Build a Perfect Mac for less than $250

[xrayvision]

Hello all,

 

Can anyone confirm that both SATA Hard Disk and SATA DVD Drive will work with this setup? Back around July 7th posts a user named DigitalNinja seemed to be having issues with using 2 SATA devices, can anyone confirm it works or doesnt work?

 

Thanks!

 

I can vouch for one SATA + IDE working for sure. I have a SATA DVD, but I opted to keep the other SATA for another hard drive (my case can support 2). Can't imagine why 2 would be a problem, unless it does something to the boot order in the bios (should be easy to confirm).

[joeblough]

Okay, got (nearly) everything working now: Bonjour works, reboot works, sound works, only thing missing is voice input (microphone).

I can put together a kext package if needed.

 

that would be nice if you could do that - i'm trying to get one of these going with a vanilla install + boot-132 (usb stick). the vanilla install is on a hard disk i yanked from my macbook.

 

the macbook disk has 10.5.3 on it. as it stands, the built-in ethernet doesnt work, the built-in sound doesnt work, and the video resolution is stuck at 1280x768. on a widescreen 1440x900 monitor, this is kind of annoying. switchresX didnt help me.

 

i'm kind of doing this in preparation for getting one of those atom-based netbooks. and i don't want to download one of these hacked OSX DVDs from TPB...

[xrayvision]

Everything on my hackintosh works perfectly so far... EXCEPT AUDIO! Nobody else seems to have had this problem, and I can't figure out what I did wrong. Is there a bios setting or perhaps a jumper on the motherboard I overlooked? I'm running 10.5.4, fully updated.

 

There is no sound whatsoever, and when I go into system preferences it says "No output devices found". System profiler reports "No built in audio". This is my first time installing, so I have no basis for comparison.

 

It's not a big problem, as I stream all my music over to my home stereo... but it would be nice to have system alerts play locally.

 

ALSO- did everyone get that little piezo speaker with their motherboards and WHERE did you plug it in? I don't see where it's supposed to go.

 

Thanks!!

[bibendum]

that would be nice if you could do that - i'm trying to get one of these going with a vanilla install + boot-132 (usb stick). the vanilla install is on a hard disk i yanked from my macbook.

 

the macbook disk has 10.5.3 on it. as it stands, the built-in ethernet doesnt work, the built-in sound doesnt work, and the video resolution is stuck at 1280x768. on a widescreen 1440x900 monitor, this is kind of annoying. switchresX didnt help me.

 

i'm kind of doing this in preparation for getting one of those atom-based netbooks. and i don't want to download one of these hacked OSX DVDs from TPB...

 

If you're doing a vanilla install, you're gonna need the bits and pieces of what's different - your video driver, your audio drive, your ethernet driver... Those kind of things...

 

Patricl

[maccompaq]

I have 1 SATA HD, 1 SATA DVD RW, and 1 PATA HD in my Hackintosh. I am running 10.5.2 with no plans to update since everything is working to my satisfaction.

[Danneman]

Ive bought this mobo, with a sata hdd and a ide dvd. 

 

Ive successfully installed Kalway 10.5.2 on a partition side-by-side with win xp.

 

However, when starting up Gparted to set the correct flags for dual-booting to work, Gparted wont work.

 

I get into the selection of what Gparted-version I want to boot, but after a lot of consoletextoutput, this is where I get stuck:

 

"/bin/sh: cant access tty: jobcontrol turned off

 

(initramsf) Unable to find a medium containing a live file system"

 

Can anybody help me on this one?

[joeblough]

If you're doing a vanilla install, you're gonna need the bits and pieces of what's different - your video driver, your audio drive, your ethernet driver... Those kind of things...

 

Patricl

 

yeah i know, and its a pain in the butt. i've been through this a few times on other motherboards, so if someone has already done it its a big help to just post the diffs.

[Danneman]

I found a work-around for setting the boot-flag for winxp when installing a dualboot with kalway 10.5.2.

 

After mac os x is installed, instead of setting the boot-flag with gparted, boot with the kalway-installcd again.

