$800 Hackintosh Rig

[Kaido]

Quickie build for people looking for a compatible rig:

Antec Sonata III case with 500w PSU - $130
DFI Lanparty motherboard - $140
2.4ghz Quad-core Intel Q6600 - $215
PQI 4gb (2x2gb) DDR2-800 memory kit - $71
Seagate 500gb 7200rpm SATA hard drive - $80
Lite-on 20x DVD burner with Lightscribe - $30
XFX 256mb Dual-DVI 8600GT - $95

$760.89 parts, $777.58 shipped. Under $800 total.

 

[Kaido]

Upgrades:
1. Memory - upgrade to 8gb ram ($71, just add another kit)
2. Backup drive - add another 500gb 7200rpm drive ($80)
3. Griffin iMic USB sound card - $30
4. D-Link Bluetooth USB adapter - $26 - add Bluetooth to use an official Apple Bluetooth keyboard or mouse, or even a Bluetooth headset for chatting on iChat or Skype.
5. Firewire PCI card - if you want Firewire for a camcorder or high-end scanner or whatever. About five bucks on ebay.

Accessories:
1. Keyboard
2. Mouse
3. Monitor (Dell makes fantastic LCDs for about 1/2 the price of Apple LCDs, using the same displays that Apple uses in many of their monitors)
4. Speakers (I recommend Logitech)
5. Card Reader (I've had success with 3.5" internal drives as well as USB drives, plus drives built into my Dell monitors)

Notes:
1. This board supports 45nm processors. E4500 etc. are welcome.
2. This board supports up to 8gb ram. Max the beast for $142.
3. Onboard audio works, but stops working if you put the computer to sleep and wake it. I recommend the Griffin iMic USB sound card linked above for $30, it works perfectly! I have one and love it. If you never put your computer to sleep, then you don't need one.
4. I highly recommend a backup drive. My suggestion is to use a combination of Time Machine (comes free with Leopard) and SuperDuper ($28). Time Machine backs up your files hourly while SuperDuper clones the entire system. SuperDuper can create a sparseimage file which can be restored to a hard drive using the Leopard installation disc (just use Disk Utility) - it's similar to Norton Ghost or BartPE. Do this nightly or weekly. Combined, you have a full system clone plus a backup of your files up to the last hour.
5. Kalyway Leopard will work on this.
6. The motherboard has 6 onboard SATA ports, so you can add hard drives and optical drives up the wazoo. Personally I use 3 drives - a boot drive (500gb), a backup drive (500gb), and a scratch drive (500gb). I store my VMware virtual machines on the scratch drive - that way my Windows VM isn't reading/writing on the same drive as OS X, which helps it go faster. Not necessary but I run my VMs 24/7 and like the speed increase.

What you get from Apple for $800: (for comparison)
1. 2nd-tier Mac Mini
2. 1GB DDR2-667mhz memory
3. 120gb 5400rpm 2.5" SATA hard drive
4. Slot-loading 8x DVD burner
5. 2ghz Core 2 Duo (Merom - mobile CPU)
6. Extremely small form factor
7. Quiet operation
8. Intel GMA950 built-in graphics with single DVI port
9. 4 USB ports
10. 1 Firewire 400 port
11. Not very expandable (only hard drive, optical drive, memory, processor, and wifi)
12. Expensive to upgrade (requires laptop parts, often twice as much as desktop parts)

 

[aphex]

Very Nice!

 

[Megatomic]

One flaw: you don't have a retail OS X kit in your list. So add that to the Hackintosh for an even more direct comparison.

 

[dmw16]

This is an excellent thread. I have been thinking of doing this. Is there anything special that needs to be done to install OSX on a PC, or is it pretty straight forward?

 

[Kmax82]

Yes! This is great. Too bad I'm saving up for some other stuff, but hopefully I'll get around to this come Aug, or Sept.

 

[randomlinh]

I *really* want to do this, but am weary of future updates and software packages not working (I use Aperture).

 

[ColdFusion718]

Kaido,

I've found a motherboard which costs less than the DFI LanParty board you listed and all of the audio/LAN/sleep/restart work.

