3Stars Posted July 13, 2006 Share Posted July 13, 2006 Well, first of all I would just like to introduce myself since I’m new here, so hello to everyone… I have put off making this post as long as possible to avoid asking a question that’s already been asked, but if I do I apologize. I plan on building a system to be used strictly for OSX86, so I’d like to know as much as possible about the hardware I should get to maximize my chances of compatibility. Mobo... Alright, Intel Vs. AMD. Intel seems more compatible, since it is what apple originally did the code for, and it seems to be more widely used so support would be easier to come by, but the price/performance of AMD is tempting…should I go for AMD or play it safer with Intel? What should I be looking for in terms of chipsets, and onboard graphics aswell? CPU… AMD...works…X2 doesn’t? Intel work all around? (Dual Core…) If I’m trying to save some cash, just look for something with SSE 3 and it should work? SATA II… From everything that I’ve read, I got the feeling that SATA doesn’t seem to work with OSX86, but that’s what apple uses and it looks like that’s what BOFORS used in his guide, so could someone clarify whether SATA works, or should I just save myself a headache and get some ATA 133 HDD? Edit:After further searching I've come to the conclusion that 10.4.6 prepatched would work to install straight onto SATA right? Video Card… Not looking to play games (duh, it’s a Mac…. jk) so don’t need anything crazy, the HCL is clear about works/doesn’t work, but is there any way I can make a safe guess as to whether or not a card would work? Any difference between ATI and Nvidia in terms of compatibility or performance, or is it on a card by card basis? Are there any cards that work flawlessly (no artifacts?) sidenote:it’s not going to be a pain to get a widescreen monitor working is it? (1440x900) Also, AGP more compatible then PCI-E? RAM… Nothing… DVD-RW… Pretty much anything should work, but Pioneer if I want to be overtly cautious? Installation… Is it easier to do just a pure install of OSX compared to a dual boot right? Just burn the DVD image and boot it up with the CD and installation should begin right? (I am aware that this is not an easy install, and that I am likely to face problems, but I was just wondering whether I needed to create partitions or whether I needed XP on there first…don’t think so) So first off thank you for taking the time to read (and hopefully answer ) these questions, and once again I apoligize If they have been answered somewhere else… Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DD_nVidia Posted July 14, 2006 Share Posted July 14, 2006 Well, try to get as close to the Apple iMac specs as possble. Intel Core Duo 2.16Ghz 1 or 2Gb DDR 2 Ram Motheboard that has Intel Chipset and supports GM950 (think its GM mabye GMA) ATI Radeon x1600/x1800 (any ram 128/256/512) Onboard will probably do you fine if you cant spend the money on the graphics card, so it will probably perform the same as the iMac with the intel graphics gm/gma 950. One thing I noticed is that my Sata Drivers wouldnt always pickup in osx, although that was with my Asus A8V and the Via chipset - almost nothing on board worked lol! I would get both a ide drive and a Sata 2 driver - only get the sata 2 drive if it has the jumpers to be able to change to sata 1 again just incase OSX doesn't like Sata 2. Hope this helped - Add me DD_nVidia@hotmail.co.uk if you want to talk about it further. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts