[How To] Dual-head Dual-boot Silent BadAxe2/Core2Duo/GeForce 7600/10.4.9 Build

[gdog]

Summary: How I chose, built, and configured a silent dual-head BadAxe2 / Core2Duo / GeForce 7600 / OSX 10.4.9 / WinXP system, and how you can do so too!

 

I've just completed buildling my 10.4.9 BadAxe2 system, and now that I have everything working perfectly, I thought I'd write it up, end to end, in case it could help someone else.

 

My primary goal going into this was to build a Core 2 Duo box with dual monitor support. I've been using two monitors for years, and can't contemplate going back to just one. The Mac Pro is far too expensive, and the mac mini can't drive two monitors. The iMacs are out because I don't want to bundle a 20" monitor that could be useful for many years with internals that I'll want to upgrade in a couple years. Unfortunately, Apple's desktop product line is a bit thin, so I decided to build.

 

My next goal was to achieve as close to 100% compatibility as possible. After reading more threads here than I can count, I decided to follow bofors' lead in many regards. Thanks bofors for all your tutorials!

 

Before I dive in further, I need to thank some people. There are literally dozens of different people whose posts were invaluable through this process, but a few that stand out are: bofors, devilhood, taruga, JaS, Rammjet, munky, and DiaboliK. I'm sure I'm forgetting to mention many people whose posts I learned from, but when I was building, I was paying more attention to the content than the authors a lot of the time :-)

 

I'm going to break the tutorial into three posts. The first covers my research and hardware ordering. The second covers the physical build. The third covers software and driver installation.

 

Part 1: Pre-build Planning

 

After reading more forum threads than I can remember, it seemed as though my best bet of a painless build would be with an Intel BadAxe2 motherboard and a GeForce 7600 graphics card.

 

The BadAxe2 (BOXD975XBX2KR) was a bit more money than I had hoped to spend, but it has working on-board gigabit ethernet, audio, SATA, USB, and Firewire, and it leaves the door open to possible overclocking in the future. I paid $189 at MWave.com.

 

For video I chose the XFX GeForce 7600 GS. The GS was 1/3 less expensive than the GT ($80 vs. $120), and I don't really need a high-end card. Also, it has a heat sink instead of a fan, so it will be quieter. I paid $80 (after $20 rebate) from TigerDirect.com

 

For a case and power supply I went with the Antec Sonata II. I built my Fedora Linux server in my basement about four years ago with the original Sonata case and was quite happy with it. I paid $50 (after $50 rebate) from NewEgg.com.

 

I decided on the Core 2 Duo e6300 CPU after seriously considering going for the e6400 instead. In the end I decided the performance difference wouldn't be that big, especially if I tinker with overclocking. I paid $179 for the e6300 at Frys.com.

 

Last up was 2 GB of memory. I ended up ordering two Corsair ValueSelect DDR2-667 sticks from NewEgg.com for $65 each.

 

The total money spent was $628 for the parts above, plus a little under $50 for all the shipping (one of the problems with ordering everything from different stores).

 

I already had a spare Sony DVD+-RW drive lying around, and a Maxtor 250GB SATA hard drive, which completed the hardware list.

 

After waiting a couple days, things started to arrive... on to the build!

 

Part 2: Hardware Setup

 

I'm not going to go into excruciating detail here. The instructions included with the BadAxe2 are pretty thorough. Below is the high-level view of what I did. Feel free to ask if you have any questions! Also be sure to look through some of bofors' posts (here and here for example) for similar information.

1. Install the RAM into the motherboard
   
2. Install the CPU into the motherboard
   
3. Remove the Antec Sonata II "air duct" system
   
4. Install the motherboard into the Sonata II (total of 10 brass standoffs and philip screws)
   
5. Install the Intel heat sink and fan onto the CPU. The heat sink assembly that came with my e6300 already had some silver heat transfer "goo" applied to it, so I went with that.
   
