Building A Mac

TheArnettie said:

Hey guys,

I would like to build my own computer (sorta). Is it possible to buy a G5 for the tower and update the internals to my own spec. I guess I would like to put in a new hard drive, ram, CPU. I would like to know if this is even possible. I want it to be updated enough to run like a new Mac Pro but not as powerful as I use it as a personal computer and now a work machine for video/photo editing.

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Yes this is possible, there are many people who have built them and they are referred to as 'hackintosh' machines.

tonymacx86.com has a shopping list of compatible hardware and premade software tools to get your machine running Mac OSX.

insanelymac.com has a good forum for troubleshooting specific issues.

Later on if you really want to get into tweaking the performance of your machine check this thread from these forums: https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1333421/

General hackintosh vs mac questions are fielded here on the macrumors forums, but for specific installation problems it would be best to register with the other sites I have mentioned.

One thing I will recommend is to find a system someone already has running and to replicate it 100%. Some people are generous enough to upload a complete build log of how they did it.

There are many many frustrating problems you can run into when mixing hardware that hasn't been tried in a hackintosh before. There is no need to blaze new trails for your first build, save yourself the pain!

In addition, if you read up on the build from the other forums and decide it is not for you in the end, keep an eye open in the refurb store for either a 2010 hex-core or a 2010 quad-core and upgrade the cpu yourself.

As DJenkins said, Hackintosh build queries are best handled on tonymacx86 and insanelymac.

Have a good read.