Hackintosh 10.5.5 Retail Rig - Starting at $305

[Patranus]

Dual i7 Xeons? I don't know of any, but let us know if you track down a Hackintoshable dual i7 board. That would be an interesting project.

I Hacked a SuperMicro X7DAL-E (dual 771's, not i7), but now even a single i7 system can match or even beat it, so not worth the effort.

Was looking to throw two X5550s into a dual LGA1366 motherboard as a render client.

Thinking about giving this guy a try.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813121408


Buying OS X license is much more economical compared to buying into the Windows ecosystem.

 

[Zaap]

Was looking to throw two X5550s into a dual LGA1366 motherboard as a render client.

Thinking about giving this guy a try.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813121408


Buying OS X license is much more economical compared to buying into the Windows ecosystem.

I'd make sure you really research that before jumping in. The old Skulltrail Intel dual 771 boards made for very good Hacks, but I'm not aware that other Intel server boards are particularly Hack-friendly. Many times people try to hack random boards and find out that they won't boot OSX at all, or require custom BIOSes or crippling flags like CPUS=1 etc in order to boot.

Looking around the web, I see lots of people asking about dual Nehalem Hackintoshes, but so far I can't find a single instance of people saying: "This board model works, here's the system I built with it, here's how I did it."

Another thing to consider is if the total cost gets anywhere near to actual MacPro territory, then the MacPro is probably the better investment. If you're really after a render farm, it might be more worthwhile looking into multiple cheaper Hacks.

 

[mohkahn]

"from kaido: Snow Leopard has just about gotten to the point where I'd recommend it. Right now there's a big, glaring problem with 10.6.3 that causes your USB keyboard or USB mouse to stop functioning after wake-from-sleep; you have to do a manual unplug/replug to get it working again (annoying)."

I did have that issue with leo before also, did not think of it much then. so far on SLeo it has only happened once, and not after awaking after sleep, but from cold boot. i put system to sleep few times, then woke it up using keyboard / mouse, no problems so far. so I hope it won't happen too often.

the Sleo boots up impressively fast compare to leo.

"from moslack: Just boot into 32 bit mode by adding the command below to the com.apple.Boot.plist file which is located in the /Extra folder.
<key>Kernel Flags</key>
<string>arch=i386</string>
This will force the system to boot into 32 bit mode and should allow your video to work. HTH""

yes I thought that might have been the problem, but i just did a fresh install and this time I updated from apple's website directly using apple update and no problems so far.

though I have messed my "about this mac" info, which was wrong in the first place using a utility from the KIT and have tried to use the same utility to do a "factory restore" sort of thing but to no avail.

well not to worry as long as it works for few more months till a full guide shows up here and then gonna do a fresh install.

on graphics card: I have used both 8400gs and 6600gt without any problem with machacks. though i have noticed that 8400gs cards do break more frequently, no matter which OS system they are in.

SnowLeo, c2d e6350, ep35-ds3l, 6600gt.

 

[mosslack]

Hey mohkahn, always good to hear from you again!

My thoughts on a new Kaido super deluxe all inclusive guide is that I wouldn't expect that it will ever be released for these systems. Not that Kaido couldn't do it, he is the king of these types of guides, that is certain.

My point is that as we progress in OSx86, things have become more easy to accomplish. Given Chameleon's evolved state of being, it practically does everything for you! Plus you have people like Stellarola who developed the almost instant install routine using the USB stick which is customizable for almost any other system. I've used it to make installers for the DS3L, 1201N, Mini 311 among others.

Most all of the efforts these days are concentrated on undoing whatever the latest Apple update messes up, which is and always will be the main goal. Of course this is all JMHO, but that is the way I see it.

 

[Kaido]

My thoughts on a new Kaido super deluxe all inclusive guide is that I wouldn't expect that it will ever be released for these systems. Not that Kaido couldn't do it, he is the king of these types of guides, that is certain.

Yeah, mostly I just don't have the time. It's a great hobby, but I'm swamped in RL - starting next week, I'm gone from 5:00am to 9:30pm, up from my previous 6:00am to 8:30pm, haha. If I post, it's usually on my lunchbreak at work It takes a lot of time and effort to tweak things out so they really really really work well, and free time just isn't something I have in abundance right now. Blah blah blah excuses excuses I'll have a bit of time off next week between my classes (on vacation this week, whoohoo!) and have a couple goodies planned, but nothing major. Well, one that mosslack will enjoy at least!

 

[dlock13]

Hey mohkahn, always good to hear from you again!

My thoughts on a new Kaido super deluxe all inclusive guide is that I wouldn't expect that it will ever be released for these systems. Not that Kaido couldn't do it, he is the king of these types of guides, that is certain.