6. Connect the CPU fan power to the motherboard
   
7. Connect the 2x12 power cable from the power supply to the motherboard
   
8. Connect the 2x2 power cable from the power supply to the 2x4 power connector on the motherboard using the 2x2 to 2x4 adapter that came with the BadAxe2
   
9. Connect a 1x4 molex power plug (the type used to power IDE devices) from the power supply to the PCIE power input on the motherboard (right behind the ethernet jack). This isn't strictly necessary, but can't hurt.
   
10. Connect the other 1x4 molex on that power cable to the 120mm fan at the back of the case.
    
11. Connect the fan speed monitoring cable from the power supply to one of the 3 fan plugs on the motherboard.
    
12. Connect all the front-panel connections (USB, Firewire, Audio, Power, Reset) as per the diagrams included with the BadAxe2. I had a leftover "speaker" connector from the front of the case which I wasn't sure what to do with. I also chose not to plug the blue LEDs into any power.
    
13. Install the GeForce video card into the PCIE slot closest to the CPU.
    
14. Pop out one of the 5 1/4" bay covers and install my IDE DVD drive onto the tray rails hidden on the back of the cover.
    
15. Slide the DVD drive in, and connect to power and IDE via the cable that came with the motherboard.
    
16. Install my SATA hard drive onto one of the 3.5" drive trays.
    
17. Slide the hard drive in, connect to SATA power, and connect to SATA port #1 (the lower-left of the four black SATA ports on the motherboard)
    
18. Plug the case in, cross my fingers, and power it up!
    

Here's a photo of the completed hardware build:

 

 

Part 3: Software setup

 

Things you'll need:

 

Mac OS X 10.4.8 [JaS AMD-Intel-SSE2-SSE3 with PPF1] DVD

 

The following files, either on a CD, DVD, USB drive/stick, or network drive:

• JaS.10.4.9.Combo.Update.Intel.SSE3
  
• Taruga's AppleHDAPatcher_v1.15 from here
  
• The Sigmatel 9274D config file STAC9274D_83847621.txt from here
  
• Diabolik's Natit.Dual.7600.Series.Installer from here
  

Partition planning:

 

Partitioning always comes down to personal preferences. OSX will be my primary operating system, so I'm going to make a pretty small WinXP partition (20 GB), two 60 GB partitions for OSX (the second will be for occasionally backing up my OSX partition via CloneTool or something similar), and the rest will be a "data" partition.

 

Initial WinXP install:

1. Boot from WinXP SP2 install CD
   
2. Delete any existing partitions
   
3. Create a 20,006 MB partition (C:)
   
4. Do NOT try to create any additional partitions yet! If you do, they will end up as extended partitions, which is not what you want.
   
5. Select your new partition in the list and hit ENTER for Windows install
   
6. Choose to format as NTFS Quick
   
7. WinXP installs, asks a few questions, reboots, installs, etc. Hopefully you're familiar with this already, so let's skip ahead...
   

WinXP installation complete! Now a few more things before we start on OSX...

 

WinXP configuration:

1. Go into "My Computer" and give the WinXP disk a name (I called mine WinXP) so it's easier to identify later in the OSX Disk Utility.
   
2. Insert the "Intel Express" driver CD from the BadAxe2 motherboard kit and the installer should run.
   
3. Select "Chipset", "Audio", and "Network" driver install. It'll reboot twice during install.
   
4. Insert the "XFX GeForce 7600" driver CD and select "video drivers" and then "windows driver". It'll reboot when done.
   
5. Next you should update the BadAxe2 BIOS to the latest version if you haven't done so yet. Go to http://www.intel.com/products/motherboard/d975xbx2/tools.htm and select "BIOS Updates" link. On the "Downloads" page, select the latest version of the BIOS. At the time of this writing, it's 03/15/2007. The next page will have four download choices. Choose the one with "EB" (Express BIOS) in the name. Run the downloaded program to update the BIOS. The machine will shut down for a few seconds, then start up again and do the update, and will then reboot again.
   

