The Merged Hackintosh Thread

[Macinposh]

Out of curiosity...
Waded through a couple of dozen pages without any clear answers,except some questions ten pages ago or something..


So : Have people build succesfully some 4/8 core render boxes for fcp/shake/logic and outsourced to other units via Qmaster?

Like using i7 920 2,66GHz or Quad Q9550 with appropriate mobos.
The setups should be really simple and cheap.

mobo (integrated gpu)+psu+neccessary memory+minimal hdd´s,cheap rack.


And if you have,what kind of experiences have you had?

 

[pilotError]

Out of curiosity...
Waded through a couple of dozen pages without any clear answers,except some questions ten pages ago or something..


So : Have people build succesfully some 4/8 core render boxes for fcp/shake/logic and outsourced to other units via Qmaster?

Like using i7 920 2,66GHz or Quad Q9550 with appropriate mobos.
The setups should be really simple and cheap.

mobo (integrated gpu)+psu+neccessary memory+minimal hdd´s,cheap rack.


And if you have,what kind of experiences have you had?

I haven't done the Qmaster thing, but I am running FCP on my Hackintosh.

Asus P5Q deluxe
Q9550
4GB G.Skill DDR2 1066
I have 4 hard drives and an LG BD-Rom.

The thing was built for a Simulator running under Vista, but I got the urge to build a Hackintosh out of it. Right now, I have it running a 10.5.7 release (haven't bothered with 10.5.8) and a Vanilla kernel. I also have the latest SL release running a Vanilla Kernel.

I'm pretty happy with the setup, as it is very stable (I actually hate booting back to Vista), but I don't know if I would use it to run my business. I haven't run into anything that would deter that, just not sure if I would be comfortable doing that.

I haven't run into any limitations as of yet, so I wouldn't see anything you mentioned being an issue...

 

[MacFanUK]

Does anyone know if it will be possible to use install Snow Leopard on a hackintosh using the Boot-132 method?

 

[Cave Man]

According to many on the Insanely Mac forums you can install SL, but they are not providing details until SL is officially released because they don't want Apple to change anything that might prevent its installation.

 

[MacFanUK]

According to many on the Insanely Mac forums you can install SL, but they are not providing details until SL is officially released because they don't want Apple to change anything that might prevent its installation.

Thanks I'll keep my eyes open.

 

[iamkewl]

According to many on the Insanely Mac forums you can install SL, but they are not providing details until SL is officially released because they don't want Apple to change anything that might prevent its installation.

I have snow leopard installed on one of my spare laptops. Runs great.

 

[pilotError]

Does anyone know if it will be possible to use install Snow Leopard on a hackintosh using the Boot-132 method?

Yes,

Check out projectsnow.net

 

[NoSmokingBandit]

Booting SL isnt the hard part, but they are trying to keep drivers secretive as much as possible so apple doesnt intentionally break things.
I've toyed around with the idea of cloning my EFI partition for 10.5 to a new HDD and trying to install 10.6 using the kexts, bootloader, and boot.plist from my existing install. Unfortunately im too cheap to buy a DL-DVD to burn SL to. I suppose i could launch the installer from my existing Leo install and just load it onto the other HDD, but i'll just wait for the final version of SL.

 

[pilotError]

Booting SL isnt the hard part, but they are trying to keep drivers secretive as much as possible so apple doesnt intentionally break things.
I've toyed around with the idea of cloning my EFI partition for 10.5 to a new HDD and trying to install 10.6 using the kexts, bootloader, and boot.plist from my existing install. Unfortunately im too cheap to buy a DL-DVD to burn SL to. I suppose i could launch the installer from my existing Leo install and just load it onto the other HDD, but i'll just wait for the final version of SL.

Partition the new HDD into 2 partitions, 10GB and the remaining space of the drive. You can restore the DMG to the 10GB partition and install from there.

Apple did change the encryption in the 10A421 release. I think everyone was hoping that 10a432 was the GM, since the encryption stayed the same as 421.

The only issues I see now are lack of 64 bit drivers for some of my 3rd party hardware (Wireless card). It will come, but not until the official release of SL.

Almost all of the prior video stuff is useless in 64 bit mode, as most have reverted back to the device property strings in the boot.plist or the dsdt.aml.

I'm looking forward to the final release, so I can do a clean install on my iMac and clean it up. It's looking kinda rough around the edges over the last couple of years.

 

[NoSmokingBandit]

Yeah i dont expect to run SL on my hac for a few months, and even if its possible on day 1 i'll probably wait until 10.6.3 so apple can work out some of their bugs too. I dont need to fight apple's bugs along with osx86 quirks!

