Hackintosh 10.5.5 Retail Rig - Starting at $305

[intogamer]

What's the best motherboard to use for an i7 build?

 

[Ka0t1x]

It seems like the P55M-UD4, but its been discontinued.

 

[intogamer]

It seems like the P55M-UD4, but its been discontinued.

What about the GA-X58A-UD3R

 

[mohkahn]

Mosslack / Kaido, thanks for your past comments. Helped a lot in getting to 10.6.3.

Recently reinstalled Snowleopard, ran update and found that now apple offers straight 10.6.4. combo for 10.6.0 system. So gave it a try, but started having kernel panics.

So now am back to 10.6.0.

I put one this in the boot.com.plist <string>pmVersion=20</string>
since this was already in the plist. <key>Kernel Flags</key>

so do I need to put them exactly like this and both of them, even if one of them is already there?
<key>Kernel Flags</key>
<string>pmVersion=20</string>

What kexts do I have to remove/install?
And how do I remove or install them. Just drag them out of extra/extensions?

my E/E folder does not have applehda or vodoo kext. but it does have sleepenabler.

Mosslack since my built is based on the files I download from your googlegroup, so i am guessing I will need to remove sleepenabler and replace it with the one suggested on your page?

any other steps before I hit the install button for 10.6.4 combo update? don't wish to keep repeating installations only. hopefully can start using Sleo more often for work.

edit: ok, so could not wait and removed the sleepenabler kext from E/E, and installed the one suggested by mosslack's google.code website. then installed 10.6.4 combo. hack boots fine, but gets stuck at the blue screen just before showing main desktop. Any suggestions?

 

[silverpig]

Try removing sleepenabler completely to see if it boots properly.

 

[mohkahn]

shall give that a try, but since system won't even let me boot into desktop, so guess will have to install the system again. thanks for the suggestion.

 

[thepieces]

shall give that a try, but since system won't even let me boot into desktop, so guess will have to install the system again. thanks for the suggestion.

try booting with the -v -f -x flags it should ignore the kexts. At the chameleon menu type them in.

 

[thepieces]

I have updated my guide to fix a sleep issue. Where USB devices were dismounting upon wake. Also sleep now wakes with a keyboard keystroke. Possibly mouse too don't have a wired one to test.

Also as always in an effort to make things easier. Now includes one click installers and Chameleon theme to match the look of a real mac.

http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=222316&hl=DS3L

 

[mosslack]

Okay, after testing the Cartri BIOS for awhile now, I cannot say I'm very impressed at all with it. It does seem to work okay for Snow Leopard, as long as you continue to use DSDT and the kext necessary to make SL run, so what's the point? My Windows 7 install will no longer boot, but I understand if I reinstall it with the BIOS settings as they are it will work fine then. Major PITA to me, but at this point that is probably what I will do to get it going again.

 

[renderingrocks]

Okay, after testing the Cartri BIOS for awhile now, I cannot say I'm very impressed at all with it. It does seem to work okay for Snow Leopard, as long as you continue to use DSDT and the kext necessary to make SL run, so what's the point? My Windows 7 install will no longer boot, but I understand if I reinstall it with the BIOS settings as they are it will work fine then. Major PITA to me, but at this point that is probably what I will do to get it going again.

Which board did you try it on? The V8a will include native audio for 889a's. Once released I am giving it a spin.

A year ago, Kaido had his chosen 3 mb's to use for a hackintosh. Which new boards replaced those 3? IF a newbie was to build a hack, what would they use now?

 

[mosslack]

It was on my UD3P, only one AFAIK which has a Cartri BIOS available so far. I believe it was v8, but I guess I need to join the forum and find out why my Windows install is acting up. I do know it has something to do with Chameleon as before I installed that I could at least boot into Windows 7. Now it will boot, but the Windows 7 logo screen just stays there, even though I can tell from the sound that the desktop is up. Very strange.