Partitioning:

 

There are plenty of ways to create the additional partition(s) needed for OSX. One straightforward way that I used a couple times was DISKPART as described in devilhood's dual-boot tutorial. For example:

1. Run -> diskpart
   
2. list disk
   
3. select disk 0
   
4. create partition primary size=60000 id=af
   
5. select partition 1
   
6. active
   
7. exit
   

If you prefer a visual interface, you can go into WinXP's "Administrative Tools" control panel, run "Computer Management", and

select "Disk Management" from the choices on the left. Then you can create partitions using the GUI (right-click on the "unalloced space" to create a new partition). Just be sure they are all "primary" partitions, do not assign a drive letter, and do not format them.

 

Initial OSX Installation:

1. Insert the "Mac OS X 10.4.8 [JaS AMD-Intel-SSE2-SSE3 with PPF1]" DVD and reboot. Be sure to press any key to boot from DVD when it asks. The installer can take a long time to load, be patient.
   
2. Select a language from the menu and click the blue arrow to continue
   
3. Next up is the "Welcome to the JaS OS 10.4.8 AMD Intel SSe2 SSe3 Installer" menu. Do NOT start installing yet. Instead, run "Disk Utility" from the Finder "Utilities" menu. The finder can be slow to respond to mouse clicks, so be patient.
   
4. Disk utility should list all the partitions created earlier in windows. Select the one you want to install OSX on, click "Erase", choose Volume Format "Mac OS Extended (Journaled)", give it name (mine is named "OSX" - pretty clever, eh?), and click "Erase".
   
5. Quit Disk Utility, and the JaS Installer will re-appear. Click "Continue".
   
6. Choose the destination partition -- the one you just erased and gave a clever name to -- and click "continue".
   
7. Select the appropriate packages. I unchecked "Printer Drivers" and "Language Translations", and I checked "X11". Most importantly, be sure to check "JaS Intel 10.4.8 ATA kexts". Leave "Support for the most common hardware" and "Titan Nvidia and ATI Support" unchecked.
   
8. Click "Install", and feel free to click "Skip" when the really long/slow "Checking your installation DVD" appears.
   
9. Wait a while for the install to complete, and then the installer will reboot.
   
10. Take the 10.4.8 DVD out of the drive before the boot starts. This way you'll know that your Darwin boot loader is working correctly.
    

Initial OSX Configuration:

1. Select a country
   
2. Select "Do not transfer my information"
   
3. Select a keyboard
   
4. Skip the "Apple ID" screen by clicking "Continue"
   
5. At the "Registration Information" screen, hit COMMAND-Q to bring up the "Skip" menu, and click "Skip".
   
6. Create your local user account and click "Continue"
   
7. Select your timezone and click "Continue"
   
8. Leave the date and time alone and click "Continue"
   
9. We're done!
   

At this point OSX is running and I have mirrored output on both my monitors at 1024x768. We'll fix that shortly. After a few seconds I get a pop-up from the Apple Updater saying new software is available, so the onboard ethernet seems to be working! Click cancel, you can update things later.

 

Now you need to get the other utilities mentioned earlier onto your OSX drive. I got them from a network share on my Linux server in my basement by pressing COMMAND-K and entering the server address as "smb://hostname/sharename". You can also copy them from a USB thumb drive, or a CD/DVD you burned earlier, etc.

 

10.4.9 Upgrade:

 

The very first thing to do is run the "JaS.10.4.9.Combo.Update.Intel.SSE3.pkg" app. The install is very straightforward, just select your OSX partition and click "Install". You'll be prompted for your password.

