Hackintosh

[innerspace]

I am looking to build my own Mac Hackintosh.

It won't need to be a powerful machine - only being built to develop some IOS apps due to issues with OSX in a virtual machine.

Does anyone have any experience with building a Hackintosh using locally available parts.

My target spec is something similar to the Hackintosh Mini on the TonyOSX86 site.

CPU, RAM, HDD etc are easy - my main worry is the MOBO.

The recommended model is the H67N but my initial research has only shown the H67M here.

Are they compatible? Any other motherboard recommendations or advice?

CPU: Intel Core i3-2105 with Intel HD 3000 Graphics or i3-2125, i5-2405S, i5-2500K, i7-2600KMotherboard: Gigabyte GA-H67N-USB3-B3 or Gigabyte GA-H61N-USB3 Mini-ITXRAM: CORSAIR 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3Hard Drive: Seagate Barracuda 500GB SATA 6Gb/s

[nullx8]

why not just get a cheap 2nd hand mac ...

however the HP office pc's did turn out to be great to work with almost all Hackintosh distributions (best experiences with ikatos)

just the network not works .. simply put in a 100baht 100mbut lan card RTL chipset and all good ...

as for recomentations in general .... exept you plan to COPY a example machine 1:1 .. it wont make you happy the hardware issues are pretty much random ... all solvable of course ... but is it worth it ?

just the time invested in collecting/instaling the pain until its works ...

the hazzle because its NOT apple hardware ... preprogrammed problems .... all that added up is sure more expensive than getting a secound hand Mac

test, buy, plug in .. works !

[petertucker48]

Sorry this does not answer your question but it may be of use:

http://www.mac2hand.com/

[nullx8]

check www.unlimitmac.com as well .. they are true mac guys (with a shop down on ratchada)

[floridaguy]

I built one last month. Easy as pie. All parts were purchased at Pantip. Intel i7 2600k cpu, Gigabyte 6870 1GB graphics, 60GB Kingston SSD system drive and 2TB storage drive, 12GB Kingston RAM, Gigabyte Z68P-DS3 motherboard using built in audio. The system is overclocked to 4.2GHz and it truly is the fastest computer I have ever used. I have both Mac OS Lion and Windows 7 on it. I used MyHack to convert a standard Lion upgrade to an install-able version on a USB thumb drive and installed Lion directly, no need to install Snow Leopard first. I spent a third of what it would have cost for an equivalently spec'd Mac. Unlimitmac has a Mac Pro with a 2.8GHz Intel CPU, 3GB ram, 1TB hard drive, and an ATI Radeon HD 5770 with 1GHz of ram for 87,900 baht. My self built machine cost me under 30,000 baht and is much faster and has much better components. So build your own or buy a lesser machine for almost triple the price? Not a hard choice for me.

[ignis]

Interesting floridaguy..

I normally rebuild my PC every 2 years, just done so last month, but 2 years ago looked at building a Mac or is that called a Hackintosh ? the main difference I could see was mac use 8 pin power supply to motherboard, at that time could not find either a 8 pin Motherboard or a 8 pin Power supply. Please where did you find the Motherboard ?

Last month also looked again at Mac, but price and what option.. I do have a [now died] very old Sony 15.6 screen laptop but screen is to small so used it plugged into my 24" monitor... Also looked at the mini Mac, but again for what you get and by the time you have all the extra drives on the table may as well have a Mac Desktop. Sure there are shops here that have used Mac's, rebuilt Mac's and ex shop display Mac's and very good prices, but they are not up-to-date.. So a used Mac with maybe a i3 CPU is way out of date, I would want a i7.

Love the idea of the I-Mac 27" but maybe because I'm old just don't like the idea of All-in-One things, unable to replace anything if it fails and unable to self update + heard they run very hot and I never use air con, have so far in over 8 years never found Thailand to hot.

You say you used the Gigabyte Z68P-DS3 motherboard ? this is only the normal 4 pin Power ? a Mac is 8 pin ?

Just a question, already use on my PC

GIGABYTE Copper cooled Motherboard

AMD AM3 Phenom II. Black Edition 775

Graphics 9800 GT

Would this/ could this be a start to build a Hackintosh ? never seen a AMD Mac

[floridaguy]

Interesting floridaguy..

I normally rebuild my PC every 2 years, just done so last month, but 2 years ago looked at building a Mac or is that called a Hackintosh ? the main difference I could see was mac use 8 pin power supply to motherboard, at that time could not find either a 8 pin Motherboard or a 8 pin Power supply. Please where did you find the Motherboard ?

Last month also looked again at Mac, but price and what option.. I do have a [now died] very old Sony 15.6 screen laptop but screen is to small so used it plugged into my 24" monitor... Also looked at the mini Mac, but again for what you get and by the time you have all the extra drives on the table may as well have a Mac Desktop. Sure there are shops here that have used Mac's, rebuilt Mac's and ex shop display Mac's and very good prices, but they are not up-to-date.. So a used Mac with maybe a i3 CPU is way out of date, I would want a i7.

