Curious how much hacking at the case was required to get Hackintosh guts into the Mac Pro case? Right now I run a Core 2 Quad Hackintosh and am thinking about getting an i7. I would love a Mac Pro but as a broke college student I just don't have the cash to throw on one.
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Cindori Custom: Building an i7 Hackintosh
- Thread starter Cindori
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It seems you can as I found a guide to the Z800. So far, there's no kext for the NIC chip though (Broadcom 5764), and you'd either need to get the optional Intel NIC chip (HP does offer this according to the pdf), or just get a card that works. The Z600 is the same.
Spanky Deluxe
macrumors 603
To be honest, it took a lot of hard work to get it in. Most of which centred around removing the divider between the PSU and the optical bays - that caused a *LOT* of pain, scratches, anger, frustration and time. Mounting the board itself was relatively easy since I went for an micro ATX board. Wiring up the front connector right and wiring the cable for the drive sleds took a bit of time and trial and error but really wasn't too hard at all. I wanted to create a custom rear panel but haven't got round to it yet and probably won't for a while so I'm currently just using a few short extensions leads to get the rear ports outside of the case (optical, ethernet, USB).
If you're thinking of a hackintosh in a Mac then the easier thing to do is to use a G5 case. They're far roomier inside and can fit most ATX motherboards without any hassles. Of course, you lose the drive sleds but there's space to put in a standard HD type rack. Have a look over at the Aquamac Mods Forum or the InsanelyMac Mods forum.
I went with a Mac Pro case because I already had a Mac Pro. If I were starting from scratch, I would probably look for a faulty old G5 tower, strip it and install a standard ATX board. G5s are very easy to convert. Thanks to Snow Leopard's lack of PPC support, G5s are coming up for sale a fair bit these days which has also pushed down the cost of faulty G5s. If you make sure to buy G5 recovery disks too then in a way you'd be covering all your bases in terms of the EULA too. You'd be running an Apple branded machine and you're Snow Leopard upgrade license would be valid too since you still have the install disks for your G5 which you've upgraded to a hackintosh!
Mackilroy
macrumors 601
I should mention that you can buy one from the UK now, but shipping would cost almost as much as the case itself. 🙁
Spanky, I'd almost go for a G5 case, but then if I ever wanted to add more optical drives I'd have to cut a slot from the front out. That, and I have no abilities cutting up metal.
Spanky Deluxe
macrumors 603
True. Although would you actually need a second optical drive? Unless you do a lot of CD duplication or want a Bluray drive whilst still having the maximum DVD burning speeds then why wouldn't a single drive be better? Just get a Blu-ray writer and be done with it. That's what I did. Well, that's what I meant to but ended up ordering a Blu-ray reader/combo DVD writer by accident because I was in a hurry when I ordered and didn't realise until about a week after I'd installed it, whoops!
How many times do you even actually burn optical disks these days? I can probably count on my fingers how many I burnt in the last year.
If you really needed a second optical drive for some reason later on then why not just get an external drive?
mfka
macrumors regular
😎 NP. 🙂
At least you have the option of 2x different NIC chips (Broadcom & Intel) that can be used on the board, so no wasted slot if you need it for something else (I picked Intel, as they're good chips, and what Apple uses in the MP's). But I'd confirm with HP that they're actually offering this.
Z800 pdf
Spanky Deluxe
macrumors 603
My backplate's a mess at the moment. I haven't cut out the rear and have just got short extension cables going in to the rear ports on the logic board. I originally wanted to create a kind of adapter plate so as to avoid any metal work. However, although this would work fine for pretty much all of the ports, I haven't found a compact enough optical L-bend or connector plugs and I don't really want to lose optical audio out. I'll probably end up cutting out a rectangle in the metal work and use some edging to make a kind of standard PC mounting plate support like others have done. I really wanted to keep it as stock looking as possible but without ultra compact optical adapters I'm kind of stumped. I'm going to leave it for a while though now, I hardly ever see the back anyway and I'll just keep my eyes open for better adapters.
