04.28.09
The ultimate hackintosh(or whatever) slim micro ATX build for less than 350$
This picture stolen shamelessly from menoob.com
I haven’t bought it yet, but here’s my build for a hackintosh-ready slim and sleek pc. (hardware works – confirmed on osx86project) Needless to say, all hardware can be found at newegg.com, the coolest place ever to buy computer stuff. I’ve been buying from them for years, and they’ve always been good with returns, customer service, etc. Also, their site has more reviews for computer hardware than anywhere I’ve seen.
Rosewill R379-SM
This Rosewill case is brilliant. 3.9 inches wide! Includes a 300w power supply – just enough for our needs. Low power consumption, noise and heat output. Very cool looking and super slim, and can be a tower or lay on it’s side. Very reasonable at $54.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.181196
Intel Pentium E5200 Wolfdale 2.5GHz 2MB L2 Cache LGA 775 65W Dual-Core Processor
+
GIGABYTE GA-G31M-ES2L LGA 775 Intel G31 Micro ATX Intel Motherboard
Just in case the combo deal wears out, here’s what it includes:
Intel Pentium E5200 Wolfdale 2.5GHz 2MB L2 Cache LGA 775 65W Dual-Core Processor – Retail
GIGABYTE GA-G31M-ES2L LGA 775 Intel G31 Micro ATX Intel Motherboard – Retail
$112.98 has me sold on this combo.
.
The video card choice was tough. I had to find something reasonably priced, that has a low profile bracket included, and is compatible with hackintosh distros. My final verdict:
Asus GeForce 9400 GT 512mb
It’s pretty, has a good performance to price ratio, is compatible with Leopard, and includes the L-P bracket. $39.99 after 10$ mail-in rebate.
OCZ Blade Series 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Desktop Memory
OCZ Blade Series DDR2-800 2gb X2
Some people say normal users don’t need 4 GB of ram. Perhaps. I’m not a normal user. Plus, with the $10 mail-in rebate it’s only $30.99, and the timings are great – 4-4-4-15.
Seagate ST3640323AS 640GB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5″ Hard Drive – OEM
Seagate ST3640323AS 640GB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Hard Drive - OEM
70 bucks for 640 gb, with 32mb cache. 3 year warranty. Not bad. Remember, this case has only one internal 3.5″ slot.
.
LG DVD+-R Burner
It’s a dvd burner. It works. It’s 23 dollars. I’m pretty sure it’s got those notches so you can load discs while vertically mounted.
This brings us to a cool $331.93! Add around 10 bucks for shipping and we’re still below the $350 mark. Like I said, this is all confirmed by the community to be 100% working hardware; shutdown/restart/sleep are reported to work on the motherboard. My main motivation for building this was because I’d like to start doing IPhone development – it looks like loads of fun and maybe I’ll make some cash. If you have any brilliant ideas for me to steal, let me know. I might share when I get rich.
Here’s a few more cool items to consider beyond the box:
OCZ OALKBELX2US USB Wired Slim Alchemy Series Elixir II Keyboard
OCZ USB Wired Slim Alchemy Series Elixir II Keyboard
A slim cool keyboard to match the slim cool PC on the cheap. 15 bucks
.
WACOM MTE450 5.8″ x 3.7″ Active Area USB Bamboo Pen Tablet- Black finish
WACOM MTE450 5.8" x 3.7" Active Area USB Bamboo Pen Tablet
Honestly, who doesn’t want one of these? Pick one up for me. 
.
SMC SMCWUSB-G
This wireless adapter is supported by Leopard 10.5.6. For N-speed, try a Belkin F5D8053.
.
Logitech RX1000 Black/Silver 4 Buttons Tilt Wheel USB Wired Laser 1000 dpi Mouse
Logitech RX1000 Black/Silver 4 Buttons Tilt Wheel USB Wired Laser 1000 dpi Mouse
This is a great choice. Black and silver match the case. Laser means it’ll work on any surface, and it’s got 2D scrolling with the tilting scroll wheel. 21 bucks. The Logitech MX310 is a classic choice – I used the same MX310 for several years of gaming and got countless headshots in counterstrike. It’s a few dollars more at 25, though technically optical and 900dpi I like the feel of them. For the record, I’m not sure if the tilt will work in OSX.
