building a hackintosh

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Spartaniz

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Hi guys

I want to build a hackintosh for my brother. I found a list of components that are most compatible here: http://tonymacx86.blogspot.com/2012/08/building-customac-buyers-guide-2012.html

Here's a list of the components and their prices I found:

http://www.comx-computers.co.za/MB-GB75MD3P-Gigabyte-GA-B75M-D3P-all-in-one-LGA1155-

motherboard-Information-Price-Buy-Cheap-p-63249.php R1090.00

http://www.comx-computers.co.za/BX80637I33225-Intel-ivybridge-lga1155-i3-3225-Dual-core-3-

3GHz-box-cpu-Information-Price-Buy-Cheap-p-70186.php R1440.00

http://www.comx-computers.co.za/ME-C4G3V16X9-Corsair-Vengeance-with-heatsink-4Gb-ddr3-1600

-Desktop-Memory-Information-Price-Buy-Cheap-p-55841.php R339.00

http://www.comx-computers.co.za/CC-C300RBK-Corsair-Carbide-Series-300R-Gaming-Chassis-

Information-Price-Buy-Cheap-p-58975.php R615

http://www.comx-computers.co.za/AGT3-25SAT3-60G-OCZ-60GB-Agility-3-Series-SATA-III-2-5-

SSD-Information-Price-Buy-Cheap-p-47888.php R670.00

http://www.comx-computers.co.za/CMPSU-430CX-CORSAIR-Builder-Series-CX430-V2-430W-Power-

Supply-Information-Price-Buy-Cheap-p-61433.php R430.00

http://www.bidorbuy.co.za/item/82268379/TP_LINK_WDN4800_450Mbps_Wireless_N_Dual_Band_PCIe_A

dapter.html?LoginTime=1358510455767 R329.00

R4913

Will this work and is it possible to maybe get some of these parts for cheaper?
 
Just make sure the parts are as close as you can to the recommended setup, down to the model number. (The MB definitely being the most crucial)

I've tried on 'pre tested' hardware before and couldn't get it going at all.. so just make sure you're comfortable with installing windows/linux instead if this doesn't work.

As for cheaper options try use http://www.pricecheck.co.za/ to look around.
 
Motherboard/Wireless/Graphics are the most important things to not deviate on

Hard drive/ram/chassis/power supply go nuts

The more you deviate the more you have to run custom things, and sometimes its painful

Buy a mac keyboard if possible, I know they are stupid but normal pc keyboards have too many keys so it gets confusing when basic things don't work
 
Those links don't work. How's Com-X as a retailer? Rather go for someone like wootware etc.
 
I wanted to buy some RAM and an SSD recently from ComX but changed my mind and bought from Esquire. Esquire was cheaper and I just walked in and bought it. Even though ComX are are in the same suburb I live, they don't allow you to phone them or visit them for prices. You must first select the items you want online, they will then mail you a quote, then you must accept it and mail them back to confirm availability, you then order and pay, then wait for them to deliver to you or you can go pick it up. All I wanted was RAM an a SSD. Takealot can get the job done without all the hassle but ComX want you to jump through hoops.
 
vinodh said:
I wanted to buy some RAM and an SSD recently from ComX but changed my mind and bought from Esquire. Esquire was cheaper and I just walked in and bought it. Even though ComX are are in the same suburb I live, they don't allow you to phone them or visit them for prices. You must first select the items you want online, they will then mail you a quote, then you must accept it and mail them back to confirm availability, you then order and pay, then wait for them to deliver to you or you can go pick it up. All I wanted was RAM an a SSD. Takealot can get the job done without all the hassle but ComX want you to jump through hoops.
Click to expand...

Thanks, that answers my question :D Based on this I would say avoid them.
 
Why not just buy a Mac mini?

You're at around R5000 when the real thing plus OS is around R6500.
 
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biometrics said:
Why not just buy a Mac mini?
Click to expand...

