The Hackintosh: Delivered

I own one MacBookPro. I need another Mac but don't wan't to buy MacMini. I would like to spend near 1000$ and have QUAD computer. I will be building it from zero - so where I can find the best parts to build the MacCompatibile computer?

The question is "where is FDD/HDD cables?"

 

The cables are supplied in a Zip-Loc bag within the shipping carton.

 

Both ATA hard drive (good quality 80-wire/40-pin) and floppy drive (same quality, but 34-wire/34-pin) cables are supplied.

I own one MacBookPro. I need another Mac but don't wan't to buy MacMini. I would like to spend near 1000$ and have QUAD computer. I will be building it from zero - so where I can find the best parts to build the MacCompatibile computer?

You have an enough budget to make a hackintosh running Core 2 Quad. I suggest to check HCL 10.5.2 or above first and read sticky guides of installing Leopard. The guides are usually based on specific boards and you will get a sense about what to buy.

The cables are supplied in a Zip-Loc bag within the shipping carton.Both ATA hard drive (good quality 80-wire/40-pin) and floppy drive (same quality, but 34-wire/34-pin) cables are supplied.

How kind. Thanks for answering the question. When I wrote the post, all I had was a few pictures. Then later (after my first post), I saw lots of pictures and read lots of information about Open Computer. I realized they actually provide the cables. I did not know they put them in a ziploc though.

Maybe we are the Apple testbed for OSX86 !

Thanks for the kind words. I found out by myself a few thing related to the motherboard. (I wanted to build another Hackintosh and chose GA-G31M-S2L for economical reason.)

• Restart and Shutdown do not work natively. (There are good patches.)
  
• Audio does not work natively. (There is an imperfect patch.) I believe your audio is not working for either analog-in or volume control of analog-out.
  
• LAN does not work natively. (There is a perfect patch.)
  

On top of that,

• The names of some Core 2 Quad processors are not reported correctly. (There is an imperfect patch.)
  
• DDR2 800 RAM is reported as DDR2 667 RAM. (There is a good patch.)
  
• All SATA ports works natively unlike some other motherboards which are capable of running Core 2 Quad processors.
  

At this moment, I feel comfortable with everything except the audio. I am just glad that I can load all four cores with jobs on this cheappy motherboard. Overall, I would give 4.5 out of 5 for this motherboard.

 

Simply out of curiosity, would you tell me which one is wrong in the following?

• RAM GeIL GX24GB6400DCKA
  
• Graphics eVGA 512-P2-N756-TR
  
• ODD Lite-On LH-20A1L-05
  

 

Sorry for the late reply. Haven't been on here for some time.

 

To answer your question: The RAM is different.

 

Here is what the label says: Super Talent T6UB2GC5 STT DDR2-667 PC3500 Heatspreader 2G/128X8 CL5

 

Hope this helps.

Sorry for the late reply. Haven't been on here for some time.

 

To answer your question: The RAM is different.

 

Here is what the label says: Super Talent T6UB2GC5 STT DDR2-667 PC3500 Heatspreader 2G/128X8 CL5

 

Hope this helps.

Thanks a lot. So the only pure guess that I made was wrong, ouch.

"I read your list a while back based on the video (nice detective work) and I came back to check it out 'cause I wanted to try and build a hack myself but use better parts (and hopefully a faster <quad?>processor). I want to stay compatible with the original hardware though because I hope to use a clone of the original Psystar HD."

 

I have a Toshiba Satellite A205 running the exact same MacOS as was formerly running on my Psystar, since taken out of service as I now have two Shuttle SG31G2s. CI/QE runs perfectly on my Toshiba as it has GMAX3100 video which is fully supported out of the box.

 

You could call Psystar's OpenComputer version of 10.5.4 a "G31/ICH7 Reference Model", as almost everything works. Except for sound, but that is an easy fix thanks to Taruga's excellent patcher. The fix for the Toshiba was a little more difficult to find, but the somewhat obscure "alc268_january08" patch make quick work of that.

 

Move the Psystar G31/ICH7 reference model to a Shuttle, and the shuttle works except for the LAN, but the Marvell LAN fix is well-known in Hackinland.

 

Move it to a Toshiba, thereby creating a HackinTOSH, and everything works except for the WiFi card (EVERYONE seems to have trouble with those PCI-E WiFi cards in laptops ... even the well-known change from Atheros to Broadcom DID NOT WORK) and the 5-in-1 card reader (which is also PCI-E, so there is no support at all).

 

I gave up on Kalyway for the Toshiba as I could not get everything to work, nor could I get to 10.5.4, whereas the Psystar was already at 10.5.4, and with EVERY Apple Software Update, too.

 

The HackinTOSH sort of happened by a happy accident.

 

On a fluke, I made a 2.5" SATA drive as a clone of my Psystar's fully updated hard drive, ran the EFI script and presto! a 10.5.4 system which worked on my Psystar (using an eSATA to iSATA cable), but also worked in my HackinTOSH (my Toshiba runs GUID, and not MBR as was recommended by Kalyway). A few laptop-specific fixes later, mainly the temperature fix, and I was essentially done with the HackinTOSH.

 

Oh, and the HackinTOSH works with a generic Taiwan eSATA Express-34 card (Silicon Image chip set) so all of my external data, which is on eSATA drives, work on my HackinTOSH, too. Silicon Image's support site even had 10.5 drivers which were two versions later than the ones which were provided with the card. ($49 at Fry's Electronics, but you can get essentially the same card on ePay for $29).

 

I run Temperature Monitor on my HackinTOSH, and it runs pretty cool. Hardly breaks into a sweat.

 

All of the above, with specific respect to the HackinTOSH, became a reality because the so-called "Pentium Dual Core" processor which is in the HackinTOSH is really a Merom 1-M (T2370), and that is really a Core 2 Duo processor, and not a Pentium at all.

 

So, for me, my entry-level Psystar OpenComputer Core 2 Duo E4500 begat a Core 2 Quad Q6600 Shuttle SG31G2 (overclocked to 2.6 GHz ... processor limitation, in a Shuttle), which begat a Core 2 Duo E8400 Shuttle SG31G2 (overclocked to 3.1 GHz ... Northbridge limitation, in a Shuttle), which begat a Merom 1-m (Core 2 Duo) T2370 Toshiba A205-S5831, and which is about to beget what may prove to be my ultimate Hackintosh, a GA-P35-S3G five PCI slot Hackintosh, presently being completed as I write this!

So, for me, my entry-level Psystar OpenComputer Core 2 Duo E4500 ... [ huge snip ] ... is about to beget what may prove to be my ultimate Hackintosh, a GA-P35-S3G five PCI slot Hackintosh, presently being completed as I write this!

The initial build is complete.

 

The E4500 which was borrowed from my Psystar was succesfully overclocked to 2.8 GHz (Northbridge limitation) and pulled in an XBench of 170.

 

I think the ideal processor in this machine may be an E8400 or a Q9450, if an under $300 processor is a goal.