The community surrounding this collaberative OSX86 project is just great. Here’s a few good sites:
OSx86 Project | InsanelyMac
Main Wiki Page – OSx86
The OSx86 Scene Forums • Index page
InsanelyMac Forum
PCWiz Computer – Home
SU users, don’t forget the thumb!
Disclaimer: Buy a leopard license.
http://www.amazon.com/Mac-OS-Version-10-5-6-Leopard/dp/B000FK88JK
The ultimate hackintosh(or whatever) slim micro ATX build for less than 350$ - Hackint0sh said,
April 28, 2009 at 3:53 am
[...] ultimate hackintosh(or whatever) slim micro ATX build for less than 350$ The ultimate hackintosh(or whatever) slim micro ATX build for less than 350$ Jacob Jennings’ B… This build was put together for a 10.5.6 Leopard build, so that I can do Iphone development. It’s [...]
The ultimate hackintosh(or whatever) slim micro ATX build for less than 350$ said,
April 28, 2009 at 1:57 pm
[...] The ultimate hackintosh(or whatever) slim micro ATX build for less than 350$ Commenta 28th April , 2009 The ultimate hackintosh(or whatever) slim micro ATX build for less than 350$ Jacob Jennings’ B… [...]
Cal said,
April 30, 2009 at 9:47 am
Looks nice. How will work with gaming? Say WoW for example? Looks quite nice though, hope the price translates over the Atlantic!
Cal
jacobjennings said,
April 30, 2009 at 12:42 pm
I found some reports of people getting 50 FPS with that card with shadows on minimum on the current patch at unknown resolution, and 60fps from someone running at 1024×768 on high settings with no shadows. Another guy said COD4 at medium settings gets 40-50 FPS. It’s not a crank it up all the way system, but you can definitely play WoW on it just fine.
Cal said,
April 30, 2009 at 8:15 pm
Cheers for the feedback mate. Have you built this yet? I had a look at the Dollar/Pound exchange and your roughly costs £270 British pound. Not a bad deal like.
What is the particular OS build do will you use?
sunsu said,
September 4, 2009 at 1:59 pm
Can you get this box to run from the retail disk or do you HAVE to use a hacked install disk?
If i am unclear, I mean the method this guy uses at lifehacker:
http://lifehacker.com/5351485/how-to-build-a-hackintosh-with-snow-leopard-start-to-finish
Thanks!
sunsu
jacobjennings said,
September 4, 2009 at 2:20 pm
Hi Sunsu,
I would say that the method he details, which requires a separate mac on hand, is probably viable, though I haven’t tried it. He tells how to install the Chameleon bootloader, which is already part of the installer for the hacked disks. The iDeneb, iAtkos, etc disks have not only the bootloader, but multiple kernels that allow support for specific processor instruction sets, as well as motherboard-level power management like hibernation, sleep, etc. Also, the hacked disks have drivers for lots of common hardware. As for the legal issues, I’m no lawyer, but I’m fairly certain that there is no difference between the methods – I would just recommend that you own a license for the product – licenses are not disk-specific. May I ask why you would rather use the retail disk?
jacobjennings said,
September 4, 2009 at 2:23 pm
This build is 5 months old; I might just get around to checking out the market and updating here in the next few days.
sunsu said,
September 4, 2009 at 2:42 pm
I guess I really don’t have a good reason other than that I would just like to stay as “vanilla” as possible to avoid problems in the future.
I have a retail disk already and have used it on a hackintosh’d netbook with no problems at all. I’m thinking of getting rid of it for something more powerful because I use it for iPhone development (thus my interest in this).
If you had time to update this, I would be very appreciative, as would many others I’m sure!
Thanks!
Mikef said,
September 17, 2009 at 6:58 pm
Jacob,
I have a dell inspiron 9300 also. I have tried multiple time to get osx86 to run on my laptop without sucess. I have iAtkos running on my self-built desktop running flawlessly though. Would mind emailing me the flavor you used and the configuration to get it to run on your machine. All the patches etc.
I would really appreciate it! Thanks!
Mike
jacobjennings said,
September 24, 2009 at 7:48 pm
Which video card do you have? Radeon x300 or nvidia
Jay said,
September 18, 2009 at 12:03 pm
Hi I am new to all this so my question is will the following setup work?
