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i7 Hackintosh Review and Guide - With Pics!

Cindori
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Cindori
Cindori
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This installation would be the same for any ATI cards (that has drivers in OSX, like 4870, 4850)

For nvidia cards, I have no experience. you are better off finding someone else who has that card.

I dunno why people dont want ati though. 4870 = GTX 260 in performance, and 4890 = GTX275.

 

if you want a low profile card, compatible with my guide, a ATI 4850 is what I suggest. its more powerful then 9800GT I first suggested, and it is also pretty slick:

 

ATI4850.jpg

JBLanteigne
JBLanteigne
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Nice guide.

 

I'm still on my old quad core... I might wait before upgrading to i7.. but this is a nice guide.. good choice of motherboard, very reliable.

 

nice mouse too... Did you know that this mouse is actually better on os x than it is on windows? The software to customize it is way better on os x.

digichris
digichris
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Thanks for posting this guide cindori. I'd just like to ask whether future updates of OSX are likely to bring an incompatiblity to components, particularly the motherboard? Has this occurred for other configurations that you know of where they worked fine but are no longer compatible with the latest OSX versions?

Cindori
Cindori
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for starters, this is the most compatible i7 board, in the world.

 

no, apple can not simply remove code we need. that code is also used for their macpro systems.

what can happen though is that updates sometimes makes our custom kexts incompatible. that is why its good to have as little as possible.

 

this has since 10.6.0 only happened with Sleepenabler.kext. workaround was simply to remove kext before update, then download an updated version to install after update. in that matter of speech, you are kind of dependant on others work for your computer to handle future updates. the Gigabyte EX58 UD5 has a really big topic in Tutorial forums though, so I don't feel like I'm going to be left out cold anytime soon.

Turtle7
Turtle7
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Cindori, This is fantastic and I am going to try this tonight after backing up a few files. I've been building my machine over the last 5 months. I picked up an XFX 4890 (only brand I could find locally) and managed to get everything working. Only problem is that darn mouse lag. Course I prolly goofed some where ;)

 

My last/current install consists of Digital_Dreamers Guide, an ATI.ROM and some other things...possibly.

 

Side note; I concur about some applications crashing or kernal panicking when copied from my old computer or time machine. Which totally bugs me cause installing Final Cut or Logic takes forever!!

 

I'll get some photos of my machine shortly. The Mac communities here are just so damn awesome!

 

Edit - Everything installed fine, but im still getting that strange mouse skip / lag.

Cindori
Cindori
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mouse jumping is a combination of ati drivers and display model.

try setting display to other Hz like with SwitchXres

also you are not using that .ROM anymore are you?

 

 

theres also one guy that solved it by setting his cards clocks to the same value (usually there is idleclock, full load clock etc) one can do this with RBE in windows (google)

Turtle7
Turtle7
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mouse jumping is a combination of ati drivers and display model.

 

Well, I'll be damned. I didn't think a specific display could cause something like this but you're right! I plugged in a 24'' Scepter and everything works like a charm. Maybe it's just me, but a monitor causing these issues, is as if gravity went side ways. Did a few more tests.

 

Scepter 24'' X24WG: Fine

Westinghouse 22'' LCM-22w2 : fine

AOC 22'' 2216 : Mouse Jump

 

Dual Monitors works great on the two working monitors. Any combination with the AOC causes the lag.

 

So it looks like this is a great excuse to finally upgrade my aging monitor.

 

Thanks a lot Cindori.

Cindori
Cindori
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Maybe it's just me, but a monitor causing these issues, is as if gravity went side ways.

 

LOL ;)

 

but yes. many mac pro users are raging about this since it's happening to them too.

I wish you luck with your new display ;)

r15177
r15177
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Posted

1st off, thanks Cindori for your guide. it is the reason i went with this build.

I am within a couple of weeks of buying

 

i7-920 Bloomfield 2.66GHz LGA 1366

GIGABYTE GA-EX58-UD5 LGA 1366

CORSAIR XMS3 6GB (3 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 1333

 

and will be using my current

case

hard drives

psu

BFG 8800 gt 512

 

The only thing i had a question on was my video card.

I like to play games (dual boot win7), video edit (final cut), i also want a video card that will not get in the way of updates. (I just want one less guide to follow when i go to update my hackintosh, and one less kext to update)

 

i guess I'm lazy when it comes to that :P

should i stick with the BFG 8800gt or

go with XFX 4850 card? or maybe another card?

i know apple uses the 4850 so maybe less hacking with that card?

 

i would like a card that was working fully in Snow leopard QE/CI?

Turtle7
Turtle7
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Posted
I like to play games (dual boot win7), video edit (final cut)

 

 

r15177, I think anything at or above a 9800(GTX?) will be great for final cut. I've been editing on this 4890 for a few days now (thanks to cindori) and HD content screams. I have yet to fully test compression or filter render speeds though. Ran fallout 3, and call of duty with great frame rates.