 

The installer sets a default front-side-bus (FSB) speed of 200MHz, but for an e6300 it should be 266. Use your favorite technique to edit /Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration/com.apple.Boot.plist. I open Terminal and use vi. Change the "Kernel Flags" section so it looks like:

 

<key>Kernel Flags</key>

<string>fsb=266</string>

 

While you're in there, if you want to be able to choose which OS to boot, add the following lines to give a 4-second boot menu:

 

<key>Timeout</key>

<string>4</string>

 

After saving the file, reboot. I've been through this process about 6 times, and a few times I was able to continue on to the below steps without rebooting, but the last two tries, I got a crash when trying to mount the MPIP image if I didn't reboot first, so better safe than sorry.

 

After the reboot, run the "MPIP103_10.4.9.SMB.CIFS.AFP.FIX.dmg" application that came with the JaS 10.4.9 Update. This will fix SMB file sharing, and takes about a minute.

 

Natit Video:

 

Now run diabolik's "Natit.Dual.7600.Series.Installer.mpkg". As before, select your OS partition, and in the package selecter, leave AGPGart unchecked. Very simple and easy.

 

Sigmatel Audio:

 

Last, drag the "STAC9274D_83847621.txt" file onto Taruga's "AppleHDAPatcher_v1.15" app to get audio working.

 

Reboot one last time.

 

Finishing up:

 

Assuming everything worked right, you're back in OSX 10.4.9, with working audio and dual-head video! Open the "System Preferences" app from the dock and select "Sound". The "Output" section should list "Internal Speakers" and "Digital Out". Assuming you have speakers plugged into the green jack on the motherboard, you should hear a macos "chirp" when you click on the "output volume" slider. Click "Show All" at the top of the window, and this time select "Displays". A resolution selector should appear on both displays to allow switching to 1280x1024 or whatever your display's native resolution is. You can also click on "Arrangement" and drag the displays around so the logical placement matches the physical placement. For example, my second display is to the left of my primary. I also recommend clicking "Color" on each display window and running the "Calibrate -> Expert Mode" assistant.

 

Now you can also go to the "Finder" menu and select software update, and install all those updates (iTunes, etc.). The 10.4.9 update should not be in the list any more. If for some reason it is, be sure to uncheck it.

 

Since "sleep" doesn't work on Hackintoshes, you should go back into System Preferences, choose Energy Saver, and slide the "Put the computer to sleep" slider all the way to the right.

 

Conclusion:

 

All I can say is I'm glad this build and write-up are behind me, so I can start using my new machine! Thanks again to all the contributors to this forum... Feel free to comment, ask questions, criticize, etc! Here's a couple closing photos of the completed project (the computer is under the desk, on the right, with an Apple sticker on the front):

 

 

Edited June 5, 2007 by gdog

[DiaboliK]

Very nice Tutorial gdog!

[Onetrack]

Truly - A great addition to the tutorials. Should be stickied !

 

Nicely done gdog - great setup too.

 

cheers

Onetrack

[gdog]

Thanks DiaboliK and Onetrack!

 

Quick follow-up with Xbench results:

 

