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Build a Perfect Mac for less than $250

MrFlooD

By MrFlooD,
in Tutorials (The Genius Bar)

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[idkfa]
[idkfa]
Posted
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thanks very much for this. i can select new resolutions now but for some reason it gets the timing wrong on 1440x900 which is the native resolution of my monitor.

ethernet works, but still no audio. weird. i'm doing this with the boot-132 method on a usb keychain. maybe the audio kexts arent loading right.

finally sleep doesnt work and restart hangs. restart is probably the old "need to disable all but one cpu before restart".

anyway its a step in the right direction. my eventual goal is to install onto a lenovo s10, which is very similar to this mobo. of course i wont have the s10 for more than a month...

 

Sorry, it seems I have missed the kext for restarting, I think AppleACPIPlatform was the one. Sleep doesn't work me either, but I hardly use, so I don't miss it. If someone finds a fix, I will add it to my driver pack.

Later today or tomorrow I'll post the missing kexts, sorry again.

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S0L
S0L
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I've had the occasional artifact - nothing crippling though. Mostly happens when minimising windows - or a one off when changing the screen resolution.

 

It's one of those cases that you actually have to look for it in most cases though.

 

I've not tinkered with the BIOS settings mind, it's on whatever the defaults are (though I did flash the board to the latest BIOS). Maybe if you change the memory allocation it could do wierd things?

 

Otherwise it's as the stock install Kalyway- again, the odd artifact - just once you install those Kexts, you have a better choice of resolution - well... you actually have a choice other than 1024x768 :)

 

Sol

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Honda Boy
Honda Boy
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The board is installed. On basic tasks the board feels the same, load it up though and its alot quicker. Ethernet worked out the box using the old kext. I just swapped boards in the case. However, my north bridge fan is incredibly noisy, not like the previous board. Anyone else notice this?

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H8TR
H8TR
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Posted
The board is installed. On basic tasks the board feels the same, load it up though and its alot quicker. Ethernet worked out the box using the old kext. I just swapped boards in the case. However, my north bridge fan is incredibly noisy, not like the previous board. Anyone else notice this?

 

Try swapping the fans on the 945GC chipset. Also, hows 1080P. Viewable or a waste of time?

 

The tutorial doesn't mention how to dual boot with XP/Vista. I guessing I can use one of the many others to get help with that. I'm such a n00b. This will be my first build. I'm so excited!

 

Looks like mine might ship out tonight and I can get a UPS time estimate.

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maccompaq
maccompaq
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I have a brand new D945GCLF2 and I can confirm that ethernet is working and it's recognized as RTL8139.

I used kaly 10.5.2 (vanilla kernel), then comboupdate to 10.5.3, then comboupdate 10.5.5.

 

Ciao

 

Have you done any benchmark tests such as Geek Bench yet? Your results would be interesting.

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k4zz4m
k4zz4m
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okay I have the same board. not the dual core atom version. Anyways. i installed vanilla version. doesnt work. it wont boot. got stuck in the grey screen with the apple loading screen before going into leopard. tried mrflood version. running modified kernel and stuff. works fine. updated to 10.5.3 with kalway patch. workes fine. updated 10.5.4 through the software update. works fine as well. downloaded the combo update for 10.5.5, ran the installation. kernel pacnicked half way through. had to restart. once rebooted. i got missing kext or the appleintel kext doesnt work. should have been removed from what i have heard from other forum members. did that, done that. nothing. screwed up at the grey loading screen. so now i am trying to reinstall the osx all over again without formatting the drive. see if i can get the files back. if not then eeeer.

 

whoever got vanilla kernel to work let me know. cause i would like to use that instead of modified kernel. i believe that would be compatible with 10.5.5.

 

also whoever said that theres graphics artifacts. Yes it does have artifiacts. its one of the trade offs with the kext. either get the native resolution of get the crappy resolution without artifacts. i opted for the resolution. i heard that the new 10.5.5 patch would fix it though. so i dont know.

 

also, whoever had the dual core version of atom. can u run a geekbench and let me know your score? just wanted to know how it compares to single core version. and if you installed correctly. u should see processes under activity monitor instead of two (hyperthreading turned on?).

 

whever has been using boot-132 i am still not sure how that process works. i read through couple pages and since the boot-132 was written before intel atom came out. i was wondering if u can give me the step by step guide how to use it and which files i need to store on the the usb drive.

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joeblough
joeblough
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Sorry, it seems I have missed the kext for restarting, I think AppleACPIPlatform was the one. Sleep doesn't work me either, but I hardly use, so I don't miss it. If someone finds a fix, I will add it to my driver pack.