Love the idea of the I-Mac 27" but maybe because I'm old just don't like the idea of All-in-One things, unable to replace anything if it fails and unable to self update + heard they run very hot and I never use air con, have so far in over 8 years never found Thailand to hot.

You say you used the Gigabyte Z68P-DS3 motherboard ? this is only the normal 4 pin Power ? a Mac is 8 pin ?

Just a question, already use on my PC

GIGABYTE Copper cooled Motherboard

AMD AM3 Phenom II. Black Edition 775

Graphics 9800 GT

Would this/ could this be a start to build a Hackintosh ? never seen a AMD Mac

I purchased everything at Pantip. Basically, all Intel Macs use standard PC components. So the motherboard for a Mac or a PC is identical. There is no difference between pins and power supplies. I also went with the custom build because I also don't like the All-in-One design. I am a tinkerer and love to upgrade parts as I go over the course of several years until I just start from scratch and build a whole new system.

So, to really answer your question, buy any computer components you want and you can build either a Mac or a PC. But...you must go with an Intel CPU. I tried in vain to build an AMD system and just couldn't get a stable build. It took serious effort even to find the software to even begin installing the Mac OS. Also, your choice of video card is important. Head over to insanelymac . com and there is a database with confirmed working parts for a Hackintosh build, and also an indispensible forum. Also you need tonymacx86 . com for several tools and tutorials.

Basically, if you buy an Intel CPU and an ATI graphics card, avoid integrated graphics, and remember that Gigabyte products tend to work better with Mac OS, then you will have a very smooth and successful build. Feel free to contact me if you need any help.

Cheers.

[ignis]

I purchased everything at Pantip. Basically, all Intel Macs use standard PC components. So the motherboard for a Mac or a PC is identical. There is no difference between pins and power supplies. I also went with the custom build because I also don't like the All-in-One design. I am a tinkerer and love to upgrade parts as I go over the course of several years until I just start from scratch and build a whole new system.

So, to really answer your question, buy any computer components you want and you can build either a Mac or a PC. But...you must go with an Intel CPU. I tried in vain to build an AMD system and just couldn't get a stable build. It took serious effort even to find the software to even begin installing the Mac OS. Also, your choice of video card is important. Head over to insanelymac . com and there is a database with confirmed working parts for a Hackintosh build, and also an indispensible forum. Also you need tonymacx86 . com for several tools and tutorials.

Basically, if you buy an Intel CPU and an ATI graphics card, avoid integrated graphics, and remember that Gigabyte products tend to work better with Mac OS, then you will have a very smooth and successful build. Feel free to contact me if you need any help.

Cheers.

Very many thanks.... As must have Intel can then build when I want and not rush it.. Looks like a visit to Pantip 2 when the water is gone from Nonthaburi area.. As of this morning cannot leave both ways out of the Village are closed, went to next Village yesterday all dry but 7/11 closed past 2 days simply because no truck can get this way, and nothing left in 7/11 to sell. last week a wall was built at the bottom end of our little Village and right now at the other end, so no one can go in or out from today.

[Jumbo chilli]

Yes, it's not that difficult to build a hackintosh these days, I have 2 hack pros and a real mack book pro(2011).

As another forum member stated "gigabyte"mobos tend to have minimum problems.

You could take a look a site called"insanelymac" for more detailed info.

Good luck with the project.

Cheers.

[kuripot]

Yes, it's not that difficult to build a hackintosh these days, I have 2 hack pros and a real mack book pro(2011).

As another forum member stated "gigabyte"mobos tend to have minimum problems.

You could take a look a site called"insanelymac" for more detailed info.

Good luck with the project.

Cheers.

I have built several hackintoshes over the least 3-4 years and without doubt the gigabyte motherboard has been the least problematic. I would reccomend using KAKEWALK with gigabyte boards Kakewalk which has versions for Snow Leopard and Lion and is free of charge.

For Lion installation I have used X-Move from the TonyMac site and found it the quickest way to get Lion operational (with or without multibeast). For installation I usually have the drive in a caddy so if I get any kernal panics I can't get around with booting -v,-x etc then I can plug it into another mac and remove the offending kext manually.

I have just completed an Asus Laptop model K53E which is i5 cpu, Intel 3000 gfx, and 8Gb ram.It is running 10.7.2 and is virtually flawless with respectable Geekbench and Cinebench scores. The beauty of it is that it was completed for 25% of the cost of a genuine macbook pro.

[justsumhelp]

A bit old but I imagine the prices went down quite alot for the hardware, http://tonymacx86.blogspot.com/2011/06/building-sandy-bridge-customac.html