LG CH08LS10 SATA – Bulk
WD Caviar Black SATA II – 1.0 TB
Gigabyte GA-G31M-ES2L Rev 1.0
Kingston ValueRAM DDR2 667MHz CL5 – 2 GB (x2)
Asus EN9400GT/DI/1GD2(LP) (PCIe)
Manhattan 2 x Molex to 1 x PCIe 6-pin Adapter
Antec NSK1480
µATX Case – 1×5.25″ External – 2×3.5″ Internal – with Power Supply –350W (80PLUS certified)
Intel Pentium Dual Core E5300
Apple USB Ethernet Adapter (MacBook Air)
Arctic RC Thermodynamic Ram Cooler
jacobjennings said,
September 20, 2009 at 7:39 pm
This main page links to hardware compatibility lists for each version of osx.
http://wiki.osx86project.org/wiki/index.php/Main_Page
For 10.6.0, your motherboard is supported:
http://wiki.osx86project.org/wiki/index.php/HCL_10.6.0#Gigabyte
The rest you should be able to find on those pages.
Jay said,
September 29, 2009 at 9:10 am
this rig works o.o.b. on osx 10.6.1 mostly… sitll having trouble with the w-fi, and changed the dvd drive(Asus DRW-24B1LT SATA – Bulk (Black) )
bluetooth ok no patch w/apple wireless keyboard and Mighty Mouse.
no HDMI on graphic card
did not use Apple USB Ethernet Adapter (MacBook Air), onboard lan works o.o.b. no patch.
please help with hdmi/sound
Jay said,
September 29, 2009 at 9:13 am
used this install
http://lifehacker.com/5360150/install-snow-leopard-on-your-hackintosh-pc-no-hacking-required
Jay said,
September 26, 2009 at 1:47 pm
ok I built it, it works…mostly out of the box, but I have no sound. What do I do now?
Please be gentle this is my first mac.
Jay said,
September 29, 2009 at 8:16 am
Can we get the HDMI port on the Asus GeForce 9400 GT 512mb to work in 10.6.1 with sound?
jacobjennings said,
May 1, 2009 at 5:04 pm
I actually got leopard 10.5.6 running on my dell inspiron 9300, finally. Took some work finding drivers, and had to use an alternate kernel. But for this build, search the pirate bay for iAtkos 1.4, or iDeneb. I am using the iAtkos version and it works great. I needed to do Iphone development, so I have what I need now on my laptop, so I’m not building this right away. But the hardware checks out on compatibility lists/osx86 forum posts. If anyone has trouble with installation, the insanelymac forums are a great resource, and you can post here too. If anyone builds it, please post a confirmation of what version you used, and if it worked out-of-box.
jacobjennings said,
September 29, 2009 at 4:43 pm
So the HDMI works for video, just not sound?
jacobjennings said,
September 29, 2009 at 4:56 pm
http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/lofiversion/index.php/t69627.html
http://www.infinitemac.com/f5/sound-problem-alc889a-after-10-5-6-update-t1765/
Try those link’s solutions – the audio chipset is alc889a, so use that in your googling
Jay said,
October 1, 2009 at 8:51 am
my audio chipset is Realtek ALC883 codec, not 889a, so why use it?
Jay said,
October 2, 2009 at 7:07 am
no sound from Realtek ALC883
no HDMI (video or sound)
no wi-fi (dwl-g122)
not booting (panic kernel) at the moment because I don’t know how to edit the com.boot.apple.plst whatever thing to properly edit my graphic card into the boot to get the sound working (wow sounds complicated) with these links:
http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=181699
http://www.infinitemac.com/f57/guide-retail-snow-leopard-dvd-install-for-g31m-t3672/
apparently the wi fi link is here:
http://www.ralinktech.com/download.php?t=U0wyRnpjMlYwY3k4eU1EQTVMekF6THpNeEwyUnZkMjVzYjJGa056ZzVNREEyTXpRM055NWtiV2M5UFQxU1ZGVlRRaUJFTnpGM0xURXVNaTQwTGpCZlJESTFNREF0TVM0eExqTXVNQ0JWU1MweExqWXVPQzR3WHpJd01EaGZNVEpmTURRPUM%3D