I built 3 desktop hackintoshes over the past 2 years and they work great to a point. You can get Mac Pro or better performance without sacrificing a kidney or three. Using Final Cut Pro on my hackintosh was much, much faster than using my MacBook Pro.

The big downside is when Apple releases an update. Since Mountain Lion, all point releases updated straight from the Mac App Store with no issues. Previously with Lion, I got kernel panics and had to run around trying to figure out what kext got chowed. Everytime there's an update, I go onto the TonyMac website, readup on what will probably break on the update and be ready for it or just update regardless and see what happens. Not exactly peace of mind.

General rule was if you got it working, don't change anything.
 
If you just want to do the basics in OSX, then a Mac Mini is perfect.
For some serious development you're better off with a high end desktop machine running hackintosh (which would probably set you back about R12k) vs a Mac Pro which would set you back R40k and still only have 12GB of RAM and no SSD or decent graphics card!
 
Building an Intel based hackintosh is so easy these days. There is a lot of hardware to choose from if you stick to the basics. Eg. Motherboard - Onboard sound needs to be Realtek ALCXXX (VIA chipsets are not supported). Most Realtek (if not all) onboard ethernet chipsets work (some Atheros do too). Those are the only two major considerations to keep in mind. Wireless... that is a narrow margin as there is a small range of chipsets supported. I use a TP-Link WDN4800 pci-e card which is natively supported and seen as an airport extreme card (no extra drivers or modified kexts are needed). There are a couple of USB wireless dongles that work too. The GA B75M D3P MB is perfect for hackintoshes. It uses UEFI so you don't need a DSDT (unless you want sound over HDMI) USB3,0 works natively. SSD's... they all work. I use the old OCZ Vertex 3 128gb with TrimEnabler which gives me a 3 second start-up time from the Chameleon boot screen.

Graphics... That is up to you. With Nvidia, stay away from Fermi cards. They have major stability issues as Apple skipped that chipset. Some do work, but with glitches, random freezes and a lot of patching is required. Some people use Nvidia's commercial drivers, but even those are not near perfect. Anything from the 640 (Kepler chipset) up will work reasonably well in Mountain Lion (Some pre-Fermi cards also work). Just be aware that Apple's Nvidia drivers are a work in progress. They are unstable in Lion & Mountain Lion (OpenCL channel exceptions, freezes etc) .

AMD card drivers are very stable, but some models are a b!tch to get working properly. Onboard HD3000 & HD4000 also work. I use an ASUS 6850 which is the easiest card to use since it is natively supported by the iMac12,2 SMBios profile. Nothing needs patching or tweaking.(there is a minor issue during install, but perfect after that) Just plug it in and boot up. Keyboard and mouse. Even on a real Mac, I don't use Apple's mouse (personally I hate it). For wireles, I have only ever used Microsoft and Logitech wireles mouse and keyboard. But any wired usb mouse and keyboard will work. Any RAM and hard drive brands work. That's pretty much it.

So, contrary to popular belief, there are a lot of hardware options to consider, provided you stay within the supported chipset ranges ie. Ethernet & Sound There are no onboard wireless solutions that work (with the exception of some notebooks). Gigabyte motherboards have always been the most compatible as in no BIOS flashes are ever needed (as in the case of ASUS, MSI & Foxconn) and there are plenty of DSDT resources should you not use a UEFI based board.