Results	130.80	
System Info		
	Xbench Version		1.2
	System Version		10.4.9 (8P2137)
	Physical RAM		2048 MB
	Model		ADP2,1
	Drive Type		Maxtor 6Y250M0
CPU Test	96.93	
	GCD Loop	221.45	11.67 Mops/sec
	Floating Point Basic	106.17	2.52 Gflop/sec
	vecLib FFT	77.46	2.56 Gflop/sec
	Floating Point Library	69.33	12.07 Mops/sec
Thread Test	183.44	
	Computation	170.10	3.45 Mops/sec, 4 threads
	Lock Contention	199.04	8.56 Mlocks/sec, 4 threads
Memory Test	139.54	
	System	126.54	
		Allocate	103.26	379.20 Kalloc/sec
		Fill	150.55	7319.95 MB/sec
		Copy	135.49	2798.43 MB/sec
	Stream	155.51	
		Copy	147.96	3056.03 MB/sec
		Scale	147.25	3042.11 MB/sec
		Add	165.84	3532.79 MB/sec
		Triad	162.80	3482.80 MB/sec
Quartz Graphics Test	78.32	
	Line	67.52	4.50 Klines/sec [50% alpha]
	Rectangle	70.29	20.99 Krects/sec [50% alpha]
	Circle	66.53	5.42 Kcircles/sec [50% alpha]
	Bezier	89.02	2.25 Kbeziers/sec [50% alpha]
	Text	117.13	7.33 Kchars/sec
OpenGL Graphics Test	134.39	
	Spinning Squares	134.39	170.48 frames/sec
User Interface Test	25.64	
	Elements	25.64	117.66 refresh/sec
Disk Test	67.13	
	Sequential	105.85	
		Uncached Write	112.69	69.19 MB/sec [4K blocks]
		Uncached Write	103.59	58.61 MB/sec [256K blocks]
		Uncached Read	98.58	28.85 MB/sec [4K blocks]
		Uncached Read	109.67	55.12 MB/sec [256K blocks]
	Random	49.16	
		Uncached Write	18.23	1.93 MB/sec [4K blocks]
		Uncached Write	115.00	36.82 MB/sec [256K blocks]
		Uncached Read	94.10	0.67 MB/sec [4K blocks]
		Uncached Read	138.87	25.77 MB/sec [256K blocks]

[Zulu.Walker]

Pretty low User Interface Test scores, kinda troubling for your setup IMHO. Should be around 300-400+ for that card, I get 560+ on my 7600GT. Quartz is also a bit low. Is that because you're driving two LCDs that the bench score is low?

 

Great post/project overall, very detailed info. Might want to look into replacing my 965-mobo with one that has 975-chipset, this is a good start.

[gdog]

Hmmm... good catch. I've done some fiddling around with my displays, and by changing the refresh rate from 60 Hz to 75 Hz on the primary display I was able to get the UI bench up to 80 from the original 25, but even 80 is pretty low. Interestingly, even though both displays are identical, I get very different options for refresh rate and resolution in the Display Preferences:

 

(Primary display)

 

(Secondary display)

 

These are analog LCDs, hooked up to the 7600 via DVI converters. I don't see a way to disable the second display to test performance with only one...

 

-Mike

[bigcletus]

Awesome guide! First I have seen that mentions how to get the on-boad sound working! That is great news. I just finished building a nearly identical system as you. Only difference is mem brand and I am using a 7600GT. I am using the Antec P180. I love this case. As much as I like my Sonata II, this one is even more quiet.

 

First time around setting it all up, I tried quad booting xp/vista/osx/ubuntu and I could get ubuntu and osx to boot, but xp and vista would not. I am staring over now, and I am going to give your directions a try.

 

I might not be using linux this time either, as my viewsonic lcd does not like linux with dvi. Causes the monitor to go into permanent standby mode Kinda wish I had bought a ati card, as I have read they do not have this problem.

[eire3678]

This was posted in another thread:

QUOTE10.4.9 works on my Bad-Axe2 based Hack, but after this update I was unable to play highend games like UT2004 and Quake 4, these games cause Kernel Panics with every kernel I tried: '4 versions of Semthex', 'DaemonES' and 'Paulicat'.

 

Do I need to replace some OpenGL files?

 

With all the advice of Kiko (on the IRC channel) I got everything working again!

 

I restored all my .kext files (from the 10.4.8 backup) and replaced the 10.4.9 OpenGL.framework file with the 10.4.8 one. Also restored the Kernel.framework and installed paulicat's 'AppleSMBios.kext' and 'IOATAFamily.kext'...

 

Now everything is working fine for me.. (altough it should have felt better when the 8.9.1 kernel was working )

/QUOTE

 

Could that be the reason for the poor scores in interface and OpenGL tests? Maybe you could download a demo of an intensive game and see how it performs. I'm running a system very similair to yours but this OpenGL issue is scaring me away from 10.4.9 for now (It's my main system, I can't afford down time).

