Building $800-900 Hackintosh; What MOBO, GPU, other parts?

[VGM10000]

I am looking to build a hackintosh, and I am willing to play with around $900 at most. I have both Leopard and Snow Leopard OS Disks. The build budget would be just for the unit - I have the display, keyboard, mouse, etc.

I will be purchasing parts within the next few weeks.

As for parts, I am trying to find a balance between compatibility, power, and price... I figure it is a given I would be using the new i5, and things like memory, the HDD, the PSU, the case and cooling fans won't need to be "compatible"; however I am clueless as to what I should do for the motherboard and graphics.

I will try to piece some sort of build asap, and I am working on it now.

Thanks.

 

[Shadow703793]

1. Why would you want OSX?

2. You do realize that this is ILLEGAL right?

3. Look at my E2180 rig. It had OSX on it for a while. Everything worked OK after a few tries.

 

[VGM10000]

1. Why would you want OSX?

2. You do realize that this is ILLEGAL right?

3. Look at my E2180 rig. It had OSX on it for a while. Everything worked OK after a few tries.

1. I simply prefer it. Some like Vista, some like Linux, some like OSX. I use all of them. Also, I am one to explore the possibility of building a more value-oriented Mac. I currently only have a laptop, and would like a desktop to compliment that.

2. Of course. And?
Look, I am using Family Packs with credits left. I am not selling services from this computer, or the computer itself, and I am not modifying the OS. I will not be participating in any illegal activities with this computer.
Is what I would be doing still against the EULA? Absolutely. I know that. But Apple has lost nothing; I paid for whatever software I will be using, and if I couldn't make a Hackintosh, I wouldn't buy a Mac just because of that.

Arguably, they make money, since I will be buying/upgrading, and thus giving them money, for their software, when I wouldn't have done so if I did not make a Hackintosh.

3. Thank you for showing your build. As I said earlier, I am working on a build that I believe is a good balance of compatibility, power, and price. Stay tuned.

Thanks.

 

[Houndsteeth]

Personally speaking, I have no problems whatsoever with a home user building a hackintosh as long as they

a) Do not profit from the endeavor other than the experience gained during the build process

b) Use a legitimately purchased, valid copy of the operating system in question

c) Share their experience with the OSX86 mod community

d) Consider donating to the tireless efforts of programmers who have spent a good chunk of time coding and debugging the software that makes it possible to run Mac OS X where it's not supposed to run

If you ask me, Apple would be stupid if they went after this group of folks. As long as these people aren't decompiling the OS (reading and modifying plist and preference files is not decompiling) and are actually adding to the overall knowledge base that Apple has with regards to their OS and interoperability with current hardware (hell, some die-hard souls are actually writing their own drivers for unsupported hardware). Besides, it is exposure, and the more people exposed to OS X, then the better for Apple.

Besides, Apple has yet to release a mid-market machine that sits somewhere between the iMac and Mac Pro. Until they do, most folks who would have bought that level of Macintosh will instead end up on some sort of Windows box.

I look forward to the day when I can roll my own Macintosh and have it legal and above board. Until I do, I have my Mac Pro that runs like a charm.

 

[shortstuff_mt]

You'll get all sorts of opinions and rationalizations on this subject. I think the reason Shadow703793 brought it up is that helping someone break the law is against the forum rules, regardless of how trivial it seems. Some Google searches would be the way to go. There are plenty of sites that have hardware compatibility lists, it's just up to you to find them since we can't post links to them in this forum.

 

[aeontrinity75]

Sorry to put my 2 cents in and not having researched the legal side a great deal it seems to me that we are talking about violating the ELUA and not necessarily the law. The ELUA is an agreement between the software purchaser and the company that provide it, violating it means you will get no support if something goes wrong but is not necessarily against the law. Modifying the software may be violating the copyright but as long as A. it is a purchased and paid for legal copy, and B. you do not sell the modifications, then there are no laws violated. When apple chose to move to the Intel base which was designed to be an open architecture then they have moved voluntarily into a realm that makes it possible for people to use equipment that they themselves do not license for manufacture. It is the same thing with modifying any system outside of the manufacture specs, I can mod my xbox and Microsoft can cut me off of LIVE and I lose a lot of content but they cannot press charges against me unless my xbox was copying games

Again sorry for butting my nose in, have a good day all

 

[VGM10000]

Sorry to put my 2 cents in and not having researched the legal side a great deal it seems to me that we are talking about violating the ELUA and not necessarily the law. The ELUA is an agreement between the software purchaser and the company that provide it, violating it means you will get no support if something goes wrong but is not necessarily against the law. Modifying the software may be violating the copyright but as long as A. it is a purchased and paid for legal copy, and B. you do not sell the modifications, then there are no laws violated. When apple chose to move to the Intel base which was designed to be an open architecture then they have moved voluntarily into a realm that makes it possible for people to use equipment that they themselves do not license for manufacture. It is the same thing with modifying any system outside of the manufacture specs, I can mod my xbox and Microsoft can cut me off of LIVE and I lose a lot of content but they cannot press charges against me unless my xbox was copying games

Again sorry for butting my nose in, have a good day all

You have dug up a dead thread!

However, you are completely correct. There isn't any law preventing anyone from breaking Apple's EULA specifically, and if you run OS X on other-than-apple hardware, all they can really do is ignore you. Which is fine with me! : )

 

[sambasstx]

The Lifehacker version for using Snow Leopard seems to be the easiest to do and works like a champ. I did it and love my home made Mac.


Sam Bass

 

[cwiley]

The Lifehacker version for using Snow Leopard seems to be the easiest to do and works like a champ. I did it and love my home made Mac.


Sam Bass

Does the Lifehacker version REQUIRE a P45 Platinum motherboard? Did you use the no hacking required guide or the start to finish guide?