Show me your Hackintosh!

As there are many geeks on here, I thought I'd start a Hackintosh thread! I've been running two hackintoshes at home for the last year, both have worked almost perfectly! It took a bit of learning to figure out how best to get a Vanilla install, but after that it's all gravy!

My first one, I built it into a G5 Tower case. Has been running perfectly from 10.6 -> 10.7gm. Runs a Core i7 Processor, heaps of grunt for Photo / Coding work.

Second one I built mini-itx style. Runs a Core i3 processor, and sits on the TV in lounge. Runs plex, and I hard hacked my own IR and Bluetooth receivers. It also runs a bluray drive, working well.

Combined cost for these two machines? Less than the price of an iMac. Including a 24" Monitor for the tower.

I'm looking at building a mini-ITX Hackintosh in the near future.  LifeHacker published an article a couple of weeks ago that intrigued me.

http://lifehacker.com/5815715/how-to-build-a-hackintosh-mini-for-less-than-600

tonymacx86.com

It's a fantastic resource

I personally don't run one (prefer Win7 and Ubuntu to MacOS), but I helped a friend build one not too long ago for the purposes of audio and video editing and engineering.  I don't remember all his exact specs, but they were in the ballpark of Core i5-2500k, ASUS P8P67 (REV 3.0), 8 GB RAM, nVidia QuadroFX 4600, 2 60 GB OCZ Agility 2 SSDs in RAID 0 as a boot drive, 1 TB 7200 RPM Samsung as a data drive, 24x DVD drive.  I'm not exactly sure that is the model of motherboard we used, but it was close.  It was my first time playing with UEFI, so that was fun.  We built it in this HEC Blitz case and added in three single hot swap bays for easy future storage expansion.  The case has a very understated look, which was exactly what he was aiming for.  If only it had 9 5.25 bays instead of 8 I would use it in my server designs.  We originally planned to use a 120 GB RevoDrive as a boot drive, but were dismayed to find that OCZ has released not a single Mac (or Linux) driver for the RevoDrive.  For shame, OCZ.  So I ended up with the RevoDrive for my Win7 desktop

As there are many geeks on here...

Whatever gave you that idea...? 

I've considered building a Hackintosh as a way of gaining some limited expertise with OS X and so on, but not yet taken the plunge.  Just waiting for my "toys" budget to replenish a little.  I was also considering mini-itx although I know that it's not the cheapest way forwards, it would help me squeeze one more PC into my office.

I have a Dell Vostro (the business version of the mini9) notebook with OSX loaded on it.  Install was pretty easy following an old lifehacker guide.  Threw a Apple sticker over the Dell badge to finish it off.  The sticker seems to get the most attention though, people always ask about it when I pull it out at an airport.

As there are many geeks on here...

I was also considering mini-itx although I know that it's not the cheapest way forwards, it would help me squeeze one more PC into my office.

Im considering the mini-ITX with an i3 because if I like it, I will probably get moved to my bedroom to replace the dated Windows Media Center box thats in there now. 

I also have an i7-2600k w/ Asus P8P67 that I'm considering dual-booting.  I have my SSD's in a rack, so they would be easy to pop out to put in a new SSD to run OS X.  I may do that just to play with it before I commit to purchasing any hardware.

I have a Dell Vostro (the business version of the mini9) notebook with OSX loaded on it.  Install was pretty easy following an old lifehacker guide.  Threw a Apple sticker over the Dell badge to finish it off.  The sticker seems to get the most attention though, people always ask about it when I pull it out at an airport.

A friend of mine did that as well to his Mini 9.  I have a Mini 10 that Im about to get rid of. I considered installing OS X on it, but it has an Intel WWAN card in it, and alas, no drivers for OS X.

I've been a apple guy since 1983.  They problem is they cost too much.  With that in mind I've only been able to upgrade every 4 or 5 years.  I just got a new MackBook Pro a couple months ago which moved my old Macbook to desktop duty replacing my 2002 Quicksilver tower.  I've come to the conclusion that the Macbook makes a better laptop than a desktop though.  It's still serviceable, but after the Macbook Pro it feels a little slow.  So I've been waiting for the sandy bridge Mac Mini update, and try to get one of those.  Well I saw that same lifehacker article and it got me thinking.  I had to do a little maintenance on one of my HTPC's so when I had it in my work area I threw in a extra drive I had and tried to make it a Mac.  Honestly the biggest problem I had was trying to get the boot dvd to boot with my spare DVD drive.  It even worked with my old Nvidia 7600gt card that I had lying around out of the box.  Well that sold me so I just ordered the parts to build a new sandy bridge Mac.  Reusing some stuff I kept it at $300, I'll upgrade the video card in a little bit.  I could have done it cheaper but I splurged on the motherboard, wanted a Z68.  I figure this will be less than half the cost of a Mac Mini.  Probably no faster, but more room for expansion and upgrades.  Wish me luck.

