Has anyone built a Hackintosh? School me... (now including pics of my build)

[igo4bmx]

Originally Posted by Scapegoat

it's proven itself to the tens of thousands of beta testers

like i said before beta testing and real world experience can never be 100% compared. This is the reason why every Windows operating system had at least 1 service pack with MAJOR changes to the OS.

you think everything is fine but something will come out and be critical on Win7

[Scapegoat]

Originally Posted by igo4bmx

like i said before beta testing and real world experience can never be 100% compared. This is the reason why every Windows operating system had at least 1 service pack with MAJOR changes to the OS.

you think everything is fine but something will come out and be critical on Win7

this isn't "beta testing" though... it is real world experience. the beta was released to the public, everyone had access to it. both the casual user as well as the power user... and i'm sure it has been put through it's paces by both types. this isn't a normal windows OS release... those were closed beta. the general public had no access to it until it was released for sale.

windows 7 has been put through way more testing than previous OS's from MS. You can pretty much consider this OS having already gone through its first couple of service packs thanks to the open beta.

I'm sure Mac OS's have gotten major service packs as well. perhaps you don't get a notification that it has been updated and it just does it... or maybe you do... i don't know b/c i haven't had to deal with it.

but the point is, you can't compare the creation and release of 7 to xp, vista, etc.

i gots nothing against the mac os, i like it for day to day stuff. i'm just saying... windows 7 is a whole nother ballgame for M$. they did something right this time and it is certainly worth a look for someone worried about not having a "stable OS"

as far as the hackintosh goes... Bryan, let me know how it turns out... i'm very interested in having one myself. as a web developer i would love to have the latest mac os available to me at home to run site tests on. i'm not willing to jump into one just yet, despite that it does appear to be easier and easier now to build one

[c0nfl1kt]

Originally Posted by Scapegoat

i think at this point, as long as you have an intel chip and a cracked installation cd you should be good to go. i should check the chip on my Eee... wouldn't mind running OSx on it

Most of those Eee's are running Intel's atom. I could be wrong. Thank god Mac stopped using their PowerPC from AMD. That **** was a PITA for software.

[c0nfl1kt]

Originally Posted by igo4bmx

like i said before beta testing and real world experience can never be 100% compared. This is the reason why every Windows operating system had at least 1 service pack with MAJOR changes to the OS.

you think everything is fine but something will come out and be critical on Win7

Ugh, are we seriously still discussing this? Look at Windows 2000 Professional. It was beta tested by over 10 million computers in various businesses. They got enough feedback and data from that huge beta test to release an OEM copy that has never been patched. It is that solid. In fact, most hardcore IT professionals still use 2000 PRO strictly for their workstations. If something would have revealed itself to Microsoft in Beta testing of Windows 7 they would have caught it or the thousands of nerds that got their grubby hands on it would have blogged everywhere about it. They made it easier to get your own copy for that specific reason. During beta, Microsoft knows everything your operating system is doing. They know when you're looking at porn, when you're on the web, what you are surfing, etc. You sign away those rights to beta test, but they are receiving information 24/7 and if your computer crashes they know about it a few seconds before you do. My computer crashed once because I was trying to use a 32 bit driver in my 64 bit machine and they sent me an email about it almost immediately. It was awesome.

[TROLL]

Originally Posted by c0nfl1kt

Ugh, are we seriously still discussing this?

Nope, we're not talking about it. We're talking about info regarding building a Hackintosh and the benefits and drawbacks that go along with it.

I can segway back on topic though:

Loosely related to the Win vs. Mac debate, but not... it has been argued that Win7 is a great step forward for Microsoft and what is the real appeal of going to Mac in the first place? Admittedly I have not used Win7, and I also can't make a list of reasons why I want to try Mac other than I've heard good things, and I just want to see for myself.

