My new Hac Pro

[taylorwilsdon]

Wasn't getting all the delicious speed I needed with my Macbook Pro and I wanted a lighter laptop anyways, so I ditched the MBP and moved to a whole new one-two punch. Thinkpad X61 tablet for business, and the Hac Pro for pleasure.

Stats:
23" Apple Cinema HD Display
Gigabyte EP35-DS3L (perfect osx86 board, everything but sound works out of the box)
Intel E8500 3.16ghz 45nm CPU - Overclocked to 4.25ghz with Noctua NH-U12P (yes, that's a nice cooler :cool:)
8GB DDR2-800 OCZ SLI Edition RAM
XFX 8800GT Alpha Dog Edition
Seagate SATA / Maxtor IDE / Western Digital IDE hard drives.
Linksys Wireless-G USB Adapter

This monster will be pulling duty in Aperture, Bridge, Photoshop, Dreamweaver, Photomatix, and the biggest and baddest of them all, iTunes.

This is, of course, the Picture Gallery, not the brag barn, so here's some pictures. These are all old (from my first attempt, using an ECS motherboard and an intel 7200 with IDE drives) but I'll add new ones in a little bit.

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3289/2847373540_d44701a6b8.jpg
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3086/2847373396_667dc10f78.jpg
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3247/2847373272_40221069fb.jpg

Here's what it looks like now:
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3192/2858779300_5260b507e3.jpg
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3039/2866902860_7889746c8c_o.jpg
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3108/2866941412_bcef42ee49_o.jpg
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3005/2866110513_497c112204.jpg

All I have to say is that if you're thinking about building a hackintosh, go for it. I spent a few very painful days working with some not so compatible hardware and it was unbelievably stressful, but once I got the right stuff, it was smooth sailing and the whole thing took like 20 minutes from disk in to running OSX.

[UMHurricanes34]

I love your.....display.

[cleanup]

I love your case. I have the same one. Sonata FTW.

Haven't pitched for installing OS X on it just yet, though. Do you dual boot or no? I'm thinking of getting another hard drive and giving it a go. The worst thing that happens is I ruin a harddrive that has nothing on it. :)

[valdore]

Lawbreaker! :D

[bigandy]

It'd look better with the case on :p


Thanks for posting the components. I'm tempted to have a go, and if you've got a good setup, I might spend all my money :)


Lawbreaker! :D

*slaps forehead*

[iJon]

Might want to consider dropping your IDE drives. You might be lucky but many people have tons of kernel panics with the JMicron extension.

Other than that it sounds like a freaking awesome rig.

[taylorwilsdon]

Might want to consider dropping your IDE drives. You might be lucky but many people have tons of kernel panics with the JMicron extension.


You know your stuff :) I used Chameleons patch for Jmicron IDE devices onto the Kalyway DVD but if I start to get KP's, I've got IDE to USB converters so that I can keep using the drives.

I love your case. I have the same one. Sonata FTW.

Haven't pitched for installing OS X on it just yet, though. Do you dual boot or no? I'm thinking of getting another hard drive and giving it a go. The worst thing that happens is I ruin a harddrive that has nothing on it. :)

Yes, its a really nice case... I love the rubber vibration dampeners on the hard drive sleds. Just a nice little touch.

I'm going single boot - just OSX. I have a hard drive with a vanilla (no drivers installed) copy of XP that I used for BIOS updates, but I don't see myself using Windows ever, especially with the Thinkpad.

It'd look better with the case on :p


Thanks for posting the components. I'm tempted to have a go, and if you've got a good setup, I might spend all my money :)


Yes, its all put together now and hidden away behind the desk. Its super cheap - I bought everything new and spent about $700 after rebates (maybe less, I haven't balanced my bank statement for this month and I have a pending RMA on a dead board at Newegg).

[gotzero]

This is getting so tempting. The iMac is so wrong for me, the Mac Pro is too expensive marked up with components I do not need, and my Mini can do everything I want it to do except power two 23" ACDs plus a couple 17"s...

Sounds like a nice build at a great price!

[iJon]

You know your stuff :) I used Chameleons patch for Jmicron IDE devices onto the Kalyway DVD but if I start to get KP's, I've got IDE to USB converters so that I can keep using the drives.


I would also consider using EFI strings for your graphics card if you have't done so yet. It has solved all my video problems I was having with NVInject and NVKush.

[reberto]

Nice choice on the HSF ;) I have one myself with two high speed Yate-Loons (88CFM). Now all you need to do is install it :p

[taylorwilsdon]

I would also consider using EFI strings for your graphics card if you have't done so yet. It has solved all my video problems I was having with NVInject and NVKush.

I used NVinstaller and NVinject which worked great. Only had to edit one kext (nvinject) and nvinstaller took care of the rest. Very fast, but there really isn't that much in OSX that can take advantage of such a fast video card (I overclocked the already overclocked video card).

Nice choice on the HSF ;) I have one myself with two high speed Yate-Loons (88CFM). Now all you need to do is install it :p

I'm using it with Noctua fans. Its installed right now and works beautifully. I'm writing a review about it that will be up soonish.

This thing really is great - the audio is still fubar but everything else is wonderfully fast. Now all I need to do is buy a couple 1TB hard drives and I'm set.

[dchen720]

how much did that cost

[UltraNEO*]

Got some white Apple stickers with your MBP, yeah?
Stick some on the side, man!!!

Might as well go the whole hog!! :D

Pity it ain't dual QuadCore Xeon's

[dukebound85]

hey op, pm me for how to get your audio working if you havent figured out already. its really easy to do


i have the same mb for my hackintosh

my specs are

gigibyte ds3l board
q6600 oc'd to 2.91ghz
msi 8800gt 512
4 gig ram
500 sata hd

[taylorwilsdon]

how much did that cost

In the neighborhood of $650. I was going for $500 but I decided to splurge a little.