On a side note: I personally do not endorse Tonymac and Macman. I will never use their products. It's just ethics really. They have commercialized something which was just a hobby, and turned it into a means to make cash from advertising, referrals (Amazon & Newegg) and donations. Their focus is on building the cheapest Mac relacement. At one stage they even had a pay service going where you paid them to send you all the files needed for your hardware, but someone with a legal background advised them to pull the service. Then there is all the work other developers produce, which they toss into their tick-click-and-install Multibeast app which they have branded as their own solution. 95% of their resources were taken from others. They were caught red-handed offering fixes which they claimed as their own, only for someone to point out that their source code is a copy / paste job from another developer (they neglected to delete his name from the source code header comments). They only started giving credit after a couple of developers confronted them. So, on principal, I stay away from them since I have known some of the developers since the days of Tiger.There is also a strong possibility that MacMan & TonyMac are the two individuals behind the EFI-X dongle which was being sold to unsuspecting thousands - they had to go in hiding when Apple got wind of their scam - not to mention customers who now had no support for their badly put together purchase. But it is a good resource for beginners. Just don't expect to learn too much there.

If you want to learn to do things properly and on your own without someone else's commercial all in one solutions, the original OSX86 board where it all started years ago is @ insanelymac.com. Whenever there are update issues or compatibility solutions, that is where Tonymac get their info from. It's a nice side project to have, but once you know your way around, it becomes 2nd nature. A typical perfect OSX installation with all the required kexts etc takes about 25 minutes to install and have up and running without any further issues, with the exception of updates, which require a bit of homework before doing - not always though. The only thing I have ever needed to fix is sound, as Apple's updates always replace the patched AppleHDA kext that is needed if you are not using a patched DSDT.

Wew! Wall of text there! I was on a roll! It is an interesting hobby though- and a hackintosh can run just as smooth - or even better than a real mac - depending on hardware choices. Mac Mini's are great and affordable. But if you want a custom built machine to support your own requirements in terms of hard drives, graphics card & processor, hackintoshes are by far a better option. They are also easy to maintain and upgrade - and repairs are DIY and won't break the bank. Being in a Mac environment for the better part of my career, I have actually found that hackintoshers have a more in-depth knowledge about Macs and OSX than most Mac owners do.
 
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Am keen on building one of these, since the day I saw a mate of mine build his. But he's had a lot of teething problems, as he may or may not have been aware of the factors affecting compatibility and so on. But now he's pretty jacked up.

For me, the choice to go hackintosh would be influenced by not being so ready to leave the PC realm (due to gaming etc.) and also being very curious about the MAC world for my music production interests (Logic Pro in particular). So maybe running boot camp could be a solution, but still going via the hackintosh route, so I can put together a decent spec machine, at a less than kidney price range.

My current system is all PC (quite dated but does the job) and I run XP Pro SP3 dual booting with Win 7 Ultimate 64 bit. The XP has all my recording installations, and the Windows 7 is my internet acces, gaming etc. etc.

Any thoughts / suggestions oh how to build this monster I have in my head?
 
Over-Dose said:
Am keen on building one of these, since the day I saw a mate of mine build his. But he's had a lot of teething problems, as he may or may not have been aware of the factors affecting compatibility and so on. But now he's pretty jacked up.

For me, the choice to go hackintosh would be influenced by not being so ready to leave the PC realm (due to gaming etc.) and also being very curious about the MAC world for my music production interests (Logic Pro in particular). So maybe running boot camp could be a solution, but still going via the hackintosh route, so I can put together a decent spec machine, at a less than kidney price range.

My current system is all PC (quite dated but does the job) and I run XP Pro SP3 dual booting with Win 7 Ultimate 64 bit. The XP has all my recording installations, and the Windows 7 is my internet acces, gaming etc. etc.

Any thoughts / suggestions oh how to build this monster I have in my head?
Click to expand...

You don't need to leave the PC realm at all. A hackintosh is a normal PC - just with carefully chosen hardware. You also don't need bootcamp. The Bootloader software (Chameleon or tonymac's Chimera which is Chameleon re-branded) which makes it possible for a PC to boot a drive with OSX on, also detects any other OS as well. You can, for example, have XP/7 installed on one hdd, Linux on another and OSX on a 3rd and will have those choices to boot from at the bootscreen prompt. You can boot as many OS's as you like on the same hardware.