I've been educated about the pros and cons of going Hack, the risk that I'd be taking to run a 'hacked' version of Mac on non-Mac hardware. Its a $800 custom setup that can hang with a $2500 genuine Mac setup, but I'll have to deal with getting everything working properly on initial setup which is not guaranteed, and then address updates as they come. There's good info and support out there that makes it a lot easier than it used to be, but again nothing is guaranteed and even some 'tested' setups still have little quirks like sleep mode, sound cards, network connections, etc.

I've been considering just moving to Windows 7 after hearing the argument above, and not having to assume this extra risk, but I think I'm leaning toward giving the OSX setup a shot, and if I'm not happy with how the initial setup goes, if I can't get everything running properly, then I always have the option of wiping it clean and installing Win7 instead.

Not rushing to make a decision, just figured I'd keep the thread updated with where I am on things. If anyone else has questions or info to add go ahead with it. I'm still not of much use to educate anyone on things but I have been talking to people and researching things to try and make what progress I can.

[c0nfl1kt]

Originally Posted by TROLL

Nope, we're not talking about it. We're talking about info regarding building a Hackintosh and the benefits and drawbacks that go along with it.

I can segway back on topic though:

Loosely related to the Win vs. Mac debate, but not... it has been argued that Win7 is a great step forward for Microsoft and what is the real appeal of going to Mac in the first place? Admittedly I have not used Win7, and I also can't make a list of reasons why I want to try Mac other than I've heard good things, and I just want to see for myself.

I've been educated about the pros and cons of going Hack, the risk that I'd be taking to run a 'hacked' version of Mac on non-Mac hardware. Its a $800 custom setup that can hang with a $2500 genuine Mac setup, but I'll have to deal with getting everything working properly on initial setup which is not guaranteed, and then address updates as they come. There's good info and support out there that makes it a lot easier than it used to be, but again nothing is guaranteed and even some 'tested' setups still have little quirks like sleep mode, sound cards, network connections, etc.

I've been considering just moving to Windows 7 after hearing the argument above, and not having to assume this extra risk, but I think I'm leaning toward giving the OSX setup a shot, and if I'm not happy with how the initial setup goes, if I can't get everything running properly, then I always have the option of wiping it clean and installing Win7 instead.

Not rushing to make a decision, just figured I'd keep the thread updated with where I am on things. If anyone else has questions or info to add go ahead with it. I'm still not of much use to educate anyone on things but I have been talking to people and researching things to try and make what progress I can.

As far as hardware, why don't you go build a mac on the apple site and write down what they use? As far as software, I'd use what vr-4-life posted. It seemed pretty straight forward and simple from what I did read.

[lagos]

Originally Posted by igo4bmx

like i said before beta testing and real world experience can never be 100% compared. This is the reason why every Windows operating system had at least 1 service pack with MAJOR changes to the OS.

you think everything is fine but something will come out and be critical on Win7

The trick with windows7 is that its a huge vista service pack in disguise. Thats why it runs as well as it does.
I have the beta on my system, and I have to say that this is the most polished and stable thing that I have ever seen MS release right out of the box. Think of it as vista sp3 applied with a new taskbar.

[c0nfl1kt]

Originally Posted by lagos

The trick with windows7 is that its a huge vista service pack in disguise. Thats why it runs as well as it does.
I have the beta on my system, and I have to say that this is the most polished and stable thing that I have ever seen MS release right out of the box. Think of it as vista sp3 applied with a new taskbar.

Just because it is built on top of vista doesn't mean it's "basically Vista SP3". Lol, that is idiotic.

[lagos]

Troll, either way it sounds like you are ready to upgrade your computer. So just buy the hardware anyway. Then setup a dual boot with windows7 and osx. You can download the windows7 beta for free from microsoft, or if you have a college email, you can buy the final version for 30bucks from MS.
Even if you get the hackintosh running great, youll probably still find a reason to boot into windows, and 7 will be a huge upgrade form xp. Think of it as setting up a hackintosh with "bootcamp" ..lol.