Later today or tomorrow I'll post the missing kexts, sorry again.

 

no prob, thanks again.

 

okay I have the same board. not the dual core atom version. Anyways. i installed vanilla version. doesnt work. it wont boot. got stuck in the grey screen with the apple loading screen before going into leopard. tried mrflood version. running modified kernel and stuff. works fine. updated to 10.5.3 with kalway patch. workes fine. updated 10.5.4 through the software update. works fine as well. downloaded the combo update for 10.5.5, ran the installation. kernel pacnicked half way through. had to restart. once rebooted. i got missing kext or the appleintel kext doesnt work. should have been removed from what i have heard from other forum members. did that, done that. nothing. screwed up at the grey loading screen. so now i am trying to reinstall the osx all over again without formatting the drive. see if i can get the files back. if not then eeeer.

 

whoever got vanilla kernel to work let me know. cause i would like to use that instead of modified kernel. i believe that would be compatible with 10.5.5.

 

also whoever said that theres graphics artifacts. Yes it does have artifiacts. its one of the trade offs with the kext. either get the native resolution of get the crappy resolution without artifacts. i opted for the resolution. i heard that the new 10.5.5 patch would fix it though. so i dont know.

 

also, whoever had the dual core version of atom. can u run a geekbench and let me know your score? just wanted to know how it compares to single core version. and if you installed correctly. u should see processes under activity monitor instead of two (hyperthreading turned on?).

 

whever has been using boot-132 i am still not sure how that process works. i read through couple pages and since the boot-132 was written before intel atom came out. i was wondering if u can give me the step by step guide how to use it and which files i need to store on the the usb drive.

 

the disabler kext should work. if you dont have it then you have to run the script which checks for the AppleIntelPowerManagement.kext appearing in the extensions folder and deletes it right away. also before you reboot you have to edit the script that runs after the first reboot to not load DontS...kext. vanilla kernels definitely work on this board - i was running a disk that i pulled straight out of my macbook with no modifications to the disk whatsoever.

 

i dont think there are any true dual-core atoms yet. the best you can get is hyperthreaded, which looks like 2 cores to most OSs, but its kind of a 'fake' dual core. it just has 2 sets of processor contexts and if one thread stalls on I/O or something the other thread can be swapped in almost instantly and run for a while.

 

boot-132 doesnt have any dependencies on atom. all you have to do is put whatever kexts on to the initrd.dmg that you would otherwise have put on the hard disk containing leopard. you just have to make sure to change all the OSBundleRequired keys in Info.plist to "Root", or add that key/value if it doesnt exist.

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H8TR
H8TR
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The D945GCLF2 has a real dual core processor. Because its got hyper threading too, it appears as four cores to OSes or CPU-Z. It shows up like this.

 

CPU #0 Intel® Atom™ CPU 330 @ 1.60GHz, 1596 MHz

CPU #1 Intel® Atom™ CPU 330 @ 1.60GHz, 1596 MHz

CPU #2 Intel® Atom™ CPU 330 @ 1.60GHz, 1596 MHz

CPU #3 Intel® Atom™ CPU 330 @ 1.60GHz, 1596 MHz

 

 

On a side note, my order shipped. OSx86 here we come.

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joeblough
joeblough
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The D945GCLF2 has a real dual core processor. Because its got hyper threading too, it appears as four cores to OSes or CPU-Z. It shows up like this.

 

CPU #0 Intel® Atom™ CPU 330 @ 1.60GHz, 1596 MHz

CPU #1 Intel® Atom™ CPU 330 @ 1.60GHz, 1596 MHz

CPU #2 Intel® Atom™ CPU 330 @ 1.60GHz, 1596 MHz

CPU #3 Intel® Atom™ CPU 330 @ 1.60GHz, 1596 MHz

 

 

On a side note, my order shipped. OSx86 here we come.

It most surely is a duel core, with hyperthreading!. It's not 2 cores on one die, rather it 2 cores on one cpu package. Also, has anyone gotten the GMA 950 working properly yet? Mine keeps on having mouse tearing issues.

 

ah. i knew it was coming, but i didnt know this board was out yet. that explains why the original board with the single-core hyperthreaded atom has dropped to $70 or whatever.

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S0L
S0L
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Can one of you with the newer fancy Dual Core Atoms try one of the HD Itunes videos and let me know how they run?