My point is that as we progress in OSx86, things have become more easy to accomplish. Given Chameleon's evolved state of being, it practically does everything for you! Plus you have people like Stellarola who developed the almost instant install routine using the USB stick which is customizable for almost any other system. I've used it to make installers for the DS3L, 1201N, Mini 311 among others.

Most all of the efforts these days are concentrated on undoing whatever the latest Apple update messes up, which is and always will be the main goal. Of course this is all JMHO, but that is the way I see it.

Is it possible to install OSX on any hardware yet? I have a Gateway 7811 FX, and for the past year or so, I've wanted to install OSX on it, but every method led me to a dead end.

I just want an easier way to install it and actually use my laptop and such. I don't have the money for an equally spec'd Macbook. Now that Steam and most of the HL2 catalogue is on there, I have no reason not to go OSX.

 

[Kaido]

Is it possible to install OSX on any hardware yet? I have a Gateway 7811 FX, and for the past year or so, I've wanted to install OSX on it, but every method led me to a dead end.

I just want an easier way to install it and actually use my laptop and such. I don't have the money for an equally spec'd Macbook. Now that Steam and most of the HL2 catalogue is on there, I have no reason not to go OSX.

It all boils down to drivers. That's it - it's all about drivers. If you can get Mac drivers for all of your hardware, then you can get it to work. There's no magic bullet or one-size-fits-all solution because that's impossible - there's too much hardware on the market to have drivers for everything, and have drivers for everything on a single disc. The last figure I heard is that professional driver writers get paid $25,000 per driver, so it's extremely good that people do it for free for the Hackintosh community, because it's hard work - especially reverse-engineering stuff to work on PC hardware under OS X. That's also why making a 100%-working Hackintosh is so difficult - it takes a lot of time, testing, and research to get it working properly, provided drivers even exist.

 

[Zaap]

Besides drivers, it's also a motherboard's BIOS. Many use manufacture-specific BIOS'es that are so alien to OSX it simply won't allow booting, or OSX will boot only with a single CPU core enabled, etc. Many times if you just go by the board components- even when there are drivers for everything critical- you are likely to get a non-OSx86 bootable board.

This is evidenced by the fact that a custom-BIOS Mod WILL allow certain boards to run OSX that otherwise won't; if you're lucky enough that someone like Kabyl over at Insanelymac has or will do a custom BIOS mod for it.

 

[mosslack]

While true, it is possible to install and run SL on a lot of systems, even if you have to use a switch or special command to get it to run. Considering no hardware besides genuine Apple will ever be 100&#37; compatible, enabling a switch to get it to boot is no different than adding necessary kext or any other current requirement to get the system to function properly. IOW, a hack is a hack is hack.

 

[alfa147x]

Any one have a good link to a 10.6.3 tutorial for a p35-DS3L? I'm stuck at 10.6 can't get it to 10.6.3

 

[mosslack]

This one worked for me:

http://groups.google.com/group/hq-a/web/install-guide-gigabyte-ga-p35-ds3l-usb-10-6-x

Of course I wrote it so I'm a little biased. HTH

 

[alfa147x]

This one worked for me:

http://groups.google.com/group/hq-a/web/install-guide-gigabyte-ga-p35-ds3l-usb-10-6-x

Of course I wrote it so I'm a little biased. HTH

That's the tutorial I used! haha

I had a question, when I follow the guide and I get to updating to 10.6.3 my hack KP's at the next boot. Any idea's where I should start? I posted some pictures on the comments section of that thread. Thanks man!

 

[mosslack]

Having some internet problems at the moment, will take a look first chance I get. So it worked fine to get 10.6.0, but you are stuck there?

 

[alfa147x]

Having some internet problems at the moment, will take a look first chance I get. So it worked fine to get 10.6.0, but you are stuck there?

yup

 

[mosslack]

That's the tutorial I used! haha

I had a question, when I follow the guide and I get to updating to 10.6.3 my hack KP's at the next boot. Any idea's where I should start? I posted some pictures on the comments section of that thread. Thanks man!

Do you have a link to the pictures you posted, I can't find any comment section? Try removing the SleepEnabler.kext from the /Extra/Extensions folder. Be sure to run Kext Utility afterwards to rebuild the kext cache.

 

[alfa147x]

Do you have a link to the pictures you posted, I can't find any comment section? Try removing the SleepEnabler.kext from the /Extra/Extensions folder. Be sure to run Kext Utility afterwards to rebuild the kext cache.