[Roto]

I have 7 on my OLD laptop which barely had Vista Business run on it. 7 is plain and simple in one word - AWESOME.

[lagos]

Originally Posted by c0nfl1kt

Just because it is built on top of vista doesn't mean it's "basically Vista SP3". Lol, that is idiotic.

lol. Whats different about it? Its the same kernel with the fixes and updates that they made to the vista.
They just designed a cool new taskbar for it and tweaked a few UI features.
The fact that it runs faster actually comes from the tweaks the made to the vista kernel when developing 08 server. So the real truth is that its 08 server with a service pack and a taskbar.

Having said that, there was actually nothing wrong with vista. Sure it was a little buggy at first, but the real problem was that hardware vendors took forever to develop vista drivers for a lot of stuff. This along with some clever marketing from apple, gave vista a bad name.

[TROLL]

Bringing this one back up in case I missed any local Hack guys...

I'm pretty zoned in on my setup now, but trying to confirm with other users that they have full functionality before I pull the trigger on the motherboard and processor.

Plan A uses the Core i7 860 chip with a Gigabyte P55-UD4P or P55-UD3R motherboard... for my uses either will work fine, so it depends on which is developed to full functionality at this point.

Plan B, which isn't really a compromise at all, is to go with a slightly more expensive Core i7 920 chip with a Gigabyte EX58-UD5 motherboard which has been around for longer and is more fully developed with a full tutorial and vanilla install of Snow Leopard.

Plan A is a newer setup than Plan B, and is slightly less expensive, and draws 95W instead of 135W, although neither really have temp issues even overclocked on an upgraded fan. Oh, Plan B uses triple channel memory and Plan A uses dual channel. Otherwise, very similar all things considered, including performance at both stock speeds and overclocked. The other thing to consider is Plan A is newer and less developed and documented, so not as straightforward to get to 100% functionality.

Over the weekend I took advantage of some sales and purchased the following:
Antec Nine Hundred Mid Tower Case
Cooler Master Silent Pro 700w PSU
Western Digital Caviar Black 640 gig HDD (x2) as operating drives for Windows 7 and Snow Leopard
Western Digital Caviar Black 750 gig HDD (x2) set up in RAID configuration for mirrored storage
...and a sweet new Logitech Illuminated Keyboard that I couldn't resist

dats it... just figured I'd update for those interested and see if there was anyone else who had some experience with this stuff

[Asif22]

Wow, thats funny...They were just talking about this on another car forum I'm on...

http://www.8thcivic.com/forums/water...ackintosh.html

Check it out its only like 2 pages and they have pics, and a few links on how to do it I think.

[Vr-4-Life]

Originally Posted by c0nfl1kt

Most of those Eee's are running Intel's atom. I could be wrong. Thank god Mac stopped using their PowerPC from AMD. That **** was a PITA for software.

The PowerPC's were from motorolla IIRC

[lagos]

Originally Posted by Vr-4-Life

The PowerPC's were from motorolla IIRC

yep. And for years they tried to BS about how they somehow had better chips than Intel. lol. Glad they gave up on that.

[Vr-4-Life]

It really depends on what you were doing... The RISC design was better then CISC for some things.. Sadly they cost too much to make because of low deamand... EG Win 95 98 etc didnt support them...

I had a few old macs... 603e 604e g3 g4 etc.... at least now its standard

[grimm]

Originally Posted by TROLL

Bringing this one back up in case I missed any local Hack guys...

I'm pretty zoned in on my setup now, but trying to confirm with other users that they have full functionality before I pull the trigger on the motherboard and processor.

Plan A uses the Core i7 860 chip with a Gigabyte P55-UD4P or P55-UD3R motherboard... for my uses either will work fine, so it depends on which is developed to full functionality at this point.

Plan B, which isn't really a compromise at all, is to go with a slightly more expensive Core i7 920 chip with a Gigabyte EX58-UD5 motherboard which has been around for longer and is more fully developed with a full tutorial and vanilla install of Snow Leopard.