Also, while it would still boot into Windows7, I had a major problem with it recognizing my primary video card. It saw the secondary card (7200GS), just fine, but came up in some kind of generic VGA setting for the primary with no way to install the correct driver. And even though it saw the secondary card there was nothing appearing on that monitor with no way to activate the monitor either. As I said, very strange.

Would be my guess the P55 boards would be the next logical step. My friend and the guy who helps me a lot on HQ-A (Peter), has an H55 board working perfectly with an i3 CPU IIRC. He has been on the TonyMacx86 forum a lot for help with it, but seems to have it running very well.

 

[Zaap]

I just upgraded to an MSI X58 Pro-E: (the one without USB 3.0 & SATA 6G)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...-226-_-Product

I built one of these for a friend recently- it does seem to be a very nice board for OSX.

I've got it running 10.6.3 (thanks to Kaido!) with everything working great -except it doesn't sleep. It has to be restarted if put to sleep. Thankfully no biggie since the owner can live without it.

Also, every attempt I've tried to get it to 10.6.4 results in a KP upon reboot, so for now sticking with 10.6.3. (Are you running 10.6.4 on yours, Kaido? If so, any insights?)

I'm guessing there's some incompatible kext or something? (I haven't had the same problem with any of my Hacks updated to 10.6.4)
[Edit: Hmmm... after reading here a bit, now I'm guessing it has to do with sleepenabler. I'll give that a try tomorrow.]

This board + i7/920, 6GB of DDR3/1333, GT250/1GB, and 2x 1TB Hard drives (OSX and Windows 7) makes for a very decent Hack at just around a grand.

Geekbenches at around 9551. I'll be tinkering around with it more tomorrow and see if I can work out whatever the issue is with 10.6.4 before handing it off. If not, staying at 10.6.3 is fine.

 

[Zaap]

hack boots fine, but gets stuck at the blue screen just before showing main desktop. Any suggestions?

I had this same problem with the MSI Hack and GT250/1GB card while using the VGA connector. (Card has VGA, DVI and HDMI). I got blue screen only- even with repeated reboots.

I switched to DVI with a VGA adapter (my only open monitor port is VGA) and the blue screen problem was gone, everything worked fine. If possible- try switching your connections and see if it helps- hopefully it's a similar glitch.

 

[vailr]

@renderingrocks:
Cartri has posted on his blog that custom bios research is being done on the Gigabyte X58 boards, but nothing yet on P55 boards.
So: look for an X58 board, preferably one that uses Realtek 889A audio. The 889A is closest to what genuine Apple boards use.

 

[mosslack]

I need a bit of help if some of you have a free minute or two. I have uploaded a new type of illustrated guide to my MediaFire account and I would appreciate it if some of you could have a look at it and tell me what you think. Although this particular guide is for the Asus 1201N, I would like to do the same type of guide for other systems, (including the Mini 311), to help novice users and/or people who do not speak English very well.

My goal has been to reduce the actual text needed and just use pictures of the actual install as a guide on how to proceed. But what looks good to me, may not necessarily look good to others, so I really need some input on ways to improve it even more. I posted this on the Asus support thread, but so far have not gotten any feedback at all. I thought maybe you guys would be more receptive to the idea.

The file is a PDF (about 33 Mb) and doen't really take too long to look at. So if you want to help me out, you can download the file here:

http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?l884bl1h1lqbfm9

Please do not clutter this thread with your comments, but instead contact me directly at:

hackintosh@embarqmail.com

or you may post your comments on the 1201N thread if you prefer, located here:

http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=209533

Thanks for your time

 

[mosslack]

I just ordered my UD3P replacement consisting of the following items:

MSI P55-GD80 mobo* Intel Core i5-750 CPU* 4 Gb Corsair RAM * (3) GeForce 9400 GT (512 Mb) * Hitachi 1 Tb hard drive * HEC case w/585 Watt PSU

My plan is to get a basic system running Snow Leopard using only 1 video card and eventually get it up to 3 video cards for use with 6 monitors. The MSI board supports 3 PCI-E video cards. I also left the door open to upgrade later to 8 Gb RAM as I bought 2-2 Gb sticks for the first 4 Gb. NewEgg has a special deal on the 9400 GT if you buy 3 you get them for $47 each, plus there is a $30 mail-in rebate also. Should be a neat system once I get everything sorted out.