 

[totoshark]

heres my shopping list, but wonder if you guys can help me squeeze some money out so that i can have spares to buy ACD.
basically, i need a beast cpu which good at OC, at least quad core.
what really bothering me is the graphics, i m not a intense gamer, or pro-designer.video editing is my hobby, i do tons clips converting, working with FCS. the budget is prefered to be around $900,maximum $1000. if so, i might also have spare money to repair my mbp.
by the way, i m thinking about dual system with dual raid 0, dont know if that can work. one more thing, i m hoping after the diet, this machine still able to upgrade for the next couple of years.
cpu: i7 920 (prepared to oc to 3.8ghz) $ 300
RAM: corsair 6GB(3x2gb) 1600 DDR3 $ 200
mother board: ASUS P6T $ 270
Graphics: FX 1700 512mb DDR2 $ 453
HD: 4TB (thinking dual OS, dual 75GB 10000rpm raptor , with raid 0 which i completely dont know if possible) $300 or more
power: corsair 650w $192
arctic silver 5: $ 8
cpu cooler: Ultra 120 extreme $70
additional fan: silenx ixtreme pro $42
case: cant really find one, mb use the old one if it can fit in.

so, comes the total is : $1835 !!!

 

[nanofrog]

heres my shopping list, but wonder if you guys can help me squeeze some money out so that i can have spares to buy ACD.
basically, i need a beast cpu which good at OC, at least quad core.
what really bothering me is the graphics, i m not a intense gamer, or pro-designer.video editing is my hobby, i do tons clips converting, working with FCS. the budget is prefered to be around $900,maximum $1000. if so, i might also have spare money to repair my mbp.
by the way, i m thinking about dual system with dual raid 0, dont know if that can work. one more thing, i m hoping after the diet, this machine still able to upgrade for the next couple of years.
cpu: i7 920 (prepared to oc to 3.8ghz) $ 300
RAM: corsair 6GB(3x2gb) 1600 DDR3 $ 200
mother board: ASUS P6T $ 270
Graphics: FX 1700 512mb DDR2 $ 453
HD: 4TB (thinking dual OS, dual 75GB 10000rpm raptor , with raid 0 which i completely dont know if possible) $300 or more
power: corsair 650w $192
arctic silver 5: $ 8
cpu cooler: Ultra 120 extreme $70
additional fan: silenx ixtreme pro $42
case: cant really find one, mb use the old one if it can fit in.

so, comes the total is : $1835 !!!

Try the Corsair 750W PSU ~$108
Used FX1700 @$280 (if you must have this one), but many are sufficing with gaming cards, such as the HD4870, and can be had for much less. Say ~$150USD.
DDR3 1600MHz @ CL = 7 (~$150)

As per drives, go with something other than Raptors. You can get better speeds and larger capacities. If you're willing to go with smaller drives, you can save some money. Say a 500GB single platter drive, such as the 7200.12 series (though Seagate's not my favorite; also check out samsung). The thing is, the smaller drives won't perform as fast as larger ones (capacity).
You'd still get decent speed out of 334GB/platter drives, such as the Caviar Black models, if you can locate a good deal. As with the PSU linked, check out Bing Cash Back links (or any other similar that pops up). Worth signing up IMO. RAID on slightly slower drives is still better performance than a single large drive. So say $60/ drive, you can get 4x for $240 or so.

A couple of options, but I don't see you getting down to $1000 or so with the spec'd parts you've listed. You'd have to lower them to save more $$$, such as memory clocks, less expensive fan, less PSU power (you'd still want a good one though, and they aren't something to "cheap out" on, hence the 750W unit linked)....

But more importantly, salvage more components already on hand. You've too many components listed to do it with an i7 board and processor. That will give you the biggest "discount".

Hope this helps.

 

[NoSmokingBandit]

The problem with i7 rigs is that you spend around $500 on just the CPU and Mobo.

If you want to save a few bucks and learn a whole lot about GPUs then you can try softmodding a GeForce into a Quadro. Quadros and GeForces are generally the same card, but Quadros have better drivers for CAD and other such applications. The higher cost of the card reflects the higher development costs of the drivers. It seems like a fairly simple process to mod your card, and you can get some pretty impressive results with some apps:
http://www.techarp.com/showarticle.aspx?artno=539&pgno=5

You have a very expensive PSU too. I just got a 700w OCZ (great since they bought PC Power and Cooling) for $130 -$30 instant -$30 Mib, so $70 in the end.