[gdog]

As far as getting the onboard sound working, the biggest roadblock there was that the motherboard owner's manual has a typo and says the audio is Sigmatel 9247, when it's really 9274. Once you figure that out, it's easy to find the right forum threads :-)

 

I grabbed a spare hard drive and did a fresh install of JaS 10.4.8 and re-ran Xbench, and got the same results. So, my slow User Interface Test results don't have anything to do with 10.4.9. I also tried DaemonES's kernel, no change. Tried the Titan kexts included with the JaS DVD, and tried the Natit installer from DiaboliK.

 

Not sure what the deal is. System profiler shows:

 

 Hardware Overview:

  Machine Name:	Apple Development Platform
  Machine Model:	ADP2,1
  Processor Name:	Intel Core 2 Duo
  Processor Speed:	1.86 GHz
  Number Of Processors:	1
  Total Number Of Cores:	2
  L2 Cache (per processor):	2 MB
  Memory:	2 GB
  Bus Speed:	1.07 GHz

GeForce 7600 GS:

  Chipset Model:	GeForce 7600 GS
  Type:	Display
  Bus:	PCIe
  VRAM (Total):	256 MB
  Vendor:	NVIDIA (0x10de)
  Device ID:	0x0392
  Revision ID:	0x00a1
  Displays:
SyncMaster:
  Resolution:	1280 x 1024 @ 60 Hz
  Depth:	32-bit Color
  Core Image:	Supported
  Main Display:	Yes
  Mirror:	Off
  Online:	Yes
  Quartz Extreme:	Supported
SyncMaster:
  Resolution:	1280 x 1024 @ 75 Hz
  Depth:	32-bit Color
  Core Image:	Supported
  Mirror:	Off
  Online:	Yes
  Quartz Extreme:	Supported

[badge]

Connect the 2x2 power cable from the power supply to the 2x4 power connector on the motherboard using the 2x2 to 2x4 adapter that came with the BadAxe2

If you are considering overclocking, I would do research on using a 4-pin -> 8-Pin CPU Power cable convertor. I have heard it can cause problems as the processors won't be able to pull the extra juice from the power supply. No personal experience, but I am researching a similar setup, and I'm currently overthinking power supplies.

[eire3678]

I updated my system this morning (Spent 4 hours backing it up first ) and everything seemed to go perfectly. World of Warcraft runs just as fast as before (In a very limited test) and my XBench scores in user interface were around 200. Therefore I have no idea where your low scores are coming from

[lobo76]

I followed this same tutorial and 99% works fine for me. Many thanks to gdog and those who contributed.

 

Only difference for me is a different video card. My system has 7800 gtx card. I used a natit 0.1 driver I found referenced by another thread and it worked fine. I do have one quirky behavior though. I was wondering if anyone else has seen this. My secondary display works fine, except when I reboot. After the OS loads, (I get the mirrored apple logo), the secondary display turns off as if unplugged from video card. The only way I can get an image/desktop to display is to open preferences and click another resolution or mirrormy primary display temporarily. Not a big deal since I don't reboot too often. Has anyone else seen this?

[ManiMac]

gdog rulez!

Thanks for the effort, pal.

My machine specs (not to mention the case, cause mine it's a shame):

Same mobo

Cpu E6700

2x1GB Corsair CM2X1024-6400 timed 5-5-5-12

XFX 7900GS p/n:PV-T71P-UDE3

2x250GB Western Digital Caviar WD2500YS Raid Edition 16MB cache (so faaaaast...)

DVDRW Pioneer DVR-112D

 

All was installed as per gdog tutorial but here are some differences:

- After 10.4.9. upgrade the FSB was mantained at 266, then no needs to modify apple.com.boot.plist.

- Dual video/QE/CI/all res/etc was achieved with Diabolik's "10.4.9 NVidia Installer" (Natit Dual of Your Choice)

 

Now the video card pilots a pair of Samsung SM913N 19" LCD.