 

[volcs0]

Any thoughts on whether 10.6 would install on the Zotac ZBOX HD-ID11 NG ION?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16856173005

 

[Kaido]

I just ordered my UD3P replacement consisting of the following items:

MSI P55-GD80 mobo* Intel Core i5-750 CPU* 4 Gb Corsair RAM * (3) GeForce 9400 GT (512 Mb) * Hitachi 1 Tb hard drive * HEC case w/585 Watt PSU

My plan is to get a basic system running Snow Leopard using only 1 video card and eventually get it up to 3 video cards for use with 6 monitors. The MSI board supports 3 PCI-E video cards. I also left the door open to upgrade later to 8 Gb RAM as I bought 2-2 Gb sticks for the first 4 Gb. NewEgg has a special deal on the 9400 GT if you buy 3 you get them for $47 each, plus there is a $30 mail-in rebate also. Should be a neat system once I get everything sorted out.

NASA Hackintosh Central Command...I can see it now

 

[mosslack]

NASA Hackintosh Central Command...I can see it now

I've been reading up on hacking the DSDT for the 3 cards and it really doesn't look to be all that difficult. After seeing how the dual cards are handled for my UD3P, adding another one should be a piece of cake. Plus Tonymax86's blog has a tutorial on doing just that and the example DSDT he is using is for the same 9400 GT card as mine.

My biggest concern was to be sure the PCI slots were identified correctly, but after playing around with my UD3P DSDT, I found that I could have identify both cards using the same PCI slot and it still works. So much for my theory about that being my problem with a previous DSDT I tried to use.

 

[litlgi74]

Does anyone have true GB Lan using the onboard Lan or adapter card on the EP45-UD3P?

I have been looking everywhere to figure this out... but the fastest I can get is in the very low 100MB speeds..

Please help!

 

[Ka0t1x]

I manually set Gbit/Full Duplex in advanced network settings, works fine 60+ MB/s.

 

[litlgi74]

I might get 60MB for about a second then it drops to then it drops down to maybe 10MBs then down to 1.5KBs and then back to 3MBs...

I never have anything steady above 19MBs

 

[SEAL62505]

Any thoughts on whether 10.6 would install on the Zotac ZBOX HD-ID11 NG ION?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16856173005

That would rock if it works! I would be all over that!

 

[mosslack]

Sad news to report on my MSI P55-GD80. As far as getting the system going I have it up and running just fine with a single gfx card installed. But once I put all 3 cards in, the system will no longer boot, at least as long as I have the graphics enabler set in Chameleon. Without the graphics enabler it will boot, but only the primary display works and only at 1024x768 with no QE/CI.

The problem seems to be related to the DSDT as I am unable to get that working with even the single gfx card. I get the same single resolution without the graphics enabler set. I have edited the DSDT to include the info for my 9400 GT, but so far it just seems like it doesn't see it. I'm sure it has something to do with improper values I have inserted, but I only followed a guide I found on Tonymax86 blog site which happened to use the same exact card I have. His example used a Gigabyte mobo so I'm sure I'm missing something somewhere.

BTW, I did boot up in Windows 7 just to make sure all the cards work and they do just fine under that OS. Any ideas?

 

[mosslack]

From sadness to joy, kdawg is da man! He just sent me a test DSDT and it works! I am viewing my 3 monitors via 3 different gfx cards. One hooked to DVI, one to HDMI and the other one hooked up via VGA. I shall have my 6 monitor desktop yet!