Get to the panel where "Utilities" appear on top.

Choose "Terminal".

In terminal, write:

 

diskutil list [Enter]

(here you should check that the winxp is partition 1)

fdisk -e/dev/rdisk0 [Enter]

flag 1 [Enter]

update [Enter]

write [Enter]

exit [Enter]

reboot [Enter]

 

Now when rebooting, remove the cd and youll end up in winxp.

Now you can finish the install-procedure to enable booting Mac os x by placing a copy of tboot in c:\, and placing the following line of code at the bottom of the boot.ini-file:

 

c:\tboot="Mac OSX Leopard

 

Good luck

[xrayvision]

Bump on audio problem (see prior post, previous page):

Any help?? My audio is not recognized at all (either in profiler or in audio settings). I can stream via Airfoil perfectly, but nothing onboard at all.

Thanks!

[Funken]

Hi..

 

I'm still hanging with the GMA 950 Kext install problem.. I read all the treads, but i still, goes back to the standard 800x600..

Not sure what i am doing wrong here, i followed every step, and i have a complete flawless installation of 10.5.4

Can somebody post a manual typed guide to install the kexts?

 

My computer is a MSI Wind U100, my only prob is getting the GMA 950 to work..

 

Thomas

[xrayvision]

Hi..

 

I'm still hanging with the GMA 950 Kext install problem.. I read all the treads, but i still, goes back to the standard 800x600..

Not sure what i am doing wrong here, i followed every step, and i have a complete flawless installation of 10.5.4

Can somebody post a manual typed guide to install the kexts?

 

My computer is a MSI Wind U100, my only prob is getting the GMA 950 to work..

 

Thomas

 

How are you installing the kext? When I set up mine, I did NOT do any kind of "post-install" kext additions. I just made sure that I selected GMA950 under the video section during the initial install (from 10.5.2 kaly install iso) and nothing else. That should be all you need to do, unless there is something different about the MSI wind (?maybe?).

 

On a related note, it seems like a lot of people are having variable experiences with this board (ie: my audio doesn't work)- could different BIOS versions cause the differences?? Anyone who has a 100% (minus mic) working setup wanna post what version their bios is dated? Intel has released frequent updates for this board.

[kevd_hackin]

Hi..

 

I'm still hanging with the GMA 950 Kext install problem.. I read all the treads, but i still, goes back to the standard 800x600..

Not sure what i am doing wrong here, i followed every step, and i have a complete flawless installation of 10.5.4

Can somebody post a manual typed guide to install the kexts?

 

My computer is a MSI Wind U100, my only prob is getting the GMA 950 to work..

 

Thomas

 

best way is efi string, worked perfect for me.

kev

[gonyr]

Has anybody found a reputable seller with the dual core boards in stock? I'm waiting for them to show up at newegg, but have seen them in a few places with ridiculous shipping fees.

[Funken]

best way is efi string, worked perfect for me.

kev

 

Hi i found the EFI String.. But i can´t find out what to to with it.. how do i install it?

Can´t find any usable info for my needs..

[[idkfa]]

that would be nice if you could do that - i'm trying to get one of these going with a vanilla install + boot-132 (usb stick). the vanilla install is on a hard disk i yanked from my macbook.

 

the macbook disk has 10.5.3 on it. as it stands, the built-in ethernet doesnt work, the built-in sound doesnt work, and the video resolution is stuck at 1280x768. on a widescreen 1440x900 monitor, this is kind of annoying. switchresX didnt help me.

 

i'm kind of doing this in preparation for getting one of those atom-based netbooks. and i don't want to download one of these hacked OSX DVDs from TPB...

 

Hi,

see here: http://rapidshare.com/files/145603315/atom-kext.tar.bz2.html

I hope all it includes all the kexts you need, if not, please let me know.

Audio is not recognized in system profiler, but in volume control and works. As does Bonjour.

In fact, while writing this, I'm listening to music via iTunes from my other machine.

