Turn a Dell Vostro 200 into a Mac Pro

[tqt1586]

Since you can pick up a Vostro 200 for less than $450 with a monitor, it's a serious competition to a mac mini.

 

My current Spec.

 

Vostro 200 mintower

2.2ghz Core 2 Due (E4500) - i upgraded this AFTER purchase originally 1.8 core duo (E16xx)

2gb RAM

1TB SATA HD

16x DVD +/- RW

3com 905b MIC

nvidia 7600 GS 256 PCIe

 

I know it's far from Mac Pro specs but at least it's not $2000.00

 

Here's how I got mine to work....

 

 

1. use kalyway's or iAtkrios 10.5.1, both will let you boot and bypass those boot issues

2. get a hold of an old NIC that is widely universal to all Mac like a 3com 905b and install in empty PCI slot. Tt will work flawlessly without any drivers

3. install OS but don't use EFI option and use MBR when parititioning disk in apple's disk utility. Any other combo and it will not boot. Besides, with 10.5.2 breaking EFI hackintoshes, why even bother?

4. get a hold of azalia_adi1988b.pkg , it will allow the built in audio to work. (it's on the kalyway's disk but will work in iAtkrios, too.

5. on subsequent reboots after installation, it will need the OS dvd in the drive until you make it bootable via Brazilian's method using a usb patch disk.

 

NOTE:

 

I used iAtKios because kalyway puts too many useless programs preinstalled and modifies the theme colors and icons, a no-no in my book.

 

Even iAtkios is without its' problems, as you will need to modify the SystemVersion.plist to get rid of weird characters that is not native in describing the OS version so that it will not crash programs like 'Candybar 3.0'.

 

I used a nvidia PCIe card to bypass the intel 3100 card that currently has no hackintosh drivers that works well.

 

Also, the built in network card won't works either unless someone finds a driver for the intel 8522x NIC.

 

I also use the apple bluetooth keyboard and marry it with a belkin USB bluetooth adapter. It sometimes quits and I would have to remove the USB dongle and replace it a few seconds later to get it to work again.

 

iAtkios is very slim down version of the OS. Some things I notice that is lacking is no chess game and no additional dictionaries in the dictionary.app

 

Hope this helps.

[rbolt]

thank you for this. i will try using this flavors.

[redondo5]

I got the network card to work.... while trying to find solution for wireless usb adapters.

 

Ethernet is now working but no sound...

[BoostedH23a1]

any more updates on this?

[richardmacx]

iAtkos S3 v2 (OSX 10.6.3) is working very nicely on Vostro 200. Everything is working with little tweaks.

At the prompt select disk of installation boot, select Disc but dont click "Next" yet. Click on "Personalize..."

Here select a boot loader: PC EFI or Chameleon v2 RC4

Drivers: select all drivers except for some laptop drivers like "battery option" and such.

 

Wait 30 minutes reboot and it is complete.

Everything will work except for any additional PCI/PCI express components you may have and on board Ethernet.

 

To have Ethernet working: install Intel82566MM.kext, use Kext Helper to install kext if you are not familar with command line. Make sure to fix permission else it will fail after 1 or 2 reboots.

 

for Nvidia graphic: anything upto 8800 ULtra, I use EFIStudio for simple installation and QE/CI confirmed working.

 

Shutdown/Restart is working. Sleep is not working, I've try to you sleephelper.kext, but still no go both on S1 and S3 mode.

 

Update to 10.6.4 with no problem except for Shutdown will restart your machine. This can be fixed with OpenHaltRestart.kext.

 

if you need kexts or any more details please google.