As far as fans and noise levels go, it's basically the same as before. I removed all of the original Apple fans. Although they can be modified to work with a PC, I didn't think it was really worth the hassle. Instead I've gone with four Scythe Kama PWM fans and the Megahalems cooler. The PSU, a Be Quiet 1000W Dark Power Pro has its own fan and is pretty darned quiet. I can't really tell any difference between this and my Mac Pro before noisewise.
New to the hackintosh scene
So I have the exact same chipset and graphics card and bought it for the same price a couple years ago... haah!... but I was wondering how you got your 8800 GT card to be recognized by snow leopard since I have successfully installed mac osx but I can't run it higher than 1024x768... does anyone know how to get this working... ? I don't have to flash my card do i? i've tried doing software update but that doesn't do anything I'm all the way updated... any help would be appreciated... ... also I have no sound... I assume it's a similar kext issue... but have no idea how to do it...
So I have the exact same chipset and graphics card and bought it for the same price a couple years ago... haah!... but I was wondering how you got your 8800 GT card to be recognized by snow leopard since I have successfully installed mac osx but I can't run it higher than 1024x768... does anyone know how to get this working... ? I don't have to flash my card do i? i've tried doing software update but that doesn't do anything I'm all the way updated... any help would be appreciated... ... also I have no sound... I assume it's a similar kext issue... but have no idea how to do it...
I want it!
Great read Cindori!
We are currently in a rush job and need some extra renderpower fast. I am considering buying your exact machine specs with 12gbram and a ATI 4890. I already bought an old G5 case to use as a case to at least keep the appearance of a Mac lol!
I have some questions about the machine I was hoping you could answer:
-Are all SATA bays usable? Are you capable of building a software RAID 0 setup of more than 2 disks with it?
-Do you have a guide about overclocking the machine safely and if so, do I need a bigger CPU fan/watercooling?
-How noisy is your machine compared to your Macpro? I ask this because I really like the silent wisp my macpro makes 🙂 . We are also in a small office and noise can become irritating fast.
-Does the mobo have a working optical out audio port?
-Does the Corsair 850watt have the right connectors to connect everything? Do I need to buy extra connectors and which ones/how many?
-Does the firewire work?
-I am going to run Cinema4d 64 bit on it and it will probably use more than 8gb of ram, is the machine capable of running 64 bit apps without problems?
Thanks in advance! I will be making my decision tomorrow. I am really looking forward to this, this machine will be the first of many if it all works out. I plan on building a 15+ machine renderfarm based on the corei7 platform.
Thank you again!
Great read Cindori!
We are currently in a rush job and need some extra renderpower fast. I am considering buying your exact machine specs with 12gbram and a ATI 4890. I already bought an old G5 case to use as a case to at least keep the appearance of a Mac lol!
I have some questions about the machine I was hoping you could answer:
-Are all SATA bays usable? Are you capable of building a software RAID 0 setup of more than 2 disks with it?
-Do you have a guide about overclocking the machine safely and if so, do I need a bigger CPU fan/watercooling?
-How noisy is your machine compared to your Macpro? I ask this because I really like the silent wisp my macpro makes 🙂 . We are also in a small office and noise can become irritating fast.
-Does the mobo have a working optical out audio port?
-Does the Corsair 850watt have the right connectors to connect everything? Do I need to buy extra connectors and which ones/how many?
-Does the firewire work?
-I am going to run Cinema4d 64 bit on it and it will probably use more than 8gb of ram, is the machine capable of running 64 bit apps without problems?
Thanks in advance! I will be making my decision tomorrow. I am really looking forward to this, this machine will be the first of many if it all works out. I plan on building a 15+ machine renderfarm based on the corei7 platform.
Thank you again!
The white sata ports are usable. So totally 6.
On stock cooler you can probably hit 3.5Ghz. Then you need a better one.
Gigabyte has a 4GHz OC guide here.
http://images.tweaktown.com/imagebank/Core i7 920 oc 4G 2008.12.12_(ENG).pdf
If my Mac Pro is a 10 in noise, this build is a 14.
