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Hi all,

 

I just got turned on to this forum, and have done some reading on hardware that's compatible.

 

Most of the budget motherboard articles are slightly out of date though, so I was hoping for some advice:

 

What is the cheapest motherboard out that's highly compatible with OSX86, and has 4 memory slots? (240pin).

 

I managed to pick up a ton of cheap DDR2-5300 / 667mhz RAM from a fatwallet deal and would like to use all 4gb if I can.

 

I already have a wireless card, but onboard NIC/sound/graphics would be nice as well.

 

I assume GMA950 is the best bet for a compatible chipset? I also see a GF 7300 on fatwallet for $20 that I could pickup as well.

 

Thanks!

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The Asrock Conroe 1333 DVI/H 2.0 has been working really nicely for me. It is though a 945 chipset so it will not recognise all 4GB of RAM. You will need to look for boards with the 965 chipset for 4GB support.

 

GMA950 and network works without a problem and you only need the AppleHDApatcher with the patch file for audio to work.

 

Just a warning I have had a couple of issues with this board. Most serious the bios has to be 1.4 or lower for Leo to be installed. Higher BIOS revisions simply will stall with a cryptic message. You can of course flash the bios after installing windows or with a bootable floppy.

 

The second issue is that if you remove a usb keyboard or mouse after reconncting them the system does not recognise them and you will need a reboot.

Thanks for the reply... the Conroe1333 was the main board I was considering, but now you're kind of scaring me away.

 

Also, an article I read says it can be found for $49, but the cheapest I see anywhere is around $80.

 

How much of the 4gb of RAM can actually be used? Seems pretty dumb...

I'm on an ECS 945GCT-M/1333 V3.0 with fully working dual core, GMA950, and networking out of the box. Sound isn't supported unless you can get the older 1.0 version I hear. I paid $79 for the motherboard and a 2.2 Ghz E2200 at Fry's a few weeks ago. Working great for me so far. I use a cheap USB soundcard which can be picked up for about $5-10 online.

The ASRock ConRoe945G-DVi or one of it's newer variants (pretty much any ASRock board with 945G, mATX and 4 memory slots is just a version of this board with a different BIOS ID string) is much better than any of the other 'cheapo' 945 boards, if you can track one down. It works fantastically in OS X, and it's ethernet controller lives on the PCIe bus, rather than the cheaper PCI versions most manufacturers went for, and it uses the newer, and much better ALC888 HDA codec, rather than the old ALC883 or ALC880.

Thanks for the reply... the Conroe1333 was the main board I was considering, but now you're kind of scaring me away.

 

Also, an article I read says it can be found for $49, but the cheapest I see anywhere is around $80.

 

How much of the 4gb of RAM can actually be used? Seems pretty dumb...

 

I got it for something like 60$ - 65$ in the UK so i am sure you can do better in the us!

 

I think the system can address a bit over 3GB it is a chipset issue not a motherboard one really. As others have commented though the 945 chipset is very good for OS X compatibility and the Asrock boards are pretty nice as well for that job.

 

Is the Bios issue scaring you or the keyboard/mouse one? Because the second might have something to do with my installation and not with the board. The bios though on this psecific board has to be 1.5 or less - I think I have mentioned 1.4 or less but that is inaccurate the first BIOS revision that does not work is 1.6 .

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