RAM instead of two.

 

Thanks, will appreciate comments and tips.

natgab_s_hackintosh.pdf

[rwillett]

Like many a disgruntled G5 owner left behind by Snow Leopard, I have decided to make my own Hackintosh. I am building myself a Hackintosh for Christmas. This will replace my PowerMac G5 1.8GHz DP as my main computer. I even sold the G5 to pay for the cost of the Hackintosh.

 

I had lurked and posted a question or two a while back about getting a machine built. Well, I finally have the money and ordered my parts from Newegg.com two days ago. I chose parts from those mentioned here in the forum and from Newegg feedback.

 

I will be making mine a dual boot with Ubuntu Studio. I had already been using Ubuntu 9.04 on the PowerMac G5 for the last two months to familiarize myself with the Ubuntu apps. I did this because if I bork my Hackintosh install, I want to be able to have a working system.

 

Beside the usual e-mail / web, I like to work on websites, do some graphic work and edit videos for the family. This is the reason I chose Ubuntu Studio rather than regular Ubuntu.

 

Here is my list:

 

Motherboard - Gigabyte GA-G41M-ES2L LGA 775 Intel G41 Micro ATX

North Bridge G41, South Bridge ICH7

Video GMA X4500, Audio Realtek ALC 8888, NIC Realtek 8111 DL

 

Videocard - Gigabyte GV-N84S-512I GeForce 8400 GS 512MB

64-bit GDDR2 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready

 

CPU - Intel Pentium E6300 Wolfdale 2.8GHz LGA 775

65w Dual-Core Processor

 

Memory - Crucial Ballistix 2GB 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800

(PC2 6400)

 

Drive - LITE-ON CD/DVD Burner Bulk Black SATA

Model # iHAS124-04 OEM

 

I/O - SYBA PCI USB 2.0 & 1394a combo card Model SD-COMBO-02

 

Please advise me as to what install version I should use for this hardware. [EDIT: Leopard or Snow Leopard, whatever is easiest / stable for noob.]

 

Parts are already on their way, so this is what my Hackintosh will have for hardware. I think everything should be ok, or at least partially working. I have attached my wishlist for cost information, though I messed up and only ordered one stick of RAM instead of two.

 

Thanks, will appreciate comments and tips.

 

I have a similar system, V1 of the Gigabyte motherboard though, E6300 2.8Ghz Dual Core, Asus 9400GT graphics card though, Lite-On DVD burner

 

I have a separate Via firewire card and do not have the combo I/O card. There may be issues with your I/O card and it's very possible it will not work.

 

I used this guide http://www.infinitemac.com/f57/guide-retai...for-g31m-t3672/ to install and it works very well.

 

Sound is internal and just worked, I used the Realtek drivers downloaded from the Realtek site and they seem to work well. The graphics card is fine as well.

 

Three issues are:

 

1. After booting, I normally end up with a black screen and a mouse cursor but no screen. This is resolved by setting the Energy saver on the screen to one minute (before rebooting), after one minute the display is cleared, press any key and the screen is there. Weird but I can live with a one minute longer reboot cycle.

 

2. Sleep and hibernate don't work out of the box but the PowerSleep application (in the docs above) seem to sort the problem out.

 

3. I cannot use the PCI slot next to the PCI-E graphics card. No idea why, the BIOS recognises the card but mac OS will not. This was a pain as I *thought* I needed to use an additional Ethernet card and not the on-board one for Bonjour. The Realtek drivers sorted this out so I use onboard Ethernet.

 

I run with a 32 bit kernel as there is zero (well almost zero) advantage of running 64 bit kernel. 64 bit apps still work with 32 bit kernels, don't let anyone tell you otherwise.

 

I have a Logitech HD Webcam which just works, I use a high end KVM as well and that works.

 

Contrary to what people will tell you the onboard video will work in case your 8800 won't. It is not perfect and is not fast but just in case you need it, you can boot and run. I've done it.

 

Use the guide as it's pretty damm good (to be honest it's excellent). I take no credit for it as somebody else did all the hard work.

 

Rob.

[LogicalUser]

I just built a similar machine for a friend whose Dual G5 died last month. Somehow I was able to sell the nonfuctional carcass of the G5 tower for the $325 needed to build a replacement machine from scratch.

 

E6300, used Nvidia 8600GT, single 2GB stick of DDR2, Lite-On DVDR, the only real difference is I decided on an ATX board (EP45-UD3L) instead of the mATX one (was on sale for only $20 more)

 

 

I'd definitely go with Snow Leopard. not a difficult install, especially if you can find a guide designed around the G41M-ES2L.

As for graphics, your 8400GS should work with Chameleon/PC EFI with just graphicsenabler=yes, so the video card in whatever guide you follow does not have to match, so long as its not having you do some weird card-specific install procedure

[mikemelancholic]

Can't wait to see your results. This is the same mobo I am considering.

[Zaap]

I will be making mine a dual boot with Ubuntu Studio. I had already been using Ubuntu 9.04 on the PowerMac G5 for the last two months to familiarize myself with the Ubuntu apps. I did this because if I bork my Hackintosh install, I want to be able to have a working system.

For the easiest dual-booting, I highly recommend using two hard drives. If you're familiar with editing Grub to boot OSX (I personally haven't done this with SL) then one drive may work okay. Otherwise, two drives is easy.