Don't limit yourself to Tonymac's buyer's guide for a motherboard. He only recommends boards which Newegg and Amazon stock. Most of those models are not available in SA. In most cases, the SA variant with a slightly different model number has a VIA chipset for sound and an Atheros chipset for LAN which will not work. (Apple seem to favour Realtek) The only board in his guide which is available in SA is the B75M D3P (the most popular affordable board). There are other boards like the cheaper B75M D3H which work too. It's not about following serial numbers to the T as someone was suggesting, it's just about choosing a board with the right Audio and LAN chipsets. The rest of the onboard chipsets on Gigabyte boards are all supported.

A good general purpose system example (based on local specs)
B75M D3P MB as it has 3 SATAIII ports & 4 SATAII ports
Onboard USB2,0 & 3,0 works Ethernet & Sound is compatible with 3rd party driver support..
Intel i-5 3570 CPU
8GB - 32GB RAM
OCZ Vertex 4 120gb Drives - One for each OS
Any size any brand Storage drives
Nvidia 650 / 660 / or AMD 6850 / 6870 Graphics (7-Series is difficult to unsupported for now but Apple are working on support for the Tahiti range - no-one knows yet which models will work without jumping through hoops)
A capable PSU - Corsair CX-600 or 650 should do
If you need Wireless LAN TP-Link WDN4800 is the only pci-e card available in SA that works without having to do anything but plug the card in and configure the LAN settings.

Tonymac's installation guide and Multibeast app will work on this system with minimal fuss. There are plenty of users with these same specs that have posted their own guides as well.

My recommendation when using tonymac's site - ignore his guide for hardware specs. Rather go through forum member's builds. They are not limited to what is available through tonymac's referral programme with Amazon & Newegg.
 
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@ subxero - Thanks, that's cleared up some of the misconceptions. Because personally, I prefer to have the OS's separated per drive, and then having to restart when I want to access either operating system. I have no need to have immediate access to either OS when I work, as their functions are totally different. So rebooting is fine. So OSX installed for the studio installation (luckily all my original discs run on both PC & MAC) and then have Windows 8 installed on another drive. Great news!

And as for specs, well, I'd want to go for something that obviously is a workhorse, as the studio side of things gets very resource hungry. In fact, thinking of it now, so would the high end games I play (in terms of VGA & CPU). So it would have to be a perferct all rounder.

Will most definitely look on the forum for other machine setups, to see how diverse I can be.

Many thanks.
 
I tried to install OSX 10.8 on three different Asus. 2 socket 775 boards and 1 socket 1156. All worked with no real issues. Just minor snags like audio that got sorted very quickly. Seems like most Asus boards work quite well with OSX.

The only thing I'm useless with is getting audio over HDMI to work. Editing DSDT's is too much like going to the dentist.
 
subxero - thanks for your posts, some nice tips there.

If you had a chance, could you post a build for a 'mac-mini' type Hackintosh? Basically as cheap as possible through local distributors?
 
Just start with a Gigabyte GA-B75M-D3H motherboard and add cpu, ram, psu, hdd/ssd & case to suite your budget. The motherboard is the most important part.
 
If you mean mac-mini in terms of mini-ITX then the best 'value for money + compatibility' board locally available which does not require BIOS modifications is the Gigabyte GA-H77N Wireless all-in-one board (you cannot use the integrated wireless though) . You might also want an Ivy Bridge processor that will give you HD4000 onboard VGA - like an i-3 3225 as a budget CPU will be enough as this would not be a gaming setup and you can then use the pci-e slot for a TL WDN4800 for wireless (the most affordable Apple Airport equivalent).

If you mean the cheapest bare-bones build with USB3 & SATAIII, then as Pada said - B75M D3H is fine for an entry level build if you only plan on using 1x SSD.

Your choice in CPU is only an issue when using onboard VGA as only HD3000 & HD4000 are supported . That is what mac-mini's use. The rest is whatever you want it to be.
 
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