Build a Screaming Desktop Hackintosh running Snow Leopard for around $900
The Hackintosh community just keeps on growing, and this particular guide is sure to roil some feathers. Lifehacker has an excellent walkthrough from start to finish on how to build a screaming desktop Mac Hackintosh that runs Snow Leopard, for under $900! Assuming you order the same parts, the incredible specs of the machine you end up with are as follows:
* 8GB of RAM
* 3.1 GHz
* 8GB of RAM
* 1TB Hard Disk
* GeForce 9800 GTX+ 512mb Graphics Card
* DVD Burner
* Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard
LifeHacker sums up the specs of this build versus something comparable at the Apple Store as follows: “In short, my $900 “Hack Pro” sports better hardware than any Mac that Apple sells short of the $3,300 8-Core Mac Pro” – Wow! Now obviously building this machine takes some tech savviness, but if you want a powerful Mac and don’t have $3000 to spend, the Hackintosh build is a very compelling weekend project.
I actually have my own Hackintosh but it’s a Netbook and I simply love it. Several of my techy friends also have Hackintosh’s that are both Netbooks and Desktops and they are enthralled with the machines as well – the primary reason for creating a Hackintosh for them? Cost savings. The interesting thing is we are all ‘real’ Mac owners as well, but instead of buying a brand new machine we each opted to go the Hackintosh route.
Check out the Lifehacker article for the walkthrough of building a desktop Mac, or follow some of our other Hackintosh links:
LifeHacker: How to Build a Desktop Hackintosh With Snow Leopard for $900 from Start to Finish
Creating a Hackintosh Netbook: Install OS X on a Dell Mini 9, MSI Wind, Lenovo s10, and more
Install Mac OS X on a Dell Mini 10v
(above Hackintosh logo borrowed from KossNoCorp@DeviantArt)
Can anyone give me an updated list of motherboards that would work?
I also went with the GTX 275 – and the i7 860 on a Gigabyte board. Can’t want to get it put together.
With the introduction of 10.6.3, the EVGA 9800GTX+ works OTB! You simply need to use a generic card, like a 7300, to do the initial 10.6 install. Then, go ahead and jump right to your system updater and go to 10.6.3. Reboot. Check that everything is working and fix what you need to. Shut down – plug in your new card – start up. Fully supported! No need to edit DSDT files or patch anything. Performed on a 45-UD3L mobo by Gigabyte.
For the initial Snow Leo install, I used a burned DVD of Kakewalk, which provided a boot loader. After you get to the Kakewalk screen, eject it and pop in the Snow disk. Install away and go for a coffee as it finishes. Reboot. Set up Snow Leo for first time. Pop Kakewalk back in, and then run it’s patcher. There, you can select from about a dozen of current Gigabyte boards to toss a boot loader onto. Some may need to patch their audio. If you do, There is a standalone Kakewalk updater for 10.6.2/10.6.3 that will bring it back.
I recommend Kakewalk for all Gigabyte models, because it’s not board-specific like the Lifehacker guide.
building my own hackintosh was the smartest thing ive ever done… the best OS out there with my own customized hardware… i spent about 2000$ but have an i7 processor, bluray burner, 2 tb hd, hdmi output, 3 port firewire, 4 usb, dvd drive and burner, nvidea gtx 275 (couldnt afford the 500 bucks for the gtx 295) but will upgrade one day… and thats the best part of a hackintosh…upgrading a mac