Overall, i think you are asking a lot for a $1000 system. A comp like that from Apple would be well over $3500, so even at $1800 you are getting a great deal.

Also, unless you are getting the LED ACD, you can find a much cheaper display from Dell. Theres a model Dell makes that uses the exact same panel as the ACD but costs a whole lot less because it doesnt have the apple logo on it. I wish i knew more about that, but im sure someone else knows what im talking about.

 

[nanofrog]

You have a very expensive PSU too. I just got a 700w OCZ (great since they bought PC Power and Cooling) for $130 -$30 instant -$30 Mib, so $70 in the end.

A decent 700 - 750W PSU would certainly suffice for a single graphics card system, and enough headroom to add in other devices, such as a second graphics card or RAID at a later time. Better to go for quality IMO, as many of the units are based off peak power, not continuous.

For such units, divide by the square root of 2 (RMS calculation: peak/1.414 = continuous power (or nominal)). If unstated, assume peak values.

Overall, i think you are asking a lot for a $1000 system. A comp like that from Apple would be well over $3500, so even at $1800 you are getting a great deal.

Good point here. If it must come to $1k, then either more existing components would need to be recycled into the new build, or go with a C2Q based system (P45 board). It's the only possible options, or compromise elsewhere, such as the monitor choice.

Also, unless you are getting the LED ACD, you can find a much cheaper display from Dell. Theres a model Dell makes that uses the exact same panel as the ACD but costs a whole lot less because it doesn't have the apple logo on it. I wish i knew more about that, but I'm sure someone else knows what I'm talking about.

Very good point.

 

[bearcatrp]

I haven't done the Qmaster thing, but I am running FCP on my Hackintosh.

Asus P5Q deluxe
Q9550
4GB G.Skill DDR2 1066
I have 4 hard drives and an LG BD-Rom.

The thing was built for a Simulator running under Vista, but I got the urge to build a Hackintosh out of it. Right now, I have it running a 10.5.7 release (haven't bothered with 10.5.8) and a Vanilla kernel. I also have the latest SL release running a Vanilla Kernel.

I'm pretty happy with the setup, as it is very stable (I actually hate booting back to Vista), but I don't know if I would use it to run my business. I haven't run into anything that would deter that, just not sure if I would be comfortable doing that.

I haven't run into any limitations as of yet, so I wouldn't see anything you mentioned being an issue...

I didn't think you could use a ASUS mobo for a hackintosh. I just built a server using a ASUS mobo and 2 dual core xeons. Currently using win7 but would be interested in putting leopard or tiger on it. Can this be done?

 

[3N16MA]

Well I got my sisters DELL mini 9 that she no longer uses, I plan on hackintoshing it very soon. This and my Mac mini should hold me over until Apple releases Arrandale MBP's or this mystical tablet.

 

[nanofrog]

I didn't think you could use a ASUS mobo for a hackintosh. I just built a server using a ASUS mobo and 2 dual core xeons. Currently using win7 but would be interested in putting leopard or tiger on it. Can this be done?

It should be possible.

You might want to take a look at the EFI emulator/Boot Loader/Vanilla Kernel/Retail OS X method. This seems to be the way ASUS boards are working, and rather well from the various posts (OSx86...). I'll be attempting it soon, I'll wait for SL to ship.

 

[NoSmokingBandit]

Well I got my sisters DELL mini 9 that she no longer uses, I plan on hackintoshing it very soon. This and my Mac mini should hold me over until Apple releases Arrandale MBP's or this mystical tablet.

Awesome. The only way i would ever use a netbook is with OSX. Just for the cool factor. The crappy window management would probably end up pissing me off and making me go back to some linux distro.

I didn't think you could use a ASUS mobo for a hackintosh. I just built a server using a ASUS mobo and 2 dual core xeons. Currently using win7 but would be interested in putting leopard or tiger on it. Can this be done?

Alot of ASUS boards work great. The P5K was a very popular P35-based board. I was going to get an ASUS board for my lastest build but Gigabyte had much better prices. Gigabyte boards are the way to go if you want something almost hassle-free. Its almost like GB builds them with OSX86 in mind, haha.

If you know exactly what parts you put in that server i'll see what i can dig up. I need to know:
1. Motherboard model
2. Video Card

The processors in that are probably pretty freaking awesome. I've never heard of anyone installing osx on a dual-cpu pc, but i dont see why it would be a problem. Would make a great render box. Honestly, its much easier to install Leopard than Tiger. By the time Leopard rolled around developers were just figuring out how to make great drivers, so they just started on Leo instead of working on the old Tiger.