 

Greetings,

[idkfa]

[tangix2001]

10.5.5 is now available via software update. is it safe for consumption?

[S0L]

I don't claim to be an expert on these things, but I just tried it and it caused a 'Restart your Mac' error on installing - then failed to boot afterwards with a Kernel Panic.

 

I'd be tempted to hold off for now

 

Sol

[ryudo423]

hey guys, so now i that ive go my rig built i want to get a wireless apple keyboard and mighty mouse... but i need bluetooth, i read some previous posts on bluetooth working what usb stick woud u guys reccomend..would something liek this work>???

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16833343001

 

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16826101006

 

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16823101005

 

thanx

[joeblough]

Hi,

see here: http://rapidshare.com/files/145603315/atom-kext.tar.bz2.html

I hope all it includes all the kexts you need, if not, please let me know.

Audio is not recognized in system profiler, but in volume control and works. As does Bonjour.

In fact, while writing this, I'm listening to music via iTunes from my other machine.

 

Greetings,

[idkfa]

 

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...

[H8TR]

Hi, guys. Been following the thread and I am planning on doing this soon. Just want to know of anyone has tried the dual core variant of this, the D945GCLF2. Just ordered it yesterday from NCIX.com. My build will use these components

 

Intel D945GCLF2 Dual Core Atom 1.6GHz 945GC ICH7 GMA950

 

2GB Buffalo Select PC2-5300 DDR2 667MHz

 

160GB Western Digital HDD IDE 8MB Cache

 

BenQ IDE DVD Writer

 

My only concern is that the D945GCLF2 has gigabit ethernet where the D945GCLF has 10/100 Mbit. If the chipset is not the same, I may not get ethernet working (which would suck becuase I'm not buying a Wi-Fi card).

 

If no one has tested this board out, I guess I be the first. Hopefully I'll get the hardware by the weekend and can get this thing running. Maybe bench it a little to see how much better is the Atom 330 over the 230. I got Kalyway 10.5.2 and Combo Update 10.5.3 already from the intarwebz so I just got to wait the next few days out.

 

Edit: Anyone know of the GMA 950 can do 1920x1200? My MacBooks GMA 950 can so can only expect the same.

[Honda Boy]

I ordered the D945GCLF2 from ncix as-well. It should arrive on the 17th of sept. The ethernet should work as it says it is a 8168/8111, which there are mac drivers available from the Realtek website.

[cili0]

Hi All,

 

first of all sorry my poor english, I'm Italian.

 

I've got a lot of artifacts with the GMA950 kexts suggested by MrFlood.I'm using a 1280x1024@75Hz resolution and a lot of artificats occured when i use Office2008 or try to rename some mp3 names in iTunes.

 

Any ideas ?

 

Thanks in advance.

[S0L]

Hello,

 

Got my Hackintosh up and working last night - so I thought I'd share my experience of how it actually runs. I'm new to the OSX86 scene, so bear in mind I could be doing some of it wrong though

 

Board is the D945GCLF. I added 2GB of Kingston 667 memory, a 250GB SATA harddrive and using a Sony notebook DVD drive. All squeezed (quite literally) into a Morex 2699 case.

 

If you're thinking of getting the same case, be warned that you'll need to swap the Northbridge heatsink for something else if you're planning to use a slim Optical drive (as it's too tall otherwise), and that you also need to get a Molex splitter along with a Molex to 4pin ATX 12V feed - else the main board won't be booting anytime soon

 

Used the steps described by Mr Flood to install, used Kalyway 10.5.2, then used the Kalyway Combo updater to upgrade to 10.5.3. Whilst I did try to use the Apple Combo updater to go to 10.5.4 - this resulted in Kernal panics, so I reinstalled and stuck to 10.5.3. Seems to work fine for me anyway.

 

I then used the Apple Software update to get latest versions of Itunes, Java, pretty much everything bar the Airport and 10.5.5 Combo Update, and this all worked fine.

 

I also lobbed in Mr Floods linked GMA Kexts, and that sorted out extra resolutions - otherwise you're locked to 1024x768.