 

If it's much better than the single core, I'll then start scouring for the best places to buy one in the UK ;)

 

Ta

 

Sol

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lelem
lelem
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Can one of you with the newer fancy Dual Core Atoms try one of the HD Itunes videos and let me know how they run?

 

720 runs quite well

1080 runs bad... I think it's the GMA950 and dual core atom can't help more than single core :)

 

ciao

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S0L
S0L
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Cheers,

 

Thats actually quite helpful - I'm only really interested in 720p - I figured 1080p would be a bit too much too ask. If 720p runs and is watchable - that'll do me!

 

Looking at the Geekbench results, the system seems close in performance to the Core Solo Mac Mini - so I guess the poor credit card is about to take another beating :)

 

Sol

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k4zz4m
k4zz4m
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well i tried reinstalling kalyway. it didn't work. so i am totally stumped. i CANNOT format my computer as I have 400GB worth of data that i am not ready to part ways. I am just wondering if anyone knows how to fix my computer. how to overwrite my previous version of osx so that it would start properly.

 

Whoever can provide me with the Boot-132 , atom version would be great. i tried using the ones that was posted on the forum. wouldnt work. both original one and the generic one. (the generic.iso that i got when booted, said invalid checksum error. and quits; the original boot-132 will go as far as me to the leopard setup screen right before the select language part. with the spinning swirl loading all night...)

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joeblough
joeblough
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well i tried reinstalling kalyway. it didn't work. so i am totally stumped. i CANNOT format my computer as I have 400GB worth of data that i am not ready to part ways. I am just wondering if anyone knows how to fix my computer. how to overwrite my previous version of osx so that it would start properly.

 

Whoever can provide me with the Boot-132 , atom version would be great. i tried using the ones that was posted on the forum. wouldnt work. both original one and the generic one. (the generic.iso that i got when booted, said invalid checksum error. and quits; the original boot-132 will go as far as me to the leopard setup screen right before the select language part. with the spinning swirl loading all night...)

 

you should use the USB stick method. do you have access to a windows machine? that's the way to go. there is some weird problem with these bootable CDs - i had 3 or 4 coasters myself which did the same thing (invalid checksum error). reading around the web i see that it is a common problem with the isolinux process.

 

so i just followed the directions to put it on a USB stick. once you have it working, just take all of the kexts posted in the file above and put them in the initrd.dmg. you only need windows once to set up the USB stick - after that you can make different initrd.dmg images and just copy them onto the USB stick. you can rename the old initrd.dmgs and leave them on the usb stick. alls you have to make sure to do is fix the Info.plists as i mentioned in my last post.

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cili0
cili0
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I succeded in loading Natit.kext for Desktop, but still have a lot of artifacts (Toast 9,iTunes etc...).I think is AppleIntelIntegratedFramebuffer.kext fault.No one has succeded in finding a real solution to this problem ?

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maccompaq
maccompaq
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Posted
Cheers,

 

Thats actually quite helpful - I'm only really interested in 720p - I figured 1080p would be a bit too much too ask. If 720p runs and is watchable - that'll do me!

 

Looking at the Geekbench results, the system seems close in performance to the Core Solo Mac Mini - so I guess the poor credit card is about to take another beating :)

 

Sol

I have seen 2 Mac Mini 1.5 GHz Solo Geekbench results. One reported 1428 and the other 2090. Those differences are too great, one has to be wrong, and I would lean toward the 1428 as being correct.

 

okay I have the same board. not the dual core atom version. Anyways. i installed vanilla version. doesnt work. it wont boot. got stuck in the grey screen with the apple loading screen before going into leopard. tried mrflood version. running modified kernel and stuff. works fine. updated to 10.5.3 with kalway patch. workes fine. updated 10.5.4 through the software update. works fine as well. downloaded the combo update for 10.5.5, ran the installation. kernel pacnicked half way through. had to restart. once rebooted. i got missing kext or the appleintel kext doesnt work. should have been removed from what i have heard from other forum members. did that, done that. nothing. screwed up at the grey loading screen. so now i am trying to reinstall the osx all over again without formatting the drive. see if i can get the files back. if not then eeeer.

 

whoever got vanilla kernel to work let me know. cause i would like to use that instead of modified kernel. i believe that would be compatible with 10.5.5.

 

also whoever said that theres graphics artifacts. Yes it does have artifiacts. its one of the trade offs with the kext. either get the native resolution of get the crappy resolution without artifacts. i opted for the resolution. i heard that the new 10.5.5 patch would fix it though. so i dont know.

 

also, whoever had the dual core version of atom. can u run a geekbench and let me know your score? just wanted to know how it compares to single core version. and if you installed correctly. u should see processes under activity monitor instead of two (hyperthreading turned on?).