 

I'm very satisfied with that machine, thanks to all those spend time and effort to make this community grows.

 

Thanks again.

[gdog]

Glad you all are finding the tutorial helpful!

 

By the way, I ran QuartzSimple and disabled BeamSync and now my XBench User Interface score has gone from 25 to 350, and the QE score has gone from 78 to 150.

 

PS: For some unknown reason, I was using Xbench 1.2. Just upgraded to 1.3 which disables BeamSync during testing.

[ManiMac]

Nice, gdog.

I ran xbench 1.3 from scratch after 1st install and I score 354 (overall) UI... (anyone says "WOW"???? ;-) )

 

Next Step, we need to investigfate if is possible to use ICH7R (Intel reports ICH7DH) or Marvell embedded Raid 5 for osx Boot, that seems to be impossible at the moment, unless spend more money for a raid pcie hba for a raid5 osx booting...

I don't want buy external storage...

If any news about, please let me know...

[greko12]

Hi

What I dont understand is why cant the FSB be higher. Does 266mhz give 533. But isn't there 800 and 1066 available? How do we acheive this?

 

Cheers

new member

[gdog]

The Core2Duo e6300 has a clock multiplier of "7". Here's a quick multiplier list I found using google: http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/forum-repli...cfm/708452.html

 

The e6300 by default runs at 1.86 Ghz (1,862 MHz). In order for OSX to work correctly (timings, etc.) you set your FSB to 266 in the Boot.plist. So, the FSB you set, times the clock multiplier, equals the speed of the chip. 266 * 7 = 1,862.

 

This is for the default chip speed... overclocking obviously will change things a bit (except the multiplier is locked/fixed on the e6300).

[greko12]

Aah yes of course. Pity the multiplier is locked. I was looking at getting a e6600 with asus P5B-e cause I need 3 or more PCI (33mhz) slots. Seems the intel boards have only 2.

 

I guess the e6600 is locked to.

 

I'm hoping I can run Logic Pro 7.2 with my RME soundcard and 2xUAD-1 DSP cards. Does anyone know if this will be problematic? They all work currently on my Quicksilver. Will my USB dongle key work in osx86.

 

Thanks for your help. Exciting stuff.

[ntsmkfob]

Thanks gdog, I followed it to the letter and am up and running with same setup as you except my XFX 7600S has a noisy fan - waiting for a quiet aftermarket one to arrive. Strange thing - the xbench for the UI was 344 straight away, without any tweaking.

[peterg]

Hi there

Gdog, i would also like to thank you for your efforts for providing such detailed instructions - just what us newbies need to get things going. I understand that just typing out the instructions takes a long time, but working out the steps to begin with takes a great deal longer. I truly appreciate your efforts.

I have an old Asus P5P800 motherboard with a P4 processor.

I only use the computer for applications, and I had an old dual head AGP graphics card. I couldn’t get the old card to work with dual screens on the hacintosh. After reading posts from this website I bought an nvidia 7600 GS AGP graphics card, with the hopes of making it work on dual screens.

I followed your instructions. However after I installed the graphics drivers, when I restarted I got the ‘grey screen of death’ where the mac reports it needs to reboot. I think other users have referred to this as a kernel panic.

Well I had no idea how to fix that, so I re-installed the mac os again.

After many such re-installs, I found if I used the DiaboliK.1049.NVidia.Installer and before I rebooted the system I updated the drivers with my 7600 gfx card device id (0x02e1) after the reboot it all just worked!

I do enjoy doing these types of hacks for the computer, but this has been an especially frustrating time. I estimated over 24 hours of work re-installing and reading everything I could from this web site.

However, now I have a computer that has a built in apache web server and I can finally get away from those PC viruses.

i tried to add the .kext files i modified to this post - on this site there is a 2mb limit on file uploads, so i divided them into 3 archives. + there is a photo here of ORAC, my computer....

pete.