GIGABYTE GA-EP35-DS3L

 

[The_Dude8]

what is a great and cheap brand kvm usb switch would you recommend?

 

[Kaido]

Originally posted by: The_Dude8
what is a great and cheap brand kvm usb switch would you recommend?

By KVM I simply meant you need to add keyboard, monitor, and mouse; you don't need a KVM switch to use this. If you ARE looking for a KVM switch, Belkin has a nice one, otherwise try eBay for a cheapie.

 

[Kaido]

Originally posted by: ColdFusion718
Kaido,

I've found a motherboard which costs less than the DFI LanParty board you listed and all of the audio/LAN/sleep/restart work.

GIGABYTE GA-EP35-DS3L

I've read that the DS3L board has 3 problems:

1. Intermittent LAN issues
2. Shutdown problems
3. 2 SATA ports don't work in AHCI mode

The LAN issue is supposedly solved by installing a different Realtek driver and the SATA port problem is solved by putting the BIOS into IDE Mode to get all of the SATA ports working. The Shutdown problem only seems to affect some people, not all people. Other than that, it looks excellent - low price, GigE LAN, 45nm + Quad support, 8gb ram max, 4 SATA ports. If I can get some more information about this one, I may order it for testing purposes Thanks!

 

[Kaido]

Originally posted by: randomlinh
I *really* want to do this, but am weary of future updates and software packages not working (I use Aperture).

Yeah, that's a big concern if you use a Hackintosh. So far Apple hasn't done too much to stop it as far as security measures go, but I'm sure in the future they'll do something drastic. In the meantime, my Quad-Core Hackintosh with 8 gigs of Ram blows my Mini out of the water in terms of Aperture 2.1 performance :thumbsup:

 

[dmw16]

The link to your suggest CPU doesn't work.

 

[Kaido]

Originally posted by: dmw16
The link to your suggest CPU doesn't work.

Whoops, updated - thanks! Price shot up almost $5 too lol.

 

[bearxor]

Originally posted by: Megatomic
One flaw: you don't have a retail OS X kit in your list. So add that to the Hackintosh for an even more direct comparison.

And iLife '08, which would also come with the MacMini. Adding both of those to the total brings it up to $1000. Though not everyone needs iLife.

But let's be honest here, if you're doing this, you're most likely stealing the software anyways...

 

[Kaido]

Originally posted by: bearxor

Originally posted by: Megatomic
One flaw: you don't have a retail OS X kit in your list. So add that to the Hackintosh for an even more direct comparison.

And iLife '08, which would also come with the MacMini. Adding both of those to the total brings it up to $1000. Though not everyone needs iLife.

But let's be honest here, if you're doing this, you're most likely stealing the software anyways...

I'd encourage anyone building a Hackintosh to purchase Leopard; I did. This is merely a hardware list, however, which is why I didn't include software.

 

[randomlinh]

Originally posted by: Kaido

Originally posted by: randomlinh
I *really* want to do this, but am weary of future updates and software packages not working (I use Aperture).

Yeah, that's a big concern if you use a Hackintosh. So far Apple hasn't done too much to stop it as far as security measures go, but I'm sure in the future they'll do something drastic. In the meantime, my Quad-Core Hackintosh with 8 gigs of Ram blows my Mini out of the water in terms of Aperture 2.1 performance :thumbsup:

indeed it does.. and exactly why I want to do this =P I just can't get over that risk of incompatibility in the future


Although, I have a case, and a spare SATA HDD... any power supply suggestions? And has anyone used an IDE DVD burner, or one w/ an IDE->SATA adapter? And a workable webcam?

If I can get away w/ under $650... I can opt for dual instead of quad for now...

Originally posted by: ColdFusion718
Kaido,

I've found a motherboard which costs less than the DFI LanParty board you listed and all of the audio/LAN/sleep/restart work.

GIGABYTE GA-EP35-DS3L

You're making it possible for me to maybe make a jump for it... it doesn't seem to be on the 10.5.2 compatibility list though?