Mobo has optical out but I have not tried it. I have digital out in system preferences though.
The corsair is fine and you can actually stay at 500w or so with my specs. I just want some upgrade-space.
Not tried firewire.
64 bit apps run fine, but 64 bit kernel has a bug, crasches when you restart or shutdown (maybe not issue for renderfarms)
THank you very much for your reply!
I'll assume the optical works and the firewire is not that big of a deal 🙂 .
You say your build is a 14 in noise compared to a 10 for the macpro, do you think the watercooling helps to make your machine quieter? And how much noise do you think a normal cpu fan would make compared to water cooling?
I am sorry to keep asking questions about noise but it is very important for this one machine. I would like to ask one last thing of you. I have SMC fancontrol on my mac and I can set the fan speeds on that. Now what RPM do I have to set it too to get the same noise as your machine? I am currently running the cpu/ram fan at 1000rpm, 500 is default.
Thanks again! I am planning on buying the parts this afternoon, does anyone have a good retailer recommendation? I noticed Newegg doesn't deliver to outside of the US 🙁 . Thanks again!
Okay man thanks. It will indeed be an experiment.
I am really looking forward to this. Perhaps I will make a video of the construction 🙂 .
Allright here's stage one! The case cost me 100 euros (2000 USdollars approx. lol) on marktplaats.
All internals are out except for the framework and esata cables.
All internals are out except for the framework and esata cables.
I am constantly on the lookout for second hand G5's for this reason. The case is so big you could almost fit 2 systems in there. Perfect hackintosh man!
mfka
macrumors regular
Allright here is my list!
I checked and doublechecked and this should get me an awesome machine!
I checked and doublechecked and this should get me an awesome machine!
MacDuck
macrumors member
Congrats on everyone and their new toys. I have been running a little Dell Mini 9 for about a year on 10.5.8. I went back to an Ubuntu installation last month for ease of use and stability (after a few tweaks).
I can tell you from my experiences trying to get my QX6600 Dell XPS 710 to run OS X that it is not for the normal user. I consider myself a knowledgeable enthusiast with no programming experience (know my way around hardware pretty well). I honestly have to say that getting my Mini 9 to play nice took about 11 hours of work (this was before everything was in a nice GUI).
I probably learned more about getting around software-wise under the hood during those 11 hours than I had spent a lifetime learning (27 now). If it wasn't for my little Dell Mini 9, I wouldn't be comfortable around Ubuntu and many other OSs; point being....EXPERIMENT. LEARN. This stuff is fun, and educational and I get a kick out of seeing what I can accomplish. I had the best feeling of accomplishment when my Mini 9 booted 10.5. That is what I look for in a hobby.
I am not debating the legal consequences of anything, as I have read enough Hackintosh threads on this forum since 2006 to know that it is heavily discussed...
Thanks for reading.
I can tell you from my experiences trying to get my QX6600 Dell XPS 710 to run OS X that it is not for the normal user. I consider myself a knowledgeable enthusiast with no programming experience (know my way around hardware pretty well). I honestly have to say that getting my Mini 9 to play nice took about 11 hours of work (this was before everything was in a nice GUI).
I probably learned more about getting around software-wise under the hood during those 11 hours than I had spent a lifetime learning (27 now). If it wasn't for my little Dell Mini 9, I wouldn't be comfortable around Ubuntu and many other OSs; point being....EXPERIMENT. LEARN. This stuff is fun, and educational and I get a kick out of seeing what I can accomplish. I had the best feeling of accomplishment when my Mini 9 booted 10.5. That is what I look for in a hobby.
I am not debating the legal consequences of anything, as I have read enough Hackintosh threads on this forum since 2006 to know that it is heavily discussed...
Thanks for reading.
Okay cool to hear! I just checked the benchmarks on the ATI 4890 AFTER I bought it and was like:
I will post updates once I get my order. Due to time constrains it will have to some serious rendering for a week first.
I first read 1000euros ($2000 US dollars) and thought what a friggin waste but $ 100 is a great price, wow and good luck!!!