Plan A is a newer setup than Plan B, and is slightly less expensive, and draws 95W instead of 135W, although neither really have temp issues even overclocked on an upgraded fan. Oh, Plan B uses triple channel memory and Plan A uses dual channel. Otherwise, very similar all things considered, including performance at both stock speeds and overclocked. The other thing to consider is Plan A is newer and less developed and documented, so not as straightforward to get to 100% functionality.

Over the weekend I took advantage of some sales and purchased the following:
Antec Nine Hundred Mid Tower Case
Cooler Master Silent Pro 700w PSU
Western Digital Caviar Black 640 gig HDD (x2) as operating drives for Windows 7 and Snow Leopard
Western Digital Caviar Black 750 gig HDD (x2) set up in RAID configuration for mirrored storage
...and a sweet new Logitech Illuminated Keyboard that I couldn't resist

dats it... just figured I'd update for those interested and see if there was anyone else who had some experience with this stuff

so are you still building one with those parts after you purchased a macbook?

[TROLL]

yessir... i went to microcenter to buy the processor for my build since its a good bit cheaper there, and that place is like a to store for geeks. its really sweet .

i knew that the new macbooks had a $200 mail in rebate, and i knew there was a possibility that they'd have an 'open box' macbook there for another $100 off. i figured i'd check it out since i wanted to update my laptop sometime before summer. well, i got there and they had a brand new macbook with a technically open box and i couldn't resist. its a brand new model thats $300 off, thats rare.

i'm on it now and really liking it. still getting used to a lot of things with it but its coming pretty quickly. got the cs4 suite installed last night, toast, and office, and am figuring out a bunch of stuff with it.

the plans for the desktop are moving forward though, everything is scheduled to arrive by wednesday and i'm hoping to have something to show for it over the weekend. i'll try to keep the thread updated, and maybe even take some pics of the process if i'm feeling motivated.

[TROLL]

And here's my detailed list of components... with links!

My Digital Darkroom
Core i7 860 processor | Gigabyte UD3R motherboard | G.Skill 4 gb DDR3 1600 ram | Sapphire Vapor-X 4890 HD video card
Western Digital Caviar Black 640 gb x 2 | Western Digital Caviar Black 750 gb x 2 | Lite-On DVD Burner | Rosewill Internal Card Reader
Cooler Master V8 CPU Cooler | Cooler Master Silent Pro 700w PSU | Antec Nine Hundred Case | Logitech Illuminated Keyboard
Logitech MX Mouse | Samsung 22" Monitor | Mac Snow Leopard | Windows 7 Professional | Adobe Photoshop CS4 | Adobe Lightroom

My Portable Workstation
13" Macbook Unibody: 2.26 Intel Core 2 Duo | 2 gb DDR3 1066 ram | 250 gb hard drive | Nvidia GeForce 9400M video card

[TROLL]

Finished assembly last night... first computer I built myself (with Ivan and Antony's supervision/help).
Didn't start it up yet because it was very late by the time I wrapped it up, but we'll take care of that tonight.
Spent a lot of time on 'cable management' for both looks and maximizing airflow and cooling. It was quite a project but I enjoyed doing it.
Thats it... just wanted to share pics...

Cooler Master V8 CPU Cooler... large





Western Digital Black 640 gig x2 and 750 gig x2 hard drives installed
Cooler Master Silent Pro 700w PSU insalled
Lite-On DVD burner and Rosewill internal card reader installed
Extra hold drilled in bottom of case to run wires cleanly







Gigabyte UD3R motherboard
Intel Core i7 860 processor











Cooler Master V8 CPU Cooler installed
G.Skill 2 x 2 gb DDR3 1600 ram installed











Sapphire Radeon Vapor-X HD 4890 video card



Final product... want to swap some cables to clean it up but I need to order them