 

[dmw16]

Yes, are there other CPU's that are supported, or is the quad core required?

I'd be tempted to do this, but my better half would probably kill me.

 

[Kaido]

Originally posted by: randomlinh

Originally posted by: Kaido

Originally posted by: randomlinh
I *really* want to do this, but am weary of future updates and software packages not working (I use Aperture).

Yeah, that's a big concern if you use a Hackintosh. So far Apple hasn't done too much to stop it as far as security measures go, but I'm sure in the future they'll do something drastic. In the meantime, my Quad-Core Hackintosh with 8 gigs of Ram blows my Mini out of the water in terms of Aperture 2.1 performance :thumbsup:

indeed it does.. and exactly why I want to do this =P I just can't get over that risk of incompatibility in the future


Although, I have a case, and a spare SATA HDD... any power supply suggestions? And has anyone used an IDE DVD burner, or one w/ an IDE->SATA adapter? And a workable webcam?

If I can get away w/ under $650... I can opt for dual instead of quad for now...

Originally posted by: ColdFusion718
Kaido,

I've found a motherboard which costs less than the DFI LanParty board you listed and all of the audio/LAN/sleep/restart work.

GIGABYTE GA-EP35-DS3L

You're making it possible for me to maybe make a jump for it... it doesn't seem to be on the 10.5.2 compatibility list though?

First question is, what features do you need in Aperture that aren't available now? Once I assessed my software requirements, it opened my eyes a bit...I'm pretty happy with the state of technology as it is now. If I couldn't upgrade after 10.5.2, I would still be able to be productive just fine.

You can do $650 easily. My wife's rig was $350 - 2.0ghz Allendale plus 2 gigs of ram and a Gigabyte board (the MicroATX model).

 

[Kaido]

Originally posted by: dmw16
Yes, are there other CPU's that are supported, or is the quad core required?

I'd be tempted to do this, but my better half would probably kill me.

Yes, any CPU supported by the board will work. My wife's rig has a 2.0ghz Allendale dual-core processor and mine has a 2.4ghz Q6600 quad-core processor. You can use E4500s, E8400s, etc., whatever your budget is. My wife didn't need a super powerful processor since she really only uses Aperture and some light Photoshop CS3, so instead we put our budget into hard drives.

 

[randomlinh]

Originally posted by: Kaido
First question is, what features do you need in Aperture that aren't available now? Once I assessed my software requirements, it opened my eyes a bit...I'm pretty happy with the state of technology as it is now. If I couldn't upgrade after 10.5.2, I would still be able to be productive just fine.

You can do $650 easily. My wife's rig was $350 - 2.0ghz Allendale plus 2 gigs of ram and a Gigabyte board (the MicroATX model).

It's not really a question of what else I need, but what might come out later I would want And of course security updates in general. One big thing would be more/better support for raw formats (Sigma's DP1 for example, but unlikely ever to get native support).

And I'd ideally want to exceed my 2.16ghz C2D on my imac, but I want a 24" monitor, and to keep everything under a grand.. haha.. yeah, I know my expectations are a bit unrealistic at this point

 

[dmw16]

I am dying to build a hackintosh...please talk me out of it. Or if not that, could it be done for $400? I already have a HD and a DVD burner.

 

[umrigar]

Originally posted by: dmw16
I am dying to build a hackintosh...please talk me out of it. Or if not that, could it be done for $400? I already have a HD and a DVD burner.

DFI Lanparty motherboard - $140
2.4ghz Quad-core Intel Q6600 - $215
PQI 4gb (2x2gb) DDR2-800 memory kit - $71
__________
$426

If you have a case with PS and a video card, there ya go.

 

[dmw16]

Dont have a case or video card.

Guess i could scale back the CPU and find RAM on fleabay...

 

[Kaido]

Originally posted by: dmw16
Dont have a case or video card.

Guess i could scale back the CPU and find RAM on fleabay...

Or check out FS/FT.

The Hackintosh software scene is only going to get better. There are a couple projects underway that are going to make things even nicer for specific builds, probably due out this summer. A little bit more oriented for the tweaker than for Kalyway users