7600_1.zip

7600_2.zip

7600_3.zip

[sir mac alot]

Thanks for the great write up!

 

After reading your write up, i decided to go with a similar setup. i have ordered some, but not all components.

 

E6600 $232 shipped

Same Board $199 shipped

2GB (OCZ platinum cas 4 - 2x1GB) $112 after $50 rebate

Corsair HX520W PSU (cool, super quiet, very efficient 80 plus)- made by Seasonic $95 after $10 rebate

BFG 7950GT $185 after $30 rebate (hope it's not too loud)

 

Might be ordering Lian Li PC-A05B for around $105 shipped. not totally sure.

 

Was thinking of ordering the Sony NEC AD-7170S-0B SATA DVD Burner.

Has anyone used an SATA DVD burner?

And still trying to decide on 300/400/500 Seagate 7200.10.

 

Hopefully my install will go smooth too.

[gdog]

I'm using a Sony IDE DVD drive. I've also been curious as to whether SATA optical drives will work with a hackintosh... but I've done some searching and haven't found an answer yet.

[ntsmkfob]

I have a SATA optical drive in my old hackintosh. It worked fine with Jas 10.4.8 and the upgrade to 10.4.9. I've been running the system I built following your tut for 3 weeks as my main system. Only boot XP 2/3 times a week to get something off it. Apart from some USB mass storage problems that seem to have gone away, it's been 100% solid. Great choice of hardware. Thanks.

[fiap]

hey, really nice tut... i want upgrade to C2D and it seems this is the right mobo.... is the audio in and out working?? and firewire??

 

thanx,

[sir mac alot]

Got it working. I am now on a hackintosh. Very cool. Thanks gdog.

 

One note that might be helpful to others.

use the Black SATA connectors. This is Primary SATA.

The blue are secondary and for RAID and did not work for me when connected. I disabled this in the BIOS because it was adding time to startup. BIOS > Advanced > Peripheral Conf > Secondary SATA Control >> Disable

 

Also,

 

I used the newer updated express bios 2692 - 4/3/2007.

 

Memory setup in BIOS? i have 4-4-4-15 800 memory, but it is showing as 5-5-5-15. any ideas?

 

showing : 1.8 GHz intel core 2 duo , even though it should be 2.4 GHz. followed the directions and entered FSB=266, but not showing correctly. anyone know how to it fix?

 

network not working sometimes. one light off. have to restart and it works again. any ideas?

currently only getting 100mbit networking. i will check to see if it is cable related. i just got a new NetGear Gigabit Switch.

 

Partitions - 40GB WinXP NTFS, 95GB Mac OS HFS+ Journal, did these first.

Then setup the data partitions: 30GB Fat32, 140GB HFS+ Journal

But problem, now all partitions cannot be changed. Maybe the 10.4.9 update? Set all as Primary as per the directions, but the last two Partitions do not mount and cannot Erase in Disk Utility. Any ideas would be helpful.

 

system log shows this repeating. anyone knows what this means?

May 13 17:33:36 E6600 kernel[0]: Couldn't alloc class "com_mifki_r3d3"

May 13 17:33:36 E6600 kernel[0]: Couldn't alloc class "com_mifki_r3d3"

May 13 17:34:48 E6600 kernel[0]: Couldn't alloc class "com_mifki_r3d3"

May 13 17:34:48 E6600 kernel[0]: Couldn't alloc class "com_mifki_r3d3"

May 13 17:34:49 E6600 kernel[0]: Couldn't alloc class "com_mifki_r3d3"

May 13 17:34:49 E6600 kernel[0]: Couldn't alloc class "com_mifki_r3d3"

May 13 17:34:49 E6600 kernel[0]: Couldn't alloc class "com_mifki_r3d3"

 

My firewire drive works although the icon shows the drive as a PCMCIA cardbus icon. Anyone else have this icon?