This is what I am referring to when I comments: Link

Here are pictures: Link

Link2
Link3

They only reason I want to get it to 10.6.3 is to be able to run Aperture

Thanks again for you help

 

[mosslack]

Okay, I think I remember a bit about this now, been doing so many different things on other projects lately I have forgotten a few items I guess. One thing I don't remember is your video card, which one are you using? This doesn't appear to be SleepEnabler related, but rather VoodooHDA related. I would definitely remove that kext from the /System/Library/Extensions folder for starters. There have been a few which have had difficulties running VoodooHDA, so maybe you are one of those. No worries though, you can always use AppleHDA, as long as it is the earlier version from 10.6.2. The problem is/was that Apple removed support for the ALC-888 in 10.6.3, so that mucked up a lot of Hacks. Just try removing VoodooHDA.kext first and see if it will boot okay. If so, then we can fix your sound. BTW, I monitor my email more so than any other resource, so you can usually get me quickest by emailing me at:

hackintosh@embarqmail.com

HTH

 

[alfa147x]

Okay, I think I remember a bit about this now, been doing so many different things on other projects lately I have forgotten a few items I guess. One thing I don't remember is your video card, which one are you using? This doesn't appear to be SleepEnabler related, but rather VoodooHDA related. I would definitely remove that kext from the /System/Library/Extensions folder for starters. There have been a few which have had difficulties running VoodooHDA, so maybe you are one of those. No worries though, you can always use AppleHDA, as long as it is the earlier version from 10.6.2. The problem is/was that Apple removed support for the ALC-888 in 10.6.3, so that mucked up a lot of Hacks. Just try removing VoodooHDA.kext first and see if it will boot okay. If so, then we can fix your sound. BTW, I monitor my email more so than any other resource, so you can usually get me quickest by emailing me at:

hackintosh@embarqmail.com

HTH

Awesome I'll email you

Thanks!

 

[vailr]

Here's a BFG 8400GS 512 MB video card, for ~$22 shipped, after $10 MIR + Bing CB:
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applicati...2&amp;sku=B52-8402

 

[idlehands]

motherboards

whats the new replacement go to board over the UDP3 these days? Was considering hack #2 and can't find that one on new egg anymore

 

[vailr]

whats the new replacement go to board over the UDP3 these days? Was considering hack #2 and can't find that one on new egg anymore

http://www.excaliberpc.com/588729/gi...l-p45-lga.html

 

[idlehands]

from the succinct reply, i gather 2 things. There is no i5/i7 replacement board that is as awesome as the udp3?

and that link is on back order

 

[vailr]

from the succinct reply, i gather 2 things. There is no i5/i7 replacement board that is as awesome as the udp3?

and that link is on back order

As an alternative, I'd suggest considering any Gigabyte P45, P55 or X58 board, particularly those with Realtek 889a audio chips. There's a decent likelhood of a forthcoming modded bios from "Cartri"
http://cartri.net/blog/
that could then enable directly booting and installing the retail SL install disc, while maintaining dual-booting of Windows, Ubuntu, etc. .

 

[K_Panic]

Even w_sauces' buddy Ben Bradley is saying don't waste your money on old tech...go with a i5 or i7 build.

I like the P55M-UD4 (Realtek 889a audio chip) with the new unlocked i7-875, gets you 4 GHz. easily. Grab a decent nvidia video card 9800GT or better and at least 4 gigs of 1333 DDR3 (I use ripjaws). GOOD VALUE.

Real easy build...just use the retail 10.6.3. Everything works even with 10.6.4.

Minimum kexts, even the gigabyte sata ports will work as hot swapables, great for esata drives.

If you need a guide look elsewhere. Google is your friend.

 

[Kaido]

Even w_sauces' buddy Ben Bradley is saying don't waste your money on old tech...go with a i5 or i7 build.

I like the P55M-UD4 (Realtek 889a audio chip) with the new unlocked i7-875, gets you 4 GHz. easily. Grab a decent nvidia video card 9800GT or better and at least 4 gigs of 1333 DDR3 (I use ripjaws). GOOD VALUE.

Real easy build...just use the retail 10.6.3. Everything works even with 10.6.4.

Minimum kexts, even the gigabyte sata ports will work as hot swapables, great for esata drives.

If you need a guide look elsewhere. Google is your friend.

I'm a big fan of Ripjaws. They just dropped in price, too - $115, $145, and $170 for 1066, 1333, and 1666 per 4GB stick. I kind of wish I had a case with a window - they're the first memory sticks I've ever wanted to show off

Yeah, if you're going for performance, I'd definitely recommend the 875k - that thing's insane! And P55 boards are getting really compatible lately. Insanely should have a bunch of newer guides. You don't even need DSDT on some boards, which is pretty cool. Although, my 920 got to 4.11ghz stable without any effort, so if you're going for the 875k you should invest in a really good cooling system to get 4.4 - 4.8ghz if you can, since it's a wee bit more pricey than a 920/930.