 

Keep in mind your satisfaction will depend on the specs of the machine your jumping from. I did most of my editing on a 1.66ghz intel mac mini.

Terry Tibbs
Terry Tibbs
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What's happening when you are trying to sleep now?

 

Let me begin by saying your post was well written, photographed and curated. Thanks for making such a contribution. It was so impressive that I did this same build as well.

 

Now, to my problem ( :unsure: ):

My kexts look exactly as yours are. When the machine goes to sleep, it won't wake up. As well, when I shut down, it shuts down and then starts up again.

 

And, one other problem, for a dvd drive, I couldn't locate the same, so I used an OEM Lite-on 24x DVD burner (DH-24AAS) bought at newegg which doesn't register disks that I put in, though the bios sees it.

 

I still plan to try and find a wireless card to replace wired lan, but outside this am quite happy.

 

Have you started overclocking? What was your experience like with that?

r15177
r15177
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" I've been editing on this 4890 for a few days now (thanks to cindori) and HD content screams."

 

turtle7, thank you and Cindori for your replys. i seen that you both have a 4890.

i have looked around on the forums and some people say this matters and some say it doesn't. but

is your 4890 a xfx? if not, where did you get yours at?

 

im looking at a xfx 4890 video card from newegg.com

 

xfx 4890

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...0-438-_-Product

 

i just wanted to check before i went out and paid almost $200 that this card would work great for me.

 

anybody else have any good or bad comments about the xfx 4890 video card?

Turtle7
Turtle7
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but is your 4890 a xfx? if not, where did you get yours at?

 

im looking at a xfx 4890 video card from newegg.com

 

xfx 4890

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...0-438-_-Product

 

r15177, yeah I think that is identical to the XFX card that I have. I was able to get my card at a Best Buy locally so that I could have a return option if this build didn't work. If you don't deviate from the hardware then you should be good to go.

 

Also another selling point to me of the 4890 were tests done by Barefeats, I can't find the exact page though. They mentioned the 4870 or 4850 doing great price/performance wise on pro apps.

Terry Tibbs
Terry Tibbs
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Ah, I just tried to change the partition size and then turned off the machine to switch the sata channel on the dvd burner and when I turned it back on it fails to even boot!

 

Well, I fixed my problem. The monitor was not working with DVI so I switched to HDMI and am now peachy on that front. Switching the SATA ports fixed the DVD burner.

 

Sleep and powering off are still problematic. Any ideas?

Cindori
Cindori
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@ 4 GHz

 

 

geek4.png

 

 

 

compared to Mac Pro benches:

 

 

 

scores.png

 

 

 

terry, are you using my boot.plist and dsdt.aml ?

 

 

 

btw, I am now selling my rig. I built it mainly as a project to create a hackintosh, I don't use the computing power. I love it, but right now it's just standing on my desk :)

so if anyone would like a working rig...able to beat $3500 mac pro... pm

Terry Tibbs
Terry Tibbs
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Posted

Is that benchmark score @ 4GhZ or at 2.7?

 

The boot.plist and .aml active are the ones in /extra, right?

 

Here's my com.apple.boot.plist :

 

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">

<plist version="1.0">

<dict>

<key>EthernetBuiltIn</key>

<string>Yes</string>

<key>GraphicsEnabler</key>

<string>Yes</string>

<key>Kernel</key>

<string>mach_kernel</string>

<key>Kernel Flags</key>

<string>-v arch=i386</string>

<key>Theme</key>

<string>NebulOSX</string>

<key>Timeout</key>

<string>2</string>

</dict>

</plist>

 

 

and here is the DSDT.aml should be the same as yours unless the file got confused somewhere. It doesn't allow for cut and paste, so I attached it.

  • 2 weeks later...
picoByte
picoByte
Posted
Posted
Scythe Gentle Typhoon 120mm, 4x 492kr

Corsair H50 Hydro Series CPU Cooler 714kr

Akasa Intern Memory Card Reader 3.5 95kr

 

Can you boot from the card reader (assuming memory card/system on it of course)?

Edit: Answer is yes! :)

 

According to a couple of web reviews, the Fractal Design Define R2 is kinda hot. Do you confirm?

Unless you "polar winds" :) are powerful enough?

hero223
hero223
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Posted

Hello Cindori, I have followed your guide to the T and im about to go bonkers!! I have a very similar setup as yours: i7 920 ex58-ud5 and an ati 4850, i have installed everything onto my USB external drive. I use the buildcache command and reboot. When it loads back up and I select OSX Install I keep getting a socket error. I have tried a whole bunch of different methods and am getting nowhere. Im very frustrated and if you could please help it would be greatly appreciated!! Thank you so much.

 

I have attached the error I get! Please help

post-563701-1265045650_thumb.jpg

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