C2D and P35 hack overview?

[Piplodocus]

I'm an old Hackintoshist who had Leopard running with a load of hacks/fiddles/kexts, and don't know which are working still since it's mostly been collecting dust. So I figured I'm due an update and to clean all the junk out of this setup (especially since I bought Lion for my macbook!). Since I'm a bit out of the loop though these days I had a few questions on the current state of things and the general system config. The wiki etc are kinda helpful, but still doesn't have an overview of the best current "hack architecture" as such.

 

So what is the general system overview for a Vanilla Kernel on C2D processors? Even if a magic installer does it all for me I'd like to get an idea what it's done....

 

1) AHCI in BIOS is obviously a given (based on the last stuff I did a few years back)?

 

2) MBR or GUID on the destination drive? (Think it was GUID for the last experiments I did a couple of years back)

 

3) Are the latest installers putting stuff in the hidden EFI partition still? Or does it look in the main boot partition? Does that hold the Extras folder too?

 

4) I think I saw somewhere I should set my BIOS to HPET enabled, and to 64 bit. What's this for? Never did that before!

 

6) Is it fair to say I just use the most popular editor from the DSDT forum section? I'm using a DFI Bloodiron (P35+ICH9R), so haven't seen much/anything done with it in terms of DSDT or any guides. I have a DSDT I patched here years ago but have no idea if it works properly because of the mess this machine's in. I also haven't seen a DSDT patch for ALC885 sound. How would I make one, or can I get away with another ALC patch?

 

7) So, what is the basic setup then for the most vanilla setup? Bootloader in EFI partition, with vanilla install, and some other system-specific kexts to sort audio etc? Are there any basic kexts that you MUST use regardless for all Hackintosh e.g. in "Extras" just to get it to boot, or can these all be overcome by the correct DSDT (obviously with respect to my hardware, rather than it's possible with stuff I don't have).

 

Any other useful info, links, or suggestions, based on my hardware/chipset/etc? What won't work, and what is your suggested route.

 

Thanks!