Mine's been running real well for a few months now, Core i7 and P8P67 mobo...i love that machine.

Here's a little video I made of it:

I have a Dell Vostro (the business version of the mini9) notebook with OSX loaded on it.  Install was pretty easy following an old lifehacker guide.  Threw a Apple sticker over the Dell badge to finish it off.  The sticker seems to get the most attention though, people always ask about it when I pull it out at an airport.

 

A friend of mine did that as well to his Mini 9.  I have a Mini 10 that Im about to get rid of. I considered installing OS X on it, but it has an Intel WWAN card in it, and alas, no drivers for OS X.

Why you getting rid of it? 

I have a Dell Vostro (the business version of the mini9) notebook with OSX loaded on it.  Install was pretty easy following an old lifehacker guide.  Threw a Apple sticker over the Dell badge to finish it off.  The sticker seems to get the most attention though, people always ask about it when I pull it out at an airport.

 

A friend of mine did that as well to his Mini 9.  I have a Mini 10 that Im about to get rid of. I considered installing OS X on it, but it has an Intel WWAN card in it, and alas, no drivers for OS X.

 

Why you getting rid of it? 

Its just time for an upgrade for me.  You interested in buying it?

I have a Dell Vostro (the business version of the mini9) notebook with OSX loaded on it.  Install was pretty easy following an old lifehacker guide.  Threw a Apple sticker over the Dell badge to finish it off.  The sticker seems to get the most attention though, people always ask about it when I pull it out at an airport.

 

A friend of mine did that as well to his Mini 9.  I have a Mini 10 that Im about to get rid of. I considered installing OS X on it, but it has an Intel WWAN card in it, and alas, no drivers for OS X.

 

Why you getting rid of it? 

 

Its just time for an upgrade for me.  You interested in buying it?

Haha, I would be if I had some extra cash to send your way!

Here's mine:

Nearly bought a Mac Pro Hack instead of an actual Mac Pro.

But I couldn't be bothered to mess about, so I bought an actual Mac Pro instead.

Done the whole build yourself and over clock thing. I couldn't be bothered anymore so I gave up a few years ago!

@Bubba....

Windows95 ??

BTW... any tips on doing the OSX vm ?

As there are many geeks on here, I thought I'd start a Hackintosh thread! I've been running two hackintoshes at home for the last year, both have worked almost perfectly! It took a bit of learning to figure out how best to get a Vanilla install, but after that it's all gravy!

 

My first one, I built it into a G5 Tower case. Has been running perfectly from 10.6 -> 10.7gm. Runs a Core i7 Processor, heaps of grunt for Photo / Coding work.

 

Second one I built mini-itx style. Runs a Core i3 processor, and sits on the TV in lounge. Runs plex, and I hard hacked my own IR and Bluetooth receivers. It also runs a bluray drive, working well.

 

Combined cost for these two machines? Less than the price of an iMac. Including a 24" Monitor for the tower.

Watch out! That's what led me into owning the past two Macbook Pros that I own. My first hackintosh was a clevo laptop with a dothan 1.7 in 2006. Not very speedy but it worked! Led me to realize that a *nix laptop w/ a decent UI was very welcome to have.

Easy to travel down the dark side it is.

That said, portables for me are OSX, desktops are Windows based (portables because having a ok *nix on a laptop is *nice*)

As far as a OSX Vmware image goes check out this thread ... and it's not loading, if it does it's http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/index.php?s=869886ae4a4447bde606195a00f606c5&showtopic=172474 I have used that for 10.6 on a regular vmware server install on my desktop. Performance was poor until I installed a SSD - then very nice.

Been running a GA-P35+DS3r + Q6600 for a while now. 10.6 to 10.7 Mostly use Win7 but boot to the OSX HD sometimes.