 

I primarily wanted this to be a media machine, plugged into my HD TV (in my case a 40" Sony Brevia).

 

General OS use works well - no trouble with internet, accessing shares on my Windows machine etc. DVD playback is also mostly smooth (had the odd frame dropped, but no biggy).

 

SD video seems to be fine - I've got a number of DVD's I've ripped with Handbrake on my Windows box at Ipod High-res settings, and these play flawlessly in Frontpage.

 

I grabbed a couple of the free TV shows in SD and HD from Itunes USA, and this is where it falls down a bit. SD footage does drop frames (tried with the free first episode of BattleStar Galactica Season 4) so don't expect silky smooth 23.98 fps playback with Itunes TV is SD. I think it averaged around 22 frames, but it does drop below 12 fps or less when things get busy.

 

HD then - don't expect to be able to play Itunes HD TV content, this doesn't run all too well Shame, as I was hoping I'd get nice 720p playback! Again, with BattleStar as a test, this ran like 9fps as a guestimate.

 

I do have some other HD bits and pieces, which I tried with Mplayer, VLC and Quicktime. Mplayer seems to be the best at playing things back, but you're still going to see dropped frames and out of sync audio on 720p video, even on relatively low bitrate stuff. Sound also went way out of sync with Mplayer.

 

The best HD playback I did have was via downloading the 720p Clone Wars trailer - this ran fairly smoothly, though again, dropped frames intermittantly. This is via Quicktime, I suspect it might be close to flawless in MPlayer/VLC (though I didn't try it...)

 

So if you're thinking of using this as a potential 720p media box (like I did!), I'd advise you to hold off and see what the newer Dual Core Atoms perform like.

 

I also tried ripping a DVD with Handbrake to see how long it would take. I picked a DVD of the TV series Neverwhere, which has 6 episodes, running to about 2 hours. After running for about 5 minutes, the estimate was that it would take about 12 hours. So it's not quick again here (though this was less of surprise, the Atom isn't a Core Duo) but given the low power consumption, I'd be OK with this as a fire and forget for ripping.

 

I'm quite a keen retro gamer, so I also gave MacMame ago. I'd picked the latest version up, which I think is .102. Classic stuff, like Star Wars works fine - though drops frames on the Death Star explosion. I also tried Road Blasters, which didn't fare too well, was about 5/6 fps, and then Stun Runner, which requires a fair bit of poke, and that was about 1/2 frames in about 2 seconds. No doubt trying an older version of MacMame would speed things up as the latest versions of Mame tend to require more processing power then older ones, but don't expect to be playing something like Killer Instinct 2

 

I'm still thinking about trying WoW, just to see how a native OSX game runs, but I'm wary as this is my second Atom Mobo. The first one died when I tried WoW, seemingly causing the BIOS to be overwritten! If anyone else has tried WoW on the D945GCLF and it's survived, please let me know that it's safe, or indeed how it runs.

 

So my in brief, internet use and SD video playback are great, but it struggles with HD video and isn't a super powerhouse for gaming. But then I guess I knew that, for £40 what did I expect

 

If anyone has any tips for getting the Apple Remote to work - I'd be glad to hear them. With the D945GCLF having a PCI Card slot, if anyone has used a PCI video card to get better HD playback, I'll gladly hear that too. I've got a PCI Radeon HD 2400 I'm going to try out if I can shoehorn it into the case - though I've not seen anyone report success with this card on any OSX86 website!

 

Sol

[H8TR]

I ordered the D945GCLF2 from ncix as-well. It should arrive on the 17th of sept. The ethernet should work as it says it is a 8168/8111, which there are mac drivers available from the Realtek website.

Lucky, I can only hope to get mine this weekend but it most likely will be Monday, or Tuesday next week. Can't wait to hear you experiences with it.

[lelem]

I ordered the D945GCLF2 from ncix as-well. It should arrive on the 17th of sept. The ethernet should work as it says it is a 8168/8111, which there are mac drivers available from the Realtek website.

 

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