 

whever has been using boot-132 i am still not sure how that process works. i read through couple pages and since the boot-132 was written before intel atom came out. i was wondering if u can give me the step by step guide how to use it and which files i need to store on the the usb drive.

Big question: if you got your system to run under 10.5.2, why did you update? I have 10.5.2 that works great, and I have no intention of updating. Everything works to my satisfaction.

 

To save your data, just unplug that hard drive and install another HD and do the Kalyway installation on it. Once installed, plug in the other HD, and your data will be usable.

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frank754
frank754
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Posted

This worked perfectly for me, in fact I got a very nice case that was exactly the correct size from Newegg, in fact all the part from there, was about $380 incl shipping with a 600GB hard drive and DVD R/W. Could not get a separate Atheros wifi PCI card going (despite all the threads on it), but did get a Linksys WMP54GS going at first boot.

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frank754
frank754
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This one for $51 incl 250w power supply:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16811154091

 

It's made for a mobo such as this. Had to remove the power supply to install it (took all of 1 minute), and the case had the exact "frame" space for the metal plate that covers the jacks on the back of the motherboard, which is held on by a bit of spring tension once the board is mounted. The case itself had cables for the front USB (2 jacks), audio (either the high def used here or AC '97) and for the switch & front LED. The power supply had ample cables for everything, SATA, IDE, mobo power (two plugs, one square & one long) and little info sheets in case you need to refer to them. The mobo came with a big color sheet so between the two it was a piece of cake. It got a WD Caviar 640 gig SATA HD for $85:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16822136218

This was the only thing I had to mess with a bit. There is ample room to slide it forward in the case, but the holes for it on the mounting area were a bit too far back so that there was not enough room between the mobo fan & SATA power cable to the drive. So I just slid it forward far enough and made 2 small new holes on the bracket up front.

To round off the project I put in an IDE Asus CD/DVD burner $28

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16827135164

and Kingston 2 GB memory:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16820134192

Total price (incl the mobo w/chip for $70) was $263 + shipping (came to 280, but that's with this huge hard drive, you could knock off $40 with a smaller one). Mobo was at this link (I think the deal gave me a couple automatic discounts for the bundle)

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16813121342

Didn't have to buy any extra cables or hardware, all were included. With the IDE cable for the optical drive it's a little cramped looking, but I routed all the unused connectors to one side of the box and the extra length of IDE cable folded on top of the DVD drive to allow maximum open air space inside.

 

Later I added a Linksys wireless PCI card to the one PCI slot on the mobo:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...amp;Tpk=wmp54gs

Newegg has it for $60, but I got mine at Office Depot for $70, mine was a v 1.1 and if you look at the OSx86 wiki they say v 1.2 works out of the box as well, so I'd check the version number, but the first time I booted up it was able to go online with no tweaks at all.

 

I was going to mention a couple things:

The drive shows up as about 600 GB, due to the "power of 2" vs "bytes" formula penalty (double standard, like 4.7 GB DVD's actually only hold about 4.2)

Anyway, to set up at first, I booted up a live Ubuntu CD and used Gparted to make one big fat32 primary partition, and formatted it.

When I started the Kalyway DVD and got to the diskutil app you must run before installing, I had a bit of trouble getting used to the interface, but from all the things I tried, it seems that it would only work if I made 2 hfs+ journalled partitions on there, and I let it split them about 50/50, so it's two at about 300 GB each. I named the first one leopard and the second one data, and they both show up fine on the desktop later on. I can archive stuff I collect onto the other one like big iso's, music , videos, etc. I installed the OS on the Leopard partition.

I carefully went through Kalyways extra options, like removed the extra languages, added the time machine fix, anything applying to my intel mobo/card/video, etc. That took about a minute or two. Then it installed just fine.

I selected the vanilla kernel only.

Using the onboard ethernet I noticed it would go offline after about 10 minutes of non-use, so I went into System Prefs and set "sleep" to never. That seems to have solved that.

I do have the Kalyway 10.5.3 update CD, but so far (and I tried it a few times) it seems to bork the USB system somewhat (can't mount pen drives) but the USB mouse still works. You see an error regarding USB during a verbose (-v) boot after that point. I'm still reading the threads here on an easy fix.

Apple itself now is only showing further upgrades to 10.5.5 (no longer 10.5.4),

but that seems to totally hose the system.

I'm wondering if you guys know if installing all the non-Apple stuff (like Java & 3rd party updates) would be OK at this point.

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