Which hardware ?

[tmark]

First time poster. I've had a few Macbooks and love OSX, but could never afford a desktop that could do what I need. I was planning on building a Windows 7 machine, but decided I wanted to try to build a Hackintosh myself, and this forum has been instrumental in that decision.

 

I do some Photoshop work, and at times will probably be running a few VMs in VMware Fusion.

 

I'm looking for a recommendation for a hardware that meets the following criteria (roughly, in order of importance).

- *most important* : as straightforward as possible to install.

- on-board sound and networking supported

- has on-board Firewire

- has lots of SATA ports; also ideally an eSATA port as well.

- on-board video that is supported, if possible.

 

I'll willing to buy Firewire, sound, and video cards as necessary. But for my first build I'm looking to go economical, so I'm hoping to get as much integrated on the motherboard as possible.

 

Recommendations as to CPU, type and amount of RAM needed, cooler, required PSU, etc would be greatly appreciated as well.

 

thanks !

[roaminggnome]

First time poster. I've had a few Macbooks and love OSX, but could never afford a desktop that could do what I need. I was planning on building a Windows 7 machine, but decided I wanted to try to build a Hackintosh myself, and this forum has been instrumental in that decision.

 

I do some Photoshop work, and at times will probably be running a few VMs in VMware Fusion.

 

I'm looking for a recommendation for a hardware that meets the following criteria (roughly, in order of importance).

- *most important* : as straightforward as possible to install.

- on-board sound and networking supported

- has on-board Firewire

- has lots of SATA ports; also ideally an eSATA port as well.

- on-board video that is supported, if possible.

 

I'll willing to buy Firewire, sound, and video cards as necessary. But for my first build I'm looking to go economical, so I'm hoping to get as much integrated on the motherboard as possible.

 

Recommendations as to CPU, type and amount of RAM needed, cooler, required PSU, etc would be greatly appreciated as well.

 

thanks !

 

I've posted in a couple threads regarding the Core i3, it seems like once that's working it'll be the best route for someone that's wanting to go economical. It has some of the features of the Core i5/Core i7 and Quickpath unlike the Core 2 series. Also, an added advantage is that Core i3 boards have onboard video, which from the benchmarks looks like it'll even handle a couple of popular games in decent detail. If the onboard video is supported by OS X, you can save immediate cash on buying a $50-$200 video card and save up for when you have a need - or put that towards RAM/SSD, etc.

 

Check out the Core i3 threads and let me know what you think. Once there is an inkling of progress I'll be pulling the trigger on an i3 and overclocking it to 4GHz +

[tmark]

I've posted in a couple threads regarding the Core i3, it seems like once that's working it'll be the best route for someone that's wanting to go economical. It has some of the features of the Core i5/Core i7 and Quickpath unlike the Core 2 series. Also, an added advantage is that Core i3 boards have onboard video, which from the benchmarks looks like it'll even handle a couple of popular games in decent detail. If the onboard video is supported by OS X, you can save immediate cash on buying a $50-$200 video card and save up for when you have a need - or put that towards RAM/SSD, etc.

 

Check out the Core i3 threads and let me know what you think. Once there is an inkling of progress I'll be pulling the trigger on an i3 and overclocking it to 4GHz +

Thanks Gnome, from an economy standpoint I do like the idea of having integrated video. For now, this is an exercise in figuring out how viable OSx86 is for me. However, my reading of the i3 threads led me to the understanding that it was somewhat virgin and unexplored territory - no ?

[roaminggnome]

Thanks Gnome, from an economy standpoint I do like the idea of having integrated video. For now, this is an exercise in figuring out how viable OSx86 is for me. However, my reading of the i3 threads led me to the understanding that it was somewhat virgin and unexplored territory - no ?

 

That's correct. I've been asking the Gigabyte Guru to make a comment on if he plans on investigating i3 compatibility anytime soon. If you wouldn't mind maybe you should go into the thread and make a post so that it doesn't look like I'm the lone person looking for a solution.

 

Here is said topic: http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/index.php...p;#entry1389900

 

 

I bet if we're patient it'll be supported in no time. I was going to go with Core i5 until I heard about i3, which will save me a ton of money which I'd rather put towards more storage, RAM and SSD.

[LogicalUser]

I'm looking for a recommendation for a hardware that meets the following criteria (roughly, in order of importance).

- *most important* : as straightforward as possible to install.

- on-board sound and networking supported

- has on-board Firewire

- has lots of SATA ports; also ideally an eSATA port as well.

- on-board video that is supported, if possible.

 

On-board sound & networking are easy if you pick the right board, and most options with compatible sound & LAN that offer firewire are OSX compatible

Gigabyte boards are popular because much of their lineup uses the same compatible realtek sound & LAN chips and thus require at most minor tweaks between boards.

 

Also, an added advantage is that Core i3 boards have onboard video, which from the benchmarks looks like it'll even handle a couple of popular games in decent detail. If the onboard video is supported by OS X, you can save immediate cash on buying a $50-$200 video card and save up for when you have a need - or put that towards RAM/SSD, etc.

 

IMO you both should give up on the onboard video and invest $25-60 for a much more capable and compatible dedicated graphics card.

 

The odds of getting the Core i3/i5 onboard video working properly under OSX anytime soon are VERY slim, if possible at all. Everything I've read about Intel's "HD Graphics/GMA HD" says its based around the GMA X4500 which people have been struggling with for years, and is still not OSX compatible.

 

Unless Apple decides to implement a clarksdale CPU into one of their machines and takes advantage of the IGP (which Apple has publicly bashed as underpowered and not good enough) we won't be getting compatible drivers.

 

As for the rest, I had more to say, but I've ran outta time, will be back later with more suggestions

[LogicalUser]

Check out the Core i3 threads and let me know what you think. Once there is an inkling of progress I'll be pulling the trigger on an i3 and overclocking it to 4GHz +

Thanks Gnome, from an economy standpoint I do like the idea of having integrated video. For now, this is an exercise in figuring out how viable OSx86 is for me. However, my reading of the i3 threads led me to the understanding that it was somewhat virgin and unexplored territory - no ?

That's correct. I've been asking the Gigabyte Guru to make a comment on if he plans on investigating i3 compatibility anytime soon. If you wouldn't mind maybe you should go into the thread and make a post so that it doesn't look like I'm the lone person looking for a solution.

 

I bet if we're patient it'll be supported in no time. I was going to go with Core i5 until I heard about i3, which will save me a ton of money which I'd rather put towards more storage, RAM and SSD.

Somewhat virgin territory, lol! I like that

I guess it all depends on what you mean by progress, compatibility, supported & success.

 

Vanilla kernel support can only come from Apple, and will only happen if Apple decides to use something from Clarksdale (or a future similar arch) in one of their upcoming machines.

 

With that said... everything I've read points to full Clarksdale i3/i5 support in SL when using existing modded kernels without the CPUID check (such as Qoopz's kernel)

 

The only problem is.... nobody has written or adapted a P55 guide specifically for these CPUs yet, so the only people reporting success are those with the prior experience needed to follow +80% of tonymac's guide and successfully swap in the modded kernel. (Most of those with i3s reporting problems have issues unrelated to the kernel itself and are just generic P55 issues)

 

Now... the H55 boards are another story. The gigabyte ones use compatible ethernet & audio, but AFAIK nobody has wandered in here with one in their hands yet.

 

As for recommendations on other parts, I don't feel like retyping so just browse my previous posts, you may find someone I've helped with similar goals:)