 

[Richdmoore]

Well I got my sisters DELL mini 9 that she no longer uses, I plan on hackintoshing it very soon. This and my Mac mini should hold me over until Apple releases Arrandale MBP's or this mystical tablet.

I have a Dell 9 running OS X. I would recommend you having at lease 16 gig ssd drive, you can get it to work on a 8 gig, but it is a bunch more work and hastle. (I had a 32 gig drive, I bit the bullet and got a huge 128 gig SSD designed to "overflow" into the unused WWAN area.)

The information you need is at http://www.mydellmini.com/forum/mac-os-x/

They are a bunch of help, no way I could have gotten it to work otherwise. (I just finally got 10.5.8 on the machine, I used netbookinstaller .82 RC 4 & netbookmaker .82 rc4.

In addition, the method I used required a 8 gig SSD drive, and a retail (rather than machine specific) leopard disc.

I would love to know what the apple tablet will be, if apple made a real netbook I would dump the Dell 9 in a minute, but not if they just made a big iPod. (I already have an iPhone.)

 

[nomar383]

Who's going to be brave and attempt a snow leopard install on Friday?

I've looked at a few guides and think I might wait for some unified instructions before I make an attempt. Also, I have the dev preview on my laptop of SL and I'm finding several programs aren't quite "SL optimized" yet.

 

[dukebound85]

Who's going to be brave and attempt a snow leopard install on Friday?

I've looked at a few guides and think I might wait for some unified instructions before I make an attempt. Also, I have the dev preview on my laptop of SL and I'm finding several programs aren't quite "SL optimized" yet.

i dunno man. theres something to be said for having a very stable leopard install with no more pesky updates to worry about lol

 

[NoSmokingBandit]

I might clone my working Leo EFI partition onto my 15gb OS test HDD and see what happens with a SL install. I dont have high hopes though. Probably wont happen this weekend, but some time soon.

 

[totoshark]

Try the Corsair 750W PSU ~$108
Used FX1700 @$280 (if you must have this one), but many are sufficing with gaming cards, such as the HD4870, and can be had for much less. Say ~$150USD.
DDR3 1600MHz @ CL = 7 (~$150)

As per drives, go with something other than Raptors. You can get better speeds and larger capacities. If you're willing to go with smaller drives, you can save some money. Say a 500GB single platter drive, such as the 7200.12 series (though Seagate's not my favorite; also check out samsung). The thing is, the smaller drives won't perform as fast as larger ones (capacity).
You'd still get decent speed out of 334GB/platter drives, such as the Caviar Black models, if you can locate a good deal. As with the PSU linked, check out Bing Cash Back links (or any other similar that pops up). Worth signing up IMO. RAID on slightly slower drives is still better performance than a single large drive. So say $60/ drive, you can get 4x for $240 or so.

A couple of options, but I don't see you getting down to $1000 or so with the spec'd parts you've listed. You'd have to lower them to save more $$$, such as memory clocks, less expensive fan, less PSU power (you'd still want a good one though, and they aren't something to "cheap out" on, hence the 750W unit linked)....

But more importantly, salvage more components already on hand. You've too many components listed to do it with an i7 board and processor. That will give you the biggest "discount".

Hope this helps.

well said, really helpful, i m working on it.

 

[bearcatrp]

Awesome. The only way i would ever use a netbook is with OSX. Just for the cool factor. The crappy window management would probably end up pissing me off and making me go back to some linux distro.

Alot of ASUS boards work great. The P5K was a very popular P35-based board. I was going to get an ASUS board for my lastest build but Gigabyte had much better prices. Gigabyte boards are the way to go if you want something almost hassle-free. Its almost like GB builds them with OSX86 in mind, haha.

If you know exactly what parts you put in that server i'll see what i can dig up. I need to know:
1. Motherboard model
2. Video Card

The processors in that are probably pretty freaking awesome. I've never heard of anyone installing osx on a dual-cpu pc, but i dont see why it would be a problem. Would make a great render box. Honestly, its much easier to install Leopard than Tiger. By the time Leopard rolled around developers were just figuring out how to make great drivers, so they just started on Leo instead of working on the old Tiger.

ASUS DSBV-DX Dual LGA 771 Intel 5000V SSI CEB 1.1 Dual Intel Xeon Server Motherboard.
Using the onboard video for now. Using it as a crunching machine for WCG. Tnks for the help.

 

[nanofrog]

well said, really helpful, i m working on it.

Good luck, and keep us posted.