Did you say Bluray + OSX?  

Figured I would just copy and paste my InsanelyMac sig.  I've been running this machine for about 3-4 years now.  I originally bought it as a Windows gaming machine, and at the time still had an older PowerMac 533DP G4 and one of the first Core Duo Mac minis (later upgraded with a Core 2 Duo chip).  The hackintosh started out with Leopard, then SL, and will be moving on to Lion later this week (waited for the final kext I needed to be 64-bit).  Although it is aging, it is still mighty powerful for me (GPU could use an upgrade).  I have it OC'ed to 3.6 currently, but it has been up to 4.0 in the past (just can't keep it as stable as I like without pumping too many volts into the beast).

This is the machine:

Asus P5N-D LGA 775 NVIDIA nForce 750i SLI | Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 Wolfdale 3.0GHz (OC to 3.6GHz) | Asus GeForce 8800GTS 512 (G92) (Full Res and QE/CI w/ EFI Strings - Dual Monitor) | Corsair XMS2 DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) (4 x 1GB) (slashack AppleNForceATA.kext for > 4GB RAM) | Onboard Gigabit LAN MCP51 (eno nForceLan) | Rosewill RC-401-EX PCI NIC (Works OTB. Using Ethernet EFI Strings to make it show as "builtin") | LG Blu-ray/HD-DVD SATA (depends on AppleNForceATA.kext) | Retail DVD 10.5.8 (modified LTL Retail DVD Guide) | Retail 10.6.8 (verdant's Snow Leopard Guide) | Soon to be Retail 10.7 (verdant's Lion Guide) | Chameleon 2.0 RC5

I have also been running an MSi Wind with Leopard, then SL, for the past 2-3 years.  It's been running like a champ, but with it's Atom 270 CPU, it will never see Lion :-(

Been running a GA-P35+DS3r + Q6600 for a while now. 10.6 to 10.7 Mostly use Win7 but boot to the OSX HD sometimes.

 

Did you say Bluray + OSX? 

Bluray drives can be used just fine in Macs, but there is currently no software that can read them for true Bluray movie playback.  Typically, a Mac user will use something like MakeMKV to rip the Bluray movie in its full quality for playback in some other software.  MakeMKV can also be used to decrypt the movie for direct ("streaming") playback to either VLC or XBMC.

There is Mac Bluray Player, but it won't show menus, has to be connected to the internet to work, and is expensive

Much easier to download a 720p mkv rip

Anyways, I have a great hackintosh, hasn't crashed in over a year!

i7 920

EX58-UD4P

80GB SSD

6GB of RAM

8800GT (fanless)

Lots of Noctua fans

Nexus 850W powersupply

Running 10.7 for my main partition, and 10.6.6 for my DAW partition.

It's funny that people say Macs are much more expensive. But I honestly feel you get what you pay for. I've had my MacBook Pro for almost 5 years now, and has stayed in great physical condition. Just picked up a new MacBook Air. PC companies are attempting to replicate the same style/design as the Air, but won't be able to get the price as low as Apple sold theres. So while there are cheaper options, they don't stack up in overall quality. Plus, you can't match the resolution offered on the 27" iMacs.

Running LION & SL and W7 on following machine.....

HP DV8t-1290e0 (WN916EA#UUW) | 1.60 GHz Intel Core i7-720QM | nVidia GeForce GT 230M w/ 1024MB | 18.4" 1920 x 1080 display | 6 GB DDR3 (1 x 2048 MB + 1 x 4096 MB) |2 x 500 GB SATA Hard Disk Drive 7200 rpm| Atheros AR928X Wireless Network Adapter |OS X 10.6.8 & LION GM & Win7 Ult x64 SP1

There is Mac Bluray Player, but it won't show menus, has to be connected to the internet to work, and is expensive

Just found this out the other day.  It has a 3 month free trial, so I figured I would give it a shot.  It works just fine, but again; no menu's and requires an internet connection.  Basic functionality, and like you said, too expensive.  I'll continue using MakeMKV to rip them to my unRAID server and just streaming them from the server.

I gotta get me a blu-ray player so I can rip all them blu-rays I've been buying...

Anyways,  I'm *this* close to building an Mini-ITX laptop because I'm sick of borrowing someone else's windoze machine to run different software but I've been kicking this whole hackintosh idea about...damn you guys, I 'll probably end up doing it.