 

Keep in mind too, that the absolute best way to avoid ever borking OSX, is to simply create a small partition of about 15GB on the same hard drive, and do a backup install of OSX. I always recommend this. Do any questionable tinkering or updates on your backup, not your main install. If things go well, then do the same on the main install. If things go bad, restore the backup partition and figure out what went wrong. Either way, you don't ever bork your main OSX install.

 

The G41 Gigabyte board is pretty easy to install. I have a system using that board, and used the LifeHacker Snow Leopard guide. Even though it's for a different mobo (Gigabyte UD3P) it worked perfectly for me on the G41 board. I use a USB audio card rather than the onboard, so I didn't mess with setting up the onboard. (ALC 888b)

 

A few things I would recommend (though no big deal if you've already ordered your parts.)

 

First, I would recommend getting the SYBA USB audio adapter. It's $8 well-spent. Rather than mess with onboard audio which sometimes can be an effort to get working, this works always out of box, with no drivers. I've done many a side-by-side comparison to this and onboard audio, and this sounds better than most generic onboard in OSX.

 

Second, I would recommend at least a 9400GT video card, rather than the 8400GS. You can probably get the 8400 graphics working without problems, but I know for sure the 9400 (and better) are supported in Snow Leopard with just the graphics enabler flag.

 

Third, get a USB key at least 8GB if you're going to use the LifeHacker install method.

[natgab]

Ok guys,

 

I just got my parts, except for the RAM. The RAM arrives tomorrow and my brother will build it for me. Not the whole Hackintosh, just want him to built the box so that I don't have to worry about the hardware.

 

I have two SATA HDs, so I will load Ubuntu on my smaller drive and get it working so that I have a desktop computer again. A Pismo connected to a 19" monitor can only due so much if it has only 256MB of memory

 

I will post an update once I have the Ubuntu part of it finished, just need to make sure its working. Meanwhile I will read up more before fiddling with the Hackintosh part of it.

 

Please post other hints that might help me before I start.

[natgab]

HELP I'm having trouble with my installation,

 

I am following the Lifehacker " How to build a Hackintosh w/ SL " by Adam Pash. I have a retail SL disc, an 8GB thumb drive and my computer works. I am running Ubuntu Studio 9.04 on it and it works fine.

 

I formatted the thumb drive as GUID. So my next step was to move the SL DVD image to the thumb drive. And I think my problem is the Mac I am using to make the image of the DVD. I tried using my 400MHz Pismo w/ 256MB RAM. It ran the whole process and then gave me an error at the end.

 

The guide does not mention needing an Intel Mac, is the Pismo just underpowered? I have a 533MHz PowerMac DA w/ 1.25GB RAM with a 5400 rpm HD at work. Will this do?

 

thanks

[LogicalUser]

the powermac might work

 

IMO, I'd go with a snow leopard boot132 CD, lets you skip the making a USB installer step and just boot from boot132 then swap in the retail CD for the initial installation steps

 

you'll either need to find one for your motherboard, or make one using your DSDT & kexts. or... perhaps try a SL boot132 CD from a similar board?

[8GPMPY]

Any ideas about the GA-G41MT-ES2L with DDR3 memory?

[Zaap]

Any ideas about the GA-G41MT-ES2L with DDR3 memory?

It only supports 4GB DDR3 and no tri-channel. I'm wondering if dual-channel DDR3 performance on a 775 board would be noticeably better than DDR2. Otherwise, the T model is the same price as the older model on newegg.

[phonatik]

It only supports 4GB DDR3 and no tri-channel. I'm wondering if dual-channel DDR3 performance on a 775 board would be noticeably better than DDR2. Otherwise, the T model is the same price as the older model on newegg.

 

Not having much luck with this board! Got it about a week ago with a q8300 processor. Installed snow using myhack and original snow leo install disc. No shutdown restart (kp). Also you need to turn off quikboot in order for smbios to be recognised

[tazito]

Can you guys post your bios settings, i'm having problems installing it, I'm new at it first time trying it, and yes I forgot to say HI to all of ya! this is my hardware.

 

I have a core 2 quad 2.66 cpu

Gigabyte ga-g41m-es2l mobo

GT 240 nvidea

4gb ram

WD sata 500gb HD

 

now my mobo bios is 2009 do I have to update it so i can have the option for the ACHI, i look in the mobo bios settings and i don't see it anyware. Thank you in advance.

[Milanche78]

Hello, I,ve got the same problem - can not set to ACHI. It is GA-G41-ES2L mobo rev 1.1 with the newest version of BIOS F(. I do not believe this, one of the most recommended boards can not set to ACHI ! What a waste of time and money!

[barrysanders20]

You don't need to set it on the G41 V1.1. It's already enabled and there's no BIOS option for it. You should ignore any tutorial or install asking you to set it. Just proceed with the rest of the installation.

 

I had the same issue. I was like WTF. Then went along with the install.

[stellarola]

I use this board @work daily as a Hackintosh. I've got everything running perfect on it. I'll post my installation files in the following week.

 

-Stell

[pirloui]

Hello, I,ve got the same problem - can not set to ACHI. It is GA-G41-ES2L mobo rev 1.1 with the newest version of BIOS F(. I do not believe this, one of the most recommended boards can not set to ACHI ! What a waste of time and money!

 

They just put a weird name on it in that serie. Just read the manual. Might be on by default anyway.

 

OP: That proc should overclock quite a bit; could be worth giving it a spin. (only dual so little heat)

My media center has a E3300 "celeron" whose stock frequency is 2.5Ghz; it runs perfectly stable at 4.25Ghz with a small air cooler. (cooler master tx3) (temps max at 60°C with 30°C ambient)