I'm PM'ing you duke.

[iJon]

I used NVinstaller and NVinject which worked great. Only had to edit one kext (nvinject) and nvinstaller took care of the rest. Very fast, but there really isn't that much in OSX that can take advantage of such a fast video card (I overclocked the already overclocked video card).



I'm using it with Noctua fans. Its installed right now and works beautifully. I'm writing a review about it that will be up soonish.

This thing really is great - the audio is still fubar but everything else is wonderfully fast. Now all I need to do is buy a couple 1TB hard drives and I'm set.

With your video card drivers can you do the following things?

Resize your desktop resolution
Is Quartz Extreme and GL working
Can you let your display turn off and wake it back up (not the computer sleep, just the display sleep)

Also, does your motherboard have optical out and if so have you tried it?

Just curious cause those are the video problems I had with NVInject and Kush.

[dukebound85]

With your video card drivers can you do the following things?

Resize your desktop resolution
Is Quartz Extreme and GL working
Can you let your display turn off and wake it back up (not the computer sleep, just the display sleep)

Also, does your motherboard have optical out and if so have you tried it?

Just curious cause those are the video problems I had with NVInject and Kush.

i had all those working (didnt try optical out i dont think i can, will see) with nviinject on the same board

[taylorwilsdon]

With your video card drivers can you do the following things?

Resize your desktop resolution
Is Quartz Extreme and GL working
Can you let your display turn off and wake it back up (not the computer sleep, just the display sleep)

Also, does your motherboard have optical out and if so have you tried it?

Just curious cause those are the video problems I had with NVInject and Kush.

Yes (running at 1920x1200 of course, but you can choose any)
Yes (yes, confirmed in System Profiler:
Graphics by NVIDIA:

Chipset Model: Graphics by NVIDIA
Type: Display
Bus: PCIe
PCIe Lane Width: x16
VRAM (Total): 512 MB
Vendor: NVIDIA (0x10de)
Device ID: 0x0611
Revision ID: 0x00a2
ROM Revision: NVinject 0.2.1
Displays:
Cinema HD Display:
Display Type: LCD
Resolution: 1920 x 1200
Depth: 32-bit Color
Core Image: Hardware Accelerated
Main Display: Yes
Mirror: Off
Online: Yes
Quartz Extreme: Supported
Rotation: Supported


Yes, sleep works great (both display and system).

Haven't tried optical out, I'll see if I can find a cable and try it.

Dukebound fixed my sound issue, by the way :) Its perfect now!

[Whorehay]

How's the Thinkpad treating you? Looking at getting an X-series to replace my iBook :)

[hexonxonx]

Delete

[tonie]

nice, i want to hack my dell but don't know how :(

[Pixellated]

nice, i want to hack my dell but don't know how :(

http://google.com

[tonie]

Thanks, I have looked it up but couldn't find a guide for my Dell Vostro 400. If you happen to stumble on it, please let me know. Thanks

[taylorwilsdon]

Thanks, I have looked it up but couldn't find a guide for my Dell Vostro 400. If you happen to stumble on it, please let me know. Thanks

There's no "guide" - its very straightforward, a package like Kalyway supports 99% of PC hardware.

If your Vostro has a core 2 duo processor, then you're good to go.

[tonie]

Can you provide me (PM or post) with a link to download it because I have attempted several times but to no avail.

[richard.mac]

Thanks, I have looked it up but couldn't find a guide for my Dell Vostro 400. If you happen to stumble on it, please let me know. Thanks

Dell Vostro 400 guide site:forum.insanelymac.com (http://www.google.com/search?client=safari&rls=en-au&q=Dell+Vostro+400+guide+site:forum.insanelymac.com&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8)

[Schtumple]

Have you thought about modding the case? Making it a bit more Mac like?

(I don't mean just sticking an apple sticker on it...)

[richard.mac]

people have made Hac Pros from Mac Pro cases and Power Mac cases but the Mac Pro case can only fit a micro ATX board and the Power Mac case can only hold 2 hard drives and only has one 5.25" slot.

i havent fully chosen all of my Hac Pro parts but i know im going to use the Antec Solo case which is a little 'mac-like' in design and could probably almost match the Mac Pro's acoustics.

[taylorwilsdon]

Have you thought about modding the case? Making it a bit more Mac like?

(I don't mean just sticking an apple sticker on it...)

Yes, extensively. When I first though of doing this, I really wanted to do a true vanilla install using a Mac Pro / G5 case so it looked totally legit, but I decided it was too much hassle for something I'm going to tuck behind a desk and never see again. The Sonata is so quiet that its no big deal.

[taylorwilsdon]

Well fun story, I read that the 10.5.5 update was safe so I did it... from Software Update. Bad idea. Killed my whole installation. To make matters worse, I had deleted the ISO and my DVD was scratched up. Had to re-download kalyway (all night) and do a fresh install.

Oh well :( I did the updates the right way this time and I'm doing full vanilla which is good.

[spencers]

Well fun story, I read that the 10.5.5 update was safe so I did it... from Software Update. Bad idea. Killed my whole installation. To make matters worse, I had deleted the ISO and my DVD was scratched up. Had to re-download kalyway (all night) and do a fresh install.

Oh well :( I did the updates the right way this time and I'm doing full vanilla which is good.

Lose any data?

[taylorwilsdon]

Lose any data?

Yeah, I lost everything since I built the computer but it wasn't anything particularly important. All the stuff I care about is stored on external hard drives in the first place (pictures, movies, etc).